*****

Chapter Seventeen

Treachery

*****

I sat amidst spires of stone, in the rolling hills at the edge of my valley. My wings were draped at my sides, absorbing warm sunshine. The snow was gone now, and the otherwise stony hills were layered with green grass and mosses, speckled with colorful wildflowers. The sun painted the rocks in warm golden hues. Melakar sat next to me, with his own wings spread like mine. Their bronze color shone brilliantly in the sunlight. We used to come to this spot often to watch the sunset, but it was only midday and I could not recall why I had come here. Perhaps I had just come to meet Melakar. It had been ever so long since I had seen him, and I missed him so…

I shifted my foreleg and put my front paw over his. The fine hide covering his forepaws was like ice against my pads. I turned my head to ask him why he was so cold, but the blood that caked his scales stole my voice. It was dry now, coating him in flaking patches that marred his bronze beauty. Light shone from inside gaping wounds along his underbelly. He offered me an apologetic smile, as if regretful he could not appear to me in more pleasing form.

“You're dead."when

“Very observant of you." Melakar rumbled his amusement, then brushed my neck with his muzzle, a tender gesture despite the deathly chill of his nose. “You should leave."

“But…" I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to imagine him as he when he lived. Handsome and bronze, vibrant and filled with vitality, and love for the pleasures of life. When I opened my eyes again, he was still dead, still smeared with dried blood and ruined by yawning chasms in his flesh. “I want to stay here, with you."

Melakar only turned his head, gazing into the distance. “Are you going to let him die?"

I followed his gaze. A human stood stop the next hill, staring out into the distance. He lifted his hands and held them out in front of himself, as if trying to stop someone's approach. Nesh. That was his name. I slowly shook my head, looking back at Melakar. “Of course not."

“Then why aren't you fleeing?" Something cold crept into Melakar's voice.

“What?" I tilted my head, faltering. “What…what do you-"

“If he dies trying to protect you, you've still let him die, haven't you?" Melakar waved a broken foreleg at Nesh, toes limply wobbling.

“Why would he…" I trailed off as deep shadow stole the sunlight, and turned my attention back to Nesh.

In the distance, a monumental wave swept across the land, a mountain of churning water that blotted out the sun. It hurtled across the earth, obliterating all that stood before it. Stone spires dissolved in an instant, villages and cities were washed away in a breath. The surging tide uprooted forests, adding countless splintered trees to the army of debris swirling inside it. There was nothing in all the world that could stand against such a force, no one who could hope to stop it.

Yet there was Nesh, now right in front of me. He stood between the wave and myself, a single hand stretched before him with fingers curled in concentration. It was as if he believed he alone could part the waters around us. He lifted his voice, a scream barely heard above the growing cacophony of raging water and shattering debris.

“Ella!" Nesh threw his arms out in vain attempt to hold back an entire ocean of devastation. “I'll keep you safe!"

“You should have left, and taken him with you." Melakar shook his head, sighing. Sorrow hung heave in his voice. “Why didn't you leave? Now you're both going to die."

“No!" I surged forward, hurtling towards Nesh.

Only then did panic fill me. My heart smashed itself against my chest, ice flooded my trembling paws. Surely there was still time to save him. I wrapped my forelegs around Nesh, hoisting him off his feet, and leapt to the sky. Something around my hind leg pulled me right back down, and I struck the stony hillside hard enough for the jolt of impact to leave a reverberating ache all through my body.

Some kind of shackle now bound itself around my ankle, tight and biting into my scales. A short but sturdy chain ran from it to something gold and beautiful, half-buried in the hillside. The Queen's Mantle. It was an anchor now, an anchor I had chained myself to. I pulled Nesh as tight to myself as I could, curling around him in vain hope to somehow keep him safe. If my body protected him from the debris, if he could hold his breath, the waters would recede and…

“Break the chains, Ella." Melakar sounded resigned to the end already. But then again, he was already dead, what more did he have to lose? “Break the chains of duty, and leave this place while you still can. For both your sakes."

As the wave loomed over us, I lifted my head to take one last look at Melakar. Suddenly, he was whole again, not a spot of blood on his handsome bronze and blue scales. The sight stirred something in me, something I had to tell him while I had the chance.

“I still love-"

And then the wave swept us away in a cold, black instant.

And then there was nothing.

I awoke with a cry, jerking my head up off soft blanks. The torn fabric of dream clung to my uncertain mind, returning to me in bits and pieces of shattered images. My heart thumped hard enough to nearly rattle my chest scales. My paws, wings, and tail tip all cold down to the bones, as if I'd plunged them into fresh snowmelt. I struggled for air, my breath coming only in ragged pants. Half-panicked, I pushed myself up, eyes darting everywhere.

Where the hell was I? There was a painting of me in the room's corner. Books and scrolls littered the place. An object of gold and glittering jewels sat atop an elegant pedestal. That was…The Queen's damn Mantle. My eyes shot to my hind leg, and I jerked away from the Mantle as if to break the chain I remembered binding it to me. But there were no chains, and the memory was only from some terrible dream. I had never so much as put the Mantle on, let alone been chained to it.

“Ella!" Nesh bolted into the room from an adjoining chamber. “Ella, what's wrong?"

“I…nothing, I think…" Reality slowly brushed dream aside, and settled in around me. With it came pain, seemingly everywhere. I groaned, and gingerly laid my head back down on a purple cushion with golden fringes. I could not recall if that was here before, or if Nesh had fetched it for me. “A bad dream. A very bad dream."

“Oh…" Relief washed through Nesh's voice. He came around to my head and knelt down next to me. “Thank the Gods for that, then. You'd been sleeping so peacefully, too. I went for a bit of a look around, and then I heard you scream and I was afraid you'd ripped yourself open!"

That was a disquieting thought. I lifted my head again, inspecting my body. I shifted my wings, moved my tail, rolled to my side and gazed along my underbelly. Bandages wrapped me here and there, and stitches held my many gryphon-inflicted wounds shut, but I did not see any sign of fresh bleeding.

With a sigh, I settled back down, resting my head once more upon the pillow. “I am sorry to have worried you, but pleased I have not torn myself asunder."

Nesh chuckled, reaching out towards my muzzle. He hesitated, so I flared up my frills as if to invite him to pet me. He smoothed my spines back down, gently stroking the sensitive membranes that joined them. Then he rubbed my ears, as well, and I did not bother to fight back the rough, rumbling purr he coaxed out of me.

“I suppose when I said ripped open, I meant more along the lines of, tore open your stitches. Which, I'll remind me, would be very painful. And would mean I'd have to tend your wounds all over again." Nesh stroked my muzzle, smiling down at me. “So to avoid that, you should go back to sleep, when you can. Let me get you some water."

Nesh rose up and walked a little ways off, soon returning with a wooden bucket filled with fresh water. “I went and filled a few of these from Melakar's water supply after I was finished with all your stitches. Which, thankfully, those gryphons kept first aid supplies in their harnesses, or I'd have run out of thread before I was done."

When Nesh set the water in front of me, I lifted my head just enough to sniff at it. It held the same fresh, but slightly minerally aroma as the spring water I drank back in my own home. I lapped at it, unaware of just how thirsty I'd become until I had a chance to actually quench that thirst. When the bucket was empty I pushed it aside, returning my head to the comfort of the pillow.

“Thank you, Nesh."

“You're welcome." Nesh returned the pail to its brethren. “Let me see your eyes." Nesh leaned forward, gently holding one of my eyes open, his face hovering disconcertingly near me. “The redness is mostly gone." He let me go and picked up the empty pail. “How's your head feel? Foggy, any confusion? Carefully test your limbs, too."

I did as Nesh asked, stretching each leg out one at a time. I did the same with my tail, and wings. “Everything seems alright. They were cold, when I woke, but only in the nebulous ways of nightmares. And my head…" I paused, considering it. A dull pain thumped at the back of my skull, but that was it. My thoughts did not seem impeded, aside from the usual grogginess that followed a deep sleep. “It seems clear enough. Aches a little."

Nesh held the pail to his chest. “Alright. Tell me if that gets worse, or if you have any problems with urinating."

I flattened my frills. “Am I expected to? As impressed I am that you were able to say that without blushing, that sounds worrisome."

“Sometimes after being under the way you were, it takes the body a little while to return to normal function, is all." Nesh ignored my teasing and hefted the bucket. “Was that enough water for now, or do you want more? It's important for you to stay hydrated. I've got three more pails of water from Melakar's drinking spring." He paused, scratching his chin. “At least I hope it was his drinking spring. To be honest I had to guess."

I gave a low growl. “Nesh, if you've brought me water from his pisser, I'm going to-"

“If it makes you feel any better, I drank it too." Nesh held his hands up. “He seemed to have a set up like yours, several different springs that all sort of, trickle into a collective stream. I used the water from the front-most spring for drinking, since…I figured it probably sometimes overflows into the one at the back, and that would mean-"

“You chose correctly." I beckoned for another pail of water. “And I will have more."

As Nesh fetched the water, I noticed he'd taken off most of his outer clothes, and now wore just his gold and cream toned inner clothing. Blood stained the sleeves of his shirt, and a few other places as well. I doubted something so dark would wash out of cloth so light. At least I could help him find fresh clothing without stains in Melakar's lair, as he had kept far more human vassals over his lifetime than I did. Over his lifetime, he'd collected plenty of clothing suitable for all sorts of humans and their odd dressing habits.

I was never quite sure if humans dressed in layers like that more for modesty, warmth, social status, protection, or whatever. I imagined it was probably a combination. Modesty seemed to be a high concern for many of them, but I could think of a few vassals Melakar and I had in the past who had grown less and less modest the longer they lived with us. One of Melakar's more recent vassals in particular had gotten quite comfortable with her body around us. Then again, considering Melakar first took her in as a thief running from the law, perhaps I should not have been surprised.

When Nesh set the water before me, I noticed that while his sleeves were stained with blood, his hands were not. He must have had a bath, or at least washed up. His head-fur looked dry, though, and especially messy. “How long have I been asleep?"

“Not sure." Nesh scratched his head. “I'd have to go check the sky, and even then it would just be a guess. Last I looked it was still dark out, but I think you've been out most of the night."

I growled to myself. That wasn't good. Though I had forced the gryphons to retreat from Melakar's lair, I had my doubts that their allies with the cannons would have done the same. “Have you slept?" I lowered my muzzle to the pail, swiveling my ears towards Nesh while I lapped up the water.

“I got a little sleep." Nesh walked a wide circle around me, inspecting my stitched wounds. “A few hours, anyway. I took a bath after I'd finished you up, since your breathing and heart rate were both stable. Came back to watch over you, and dozed off instead." He sighed, shaking his head and cursing himself under his breath.

“You needed the rest." I flicked my tail at him. “If you are to curse anyone, let it be your people and their gryphons. They were firing cannons at me before they'd even made contact, before they'd even established your location." I lifted my head, snorting. “They could have killed you."

“Trust me, I'm not happy about that either." Nesh walked around the other side of me, looking at a few more wounds. “Anyway, after I woke up, I checked your vital signs again, and since you were still nicely stable, I went to look at the sky, then wandered around the place a bit, got the water, and so on." He returned to my head, and stroked my neck while I drank. “I think I'm going to start keeping a journal in it with information on your heart rate, your respiration, and so on. Give myself a baseline to work with. Cause I'm assuming you're stable, but the truth is, I hardly know what's normal for a dragon."

“Very well." With a regretful sigh, I pushed myself up onto my haunches. The motion hurt stitched wounds and left stiff joints aching, but I had to see if I was ready to take action again. And something I'd just brought up was irking me, sticking in my throat. As Nesh inspected wounds along my belly, I tilted my head down to him. “Nesh, the gryphons they sent after us, four gryphons working as a team. Is that normal?"

“It is." Nesh crouched down, brushing his fingers across my underbelly scales, prodding at a bit of stitching. The discomfort made my tail coil. “Some of the Gryphon Legion's missions include search and rescue and search and destroy. I don't know a lot about the specifics of what they do, but I believe they have some elite squads they send on important missions, as well. I have to guess that was one of them." He stood back up, dusting his hands off. “And as much as I hate to say it…I'm…not entirely sure I was their first priority."

I flexed my wings, testing them. “I suspect their priorities were 'kill the dragon' first, and 'save the human if it's convenient', second."

Nesh chuckled to himself, moving the second empty water pail out of my way. “I should hope they didn't word the words quite that way. But I went through their harness contents, too, and they were loaded up with all sorts of poisons and substances that I imagine are chosen specifically for fighting dragons, or other large beasts. They also had black powder, counteracting agents, first aid supplies, and all sorts of other little tools, and supplies I've never seen gryphons equipped with. Granted I've…never gone through a gryphon supply harness until tonight so for all I know, I'm the fool for not knowing what we give them to work with."

I unsheathed claw tips and drummed them against the floor. “Nesh, in your medical opinion-"

“No." Nesh stepped up to me and jabbed a finger against my chest plates. “In my medical opinion, you absolutely shouldn't go flying. And you certainly shouldn't be going after those gryphons to make sure they've fled." He threw his hands up. “As I can only imagine you're already thinking about doing!"

“I was going to get to that later." I licked my nose, flattening my ears. “But…yes."

“Well, it's not as though I could stop you." Nesh poked me again, then shook his head. “I take it that wasn't what you were going to ask?"

“No." I curled my tail around my paws. “I was going to ask, given what you found in their satchels, and the way the battle played out, do you think they were trying to kill me, or capture me alive?"

Nesh rubbed his chin. “If I had to guess, I'd say orders were to incapacitate you by any means necessary. They were probably told to capture you alive if possible, but not at the expense of their own lives. Like you said, they fired first, so I think they'd have been perfectly happy if they'd blown you open with their cannons." Nesh sucked in a sudden breath, looking around as I remembering just whose lair he was in. “Oh! Ella, I'm…I'm sorry, I didn't-"

I waved a wing at him to cut him off. “It's fine, Nesh, we are both well aware what happened to him."

Nesh nodded once, and set a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Whatever the case, they had plenty in their harnesses to knock a dragon out for an extended period of time. I suppose four gryphons could carry an unconscious or bound up dragon back to camp, so…well, they certainly seemed to want to take you alive, when they thought they had the chance. Why, I don't know."

“To torture and execute me, I suspect." I waved my wing again, then folded it back against my body. “For so-called crimes against your country. Give your army a morale boost. Little better than being butchered in some square, like the old days."

“Ella, please." Nesh rubbed his arm, scowling. “We're not monsters."

I snorted at him, lowering my head. “What do you think that big cart was for, that the dragon slayers had with them? It was for Melakar's body…or…pieces of it." I swallowed, and glanced away. “Enough of that. Let us worry not for the whys, just yet. There is something else they said that bothers me."

Perhaps eager for the change of subject, Nesh walked away and retrieved a wine skin sitting atop a crate nearby. “What is it? Also, I found some wine, if you want some. You shouldn't have it after being put under, but…" Nesh shrugged, and poured himself some into a pewter goblet.

“But you're offering it to me anyway?" I smirked, lifting my frills. “I will take some, yes."

“Well, you've got a liver like…" Nesh trailed off again, pouring wine into a large wooden drinking bowl. “Actually, I was going to say a stallion, but yours is probably a lot bigger and stronger even than that."

“Indeed." I accepted the bowl in a paw when he offered it, still smirking at him. “Also, stallions are male."

