That day I had Mak read me the third and final of the letters from Empress Okaitireti to her brother, Sekteretesh. Mak had warned me repeatedly that I wouldn’t like it, and I trusted her on that. With the way the last few days had gone, I hadn’t wanted to risk going out of my mind with rage, or falling into a depression, or anything else. But with Mother having seemingly chosen to help by warning the humans in Karakan about the possibility of Behold Her attacking, with my wing slowly healing, and with my belly full of meat courtesy of Sandstorm’s unexpected kindness, I felt in a good enough place to risk having Mak read that letter to me.

  We agreed that it would be best to do it outside, in the forest. That way, if I needed to rage there would be plenty of trees around for me to vent my anger on. Not that I expected to have the energy for any raging, no matter how dark my mood turned; I’d overdone it somewhat with the meat, and while I wasn’t quite in torpor territory, I wasn’t far from the border, either.

  Indomitable watched over us, like he’d promised Mother, but we still didn’t go far from the ruins and our entrance to the lower levels. There were ways to sneak up on the palace grounds without being spotted, I was sure, and Behold Her had shown that she could be cunning when she put her mind to it. We went to a spot right past the edge of the waste, where the trees that had only been partially eaten away had fallen and the untouched forest still stood, now a little brighter for the extra sunlight that filtered in. That, Mak decided, was a good place for what I was about to learn, and there she, Herald, and I settled in. We got nice and comfortable, with Herald practically draping herself over me in what I assumed was an attempt at keeping me from going anywhere if the contents of that letter was as bad as Mak had made it out to be.

  Once we were all comfortable, me lying in a sunbeam with Herald on top of me and Mak sitting with her back to a tree, the sunlight falling on the letter in her hands, Mak sighed. “Alright. May as well get this over with,” she said and began to read.

  On the twenty-first day of the Hawk’s moon, in the four-hundred and fifty-second year of the City of Rains

  An empress to her brother,

  Hero. Dragon slayer. Dearest Sekteretesh. I can only assume that you did not receive my last letter, as your own, which lies even now on my desk, makes no mention of it. No matter. I shall address the same points now, along with what you have communicated in your latest missive. And nothing shall befall this letter; it shall travel with two trusted guards, both with their High Majors and loyalty that is beyond question. Reward them well when they arrive, and make such use of them as you need.

  Oh, brother, would that you were here in the weeks following your news that the false god has been laid low. I announced a week of feasting and celebration, with games, plays, and music in the streets. All was joy, and color, and life, and all now know that the threat of the Soul Dragons is ended. Never again shall Tekeretek or any other place suffer under the rule of such a tyrant. Never again shall any who speaks out be reduced to a pitiable state of simpering adulation. But do not be sad for missing it, brother. Once you are home you shall have a triumph, and there shall be another week of festivities to celebrate your great victory and return.

  And brother, I desire that return to be soon. To that end we are organizing a small force of ships and men to come and retrieve you, along with all your spoils. While we cannot yet contend with Malyon on the sea, even during their current state of confusion, a few ships should easily be able to slip through undetected, or be able to explain themselves as a high-value merchant ship and its escort. Therefore, be patient! Soon you shall be back in your beloved city, with all the resources of our empire at your disposal.

  Mak paused there, looking at me with intense focus. I thought she must be gauging my reaction, and while I hadn’t done anything outwardly, that was only by dint of a conscious effort to remain calm. But I couldn’t hide the bitter anger that the long-dead empress’s smug satisfaction had sparked in me, and which smoldered under the surface where only Mak could see it.

  A week of city-wide—empire-wide?—celebrations. A whole damn week, to celebrate the murder of my father, with a promise of more once the murderer returned to Tekeretek. Yeah, I could see why Mak had been reluctant to read this to me.

  And then it got worse. “Draka,” Mak said softly. “Mistress. You’ve done so well this far. This next part… Please, whatever you’re doing to keep calm, hold on to that, alright? And remember that the empress and her brother have both been dead for centuries. Can I ask you to do that?”

  “I’d really like it better if you weren’t quite so ominous,” I told her. All she’d done was to add apprehension to the anger. I felt primed to go off at a word. And Mak could sense that, but she didn’t look like she regretted her words at all.

  “I know,” she said simply. “But the rest is worse, and I don’t want it to take you by surprise.”

  When I didn’t reply, she cleared her throat, then took a deep breath which she let out slowly before continuing.

  I can only hope that this new letter finds you in time. I wrote in the previous one, which you must have not received, that our finest enchanters have looked over the glyphs for the ritual you spoke of. They say that it is no surprise that your initial attempts with the less valuable spawn failed. While they believe that the ritual may still work, with fortune and under the correct circumstances, they have suggested several changes which they swear will improve its chances of success immensely. Therefore, I pray that you have controlled your excitement, and that the most promising of the last scion’s get has not perished. Hold fast to your patience, brother! Bring the whelp back home, and we shall surely succeed.