“True." Nesh sipped his wine, grinning. “But it just doesn't sound quite the same to say someone has a liver like a mare. Either way, I suspect you could use the drink. But only a little!" He swirled his drinking vessel. “So what else was it that bothered you?"

“Treachery." The female gryphon's voice echoed through my head, mystery and insult entwined. “Just before she left, she told you not to trust us, not to trust dragons. She said that we had already proven our treachery. In the moment I paid it little attention, just another insult from an old enemy people. But…in hindsight, it sounds as if she was speaking of something recent, of some event still fresh in her memory, or something she's just been told about."

Nesh took another sip, then drew his lips into a line, coming to the same conclusion I had. “Melakar."

I nodded once, flattening my spines. “Unless you know of another dragon who had recently ventured into human lands. Into your lands." I stared into my wine, suddenly not feeling much like drinking it.

“I certainly don't." Nesh set his mug down, pacing back and forth. “Then again, I didn't even know Melakar had been there, so perhaps that lack of knowledge doesn't mean much." He paused. “Let's assume, though, that she was referencing him." He paced a few more steps, then spun towards me. “She must have heard he was negotiating with some of our people, or whatever it was he was doing. Then he turned against us unexpectedly…"

“No!" I slapped a forepaw against the stone floor, hard enough for the impact to leave my pads stinging. “Melakar would not do that. He was too honorable, and put too much value into the idea of diplomacy to simply…" I gestured with my aching forepaw. “Lash out and attack even his enemies just because the talks were not going his way. If anyone attacked first, it was them, ambushing him."

Nesh held up his hands towards me. “I understand how you feel, Ella, but neither of us have anywhere near all the facts. For all we know, he was goaded into it. Suppose, for example, whoever he was negotiating with knew about you, and told him, that they knew there was only one dragon left to guard the valley, and that any moment now, they'd spring an ambush on you." Nesh took a slow step towards me. “If Melakar believed that, is it possible he'd try to protect you? Attack them first, or try to leave to warn you, and attack when they tried to stop him?"

They're coming.

Melakar's voice rang through my head like a tolling bell.

They're coming. You…you should go. The valley's already theirs.

A sudden chill washed over me, leaving my shuddering, my scales clicking together and wings shaking. “He knew…he was trying to warn me…"

“Ella?" Nesh set a hand on my scales, staring up at me. “We're only supposing here, remember?"

“No, Nesh." I licked my nose, whimpering. “You may be more right than you know."

“I'm just saying…either of us know for sure what happened, and it's unlikely we ever will." Nesh gently stroked my shoulder. “But if those gryphons believe that my people were negotiating with Melakar in good faith, and he betrayed them, then it would answer a few questions about their behavior. They…they probably assume you're in on it with him. Whatever..." Nesh shrugged. “Whatever 'it' is, anyway."

My stomach sank into my hind paws, and a cold numbness settled over the rest of me. I hung my head. I could not help but think it was Melakar himself who had been betrayed, attacked amidst negotiations, or tricked into striking first somehow. “Nesh, why…why would you people do that?"

“Do what, Ella?"

“Betray him." I licked my muzzle a few times, having trouble forming the words. Emptiness gnawed at me, deep inside. It was bad enough I had lost him, but somehow, it hurt worse knowing I may have lost him not to some random ambush, but to some treason inflicted upon him while he was only trying to make peace. “You said, they goaded him into attacking…"

“No, Ella, let's be clear." Nesh put a hand on my nose for my attention. “That's only a theory. It is possible that whoever he was trying to negotiate or meet with, turned against him, or tricked him, but that's by no means a definitive answer."

I swallowed, nodding. I understood what Nesh was trying to say, but it did not help much. I longed, ever so much, for some firm truth I could cling to. I could find closure in the truth, whoever painful. And knowing what really happened would help me, if I tried to carry on in his wing-beats. After all, what good would it do me to try and make peace, if I fell into the same trap Melakar had?

“Suppose your people did betray him." I lifted my head a little, then tilted it to gaze down into Nesh's eyes. I wanted honesty from him, not deflection or comfort. “Nesh, why would your people do that?"

“I don't know." Nesh met my gaze, his eyes saddened but unflinching. “I wish I had answers for you Ela, but I don't. If I had to guess, I would wonder if our power hierarchy did not want Melakar to succeed, did not want to make peace. Or…or whatever it was Melakar was offering. Possibly someone high up in the military, who could cover it up and use it to his advantage. Obviously at least one gryphon flight captain thinks dragons betrayed us, so…"

“Then I suppose I'd better start by asking her." I pushed myself up to all fours, experimentally working my wings a few times. The motions pulled on a few wounds, but not too many.

“Ella, no!" Nesh moved to bar the exit, spreading his arms as wide as he could. “I refuse to allow you to go after those gryphons until you've healed! You barely beat them with my help, this time!"

“They haven't had time to heal yet, either." Satisfied my wings would carry me without tearing out more than a few stitches, I folded them back against my body. “Which means they are still in striking distance." I padded towards Nesh. “Besides, they have cannons sighted in on us, remember? I can't let them have another chance to blast us out of the sky when we return home. I need to deal with them while there's still enough darkness to shroud my approach."

“No!" Nesh stood his ground, arms still stretched, blocking off my exit. “There's food and water here, we can wait a few days while you heal. If we're lucky, they'll retreat and take the cannons. If not, you can do what you must another night. But not until you've had time to—"

I grasped Nesh around the middle in my forepaws, and hoisted him up. “It's adorable you think you can stop me." I pivoted on my hind legs and set Nesh aside like a stuffed toy I wanted to keep safe. “I'll be back in a few hours. You should get some sleep, but as I doubt you will, you may as well start looking for things you wish to take home. We'll leave when darkness next falls across the land."

Nesh heaved a defeated sigh, leaning against the wall as I walked away. “Just don't kill anyone."

I glanced over my wings, offering him a toothy smile. “I'll do my best."

*****

Chapter Eighteen

Camouflage

*****

It was still dark outside. It was also very cold, and I missed the warmth of Melakar's cave from the moment I set foot in the snowpack outside it. The night sky was clear, and the lack of clouds let the temperature in the mountains plunge to uncomfortable levels, even for a dragon. At least the darkened sky would have camouflage my approach, though it meant I'd be silhouetted against the stars. Judging by the constellations, and the position of the moon, I guessed I had a few hours of darkness left, so I may as well get on with it.

No sooner had I taken to the sky that I regretted my decision. I ached everywhere as I ascended, and within a matter of wing beats I could already tell not every fresh stitch was going to last the journey. My body felt as if the damn gryphons hadn't just beat me and sliced me up, but pushed me down an especially jagged mountain and left me to roll head over tail over every sharp and pointy rock all the way to the bottom. At this rate, if I got into any more fights with Nesh's people and their gryphon allies, my hide was going more stitch than scale.

I tried to keep my flight motions gentle, but ascent required powerful wing strokes. Each time I pumped them it left the wounds near my flight muscles throbbing in angry protest. Though I'd never admit it to him, Nesh was right. I really shouldn't have been flying again so soon after battle, let alone going to see the very gryphons I'd fought with. But I also knew well enough I'd have to deal with their human allies' cannons sooner or later, anyway. I may as well be rid of them now.

Rather than cross the peaks around Melakar's former home, I flew behind them, to keep a protective wall of impenetrable stone between myself and their cannons. While I doubted they were waiting even now to open fire once more at a moment's notice, it was not worth taking the chance. I followed the line of tallest mountains as far as I could, until I was certain I must be well out of the range they'd sighted in on. Then I swept over the mountaintops and descended to fly nearer the ground on the other side of them.

From there, I made a grand loop around part of the valley, just as I had done when I first stalked the dragonslayers. They had fired at me from a distance ridgeline, but given the circumstances I hadn't exactly had time to mentally mark just which ridge it was. I would need to ascend high enough to be able to scan them all until I spotted their encampment, and I hoped to remain distant enough as to be unseen. I was sure they would have sentries who would spot my eventual approach, but I preferred to remain unnoticed until I swooped in. Hopefully at least, they would not have lines of cannons aimed in all directions.

 When I felt I have traveled far enough, I beat my wings and rose towards the stars once more. The motions hurt, but I grit my teeth and forced myself to continue ascending. I'd gone this far, I couldn't turn back now just because of a few aches and pains. The higher I rose, the better view I had of the valley. I focused my attention on the general area I believed them to be camped at.

Lines of hills capped with snaking, stony ridges edged the southern mountains. There were fewer spire and jagged outcrops here than there were up north, and far more natural walls and lines of stone. Such places probably were probably quite suitable for setting up their mobile cannon platforms and other defenses. Yet never had they come so deep into the valley before.

While it would have been easy for the gryphons to help carry their artillery forward, how did they know where to set it up, where to sight it in? They must have spotted me flying with Nesh, earlier. Perhaps the gryphons had tracked me from a distance, and I'd just been too foolish to notice them. Or too distracted by regaling Nesh with the history of our valley. Whatever the case, if they'd seen where I landed, they could have told their cannoneers just where to set up.

Or maybe there was more to it, than that. Could they have known where Melakar's lair was already? While I doubted he would have revealed its location to potential enemies, I also would not put it past him to invite negotiation partners he believed trustworthy there as a show of good faith. Even if that trust had not been misplaced, it was possible whoever he was negotiating with had been forced to reveal the location of Melakar's lair after the battle. Though I knew I was working too hard to tie together too many disparate threads, I could not stop myself. I just hoped I wasn't creating a puzzle for myself to solve where one never truly existed. For now, I pushed the thoughts aside. Trying to figure out how they knew where to bring their cannons would not help me deal with the weapons.

I scanned the distance ground for ridges that fit my hazy recollection. I'd gotten only a brief look at the location before, when I saw fire flashing on the horizon. Then between the sudden terror of being bombarded by cannon fire, the ensuing battle, and whatever Nesh had given me to knock me out, my memory of its exact location and appearance was vague at best. The first few possible ridges I scanned proved empty, and little by little I drifted closer to my starting point.

The familiar stone-shapes of Melakar's home mountains made for a helpful landmark. I started with the crag that I dove behind to seek cover, then drew an imaginary line from it as far to the west as I could. The line crossed over several likely ridges, like stony waves frozen upon the earth. I started with the tallest. I drew closer to it, but maintained my high elevation. I looked it over carefully, examining its contours for anything out of the ordinary. I saw no sign of footprints in the snow nor any unnatural shapes, so I flew on.

Next I examined the second tallest, capped by a long, undulating line of gray rock that ran roughly north to south. Wind had scoured most of the snow from the rock, but left it piled in drifts in either side of it. The slopes beneath the caprock were relatively gentle most of the way down to towards the miniature valley that separated it from other ridges. I noticed dark markings in four place on the eastern side of the stone, and on the western side, evidence of footprints and flattened snow.

It seemed I had finally found my quarry. Yet I saw no immediate sign of them. Had they already retreated? I descended just a little, searching for clues. Several odd patches of snow obscured the top of the stone, seemingly undisturbed by the heavy winds that came through a day or so earlier. Behind those same snow patches were higher, more noticeable snow drifts than in other places. Curious, I inspected the ground elsewhere, nearer more footprints. There were more odd piles of snow in other places, too, with unnatural shapes and angles.

I hissed when it hit me. That wasn't snow, it was camouflage. They were white tarps, blankets, and other things designed to blend in with the snow. Some of it had real snow piled atop it to better stand out. They'd covered their cannons, their supplies, and their sleeping places. But I hadn't seen any sign of anyone moving. Either they had no sentries posted, or those two were completely dressed in white. Clever bastards. Where then, where the gryphons?

While I sought them out, I circled high above, still at a distance. From what I knew of gryphons, they were probably all sleeping together somewhere for warmth, and to comfort one another after their failure. Despite the animosity our two species often seemed to fall back on, gryphons could be a very social people. They were often quite open, too. If not for the fact they'd all just had their feathered asses kicked, they might have been doing more together than just cuddling for warmth.

The gryphons slept beneath their own camouflage a short distance away from the humans. They too had snow-white blankets, and had done a better job arranging them to look like natural, as if snow had simply heavily across a collection of boulders. I might have missed them if not for familiar blue feathers peeking out from beneath one of the blankets. Damn fool had left his wing protrude. Once I noticed that, I was able to pinpoint the outline of the rest of him. From there, I could make out several others as well. Almost looked as if they were draped across one another. It must have been awfully cozy under that bevy of blankets, surrounded by fur and feathers. It was almost a shame I was going to have to wake them. Almost.

That left me with an important question. Should I descend and try to wake the gryphons first, to speak to them under terms of truce? Give them a chance to speak to me peacefully, and withdraw their weapons voluntarily? Or should I go after the humans first, and destroy their cannons, then demand the gryphons answer my questions under penalty of beating the feathers off their asses?

As much as pride and ego liked the latter, my aching body much preferred the former. If I went after their weapons first, they would likely assume I was attacking. The humans would wake, draw their firearms, and fill me with more pistol and rifle shot for Nesh to remove. Then the gryphons would jump in, and while I was confident I could best them a second time, I was also confident I'd end up with even more injuries in the process.

There was time, not that long ago, when I would have started with violence and damn the consequences. The cannons would have been my first priority, and I would have eliminated them, and anyone who tried to stop me. Now, though, I had a different priority. I had to see if these foul birds knew anything about Melakar's murderers. Which meant I had to either beat the information out of them, or try and get them to talk to me civilly. In my heart, I knew which path Melakar would have wanted me to take.

With a sigh, I began my descent towards the ridgeline. I would try it Melakar's way, and just hope to any gods who were real and listening that I did not end up like he did. As I approached the ridge, gradually bleeding altitude, I swiveled my ears, attuned for any sign their sentries had spotted me. Though I saw no movement on the ground, I was certainly someone down there, likely dressed all in white, must have spotted me. Any moment now they'd shout 'dragon!', and all the idiot humans would jump out of their beds and—

A sudden, odd whistling sound alerted me that I was not the only one in the skies above the camp. No sooner had I honed in on it than beige and gray feathers streaked in front of me, and talons flashed before my nose as a familiar female gryphon hurtled past me in a steep dive. The sudden appearance, the proximity and the talons on display, they were all part of a warning, rather than an attack. She was telling me she could have dropped onto my back, cut my flight tendons and left me to plummet. The fact she chose to make her presence known instead probably made us even in her mind.

Gryphons were better fliers than dragons, faster and more maneuverable, and apparently, quieter too. While I'd bested the four of them on the ground, I'd have a lot more trouble if I had to fight them in the sky. But where had she come from? Wasn't she with the others? I glanced at their sleeping area again. Now that I was closer, it was easier to tell that they were only three forms huddled under the camouflaging blankets. The humans must not have had any sentries posted, because they had her flying overwatch. But why hadn't I seen her? She must have either been very low and very distance…or very, very high. It dismayed me to think that for all the times I had chastised humans in my head for never bothering to look at the sky, I myself might have fallen for the same damn trick.

Just as quickly as she dove past me, the female gryphon reversed course. She flicked her wings, twisting in the air, and then shot right back up towards the sky. She hurtled past my muzzle, just out of reach, flexing her hind paws to show off the length and sharpness of her claws. I resisted the urge to chase after her, to snatch her by her feathery tail and hurl her to the ground. Even if I hadn't come here to talk, I doubted I could catch her in the sky.