  By the time that Mak stopped reading to watch me, her eyes full of worry and sorrow, I was shaking. Literally trembling with held-back rage. The only thing that kept me still was Herald’s weight on me and Instinct’s angry growl rolling from her chest, reminding me that she was there and that I might hurt her if I did anything rash.

  Sekteretesh and whoever he’d had working for him had killed my siblings. I’d already suspected as much, but here was confirmation, if only indirectly. They’d used them like lab rats, to work out the kinks of whatever ritual they’d then trapped me in. And my brothers and sisters had all died as a result.

  And the only mention of them in this vile woman’s letter was to dismiss them as less valuable.

  I may never have felt more like a dragon than I did at that moment. Visions of blood, death, and ruin danced through my mind, and I swore silently to myself, swore on my hoard, that I would make Tekeretek pay. I’d make them pay for killing my father and my siblings. I would make them pay for forcing my new family’s mother and father to flee across the sea to seek refuge in a hostile land. And I would make them pay for what they had turned Tammy into, what they’d done to Kira, and for everything else they’d done that had harmed anyone I cared about, or who was under my protection.

  I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know when. But I was going to make them pay. Once I was healed, once I was strong again, once Behold Her and the other interlopers were dealt with, I would scour Tekeretek’s forces from this island. I would break Happar until it was nothing but a collection of towns and villages under Karakan’s rule. And then, one day, I would cross the sea, and I would break Tekeretek as well.

  Their empire had stood a thousand years or more. Its misused freedom had begun with the death of my grandfather. They would both end with my coming. I swore it on my hoard.

  “It, uh… we’re about halfway through,” Mak said. “But it gets worse. In my opinion, anyway.” Her voice was hoarse and tremulous, and when I looked at her she was trembling as badly as I was. There were tears streaking her face, but I couldn’t say if they were tears of rage, fear, or grief. Perhaps it was all of them. Everything I felt was reflected in her, after all. She couldn’t help but be affected by my emotions, with her own reaction on top of that. It looked absolutely overwhelming, and for her sake I clamped down as hard as I could on my anger and pain. I pushed them to the back of my consciousness, and left them there to mature until the day came to bring them out again.

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  Only once I saw my own forced calm reflected in Mak, when she’d stopped trembling with whichever emotion it was that had threatened to overwhelm her and her breathing had evened out, did I tell her, “Go on. May as well finish this.”

  Mak nodded, and read.

  I also wrote that we had begun searching for suitable subjects; I can now add that we have found three candidates with the unwavering loyalty and mental fortitude to make them supremely suitable. Make no mistake, brother: I FORBID you, as your queen, your empress, your sister, the matron of our family, and as your friend, from using yourself. It is true that you or I are the best candidates to hold such power; it is true that it is the only way to be absolutely sure that it will not be misused, but instead turned toward destroying the other tyrants and their ilk. But try as I might, I cannot see so far. Whether you succeed or not, the mere thought is intolerable. To imagine you, my own brother whom I have loved since you were a swaddled babe, interred in one of those monsters? I simply cannot bear it. And while it tears at my heart to admit it, I truly cannot say that the alternative, where you simply perish in the attempt, is not preferable.

  The unforgivable insult to all dragonkind did surprisingly little to set me off. I was far too focused on the revelation—the confirmation—in that passage.

  No wonder Mak had reacted the way she did when I brought up the idea that I had always been intended to carry a human soul. There was nothing ambiguous about Okaitireti’s words; for all that they’d hated dragons, they still wanted one that was subservient to them, a loyal tool to destroy any other dragon that might oppose them. Which was mad, considering that Indomitable and Mother had both suggested that I would always be smaller and weaker than any other dragon of comparable age and wealth. Mad, unless they expected me to have the same powers as my grandfather.

  Indomitable had said that no one could oppose the imperial dragons; anyone who did would simply stop fighting and let themselves be killed. If that was what they wanted, their idea wasn’t only mad, but downright suicidal.

  Their chosen candidates had unwavering loyalty. Sure. And the human I had been had believed in personal freedom above all, so long as it harmed no one else. Yet I’d enthralled almost everyone who meant anything to me, and I was sorely tempted to do the same to the rest. I sometimes hated myself for it. Often, even. But to my shame I’d never made anything resembling a real attempt to do anything about it.

  I allowed myself a moment to wonder how long that “unwavering loyalty” would have lasted before Okaitireti and Sekteretesh found themselves replaced at the top, or simply disposed of. A month? A year? A decade? How long would it have taken before the dragon became a big enough part of whatever poor sod they stuck in here with her? How long until the thought of subservience became utterly intolerable?

  I would have never been there to see it. My human side had died in that pit, and without the dragon there waiting for me on the other side, that would have been it for me. But knowing that the Tekereteki imperial family might have destroyed themselves through their arrogance, that made what might have been easier to swallow.

  I couldn’t say if Mak had noticed my distraction, or if she’d paused to see how I might react. Either way, at a look from me was all it took for her to clear her throat again. “It’s not as bad from here,” she said

  Therefore, my subject, brother, and friend, I command you: if you have not already made the attempt you alluded to, under no circumstances are you to do so. Return to us as you are, and let us celebrate you, and we will choose another to bear the burden and the power of becoming one of the tyrants.