“Turn back, Dragon!" The gryphon hissed at me, pivoting in the sky. “Now! You spared me, so I will let you flee, but my next pass will not be a warning! Retreat at once!"

“Let me flee?" I snarled at her, biting back several insults that immediately sprang to mind. “I will not flee from sparrows!"

I imagined her then as just such a bird, divebombing a grand eagle in vain hopes of turning her back. Granted, this sparrow likely knew how to drop a dragon right out of the sky. But she also knew that while gryphons could out fly dragons, I had already proven more than a match for them on the ground. That was why she did not wish me to land. The odds were greatly against her if we battled on the ground, when she did not have her harness full of tricks and poisons.

“Then you leave me little choice!" The gryphon cried out in a long, keening noise, sharp and piecing. The damn bird was calling out an alarm to the whole encampment. Before long, I'd be swarmed with feathered nuisances and humans taking potshots at me with their fire-belching monstrosities. “Turn back while you can, dragon, or be dragged from this place, one way or another!"

She was still trying to give me a chance to retreat. That was good, I thought. It meant she either placed a high value on the fact I'd spared her life earlier, or she did not like her chances in a rematch. Probably both, given the honor she showed in asking for her companions lives to be spared before her own. Then again, considering what she said to Nesh about being brainwashed, it was hard to say which thought weighed heaviest upon her mind. Whatever the case, I was not turning back now.

Shouts and calls to arms rang out across the camp as I banked away from her. Towards the ridge, humans threw off snow blankets and camouflaging tarps, scrambling for their weapons. Some of them ran towards the cannons and pushed away the piles of snow that helped hide them. The other three gryphons all shook their own blankets clear, rising to their feet and scanning the skies.

“Have it your way, dragon!" The gryphon raised her voice, calling out to the humans in the same language Nesh spoke. “The dragon is attacking! Defensive positions, fire at will, but watch your damn crossfire when we engage her!" Was she in command of the whole damn camp? Were the humans just her squad's support unit, or had Nesh's people given these gryphons more authority than I realized?

Then she screeched something to the other three gryphons. The two males were already joining her in flight, though now that they were out from under their blankets, I noticed bandages and support wraps here and there. They were hardly in shape to fight. Not that I was doing much better. I was never going to hear the dn

“I didn't come here to fight you again, you stupid bird!" I tried to keep track of her and the humans, hoping if I stayed close enough to her, it would keep them from shooting at me. “I already kicked your feathery asses once, do you really wish me to do so again?"

In response, the gryphon gave another shrieking cry, swooping at me. This time it was anything but a warning. With all her claws unsheathed, she streaked through the sky, no doubt intent on raking across my back and slicing through my wings. Though she was faster and more maneuverable, I had plenty of experience and a few tricks of my own. I tracked her as she hurtled towards me, then at the last moment, I pulled my wings in and dropped into a steep dive.

The gryphon overshot me and careered through the sky, hissing her frustration. I continued my dive, only to throw my wings back out as I neared the ground. I beat them sharply, stirring clouds of powdery snow that washed across the camp in white waves, obscuring me if only for a moment. From there I swept just above the earth, using my wing beats to blast more snow in all directions. Beyond the snow, the female gryphon's silhouette whipped around behind and above me for another pass.

A few ear-splitting bangs rang out. Angry hornets whizzed past me. I hissed under my breath. The stupid humans were already shooting at me. I supposed 'big, dark shadow' did make an inviting target, even if they missed. Hopefully the snow swirling through their camp was affecting their aim, one way or another. At least they probably wouldn't risk bringing their cannons to bear on me at this close range. I got the feeling whatever sort of projectile they fired was better suited for firing at a distance, or up into the sky.

The gryphon squawked in alarm, somewhere above me. “Watch where you're shooting, idiots! You almost tagged my wing! If one of us gets shot, I'm tossing you off this damn mountain myself!" 

For a moment, I almost liked that gryphon. It was a shame we were enemies. Part of me was going to regret it, for at a little while, if I had to kill her. “You're the idiot, bird! I came here to speak with you!" If only Melakar was still alive, so I could have slapped him across the muzzle the next time he brought up the value of diplomacy. All trying things his way had gotten me so far was divebombed and shot at. Perhaps it was best if I did things my way, after all. “Now I'm going to have to beat the shit out of you again!"

“You only bested us last time because we had no room to fly!" The gryphon darted back and forth above me, her movements swift, erratic, and difficult to track. “Things are different, now!"

I allowed myself a smile at deeply wounded pride in her voice. She must not have been used to losing, let alone to having the lives of her squad, and her own life, spared by her enemies. I also knew she was probably stalling while the other gryphons took up positions for some kind of group attack. That was alright. I could use that against them, if I let them think they were going to be able to corral me, or come at me all at once. The closer they flew around me, the less the humans could make use of their firearms. 

“Are they, though?" I dipped a wing and banked away from her at a very sharp angle, dropping low enough for my belly to nearly skim the snowy ground. “What are going to do, Pidgeon, shit on me from the skies?" 

She hissed, and followed after me, calling out something to the others. The blue-feathered male dove towards my head, and I spiraled away from him, back towards the one who looked like a sparrow. Of the four of them, he'd probably taken the least serious yet most humiliating injuries. Perhaps I could rile him out a little bit, damage his concentration and let his anger and ego be my allies. 

“Hey Blue Jay!" I laughed as I twisted in the air, turning away from the two gryphons. I beat my wings and ascended higher again. “How are your balls feeling? Do they still work?"

The indigo male snapped his beak at me, hissing. “Asking for a demonstration, dragon? Surrender while you can, and I'd be happy to show you just how well they function!"

“Kraas!" Sparrow snarled, thumping a forepaw against her chest in flight. “Professionalism!"

I wasn't sure if Kraas was the male gryphon's name, or some gryphon insult. “Kraas? Is that what you're called, or did your commander just sneeze?" I rumbled laughter, swooping away from the two of them. “Besides, any demonstration you could manage would be disappointing at best!"

The crimson-feathered male swept through the sky ahead of me, though his flight looked a little wobbly. Given the way I'd bashed his head into the ground, I doubted he could even see straight. And the second female never had joined her kin in the air. Good. They were not near as healthy as their bravado might indicate. I turned once more, as if looking for a means of escape, a way to break away from the three of them.

Sparrow cut across my path, forcing me to turn once again. Now I found myself flying back towards Blue Jay, so I called out to him once more. “If I were you, bird, I'd disengage, before you find your ego and your balls bruised even further!"

“Oh, you'd just love to touch my balls, wouldn't you dragon!" He hissed at me, darting left, then right, closing in on me all the while. “I'm going to-"

“Kraas!" The female dove between us, so close her wing-tip nearly brushed my nose.

Kraas peeled away while she snapped her beak at me, snarling something in gryphon. Damn, she was fast in the air. The blue male broke away in the opposition direction, following whatever directives she gave him. I suspected she was trying to box me in, get me into a position where all three of them could come at me from different angles and altitudes. If they bore me to the ground that way, they might well be able to best me. Or perhaps she was trying to get me to chase one of them.

Hell, for all I knew, they might have been trying to guide me into flying out over their cannons. A quick glance told me at least two of them had humans standing in position, with another near an iron-banded crate that probably held powder and ammunition. Whatever her plan, I did not want to give her a chance to put it into action. At least their proximity prevented the humans from firing at me again, though now and then their shouts rang out from below.

“What a shame, Kraas!" I laughed at him as if I thought him in retreat. “We could have such fun, but you wouldn't want to disappoint your superiors!"

“Laugh a little more, Dragon!" Kraas retorted from a distance, now circling me in even pass with his commander. “It won't be so funny when I've your throat in my beak, and it's you begging for our mercy!"

This time I ignored him. They liked playing games with me, but I was about done with letting them try and box me in. Instead, when I saw the crimson male moving to shadow me from below, I folded my wings and dove right for him, as if  he'd just provided the opening that I'd been wanting for. The female called out to him in warning, and he squawked, trying to break away and accelerate out of reach. But he was slow to react, and if I wished to take his life, I could have. Instead, I pulled up just as I swooped over him, kicking him in the back with both hind paws. The impact forced a pained cough from his lungs and knocked him out of his flight. He tumbled through the air and before he could regain himself he thumped onto the snowy ground and tumbled a few paces. Between the low altitude and the snowy ground to help cushion his impact, I was sure I hadn't killed him, though I couldn't swear he hadn't broken anything new.

I wasn't done, though. Sparrow streaked towards me with a furious, keening cry. I flicked my wings to spin around, then beat them hard, rising sharply to meet her. A gryphon could best a dragon in combat in several ways, but meeting her head on was not one of them. Still, she came at me, her claws out, beak agape. She likely either meant to try and flash across my back, rending my wings, or spin beneath me to tear at my throat and belly. I had no intention of giving her room to die either. I took a breath, and spat the biggest gout of flame I could manage.

Roiling, red-orange fire consumed the space between us and illuminated the snowy landscape below. Heat washed over me. The gryphon shrieked and tucked her limbs in, pounding her wings in sharp movements to spin away. It must have taken nearly everything she had to dodge the flames, and even then the smell of singed feathers filled the air. That was even closer than I'd anticipated, though if she was going to bring potentially lethal force to bear than so would I. Still, I doubted Nesh would appreciate it if I immolated one of his people's gryphons.

Blue Jay called out something in their own tongue, fear and anger in his voice. Good, I thought, I was rattling them now. But rather than pursue her and let the two of them once more join up against me in the skies, I pivoted back towards the east, and swept back towards the ground. Since we were already in battle, I may as well do something about damn cannons while I had the chance.

I touched down hard on all four paws, but kept my balance and broke into a sprint across the snow, heading for the ridgeline. Part of me was tempted to blast fire over their powder box and let it blow their damn weapons into oblivion, but I wasn't sure I could get to cover fast enough myself. Plus, I just kept making foolish promises to Nesh about not killing anyone.

Their cannons were affixed to wheeled platforms, and braced up against the stone wall. Gears, cranks, numbered dials, and metal tubes were connected to each cannon. Based on what Nesh told me, the tubes were probably sighting lenses, while the dials probably helped calculate specific angles to adjust their aim via the gears and cranks. I longed for the days when the worst we had to fear was a ballista, wobbly and haphazardly aimed by sight, not calculations.

One of the gryphons thumped down in the snow behind me to give chase. I dared not spare a moment to look back, but the heaviness of the sound told me it was the larger male. The female remained in the sky, no doubt hoping to use her agility in flight to her advantage. I focused my attention on the nearest cannon platform, manned by a team of humans. As I sprinted towards them, one of the humans broke away and bolted, the other shouldered his rifle, only to hesitate in firing it. It seemed the gryphon behind me was making himself useful in ways he had not intended.

The human fired at the last moment, and the deafening sound left my ears ringing. The bullet screamed past me, tearing through only wing membrane with a flash of hot pain. I snarled and the gryphon behind me responded with an angry roar and a curse in the human tongue. The projectile must have narrowly missed him as well. With my charge not impeded at all, the human turned to run, but by then it was too late.

I shot my head out towards him and snatched the back of his coat and clothes in my jaws. He screamed and flailed when I jerked him off his feet, his rifle flying out of his grasp and vanishing in the snow. Sparrow screamed above me, yelling at me to release him unharmed at once. Which, of course, was my intent. I pivoted and whipped my neck around and my head up, releasing him from my jaws. The force not only threw the human into the air, but tossed him straight at the female gryphon swooping to his aid.

The one I had taken to calling Sparrow squawked as a human flew through the air, straight towards her. She caught him in her forelegs, her flight wobbling from the sudden shift in weight and momentum. Sparrow beat her wings hard, heading back towards the ground to deposit her unexpected passenger.

All the while, I kept moving. I knew the blue gryphon was not far behind me, and while I was confident I could beat him in combat, I held out hope that I wouldn't have to truly break down and fight the two remaining gryphons once again. I grasped the mounted cannon in my forelegs, and tore the metal cylinder from it's moorings. Wood and metal snapped and squealed. Cogs and gears exploded as the aiming devices shattered. No sooner had I ripped the weapon free then I twisted around on my hind legs and hurled the entire cannon at the gryphon chasing me.

Kraas screeched and flattened himself to the snow in an instant. The cannon flew just over his head, tumbling through the air. It hit the ground, bounced, tumbled again, and then toppled across the earth. It took him a moment to poke his head back up, and when he did his eyes were wide and glowing in the moonlight, as if unable to believe he'd just had an entire cannon hurled at his head.

“Stay down, Sneeze!" I bolted for the next cannon. “I didn't come here to harm you, only to talk!"

“No one believes your lies, Demoness!" Sparrow dropped to the ground between the second and me, her wings flared.

For a creature half my size, who had already lost to me once, she was certainly full of fire and bravery. Again, I had to admit if we were not at each other's throats, I might have liked this brave little gryphon. She stood her ground as I charged at her, seemingly ready to meet me with a frontal assault. That was fine with me, I'd happily bowl her over and keep going, but I also prepared myself for her to jump into the air and try to rake her claws down my wings, or even roll to her back to gash my belly.

What I wasn't quite ready for was for her to suddenly jump sideways, and hurl a pawful of snow right into my eyes. The icy-cold powder stung my still recovering eyes, and left my vision dark and blurry. I cried out and stumbled forward, only to bang my paws against the edge of the cannon platform. It tripped forward, and smashed my head against the cannon itself with an audience metallic impact. Pain rang out through my skull, and stars flashed and whirled in my darkened vision.

I knew Sparrow was already coming at me, seeking to take advantage of my pain and disorientation. But if she thought I'd stunned myself, she had no idea just how thick-skulled dragons could be. For once, that was a good thing. I snatched one of the platform's wheels in my forepaws, tore it free, and then spun around, smashing the wheel across Sparrow's head. Spokes shattered and flew in all directions, and the impact jerked her sideways. She cried out, stumbling away, struggling to keep her balance. It proved a losing battle, and she dropped onto my belly with a low groan, limbs splayed.

Kraas yowled in fury and surged past Sparrow in a flurry of flashing claws. I remembered this game well from our encounter the previous afternoon, and I was not about to play it again. In fact, I was about done with playing these gryphons' games at all. No more would I let them distract me and cover for one another, or direct me back and forth from one set of claws to another.

This time I took the brunt of Kraas's assault and met it with strength. I stormed towards him, careful only to ensure his claws did not sink into my eyes, or my throat. Beyond that anything he sliced open Nesh could stitch back together later. Hot lines of pain cut through my muzzle and neck in a few places, but my tactic caught him off-guard and left him stumbling backwards, trying to avoid being bowled over completely. He must have thought me a fool to willingly charge headlong into a whirling maelstrom of razor honed claws, and perhaps he was right. I was a fool, but I was a fool who was bigger, stronger, and sick to death of all these gryphons toying with me like I was their prey.

The gryphon could not backpedal near as fast as I could sprint, and no sooner had he relented on his assault and tried to scramble away than I was on upon him. I lashed out with my forepaw, and seized him by the throat, claws sinking in for emphasis. Terror flashed in the gryphon's moon-lit eyes, and he gagged in my grasp. His panicked heartbeat reverberated through his pulse, against my pads. Blood dribbled down the blue and gray feathers of his throat. I could have killed him just by flexing my forepaw, and perhaps I should have. This was already the second time we had shed each other's blood, and I did not want there to be a third.