  I say it a third time. Dearest friend, most beloved brother, my sweet Keti with whom I mourned our parents, buried my husband, and celebrated our freedom, I beg you: do not do this to yourself. Do not taint yourself, when there are others who are willing to bear that burden in your stead. Await the squadron that will arrive in only a few short weeks, and come home. Tira and Bolo are getting so big, but they remember their uncle with love and admiration. Let them see you again, if a little older, a little more weathered, and a little wiser. Tell them stories of your time in Malyon, and of your battles and your victory, and teach them the sword and the spear as you promised.

  I pray to the gods every day for your safe return. If they will it, my next letter to you shall be my last, delivered to you by the captain commanding the ships.

  With her own hand,

  Okaitireti, third of her name, queen and empress of the City of Rains and her provinces

  Your doting sister

  I was immensely proud of how calm I was when I said, “Mak.” Though judging by how apprehensive she was when she replied, “Yes, Draka?” I may have been too calm. The kind of calm you might see in someone before they got into their car and drove very carefully to their ex’s house, which they then set on fire.

  “I know you didn’t intentionally wait until I was unable to fly at all before reading this to me,” I continued. “But well done for insisting we put it off. If I had the use of my wings, I might have been on my way to Tekeretek right now.”

  There was no comment from Conscience, but that was no surprise. She’d left before Mak began to read, and I still couldn’t feel her presence. Instinct, though, was there and had some very strong opinions about what we’d just heard.

  “We will destroy them,” she growled through Herald. On the ground between me and Mak the shadow of a dragon paced back and forth, tail lashing furiously. “We will break their royal line and lay their palaces to ruin. Their treasuries shall swell our hoard and feed our power. The City of Rains shall be spoken of in fearful whispers, as a cautionary tale of what happens to anyone, no matter how powerful they think themselves, who dares try to control a dragon!”

  “They will pay,” I agreed. “No matter how many generations down the line they are, the rulers of Tekeretek will pay for everything they and their family has done to me.”

  “Draka…” Mak hesitated before continuing. “You’re right to be furious. Anyone would be. I still get angry sometimes when I think of how we were forced to flee. But how do you expect to fight Tekeretek in the heart of their empire? We’re struggling to prevent them from taking Karakan as it is. Even the entire League together is leery of committing to a war with them, and there can’t be many people in the world better protected than the Tekereteki imperial family. I don’t mean to cast any doubt on your abilities, but… what will you do?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I admitted with that same exaggerated calm. “I suppose we’ll need to break them completely here first, on our own island and in our own seas. Then we can talk about what to do about Tekeretek itself.” I paused, making sure that I actually wanted to say what I was about to before continuing. “I actually have an idea I’d like to run past you. It’s something I never would have considered a few days ago, but maybe the time has come to… compromise.”

  I practically spat the last word. The idea had come to me suddenly; suddenly enough that I needed to run it past my two most trusted advisors, to make sure that it was not utterly insane, born of a desperate rage and a willingness to do anything to gain the power to hurt my enemies.

  When I laid it out for them they didn’t dismiss it out of hand. They asked if I was completely sure, making me take my time and really think about it. They brought up all the downsides and risks, which I was already well aware of. But their shared opinion was that while they didn’t like it, if I could stomach the cost then it might just be what we needed.

  More importantly, Instinct didn’t object. The fact that she and I were on the same page both worried me and solidified my resolve.

  Late that afternoon, when Mother returned from the south to inform me that she’d “warned the chiefs of Karakan of that overgrown ruby wyvern,” I made a simple request.

  “I would like to speak with The Unquenchable Flame At The Heart Of The Mountain and As He Moves, So Do The Trees Quake,” I told her, trying to summon that same terrible calm that had so worried Mak earlier.

  “For what purpose?” Mother asked.

  “I have a proposal to make. One that I think they may be willing to listen to.” Then I told her, and while she didn’t like it, she didn’t outright forbid it, either.

  “You do not think they will take the opportunity to kill you?” she asked.

  “Not if you or Indomitable are there. Or preferably both. They’ve made nuisances of themselves, and they’ve made threats, but they haven’t actually done anything violent so far. I think they’ll listen.”

  Mother looked down at me in silence. I could feel her disapproval, but I didn’t relent. Finally she turned to Herald and asked, “Daughter. Are you in agreement?”

  “We are,” Instinct replied. “Bitter though it is.”

  “Very well. I shall inform them that their presence is expected tomorrow morning. But I shall be present, and no agreement will be struck without my approval.”

  “As you say, Mother,” Instinct said immediately, and I bowed my head in agreement.

  I hated what I was going to suggest. I might be inviting future ruin, and I’d need binding oaths to even begin to trust those two. But for what I wanted to do I would need allies; powerful allies, who could destroy armies and fleets and put fear into entire cities with their mere presence.

  I needed dragons.

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