But dead gryphons could not answer my questions. And I'd made promises, to Nesh,  and to myself. If I was to follow in Melakar's wing-beats, then I could not take life without absolute cause. Defending myself when cornered was one thing, but this was a battle I had inadvertently brought about by following them here. Killing them now when they sought only to defend their only people seemed…distasteful.

I snarled and hoisted Blue Jay halfway up by his throat. He thrashed and beat his wings, tried to tuck his hind legs together, likely I was going to strike him between them again. I probably should have, but as long as I was able to force them to yield, there was no need to cause him additional pain. Instead, I used my superior weight and strength to push him over backwards. He had just enough time to snap his wings out to his side to keep them before he landed on his back in the snow, and I landed atop him.

With my claws still pricking his throat, I sat back on my haunches against his belly, pinning him down. My tail dropped down between his back legs and I let it lie there for good, threatening measure. Then I snapped my head around to find Sparrow, who had only just regained her feet. I hissed at her, made sure I had her attention, and then cut off Blue Jay's air for emphasis.

“Enough!" I called out, my voice loud and brassy. I wanted all the humans to hear, as well. There were not many of them, but they were all moving to take up firing positions around me. “This battle is over!"

“Let him go!" Sparrow took a few quick steps towards me, mantling her wings and hissing. Blood trickled from her beak, dripping to the snow. “Now!"

“Or what, bird?" I glanced down at Blue Jay. He grasped at my forepaw with both of his, kicking his hind legs, scrabbling at my scales with his back feet best he could. “You'll batter me with a string of curses while you watch your companion die?" I turned my head to glare at Sparrow. “I spared your lives before, but do not mistake my mercy for weakness!"

“He can't breathe!" Pain crossed Sparrow's face, and she flattened her ears in anguished grimace. Not long ago, it was her throat in my grasp. “At least let him breathe!"

“When you comply!" I snapped my teeth at her, then hesitated. No, that wasn't how Melakar would have handled this. I sighed, relaxing my grip. Blue Jay took a wheezing gasp, then another, and stopped scratching at my with his back feet. I kept my claws in his flesh, for now, willing to let him catch his breath but not to give up my advantage. “There. Consider that a show of good faith?"

“Good faith?" Sparrow took another few steps towards me, anger flashing in her eyes and heating her voice. She ruffled up all her feathers, a circle of red-flecked crown feathers rising around her neck, just behind her head. “You came out here to attack us in our sleep, as we recovered from-"

“I came here to talk to you!" I slapped my free forepaw against the snow for emphasis, snarling at the gryphon. “To ask you to remove your cannons, under terms of truce!" That part was a lie, but Sparrow had no way of knowing that. “You made that impossible! You attacked me without even giving me a chance to explain myself!" I half-curled my tail around one of Blue Jay's back legs, my tail tip flicking angrily. “For the second time!"

“You…" The female gryphon faltered, then forced strength back into her voice. “I don't believe you! All your kind do is lie to us, anyway! To us, to the humans, to all of us!"

“I don't care if you believe me or not!" Her words clutched at my curiosity, and at my heart. Again, it sounded as if she knew more about what had led to Melakar's demise, and I was desperate for any nugget of understanding I might glean from her. Yet I knew I had to stick to my advantage over them as long as possible. “I came to talk, and you attacked me! So now, we're doing things this way." I tilted my head down, gesturing at Kraas with my muzzle tip. “Unless you want me to sink my claws into this little blue jay's throat, tell your allies to throw away their weapons. Now!"

Sparrow ground her beak, but slowly gazed around at the humans. “Do as she says…"

One by one, the gathered humans tossed their firearms into the snow. Most of them also backed away. Now that I had a moment, I quickly counted them. There were only half a dozen, maybe eight or so. There were a total of four cannons that I saw, perhaps one carried in by each gryphon. I doubted they were all big enough to haul a cannon and its platform along with two riders, and supplies, so they must have ferried everything out here in several trips. Which again lent credence to the possibility that, even if Melakar had not told them where his lair was, they had been staking out the southern end of our valley. Either that, or they'd moved things out to a nearby location days ago, then hurried to put them in position when they spotted Nesh and I.

“Now, Sparrow, your turn." I stretched a wing towards her. “I want you to-“

“My name is-"

“I didn't ask your name!" I hissed at her. Foolish gryphons, I thought, giving their names away to strangers and enemies. What value did a name possess if everyone knew it? “I'm calling you Sparrow. And, Sparrow…" I added extra emphasis to the name just to grate on her nerves. “I want you to go and destroy the rest of the cannons. Rip them from their platforms, toss them down the mountainside. Since you refused to give me a chance to ask you nicely to remove your toys, you get to go home without them."

Sparrow glared at me without moving. “If you harm him further, if you so much as-"

“You'll do what, make more empty threats?" I tossed my head, snorting. “Yes, I'm trembling. You could bring you whole army out here, but unless you've discovered the power of resurrection, it won't do your companion any good if you force my hand and make me kill him."

“Fine!" The female gryphon lashed her tail. “I'll do what you want. Just don't harm him." She hissed at me. “But one day, you're going to regret-"

“Avalek…" The blue gryphon squawked out what I thought to be the female's name. “Please don't backtalk the dragon with her claws in my neck, and her tail on my balls!"

“Yes, Sparrow." I offered her a smug smile. “Listen to Blue Jay."

Sparrow backed away, snow crunching under her paws, breath steaming from her beak. She glared at me, then slowly turned to the ridgeline crowning the hill. She padded towards the wagon I'd ripped the wheel from. A couple humans moved to stand in her in way, one of them whispering and gesturing with his hands. She shook herself, gray and beige feathers fluffed, then nudged him aside. When she reached the cannon, she grasped it in her forelegs, wrenching it back and forth. Each time, wood and metal groaned a louder protest. Gryphons were not as strong as dragons, but even a smaller one still had strength enough to tear a cannon from a mobile platform with a bit of effort. When it finally came free, Sparrow reared to her hind legs, pivoted, and hurled the metal cylinder down the other side of the ridge. It clanged off stones, spraying loose snow into the air, then tumbled down into darkness. I could not be sure that toppling down even a rocky hill would cause irreparable damage to such a weapon, but it was the best I could do without physically smashing the things up with boulders.

I kept a close eye on Sparrow as she went to the other two weapons, but spared a glance at my captive. “When all the cannons are disabled, I will release your neck. But you stay under me until I am convinced we can achieve a genuine truce. I have questions that need answers."

Blue Jay swallowed, nodding once. “I'll…take what I can get."

The female soon worked to wrench the next cannon from its moorings. While she struggled with it, I gazed around, checking on the humans. None of them seemed to have done anything foolish or gone to fetch their guns. So long as things remained that way, we would not have any problems. I turned my attention to the other two gryphons for a brief moment. The red-feathered male had pushed himself up to his haunches, and the second female now stood near him, running a paw down his side.

Another loud clank rang out when Sparrow threw a cannon up against a boulder. It bounced off it, then rolled down the hillside until it struck another stone, buried in the snow. The impact flipped it into the air where it tumbled end over end a few times before falling back to earth, and skidding out of sight. A couple of the humans moved to climb atop the ridge and stare after their lost armaments. If they were thinking about seeking them out after sunrise, I'd have to make it clear that was not acceptable. I would not allow them to keep their weapons in my valley.

“And the last one!" I waved a wing towards it, shifting my weight.

“I'm going!" Sparrow hissed at me again, hoisting her tail to flash herself to me in an insulting gesture shared by dragons and gryphons. “I do understand what all of them means!"

“Then stop flirting with me, and do it!" I ground my teeth, flattening back my spines.

Now that the battle had ebbed, and they were doing as I asked, some of the adrenaline had faded from my blood stream. Anger and pumping blood were gradually being replaced by irritability and fatigue. The soon the gryphon commander returned, the sooner I could have my questions answered and be done with them.

“Why are you really here?" The male gryphon grasped my front leg with a forepaw, just above his wrists. “Much as it bruises my ego to admit, if you wanted us dead, none of us would have made it back here. So why let us escape, only to attack us again later? What are you doing, toying with us?"

“I did not attack you." I squeezed his hind leg with my tail, sighing. “I came here because I refuse to allow you and your army to place cannons in our sacred valley. Let alone to keep them aimed at me!"

“Attacking our artillery battery is still attacking!" He squirmed a little under me, ears flattened back. “Surely you expected us to defend our-"

“I came to talk!" I snarled, and my growing frustration made me tighten my grip on his neck. He gagged, patting my foreleg, and I relaxed my grasp again. “I have questions that require answers. I had planned to give you the chance to remove your weaponry intact." A metallic cacophony in the distance told me Sparrow had dealt with the final cannon. “But your commander did not give me that option. She did not even let me explain myself before she screamed for the rest of your little pigeon flock to come and attack me!"

“We are not a flock!" Blue Jay grit his beak, growling. “We're a squad! And did you not promise to release me when the cannons were disabled?"

“I promised to release your throat, anyway." Though I was hesitant to do so, a promise was a promise. I could not make headway with them if I did not keep to my word. Begrudgingly, I pulled my paw away from his neck. “There. Better?"

The blue gryphon rubbed his throat, ruffling the soft gray fur there. “Yes." He took a couple deep breaths and swallowed a few times. “I don't suppose you'll get off of me, as well?"

“Not yet." If anything, I shifted my weight to sit more completely against his belly. I turned my head to gaze at Sparrow as she approached. “I kept to my word. Now, I would speak with you."

“After I check on my squad mates." She swept a paw towards the other two. When I nodded my permission, she walked towards them, hissing at the nearest humans. “Keep your distance from the demoness."

“I am not a demoness!" I snarled, but her only response was another upward flick of her tail.

“And I am not a pigeon, but that doesn't stop you from calling me one." Blue Jay wriggled, trying to stretch his hind legs. “I don't suppose I could talk you into moving your tail to another place?"

“No." I uncurled my tail from his limb, only to lay it more firmly and completely between his back legs. “It stays here until I no longer need to keep you in line."

The gryphon sighed, laying his head back against the snow. “Just be careful with it! I'm still sore."

That made me rumble laughter. “Good. That was the only part of the battle I enjoyed."

Blue Jay grumbled. “I shudder to think what else you'd enjoy."

“So long as you don't enjoy my tail's promixity." I lowered my head to snort into his face, flattening his feathers. “Because if you do, I'm going to use it on you." He gulped, his eyes widening, and I smiled. As I lifted my head, I rubbed the silken gray fur of his chest. “You're awfully soft. Maybe I ought to call you Pillow."

“And I ought to call you-" He squawked when I tensed my tail in open threat. The gryphon worked his beak a few times, rethinking whatever insult he'd been about to deliver. “A…beautiful…lovely creature?"

I relaxed my tail, patting his chest. “Better." Then I called out to his leader. “I do not plan on waiting for you till dawn. Do your companions require your assistance or not?"

Sparrow ignored me, though I was certain she had heard. She swished her feathered tail back and forth, talking to her wounded friends one at a time. She brushed her beak through their neck feathers, stroked their forelegs, preened their wings. Then she pressed her ear to their sides, listening to their breathing. Impatient as I was, I decided to let her take her time with them, if only because Nesh would chide me for rushing anything medical related. Finally, she made her way back to me, leaving the other two gryphons behind.

“Skios can hardly fly, thanks to you!" Sparrow snarled at me, puffing up the beige and black-spotted feathers of her chest.

I slowly tilted my head, frills slightly perked, meeting her anger with indifference. “Is that why you four chose to remain here, despite the fact I gave you strict orders to leave my valley at once, or face the consequences?"

“We flew as far as we dared, given her condition!" Sparrow took a few steps towards me, snarling. She glared up at me, half my size and twice my defiance. “You've-"

“You returned to your camp, where your cannons were." I lifted a wing, stretched it, and then swept my wingtip talon along the ridgeline. “That hardly seems 'as far as you dared'. Rather, that seems to have been your predetermined destination."

“You've broken her ribs!" Sparrow thrust a single unsheathed claw towards the other two gryphons. “Her wing beats tug on damaged bone and cartilage. She struggles to breath while she's aloft! We had to help her fly just to make it this far."

That explained why the second female gryphon never rejoined the battle against me, let alone taken to the skies with her kin tonight. Smashing her through that rock pillar must have done more injury than I'd realized. Still, given the way they'd ambushed me with cannon-fire, I had very little pity for her. “If she cannot fly any longer, then it is a good thing you will not need to carry your cannons home. You can carry her, instead." I snorted and tossed my head. “What about the male?"

“He is not called 'the male'." She hissed at me, stomping against the snow. “His name is-"

I snapped my jaws to cut her off. “I care about his name about as much as I suspect you care about mine! Is he badly injured, or not?"

Sparrow ground her beak, then heaved a long, defeated sigh. “He's having a little trouble with balance, and his vision is a little blurry. And that was before you knocked him out of the sky. Now he's having trouble breathing without pain. You've probably damaged his ribs, too."

“That explains his wobbly flight." I lifted my head, gazing at the other two gryphons. He probably had a concussion, considering the way I'd bashed his head against the stone in our first battle. It wouldn't do either of them any good to have to fly again tonight. Not that I cared about the health of gryphons who sought to kill me, but I knew what Melakar would have done. “Perhaps, in the interest of a truce…" I circled a few unsheathed claws alongside Blue Jay's head, carving little ruts in the snow. “If you cooperate with me, I will allow you to stay here, and recover."

Sparrow stared up at me, her eyes a whirling storm of anger and defiance measured against realism and concern for her friends. “If you can be trusted to keep your word, I would be willing to agree." She ruffled herself, clacking her beak. “Though, recovery would be easier if your captive had not taken most of our medical supplies."

“If you haven't spent our battle hurling poison at me, he would not have needed them." I resisted rising to her bait, and instead, needled her in another way. I lifted a forepaw and gave it a slow, smug lick. “Does your squad not have a medic of its own?"

The female gryphon's glare sharpened, and her beak parted ever so slightly, as if she was seriously contemplating pouncing on my head to try and peck my eyes out. “You're hilarious, demoness. Are you going to tell me the terms of your truce, or not?"

“Simple." I waved my forepaw. “First, I want the humans to dump the rest of their weapons and ammunition over the ridge. Save for one rifle, and one pistol, and whatever it takes to fire them. I will give those to my friend." I stressed the word, since she'd called him a captive. “Second, you and the blue pillow here…" I patted Blue Jay's chest. “Will speak with me, and answer my questions about…" I faltered a moment. I'd almost spoken his name aloud to them, and somehow, that seemed distasteful. It felt wrong. If I would not give them my own name, I certainly would not use Melakar's around, unless they already knew it. “About the dragon who was murdered by your people. And about why you killed him."

“I sincerely doubt I have answers to any such questions." Sparrow glared at me, then slowly lowered herself onto her haunches. “But if you let him up, and stick to your word, we will keep our claws sheathed if you do."

“Considering as this is the second time I've bested you, I suggest you do just that." I let my eyes bore into her for a little while, then swept my wing around the camp. “Their rifles and things first."

“Gather your weapons." Sparrow lifted her voice. “Toss them down the cliffside. Save for you." She pointed to a single human as others worked to fetch their dropped guns from the snow. “Bring yours over here."

When the human in question retrieved his firearms, he brought them over. I pointed to a spot on the snowy ground nearby. “Put them in a bag I can carry, over there. Ammunition and everything else, too."

The human, one with dark head-fur that matched his dark coat, glared at me all the while he fetched a bag and shoved his things into it. I figured Nesh would be happy to have them, since I made him toss his pistol away when first we met. While I knew he didn't want to harm anyone, I also didn't want him left defenseless, especially at times like this, when I wasn't around.

A moment of irritational fear struck me. What if there were other gryphons invading Melakar's old lair, right now? Snatching Nesh away while I was not there to stop them. Had this all been a ploy to lure me away from him? I shook myself, scales rustling, and shook my fear away with it. That was foolish. They had no way of knowing I'd pursue them later in the night, after all.

When all the humans had finished divesting themselves of weapons, they regrouped nearby. I waved an outstretched wing at them to get them to move further away, and at the female gryphons urging, they eventually did so. Satisfied they had upheld their end of the bargain thus far, I decided to release my captive in a show of good faith.

I turned my attention to the indigo and gray male. “Do not get up until I am completely off of you, and then do so slowly. Do not make sudden moves." When he nodded his understanding, I very gradually rose off of him. I did not think he would be foolish enough to try and rake his claws down my underbelly while it was bared, but it would be naïve of me not to consider the possibility. I stepped off of him, and moved a few paces back. “There. You may rise."

Just as slowly, he rolled to his own paws, and then settled back onto his haunches. Then he immediately began to preen the mussed feathers of his wings. He spat a loose feather into the space between us, something I vaguely assumed was a gryphon insult. It meant nothing to me, so I let him have his little moment of defiance.

“There." The female gryphon beat her wings once, blowing powdery snow around us. “We have complied. Now, if you wish to talk, then let us talk, and then be rid of each other."

That, at last, was a sentiment I agreed with.

*****

Chapter Nineteen

Questions

*****

I leveled my glare at the two gryphons, silent. Though I was as eager to be done with all this as they were, I was not about to let them dictate the pace of my queries. They had to know I was in charge here, and it was by my mercy and good graces that they were still in condition to answer my questions in the first place. Though I sat on my haunches, I drew myself up as tall as I could, putting a prideful arch into my neck. I flared out my wings, to better emphasize the fact I was damn near twice their size. The female, anyway, the male was a little larger.

Sparrow heaved a frustrated sigh, flopping onto her haunches. She drummed her claws, impatient. Now that we weren't trying to murder each other, I thought it best to add to her impatience, to fully emphasize my control over the moment. I did not want them to know how eager I was to be out of this place by sunrise. Nor did I want them to know how much my many wounds ached and throbbed, now that my adrenaline had faded. Or about the worry that tugged at my heart, knowing Nesh must be wondering what was taking me so long.

No, I had to look calm, collected, and utterly in control. So I remained silent, and made them wait. And since we weren't trying to murder each other anymore, I made a show of looking each of them over, a queen disdainfully appraising the measure of foes under flag of truce. While I had certainly met gryphons in the past, it had been many years since any of them had visited our valley to trade and barter, and longer still since I had flown so far as to see gryphon lands. Melakar, I imagined, had probably met more of them.

In rough terms, the broader anatomy of a gryphon was not unlike a dragon. Gryphons were built like great predators, just as we were. They had four legs, tails, and wings separate from their other limbs, just as I did. Though I had seen images in Melakar's books of gryphons with scaly front legs like the talons of a great bird, that was not true. At least, not for the gryphons before me. Instead, soft fur covered their front limbs and their forepaws alike. Their front feet were a bit like a cross between a dragon's, and a great cat's. And just like dragons, gryphon front paws possessed opposable thumbs, and functioned just as well as hands. We even shared retractable claws. If anything, gryphon paws were even more dexterous than dragon.

Melakar once tried to tell me that the similarities we shared with gryphons indicated our two species might once have been related. In reply, I told him the only thing he shared with gryphons was being full of shit. I did not care what percentage of our skeletons matched up, or how much musculature we had in common. We may have had a few resemblances, but we also had far more differences. Saying gryphons and dragons were related was akin to saying humans, gnolls, and lizardfolk were all related, just because they walked upright.

If anything proved us unrelated to gryphons, it was their strange face. While dragons had a muzzle filled with sharp teeth, gryphons had a lightly curved beak, not unlike a bird. Though where a bird's beak was stiff and inflexible, a gryphon's beak was sharpest and hardest towards the end. Closer to their face, it was more flexible. Along with an agile tongue and impressive vocal cords, gryphons were as adept at languages as dragons were.

There were plenty of other things different about our people, too. Our hides were covered in scales of varying textures, while gryphons bore an odd a mixture of feathers and silken fur. Longer feathers lined their wings and their tails. In place of frills, they had longer, crown feathers around the back of their heads, which they lifted and positioned along with their expressive ears to show emotions. Their eyes were often dark but sharp, sometimes betraying their emotions.

I tilted my head, slowly looking the male over first. I'd only started with him in hopes of furthering the female's impatience. He was the largest of the four gryphons who had attacked me, outweighing his leader by a good bit. Though he was a bit stocky for a gryphon, he was still an elegant looking creature. Not that I'd ever admit such to him.

Brilliant indigo feathers smothered the top half of his body, his wings and tail included. Narrow bands of ebony barred his wing feathers, with snow-white tips on the longest flight feathers. Similar markings ran down the length of the feathers lining his tail. A ring of black encircled the base of his head. Across his chest and belly, deep blue feathers gave way to soft gray down and fine, pale fur. More black marks ran like tear streaks from his dark eyes to his ebony beak.

The female seated next to him was noticeably smaller, though her size certainly did not match her defiance, determination, or her ego. Then again, in my experience, gryphons had notoriously outsized egos. She was colored more plainly than him, which was not unusual as far as I knew. Males often had brighter colors than the females. Aside from the visually obvious anatomical differences, color and a small size disparity were about the only things that separated male and female gryphons.

Her feathers and underfur were a mixture of browns and beiges. Her markings were nearly reversed from the top half of her body to the bottom half. Her back and wings were dark brown, striated with sandy tan and taupe. The top of her head was the same deep brown, though her face was pale, with darker streaks extending from her eyes, down the back of her neck. Her chest and belly were also a creamy beige, but mottled with broken lines the color of rich forest earth. Her eyes, a sharp hazel-gold, glowed angrily in the moonlight.

“Are you going to talk, or are you just going ogle us until sunrise?" She clacked her beak, lashing her tail against the snow.

“I hardly see anything worth ogling." I licked my muzzle, and gave a dismissive snort. “Besides, you were the one flirting with me earlier."

 “I was insulting you." Sparrow hissed at me, unsheathing her claws into the snow.

“You were hoisting up your tail for me." I flexed my wings. “To a dragon, that's a flirtatious invitation." Truth was, dragons had a very similar rude gesture, but I doubted she knew that.

“She was angrily hoisting her tail!" Blue Jay swatted his forepaw against the snow, spraying some of it at me. “When she flirts with you, you'll know it!"

I ignored his snow shower, arching my neck and lifting my frills. “Will I?" I cocked my head. “Is that something I should expect, then?"

Sparrow made a sound like a cross between a sigh and a warble. She nipped Blue Jay on the shoulder, making him squawk. “You're not helping."

I snorted, curling my tail around my paws. With lives no longer on the line, and their squad teamwork no longer at play, it was harder to tell if I was seeing fractures in their group or just a sort of, love-hate camaraderie? “Let me guess. The real crack team of gryphon assassins were already busy, and so they had to send me their fluffy jesters, instead?"

Sparrow ground her beak, glaring at me. “Hilarious, demoness, hilarious."

I snapped my teeth, flaring my spines to their full, red-tinged extent. “I am no more a demon than you are a…a…" I tossed my head. “What's the phrase for gryphons in the human tongue? The one some of you hate, makes you sound like a crossbreed?"

Blue Jay tilted his head. “Cat-bird?"

“That's the one." I smiled at Sparrow. “I am no more a demoness than you are a cat-bird, but if you persist on calling me that, I shall call you cat-bird."

Sparrow nipped Blue Jay again. “Why would you tell her that?"

Blue Jay growled at her, shoving her beak away. “It just popped out!"

Given Sparrow's deep concern for her squad, and the well-coordinated teamwork they'd displayed in our previous battle, I was leaning heavily towards love-hate camaraderie, rather than any real divisions between them. I glanced between the two of them a few times. “What are you two, lovers?"

Blue Jay ruffled himself up. “Actually, we-"

“If you answer that…" Sparrow balled up a forepaw into a fist, waving it menacingly. “I'll hit you in the balls myself."

Blue Jay hissed at her, curling his indigo-feathered tail to cover himself.

I snorted, drumming clawtips against the snow. “Ex-lovers, then. What are your names?"

The female put a paw to her chest. “I am Flight Captain Avalek." She splayed her front legs, lowering her beak towards the snow in formal bow. When she straightened up again, she swept her forepaw towards the male. “This is my Second, Kraas." She waited while Kraas offered me the same sort of bow, brushing his beak against the snow. Then Sparrow turned her gaze back to me. “And you are?"

“The Queen of this valley."

I flared my wings to their full extent, arching my neck again. For a moment, I considered leaving things there. I did not want to offer these enemy birds my name. Yet, they had given me theirs and done so with formal gestures. I knew Melakar would offer his own name in turn, not out of respect but out of diplomatic formality. If I was to truly become Queen of the valley, then I had to conduct myself as befit a royal. And a Queen had to have a name, an identity. If Melakar had wanted me to be Queen, then Queen I would be.

I rose to all fours, took a deep breath, and shouted my name to the skies. “I am Queen Ellamyriss!" Let the gryphons hear it. Let the humans hear it. Let them all hear it, and report my name back to their army, to their kingdom. Let all the land know, the dragons had a Queen once more. “I am Queen, and Singer of the Stars! By the Earth Dragon's breath, do I live! By the Stars' will, do I rule! And by the blood of dragons, do I protect this place!" I took another breath, then spat roiling fire into the sky above the gryphon's heads. The flames left the snow glowing orange-red. The gryphons flattened themselves against the ground, as if to escape the sudden heat. “I am Queen Ellamyriss, protector and rightful ruler of the Valley of Gods' Blood and Earth Flame!"

With my introduction completed, I settled back onto my haunches to catch my breath. Pride swelled my heart so much I half-thought my chest plates would pop off. I had called myself Queen before, I had talked to Nesh about the idea, but that was the first time I had truly declared it. Before, it was only an idea. I had considered myself Queen, in a way, but that was different. That was only in my head, only to myself, or to Nesh. But now…

Now, I was Queen.

The gryphons rose back up when the heat of the fire faded. Both sets of ears were splayed back, and they cast each other startled, confused glances. They switched to the gryphon tongue, speaking to each other in worried, uncertain tones. One of them gestured at me, and the other hissed, then gave what sounded like a nervous chirp. I let them talk amongst themselves for a few moments. Though I could not pick out much of what the said, I understand the gist of it well enough.

The last thing they expected me to be was Queen.

Now, I imagined, all sorts of uncertainties were filling their heads. Did dragons truly have royalty? Was I really the only dragon left out here, after all? Did I have an army of my own to back me up? Would other dragons, in other parts of the world bow to me, and do as commanded? What if they had inadvertently started a war against an entire nation of dragons? Should they return home and report my claim at once?

“When you are ready," I said, interrupting their whispered discussion. I tried to alter my voice to suit what I imagined was a queenly persona. Patient, but self-assured. I cut all traces of sarcasm from my voice, tried to trim away the bitterness, and anger, and replace it all with certainty. “I have questions I wish to ask you." I draped my wings at my side, and curled my tail around my paws, neck delicately arched.

Sparrow swallowed, and turned her attention back to me. She bowed again, her voice softer than before. “In…the interests of our truce, I shall do my best to answer them."

Smart gryphon, I thought. She was trying to hedge her bets. She could not be sure if I was telling the truth. Nor could she be sure that even if I was honest with her, if it mattered. If I was the only dragon left in the valley, what did it matter if I was queen? Yet at the same time, she likely realized even a lonely queen was a monarch still. I could make a very valuable negotiating partner…or hostage.

“I would appreciate that." I bowed my head in a small show of returned respect. “And while I shall endeavor to use your names, I'm afraid in my head, I've already dubbed you Sparrow, and Blue Jay."

Avalek bristled at that, but did not reply. That was just going to make it even more difficult to stop calling her Sparrow.

“First, I want to know why you were here." I gestured with a forepaw. “Was your priority really to save Nesh, or were you sent for me?"

Sparrow flared up her crown feathers. Red flecks marked them. “I am not at liberty to discuss orders or operational planning."

“I don't care." I shrugged my wings. “Tell me anyway. What are you afraid I'll do, find your commander and tell him you've been a naughty bird?" I sharpened my voice. “If you were really here to rescue Nesh, you wouldn't have had your cannoneers fire at me without knowing where he was first!" I lashed my tail against the snowy ground. “Nesh, whom, need I remind you, talked me into sparing your life in the first place! Had your cannon fire accidentally slain him, none of you would have left that place alive. You owe him your lives, and yet you ordered your humans to fire upon me without even knowing where he was. So I ask you again. Your priority was not rescue, it was dragon murder, wasn't it?"

The female gryphon ground her beak, and took a deep breath. She glared at me, her hazel-gold eyes boring into my skull. She fluffed up her feathers till she looked like a furious little puffball. Then, just as quickly, she deflated with a long sigh, all her feathers slicked back against my body. “We couldn't even be sure he was alive."

Blue Jay stretched an black-barred wing and draped it across her back. “We didn't even know which human you'd kidnapped. They were just knew there was one man unaccounted for, after they counted up the bodies."

“And most of them were so badly burned or otherwise mangled they hadn't even identified them yet!" Sparrow hissed at me, then gave the male gryphon a thankful glance for his comfort. “You didn't exactly leave much for the medics, priests, and morticians to work with! They'll still trying to match some of those poor people to their records."

“Yes, those poor, poor murderers." I bared my fangs, flaring up my crimson-edged spines. “I'm sure they'll find someone else willing to cut dragons apart and carry their pieces home. I assure you, I know what that great wagon was for."

Sparrow flattened her ears, staring towards the horizon, where the sky was just starting to lighten from the inky blackness of night to the fading purple bruise of pre-dawn. “Some of those men had families, you know."

“I keep hearing that." I lowered my head to meet her eyes, snarling under my breath. “And I cannot help but notice how swiftly your people point out the poor families of the dragonslayers, without ever considering our families. Dragons have families too, you know. If they had not shot him down, they would have returned home."

Sparrow swallowed, her eyes softening just a little. “Oh. Oh, you're…I see."

Blue Jay sucked in a breath, pulling his wing back. He turned his head to murmur to Sparrow in the gryphon tongue. Sparrow snorted and spat something back at him. My gryphon language knowledge was limited, even when I had the chance to concentrate, but the context made their exchange clear enough.

Oh shit, she's his mate!

I realize that, idiot!

Or something to that extent, anyway. As much as I wanted to hammer it into their feathery skulls that dragons had families we loved, just as they did, I had limited time and needed to stay on track.

“If you knew a human was missing, why was he not your priority?" I struggled to keep Melakar off my mind, and to keep my queenly persona intact. “Nesh called you a rescue squad, and I cannot help but feel you betrayed his expectations and beliefs in you."

Blue Jay hung his head, his ears drooping. “I wanted to go in and find him, but-"

“We do as we're commanded." Sparrow spoke up to cut her subordinate off, holding a paw towards him in plea for silence. “Oftentimes that is a rescue effort. Other times it is a kill or capture mission. Other times, it is reconnaissance. In this instance, we were sent to eliminate an unexpected threat, and rescue the kidnapped soldier, or bring back his remains."

“His remains?" I tossed my head. “Why would I have taken a dead human with me?"

“Oh, who knows what dragons do with humans." Blue Jay made a similar motion with his own head, his white-tipped crown feathers flared. I could not help but wonder if he was mocking me. “You might have a corpse for a trophy, for your hoard! Or…or you could have taken a wounded man back, planning to torture him to death! Either way, I wanted to go in first, but-"

Sparrow put her paw over his beak. “Hold your tongue!"

Blue Jay pushed her foreleg away. “It's a bit late for that! We've already failed and nearly died in the attempt, we may as well-"

“You see?" Sparrow nipped at him, hissing. “This insubordination is why you keep getting docked! You're going to get another demotion if you keep this up!"

“Yes, yes." Blue Jay waved his foreleg around, flattening back his feathery crest. “I've heard it all before, they'll cut my pay, they'll make me dig latrines, they'll string me up by my balls-"

“Literally, I should hope." Sparrow snapped her wings out, buffeting him with one of them. “Very well, tell her what you wish, but I should like it noted for the official record that I am lodging a formal protest, and shall do so again when we're debriefed."

“And I shall remind them that you're the one who declared a truce with the dragon we were supposed to bring back dead or alive!" Blue Jay clacked his beak, growling at her.

I tilted my head, wondering how long this was going to go on. At least their growing anger with one another was providing me insight into their mission that the female's carefully guarded answers had not.

“Oh, should I not have done that?" Sparrow pushed up to all fours, pivoting around to shove her beak in his face. “Should I have let her put her claws deeper in your throat? Should I have waited to see if she choked you out, first?"

“Will you two just mate and get it over with?" I snapped my jaws, then snarled loudly enough to drown out their voices. “I came here for answers to questions my heart won't stop screaming, not to listen to former lovebirds chitter insults at one another. And for this official record you mentioned, I should like it noted that I've had both your throats in my paws. As far as I'm concerned, you both owe me your lives, a debt I rather doubt you can ever repay." I turned my head, glaring at each of them until they glanced away, chastened, if only for a moment. “Now, Blue Jay, I wish you to speak. Sparrow, if you interrupt him, I'm going to sit on you and hold your beak shut."

Sparrow splayed her ears, feathers poking out at odd angles around her head. “But I-"

“Beak." I made a clenching motion with fingers, near her beak. “Shut." Then I glanced at Blue Jay again. “Feel free to tell your commanders that I forcibly extracted information from you, I don't care. Just answer my damn questions. And remember, I'll know if you're lying." I wouldn't, but I hoped a vague threat would help keep him honest. “I'll break something valuable to you if you are."

The indigo male ruffled up his feathers. “I will speak honestly." He shot the female a glare. “Regardless of-"

“No!" I thumped him sharply on the end of his beak with a single finger, making him jerk his head back. He scrunched up his face. “Don't start that again. You speak to me, and forget she's there. Now, you were saying earlier, that you wanted to go in first, as in, before the cannon fire?"

Blue Jay huffed, shifting his weight back and forth a few times. “Yes. If there was a chance the human was still alive, I wanted to try and save him. When we saw you take to the skies, I wanted to slip into that cavern, look for the human while you were away. If he was in there and alive, I thought perhaps we could slip back out with him just as quickly. But Bossy Feathers here…" He tilted his head towards the female, who growled but did not speak. “Thought otherwise. Our orders were…" He took a breath, then shook himself, sighing. “Well, you were the top priority. We were supposed to kill you, or capture you, first and foremost. Rescuing the human was secondary. So…" He softened his voice. “She was simply following orders. She thought she had a shot at you, and she took it."

I swiveled my ears towards Sparrow. “Anything you wish to add, before holding it in ruptures something inside you?"

The female ground her beak for a several moments, then clicked it, an irritable gryphon gesture. “It was not as if I did not want to save the human. But orders made you the priority. And…admittedly, I assumed him already dead."

I looked between the two of them a few times, furrowing my eye ridges and flattening my spines. “You did not see me carrying him, earlier in the day?"

Sparrow shook her head. “We glimpsed you only at a great distance, carrying cargo or something wrapped up in cloth, it looked like."

“It's called a coat, gryphon." I snorted at her, but I supposed she had a point. Between all the clothes and coats Nesh wore for flight, and the way he was snuggled in against my chest between my cargo pouches, I doubted he would have been easily identifiable from a great distance. “You claim you only saw me for a moment, and yet you knew exactly where to aim your cannons." I returned my attention to Blue Jay, feeling he would be the more honest of the two. I had a suspicion, but I needed him to confirm it for me, without putting the idea in his head. “Explain."

“We already knew that cave was there." He tucked his wings against his body, feathered tail sweeping the snow, building little piles on either side of it. “We had not been into it yet, but we knew of its existence. We were unsure if other dragons lived there, but when we glimpsed you earlier, you were flying in that direction. Avalek made the decision to have our cannoneers sight in on that area, best they could. A decision that, to her credit, panned out when you reappeared in the evening."

I took a slow breath, my chest plates expanding. Tiny, frozen claws pricked at my heart from all sides. That confirmed one small facet of this ever-growing mystery, but in so doing left a dozen more questions in its wake. I held that breath till my lungs burned, trying to focus only on the most immediately pressing question.

“How did you know it was there?" I stretched a wing, sweeping it towards the mountain range.

“We were shown on a map." Blue Jay rose up and moved to a patch of undisturbed snow, then used unsheathed claws to draw lines and symbols on it. “With those mountains here…" He drew little triangles in the snow. “And the cavern indicated here." He added an X, indicating Melakar's former lair. “Subsequent reconnaissance flights further determined it's exact location."

So, while I'd been convalescing and taking Nesh to old lairs and sights around my home, the gryphons had been scouting out Melakar's section of the valley. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. Now that I knew they had gryphons working for them, the humans probably sent them out the moment they knew their dragonslayer squad had been ambushed.

“How did the map maker know of the cavern's location?" I doubted they'd just discovered it. More likely, they used it's location as a starting point for their scouting.

Blue Jay shook his head. “I don't know. Probably from…" He trailed off, glancing at Sparrow. “From him, wouldn't you think?"

Sparrow gave a single nod. “It is possible your…your mate, was he?"

I licked my nose, my breath catching. “Yes. He was." It was far more complicated than that, but these gryphons did not need to know the specifics. “What does he have to do with it?"

“It's…possible he…" Sparrow shifted her weight, perhaps worried about offending me and drawing my violent ire. “He may have given away it's location, though I know not why. Perhaps as a show of good faith, before he betrayed us. Or perhaps he planned to ambush our people there."

I listened carefully, struggling to avoid giving away my thoughts, my emotions. A few things were immediately clear. Melakar had been meeting with Nesh's people. And given that Sparrow did not see fit to explain that to me, she must have assumed I already knew. When she realized I was Melakar's mate, she no doubt thought we were still together, as mates, and that I must have known everything he was doing. I was not yet ready to give away the fact that she was wrong.

Instead, I straightened myself, strengthening my voice. “He would not betray you. He did not betray you. Your people betrayed him, when you shot him from the skies."

“Lies!" Sparrow hissed through grit beak, but then relented. “Or…mistaken falsehoods, I cannot say which. He betrayed our commander's trust, our nation's trust, our Empress's trust. He betrayed all of us, and that is why…" She trailed off, no doubt still trying to avoid further upsetting me. “What happened, happened. That…that is why you are here, is it not? You didn't know. You…you must think they just killed him, for no reason. It wasn't like that."

“He…" Despite the roiling turmoil in my heart, the screams in my head, desperate for answers that seemed oh so close, I chose my words very carefully. “Did not always tell me everything. He kept his plans to himself, often as not." I cleared my throat, licking my muzzle, and glanced away. “I thought him a fool to meet with a human nation…" Had I known he was doing so, I'd have tried to talk him out of it. “I thought it would…well, your betrayal has borne out my fears to the utmost."

“That isn't what happened!" Sparrow ruffled up all her crown feathers, glancing at Blue Jay as if for support. “Tell her!"

Blue Jay only shrugged his wings. “You know more than I do. You said yourself, I keep getting demoted, I don't get access to that kind of information."

This time, I tried a slightly different approach. With my heart pounding away in my chest, I forced myself to soften my voice. “It's alright, Avalek. Just…tell me what you think happened. Convince me it was not your people betraying mine."

The female gryphon leaned back onto her haunches. She curled her wings partway around her body, rubbing her forepaws together. “In truth, I know only a little more than he does." She tilted her head towards the indigo male. “And nothing I was told in an official capacity by those involved, but-"

“Then you cannot be sure it is true."

She dropped her forepaws back down. “I know it is true, in my heart!"

“And in my heart, I know Melakar sought only peace! He would not attack those he sought to make peace with in the first place." Again, I was guessing, but the more information I gleaned from them, the more it seemed Nesh and my suspicions were correct.

I wondered, for a moment…if Melakar had somehow learned that there would never be peace, that they planned to invade and conquer our valley no matter what he did. Even if he had, he was never quick to anger, not like I was. I'd have attacked them the moment I discovered such painful knowledge, but Melakar would not have. He would have come home, and come to find me, I was certain. Perhaps, then, they had not let him leave.

“It was not that kind of betrayal." Sparrow kept her voice even, and this time I felt as though I was the one being probed for knowledge. “You know, for Queen, you do not seem especially knowledgeable in your subject's actions."

“Melakar was my diplomat as well as my mate." I lifted a forepaw, casually regarding it to shield my eyes and emotions, best I could. “In that capacity, I gave him full leeway to conduct his negotiations as he saw fit. He was not required to report to me his daily efforts, and in fact, he often spent weeks or months away from home."

“I bet he did." Sparrow straightened herself, flaring her wings a little. I did not like the changes in her posture, or the way he crown feathers ever so slightly fluffed out around her head. Something had changed in her, slight but perceptible, as if she sensed some advantage. “So you are Queen, and he was diplomat, and…You know, it strikes me that we have not encountered any other dragons in a valley once known for them. Tell me, your Majesty…" She tilted her head, her beak slightly parted. “Where is your army?"

The smugness in her voice told me she already knew. I suspected that before my arrival, they already surmised there were few dragons left. Announcing myself as Queen gave her pause, but now she had stumbled back upon the reality. I saw no sense in denying it, in trying to convince her there were yet other dragons hidden away in the mountains. Even if I convinced her somehow, what good would that do? It would only give them cause to bolster their defenses, and to come with a far greater force next time. Instead, I decided to meet her smugness with the confidence of a royal, the certainty of a dragon who had already bested Sparrow's entire squad. Twice.

I lowered my head until my eyes burned into hers, until my muzzle brushed her beak, till my words were like threatening claws dragged down her throat. “Test me, gryphon, and you will find me army enough for a hundred dragons."

Sparrow gave her head a slight bow, offering a little respect and acquiescence. “As you say, Dragon. But in the interests of this…" She waggled a forepaw. “Little truce we have fostered, I shall warn you. One dragon may be a match for four gryphons and some cannoneers, or even a squad of dragonslayers." Her voice sharpened, rising with each word. “But you are not a match for the army on your doorstep. You could have a hundred dragons here, and soon enough, you would all be ground to dust beneath their gears of their great machinery." Then, something else changed in her, and she seemed to wilt as quickly as she had strengthened. “It is a terrifying thing, being left behind. Being…outpaced by creatures with half your life span, who are only half your size. I cannot hardly imagine what it must have been like for my parents, and you?" She shook her head. “You haven't even seen it yet."

I slowly pulled my head back, my neck arching. A cold trickle ran from my heart, adding ice to my blood. I was not sure what she was talking about it, but something in her voice put me ill at ease. “Seen what?"

“The future." Sparrow swept her wing towards the humans in the distance. “They machines they build, the industries they've developed, the weapons they wield. What you've seen, what you've faced, is but a drop in the ocean that they call progress. Creatures like us, our old ways, we're being left behind. That's why our clans joined them. Now, you're being left behind, and you don't even know it. You haven't seen it. But your mate…he saw it. He saw it all, and he saw its inevitability. And that's what made his betrayal so confusing."

That only left a thousand more questions clawing at my mind. I had seen the weapons of humans evolve over my lifetime, and their ever-increasing power was all too evident to me in Melakar's death. Yet this gryphon sounded as though she meant something far vaster than mere weaponry. I was reminded of the strange thing I saw in the distance sky, days earlier. And of the way they were carving out hills, and laying metal into the earth, for reasons I could not fathom. Nesh sometimes spoke of inventions and things I'd never heard of before. Perhaps I could ask him.

The idea of being left behind sat cold and hard in my belly. It was an all too familiar worry. Even before the humans encroached upon our sacred valley, I did sometimes felt as if the world had left me behind. I had spent my life defending a valley abandoned even most of the other dragons. Now I could not help but wonder where the others dragons had gone, where they had ended up.

Where my son was.

I forced myself not to allow my thoughts to linger on Vevorek. If I lapsed too deeply into introspection and worry, I would not be able to finish questioning these gryphons. I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. It occurred to me then, that before we stopped talking, there were times when Melakar had spoken about the world leaving us behind. About how it was leaving dragons behind. That there was more to the world than our valley, and for all our strengths, we were being surpassed by the world beyond our borders. I wondered just how long he had been secretly visiting the human lands, watching the way they grew and changed.

For now, there were only so many questions I could try and answer. I held up a single paw to the gryphons. “While I do not believe Melakar betrayed you, I will not argue the point further. So, tell me what you know, or what you believe, about his death. Why was he killed?" I lowered my head just a little, a show of begrudging respect. “Please."

Sparrow ruffled herself and gave an irritable chirrup. “This might have been easier to explain if you hadn't interrupted me and scattered my thoughts to the wind."

“Your mate was negotiating an alliance, right?" Blue Jay answered for her, gesturing with a half-furled wing. “Isn't that how it started?"

I steeled myself, fighting to keep my expression, voice, and body language as neutral as possible. I curled my tail around my paws, a nonchalant gesture, and let my frills set in a lowered position. “To the best of my knowledge, he was investigating the possibility of peace between the humans you work for, and dragons." If I knew Melakar as well as I thought I had, he wouldn't have been content with peace just for himself and me. He would have wanted it for all dragons who may come in contact with the human nation. “He visited a few human cities, in secrecy, to attempt talks, and to gauge interest and possibility of peaceful alliance." At least, that was my best guess. Thanks to what Nesh discovered, and what these gryphons let slip, I wasn't entirely pulling this out from under my tail. But I was making a few assumptions and ramming a few puzzle pieces together, whether they fit or not. “If things had progressed much further, he had not yet told me."

“Perhaps he feared you would disapprove of what he was truly doing." Sparrow finally spoke up again, lifting her head to stare up into my eyes. “You see, ours was not the only empire he was negotiating with. And in fact, he had already turned against us. If he did not see fit to tell his own mate about the deals he had struck, I suspect he must have believed you would try to dissuade him."

I slowly withdrew my head, narrowing my eyes and flattening my spines. Somehow, I doubted I was the only one making guesses and passing them off as truths. “Elaborate."

The gryphon held up her forepaws. “It was discovered, through our own spies, that your mate was meeting frequently with Shevar, an enemy nation. He had been to their lands, met with their agents, perhaps even with their leadership. As it turned out, he had already made an alliance, maybe even on your behalf. But he had not made it with us. Rather, he allied himself with Shevar, against us."

A shiver ran through me, my scales clicking together. Nesh had shown me maps Melakar kept, with notes and images of all the places he'd been too. They were right about him visiting Shevar, at least. I recognized the name as one Nesh had pointed out. He'd shown it to me on the map, explained how it was a rival to his people, vying for the same land, the same resources. If I remembered right, they also had interest in claiming our valley. Much as it dismayed me, I was forced to admit to myself that the gryphons might be right.

“How do you know this?" I tilted my head, waiting.

“He continued to meet with our people, with military contacts and leadership, to avail himself of our good will and good faith." Sparrow gestured with a forepaw, waving it in a lazy circle. “Learning about our frontier positions and leadership, mining and expansions operations, our on-site resources, and so on. Essentially, gaining intimate knowledge of the very forces we are using to keep Shevar at bay. And then?" She set her forepaw back down. “Returning, multiple times, to Shevar, to spill them our secrets to them. That was his betrayal. He had already allied himself with our enemy, and was openly serving them as their spy."

I flicked my tail tip against the snow, back and forth, back and forth. The information we found in Melakar's lair bore out at least part of her accusations, but I was not convinced the reasons behind his journeys was as nefarious as she believed them. I hoped that the notes Melakar left behind might shed further light on both his motivations, and the truth of his actions. So far, I felt as if I was uncovering more questions than answers. I wondered again about some of his last words, about his cryptic warning that 'they were coming'. Did he mean Nesh's people, angry about some supposed treachery? Could it be Shevar? What if he'd agreed to grant them access to our lands, in return for alliance? He could have been killed before he ever had a chance to break the news to me, or…or even to prevent such an alliance.

“Do you have proof of this?" I grasped my tail in a forepaw, worriedly kneading at it. “What you call his betrayal. Have you proof of this alliance he made, or evidence he was truly taking your secrets to your enemy?"

Sparrow put a paw to her chest. “Do I?" She shook her head. “No. I was told most of the evidence was destroyed, and the rest, carefully hidden away. You see, your mate was confronted about his actions, the last time he came to meet with us. He was presented with evidence of his crimes. Once exposed, he attacked his contacts. In the process, he incinerated the documents, slew the witnesses present, and set off the events that culminated with the army engaging him directly. He killed many more before he escaped, albeit mortally wounded."

“So your only supposed proof that he betrayed your people was destroyed in the battle?" I growled under my breath, stretching my wings. The cold was making my membranes stiff, and achy. “How convenient."

“Why else would he attack us, if not cornered with evidence of betrayal?" Sparrow flared her own wings, perhaps thinking I was making some aggressive gesture.

“Oh, I believe he was cornered, alright." I left it at that, shaking my wings. I tucked them back against my body. “Were either of you actually present for any of this?"

Sparrow slowly folded her wings back, as well. “No. I will admit, there is a small portion of speculation in this."

I lifted my frills. “Only a small portion?" Licking my muzzle, I glanced over at Blue Jay. “Do you believe all this as well?"

He ruffled his indigo feathers. “Actually, this is the first I've heard of some of it. I knew a dragon had been making secret visits, but I never flew escort, or anything. Obviously, I knew about the battles that saw him shot down, but I did not know the fine details. They've…done what they can to keep his occasional presence a secret, even from their own people. A lot of humans believe that dragons are…well…"

When he trailed off, I snorted. I knew just what he meant. “Evil."

“Yes. That." Blue Jay glanced at the female, who had taken to preening her wings. That must have implied he was free to speak, for once, because he went on. “The idea of making any kind of alliance with a dragon would sit pretty poorly with a lot of the empire's peasants and religious types, so it's been kept pretty quiet."

“You say that as if there aren't religious gryphons who also hate dragons." I cast a glance at the female who referred to me often as 'demoness.'

Blue Jay warbled, and continued. “Suppose there was a time when having dragons join the nation would have been quite the coup. Woulda given a big advantage, but…hell, now that they've fielded an armed skycrawler, a lot of the advantages you could have provided are becoming obsolete. The Gryphon Legion has had to work to carve out its own niche, as it is." He ground his beak while I wondered what the hell a skycrawler was. Was that the thing I saw in the sky?  “Look, truth is, no one here knows exactly what happened the morning your mate was killed." He tilted his head towards Sparrow. “Avalek knew about as much as me, until they briefed her on this very mission. Most of what she just told you, about him being a spy and all? First I've even heard of it."

Sparrow spat a dark brown feather on the ground, next to a few of its kin. “That is highly secret information, and you'd better keep your beak shut about it, after this." She settled her wing back, and once more fixed her gaze upon me. “You don't have to believe me, Dragon, but that is what I was told, by my own superiors. And before you ask, no, they were not present either, but that is what they believe, and that is what I believe. You should consider the possibility that you were either lied too, or purposefully kept in the dark about what your mate was really doing."      

I dipped my head to her, my ears splayed out. As much as I wanted to roar at the gryphon that Melakar would not do such a thing, she was making a reasonable request. Especially in light of the fact that Melakar had kept me in the dark about what he was really doing. I doubted I could convince her that Melakar was the sort to betray even potential friends, but I could at least make a similar request.

“I will consider it. I ask in return that you consider the possibility that it was someone from your side who betrayed him." She opened her beak to argue, and fast as I could, I snatched it in my grasp and held it shut again. “Let me finish. Most humans seem to hate dragons. You yourself seem to think me evil, as do many more of your people. Nesh thought me a monster, before he came to know me. I should think you would at least consider it possible that someone high up in your ranks set up Melakar, or betrayed him, because he could not reconcile seeing his people work along with a so-called creature of evil." I released her beak and set my forepaw. “Is that not at least in the realm of possibility?"

“Certainly not." The gryphon tossed her head. “We would not do something so dishonorable."

“You're as stubborn as I am," I said, rattling my spiny frills. “You'd have made a good dragon. Blue Jay." I glanced his way, my head tilted. “Do you also feel this way?"

“I…" The male gryphon hesitated. Sparrow shot him a glare so fiery and intense I expected his plumage to combust any moment. He wilted and looked away. Just when I was about to give up on him, he straightened again, then snapped his beak at the female. “You're deluding yourself. Of course it's possible." He unsheathed a single claw and shook it at me. “I don't think it's likely, mind you, but it's possible."

I smiled, and arched my neck, then offered him a thankful bow of my head. “And, is it not also a possibility that there was no betrayal, because there was no alliance?"

Sparrow cocked her head, beak parted and ears splayed. “What do you mean?"

“If you were seeking an alliance that would potentially change the future of your people…" I looked back and forth between them a few times. “Would you not wish to investigate all possible options? Would you not wish to see which nation, or which ruler, would do the most to benefit your species? Your own nation? Is it not possible that he was simply visiting multiple countries, to play you off one another a little, in order to determine who would offer the greatest alliance for our nation? "

Blue Jay nodded once. “I suppose that's also possible, yes."

“Except that you haven't got a nation, Dragon." Sparrow waved her paw at the mountains, silhouetted against the slowly lightening horizon. “You've got-"

“We're building one!" I snapped my reply at her before I'd even thought it through.

That, I think, was part of Melakar's end game. Not just protection for the two of us and our valley, but something greater. The fact he wanted me to be queen told me he had far more in mind than joining some other empire's army. He needed the alliances first, to forestall their conquest of our valley, but beyond that, I think he wanted our valley to be home again. One dragon, two dragons, that might have been obsolete compared to whatever machinery the humans had these days. But an entire nation of dragons? Surely, that was different.

“Oh?" Sparrow squawked laughter. “Are you? Shall I sent out word to all the other dragons then? Surely, they'll want to come and fill in the applications, get into your new nation before the big rush."

I sighed, closing my eyes. I knew how foolish that must have sounded. “It was supposed to start with the two of us. The two of us, and an alliance, to keep our valley safe. A…a safe place, for dragons to live, backed by a truce with humans. The idea alone would have helped to draw them back. We'd trade with your people, give you resources, let you mine our mountains, like the old days, before we hated each other."

I smiled, my eyes still closed. I could almost feel Melakar inside me, channeling himself through me. I was only telling them what I imagined he would have, when trying to show them why they were better off our friends than our enemies. “You'd share your machinery with us, ensure dragonslayers were not welcome. Two dragons might not have seemed like much to you, anymore. But in a decade, when there's dozens of us…in a century, when there's hundreds of us? When we carry your cannons, when we fly alongside your…ships crawling the sky, when we match their cannons with our fire, your guns with our claws, and all your enemies the world over tremble before our shared might? You would have had no greater ally."

Slowly, opened my eyes again, fixing them upon Sparrow. “That was what Melakar wanted. An alliance upon which to build a nation for dragons, a truly safe place for us to call home again. I cannot know what happened, but I know in my heart, he did not betray you. Betrayal was…not in his essence. Miscommunication, maybe, or betrayal from the other side, but he would not turn against anyone who offered him friendship. I wonder if it was not your offer that proved disingenuous."

“I cannot help but feel you're blinded by your affection for him." Sparrow shook herself, then gazed at the sky behind me, where the deep purple hues were giving way to brighter lilacs. The sun's morning fire would spill across the earth. “You offered to allow us to stay here, until we were healed enough for my companions to safely fly?"

“You may do so, provided you do not retrieve or repair any of your weapons." I started to rise to my feet, but paused halfway, another thought echoing in my head. I considered my question, then pushed the rest of the way up. “Why were you trying to capture me alive?"

“Interrogation." Sparrow clicked her beak a few times. “Ensuring you could not attack us again was the highest priority, but it was thought if you were brought back alive, you may be able to provide us with answers about your mate's betrayal, and what he may have shared with Shevar."

It was as I suspected, then. Though I could think of another possibility, too. “Or, someone you take orders from wanted to ensure I could not convince anyone else Melakar hadn't betrayed you." I stretched my limbs out one at a time, shaking my snow-numbed paws. Then I did the same with my aching wings. “I am going home, now." With any luck, they believed Melakar's lair was mine, as well. I would not head for my real home until darkness once more smothered the land. “I…thank you for your eventual cooperation. I hope that if we see each other again, you don't make me kill you."

“Actually, on that note." Sparrow pushed herself up as well, and Blue Jay followed suit. Both of them fluffed themselves up, though I could not tell if they were fighting the cold, or if it was some sort of prideful gryphon display. “Considering we are in truce conditions, might I request that…" She grit her beak. Whatever she was about to ask was difficult for her to do. “Well, your captive is a medic, right? I would be in your debt if you brought out here, to attend my squad?"

“You're already in my debt." I snapped my teeth at her. “And his. And he isn't my captive. He's my friend. But, in the interest of good faith, I will ask him if he is willing to tend t your companion's injuries. If so, I will bring him out here later. But should you try anything, there will not be a second truce between us."

Sparrow bowed her head, her forelegs splayed, and beak brushing the snow. “I understand. Thank you."

I turned away, and picked up the bag with the weaponry right in it. Just before I took the skies, I glanced back at the gryphons. “I meant what I said. I'm building a nation. If I were you, I would your people to do whatever it takes to get on my good side. You will not me or my nation as your enemy."

I left them with that thought, and ascended swiftly. Every part of my body hurt. I'd popped a few stitches in the battle, and had added a few more wounds on top of that. The ensuing time spent sitting in the snow, talking, certainly hadn't helped either. But the pain was nowhere near the forefront of my mind. Instead, I had left myself with a simple question that once again, I had no answer for.

A nation for dragons. It was a wonderful concept.

But how the hell was I going to build it?

*****

Chapter Twenty

Legacy

*****

A sliver of sun splashed golden fire across the snowy mountains by the time I near Melakar's lair. I transferred the bag with Nesh's 'present' to my jaws to free up my forepaw, and landed just outside the cavern. Jagged bits of shattered stone and blackened snow surrounded a few acrid-smelling craters in the rocky earth. The human's weaponry had not only ruined the claws carved around the entryway, but scarred the ground itself. Somehow, the growing destructive power of their weapons struck me even deeper than before, and Sparrows words returned to haunt me.

You could have a hundred dragons here, and soon enough, you would all be ground to dust beneath their gears of their great machinery.

Just what manner of terrible things were they building, if rending stone and earth was but the tip of their spear? I shook myself, trying to banish the thoughts, and proceeded into Melakar's home. I grimaced, spines flattened, as I walked the tunnel. It wasn't really his home, anymore. But I imagined it would always be Melakar's lair, to me.

I expected to find Nesh sleeping somewhere, or at least trying to sleep. Instead I discovered him in the main chamber, sitting on Melakar's sleeping furs and surrounded by an immense sprawl of books he'd collected. Some were piled atop each other, others were opened to various images or scrawls of text. Nesh also had a writing quill made from a raven's feather, along with a marble inkwell in the shape of a dragon's muzzle. He was reading in one book, while making notes for himself in another. Nearby sat his medical supplies. Considering the way he murmured to himself and kept scribbling, he must have been too absorbed in his work to have noticed my arrival. I set his gift aside for now, and approached him.

“Melakar would have been proud of your complete lack of organization." My voice startled him, and he shot to his feet, snatching up a tarnished war hammer that looked almost too big for him to wield. “You won't need that," I said, shaking my head. “It's only me, and I'm far too tired to devour you."

“You startled the hell out of me, Ella!" Nesh tossed the weapon down and ran towards me, joy and relief washing across his flat face. He threw his arms around my neck to hug me tightly. “You've been gone for ages!"

The hug was unexpected, but not unwelcome. I lifted a foreleg and hugged him, gentle so as not to squash the breath out of him. “It took longer than expected. I thought you'd be asleep by now."

“I wanted to, but I was worried about you." He stroked the scales of my neck, only gradually easing back. He looked my face over, his happy expression turning into a glowering scowl. “And I see you've been fighting again, after I explicitly warned you not too!"

“Now you sound like you think you're my father." I tossed my head, gently pushing him aside so I could enter the chamber. “And you warned me of no such thing. You simply requested that I not kill anyone, and I did not."

“That's not how I remember it." Nesh scampered around me, inspecting broken stitches and new gouges alike. “You're a mess, Ella! I told you this would happen."

“You're exaggerating." I kept an eye on him so as not to accidentally trod upon him. “Human memories are notoriously fragile."

“I am most certainly am not." Nesh finally gave a frustrated sigh, walking towards his supplies. “I can't say I didn't expect as much. Thankfully, you don't have any wounds as bad as your last battle with them, but I'll need to clean them up, add a few more stitches, and then-"

“Save your supplies." I flopped down onto the soft things near the pile of books he'd collected. “Just bring me water, will you?" My belly rumbled uncomfortably, and I scrunched my muzzle. “And some preserved food, if there is any."

Nesh did neither of those things. Instead, he put his hands upon his hips, glaring at me. “What do you mean, save my supplies? Save them for what, exactly?" He gave a little gasp, and shook a finger at me. “Don't tell me you're going to get into a bigger fight! Ella, damn it, you need to rest, and heal, and completely this time!"

I groaned, dropping my head to rest on a golden-hued cushion with black lacing. “Now you sound like you think you're my mate, always spoiling for an argument."

Nesh folded his arms, relenting a little. “What, a concubine isn't allowed to look out for his mistress' best interests?"

“Oh, so now you're interested in the position?" I rolled slightly onto my side, cocking a hind leg in the air. “Very well. Get to work!"

Nesh glanced at my displayed underbelly, then turned away, his face reddening. “Very damn funny, Ella!"

I lowered my leg again, huffing. “It's just as well. I'll offer the position to one of those gryphons, instead. Or maybe all of them, start myself a harem."

“Yes, because that's a logical jump." Nesh waved a hand in the air, adopting a deeper voice I think was an attempt at imitating me. “Say, I know I just kicked the shit out of you, but would you enjoy being my sexual conquests next?"

I rumbled laughter, idly kneading at one of the furs beneath me. “That's not bad, Nesh. But I would have said something more like, why don't put that sharp tongue to better use and put your beak-"

“Yes, Ella," Nesh said, fighting back embarrassed laughter. “Believe it or not, I do understand the specifics of all that."

“Do you?" I cocked my head, looking him over. “I've yet to be convinced you've even had your first mate."

Nesh offered me a coy smile, folding his arms. “I needn't brag about it for it to have happened."

“So it happened once, did it?" I snorted at him, then waved towards the archway leading to other chambers. “Nesh, will you please get me water, and food? Then I need to sleep, and so do you."

“Very well." Nesh bowed his head, acquiescing. “But then you need to tell me why you think I should save my supplies."

 A few quick trips were all it took Nesh to bring me two pails of water, and a large pile of dried foods. Melakar used to keep human vassals more often than I did, and so his stockpiles of rations and things for them were both larger, and more up to date than mine. Nesh found me plenty of salted fish and meats, dried fruits, and several times of hard, crunchy biscuits. It wasn't enough to make a completely filling meal for me, but it would ease my hunger without completely eradicating the stocks. As I did not know how long we'd stay here, or if I'd be able to get much hunting done, I wanted to ensure there was enough left for both of us to eat for a few more days. 

While I ate, I filled Nesh in on what happened with the gryphons, and what I had learned from them. Some of what the gryphons fit with the rumors Nesh had heard, that he had mentioned to me before. Other aspects of their explanations did not fit as well with Nesh's recollections. Nesh hadn't even known Melakar was out there until after the battle.

As we talked, Nesh soon posited his own theory. Their encampment was massive, and we were both certain any meetings would have taken place under cloak of darkness, outside the main camp. Nesh suggested that there was an initial skirmish outside the camp, between Melakar and whoever he was meeting with. Gunfire would have put the rest of the army on highest alert, and they likely had orders to fire on dragons. Melakar was then shot down by the army's dragonslayers, or as Nesh called them, aerial defense units. Wounded, Melakar battled valiantly against the humans who swarmed him, where I had seen the enormous blood stains. He made it back to the sky, and eventually, collapsed into the valley where I discovered him. Meanwhile, those involved with meeting him would have time to formulate stories to cover their betrayal. I knew Nesh was not entirely convinced it was his people's treachery, but I hoped he had learned enough about Melakar to believe he was not the sort to betray an ally.

Eventually I told Nesh about the gryphon captain's request for his help. As expected, he was more than willing to offer his services. I doubted he was any happier with them than I was, but as he had often told me, medicine was his place in the world. Friend, enemy, or holder of nebulous truce, if there were injuries and sickness to tend, Nesh wanted to tend them. He also thought it an excellent gesture on my part, a show of good faith that would not be forgotten. That was exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted it to be the sort of positive diplomacy he imagined Melakar would have participated in, given the chance.

While we discussed it, I allowed Nesh to deal with my wounds after he promised to save enough supplies to treat the gryphons. He cleaned my new claw gouges, washed dried blood from my scales, fixed broken stitches, and closed up the deepest of my fresh injuries. Nesh also mixed in some dried herbs and things with my drinking water. While I drank down the bitter liquid, Nesh went through his remaining supplies, counting things up.

“Alright, even counting what I took from the gryphon's harnesses, I'm still nearly out of…well…everything." He held up his hands to silence any reply. “Before you yell at me, I left enough to treat those four gryphons. But I mean, when I'm done with them, I'll have little left to work with." He lowered his hands back down, scowling. “I don't suppose you know anywhere we can go and buy medical supplies that wouldn't automatically try and shoot down a dragon, do you?"

I couldn't help a rumble of bitter laughter. “I should think that would be something you would know better than I." I licked at my muzzle, my face stung worse than usual from all of Nesh's poking and prodding. “I know some villages we can visit. Not human villages, mind you, so you won't get everything, but….they may be willing with some medicines and herbs and things. Actually, it would probably do them good to receive the services of a qualified, experienced doctor."

Nesh packed his things away into his satchel. “What do you mean, not human villages?"

“You know." I gestured with a forepaw. “The other peoples who live in, or near, my valley. Gnolls, va'chaak, urd'thin, that sort. They've scattered villages and tribes, some permanent, some nomadic."

Nesh laughed and gave his head an incredulous shake. “You know, I'm really only qualified as a human doctor. As happy as I'd be to help other species, there are anatomical differences, there are issues of diseases, and bodily requirements, and blood types, and organs and structures I may not understand. And different species may react to medicines and treatments different ways. What's helpful to one creature may be poisonous to another. And furthermore…"

I let Nesh ramble, even if I wasn't really paying attention anymore. Bringing up the other villages had reminded me I'd told those damn gryphons I was building a nation. Perhaps, someday, I'd learn to quit blurting things out before I'd thought them through completely. I'd also declared myself Queen, but Sparrow was right about one thing. For the time being, I was a Queen without an army. It would take great effort to bring other dragons back here, and I needed to secure the valley's safety, first. But perhaps I had a chance to bring other subjects into the fold, first. After all, dragons were not the only people losing their lands, their futures to the ever-expanding human empires. We had called the scattered villages in our lands friend and ally before, they seemed as good a place to start my nation-building as anywhere.

I tilted my head, idly scratching at my neck with a wing tip nation. “There's…there's something else, too."

“More than promising my medical services to people I may not be able to help?" Nesh folded his arms, staring at me. “Not that I won't do my very best. And I'm happy to take whatever supplies they can part with, this time of year, but at some point, we may need to find a way to reach one of my people's cities. Maybe those gryphons can help. I'd say they owe me, after all…" He trailed off, offering a sheepish smile. “I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

I chuckled. Nesh's rambling was strangely adorable, and put more a little more at ease. “I may have declared myself Queen of the valley, to the gryphons."

“Ah." Nesh turned, gazing in the direction of the room with the Mantle. “So you've made it official, have you? We didn't really get to talk that, before. Damn birds interrupted us. I'm sure you've realized the same thing, but I believe that's what Melakar wanted. To make you Queen." He waved his hand. “I think that's what he was really after. All these books you said were on nation-building, on historical alliances, and so on. I think…" Nesh rubbed the back of his neck. “I think this alliance, he wanted, with my people or with Shevar. I think that was just his first step. I think what he really wanted was-"

“To build a nation for dragons." I had already come to the same conclusion. “Why else would he be studying books on the origin of countries and empires? Why else would he be risking his life to propose alliances? Why else…why else would he need a queen? It's the only way we'd be safe."

Nesh nodded his agreement. “An alliance with a powerful country would be a huge step towards securing the safety of your own lands. Or…" He scowled. “Or being drawn into someone else's war, but I suppose such is the way of things." Nesh shrugged and glanced up at me, a little smile tugging at his lips. “So, you plan to follow in his footsteps? I know you wanted to make yourself someone he'd be proud of, but this is…bigger, than that."

“It would have been his legacy." I pushed myself up onto my haunches, curling my tail around my paws. “Re-forging our shattered clan into…into something even greater? Into a nation? It would have been worthy of carving his face alongside the others in the Elder's Gaze. He…he died, for that ideal. For the idea that dragons deserved a place to call home, where we would not be hunted, where we would not be seen as evil. A place where…where even a great human empire might see us not as monsters to be slain, and land to be conquered…but as allies. As friends. If Melakar was willing to give his life for such an ideal, then I will damn sure take up that mantle."

Nesh beamed at me, slowly bowing his head. “He would be absolutely honored…wait, did you mean that metaphorically? Or…or did you mean, the actual Queen's Mantle? Or both?"

I lowered my head to nuzzle at his chest. “No one ruins a moment like you, Nesh. And I think you know I meant both. Besides…" I lifted my head again. “I told the gryphons I was going to build a nation, and I'll be damned if I'll let them make me a liar."

*****

Chapter Twenty One

Diplomacy

*****

I carried Nesh out to see the gryphons after we'd both had some sleep. Though the sky was clear, and the sun shining brightly, somehow it felt even older out than before. The air smelt of little more than ice. It did not help that every part of me was still sore, or that my groggy mind lagged behind the rest of me. If not for giving my word to those damn gryphons, I'd have gone right back inside where it was warm, and returned to sleep. But I was starting to get the feeling I'd better get used to sleep deficits. The life of a queen trying to build an empire was a busy one.

As I flew, I wondered just where Melakar had gotten such an idea. In hindsight, I wished he'd come to me about it years ago, but he must have feared I'd laugh him off. That might have been why he told me to flee the valley, in his final moments. As the last of his blood poured across his scales and into the snow, he must have believed his dream of a nation for dragons was dying with him.

I was starting to think his death was the very reason I had leapt to take up his cause the moment I realized his endgame. Melakar might be dead and gone, but his dream could live on if I could bear his righteous burden across my wings. If I truly became Queen, if I could forge the same alliances he sought, if I could build our once-sacred valley into a homeland for all dragons? Then at least Melakar's memory could live on, through the realization of his grand vision.

I knew it was a far harder task, than my earlier promise to simply better myself, and harder still than seeking just to ally myself with the humans to save my own hide. If that was all I wanted, then I could go to their rulers, prostrate myself, crawl to them on my belly, and 'offer my undying loyalty if they would but spare my pitiful life'. The thought made me hiss, and left my fire-glands tingling. I'd sooner be gutted in a public square.

But a country, founded by dragons? It was a task so momentous as to seem unfathomable. Had such a thing ever even been considered since the days of great clan? The territory we held in the days of ancestors long-faded was probably as close we'd ever come. But that had happened more organically, as far as I knew. Families of dragons had gathered together for protection, to share resources, and then their young took mates, who also joined with them, and so on. Hierarchies were established, rules created, territories carved out by force, and so on.

This was different. If Melakar's intent was to establish a modern nation, he was doing so starting with nothing. He had no population, no army. True, he had all the valley as his territory, but it was land he could no longer hold, borders he could no longer protect. He must have seen the humans in his travels, massing beyond our lands, expanding, developing greater and greater weapons. He knew we could not stand with them, and he knew no self-respecting dragon would ever willingly serve the humans as their slave.

But as an ally?

As, dare I say, a friend?

If such a thing was truly possible, it was damn near an answer to my most pressing question. Would I abandon my valley and survive, or die protecting it to my final breath? Neither! I would live and see it protected. I would forge an alliance with its would-be conquerors, and in so doing, provide a reason for rest of the world's surviving dragons to return home, to people's birthplace.

Or, I suppose, I'd die in the attempt. That was more likely. But at least I would not live my life out as a coward, forsaking my duty. Nor would I die a fool, facing down impossible odds. If I should die in pursuit of something greater, for all dragons, then I could live with that. Or, not literally, since I'd be dead. I licked my nose, chuckling. Lack of sleep was starting to make me the slightest bit delirious.

  As we neared the gryphon's encampment, I roared out a greeting. To a dragon, there were many variations in a roar. A little extra snarl and rumble made it a threat. A deeper, more resounding roar was a querying call that echoed for miles, asking if there were other dragons about. A higher, brassier roar was friendly, a greeting that told others were approaching so as not to arrive unannounced. To show up without announcing you arrival was sometimes viewed as a potentially hostile act, a prelude to a possible sneak attack. While I did not know if gryphons held similar habits, or could even make out the differences in a dragon's roar, custom and truce dictated I offer them the benefit of the doubt.

A long, keening cry rose from the snowy ridges in response. While I could not be certain the understood the subtleties of my roar, at least they would be prepared for my return. I circled the ridgeline when I reached it, scanning the ground. The look of their camp had changed a little while I was away. Some of their camouflaging blankets were removed, exposing more supply crates. Broken wagons and cannon platforms lined the rocky wall, and debris littered the ground around them. They hadn't bothered to re-camouflage anything. Sunlight glinted off metal, down at the base of the hills. I was pleased to see that thus far, they had done as I asked and left their battered cannons where they lie.

They had several fires going now that they had no reason to worry about giving away their position. Most of the humans were clustered around one fire, though their white coats still blended partway into the snowy landscapes. The gryphons' feathers stood out more starkly, with bright blue and red for the two males, and earth tones for the two females. Even from far above them, I could feel Sparrow's eyes boring into me. A few moments later, and she launched herself into the sky.

It took Sparrow only a few wing beats to reach me, and soon she was flying at my side. “I was not sure you were going to come back!" Before I could reply, she ducked her head to gaze at Nesh, carried in my arms. “I thank you again for convincing her to spare me! I owe you my life, and…I will not forget that. I would like-"

“Chatter after we land, Sparrow!" I banked away from her, initiating a lazy, descending spiral. “It is colder than an ice dragon's frozen ball sack out here! I should like to be by that fire!"

“She has quite the way with words, doesn't she medic!" Sparrow turned to follow me down towards the ground.

“You should hear her tales about the Earth Dragon!" Nesh laughed and patted my forepaw, then clutched my limb to brace himself for landing. “Though, I hadn't realized there were such things as…wait, why would a creature made of ice even have-"

“It's just a saying, Nesh!" I snorted, flattening my spines as I aligned myself with a flat patch of snow for landing.

“Is it?!"

“Yes!" At least, it was now. I touched down on my hind paws not far from the other three gryphons. After a few wobbly, off-balance steps, I deposited Nesh to the ground and dropped onto my forepaws. “Besides, your people have similar expressions. Do you not have one about, witches and the coldness of their mammary glands?"

Sparrow landed daintily beside me, folding her wings. She shook herself, her breath steaming from her beak. She ruffled herself, glancing at Nesh. “You have strange conversations with your captor."

“I'm not his captor!" Without the winds of flight to sweep it away, my own breath clouds rose just as lazily in the frozen air. Before she had a change to argue, I lifted my voice, calling out to the other gryphons. “Medic Nesh has generously agreed to see to all your injuries!" I nudged Nesh forward towards them. “He will examine you one at a time, starting with the most grievously injured." I glanced back at Sparrow, then pointed at the other female in a questioning gesture. Sparrow nodded once, and I continued. “Starting with you! If you would not mind rising and moving away from the fire? I don't want Nesh to end up so absorbed in his work that he trip and topples into the flames."

“Thanks," Nesh muttered, walking across the snow to meet the gryphon.

I followed after him, and Sparrow in turn followed after me. The injured female, a bit larger than Sparrow, with brown and gray feathers, rose up and limped over to meet Nesh. As Nesh unslung his satchel and started digging out his supplies, I decided to speak up, in the interests of diplomacy.

“I should like it known that…" When the gryphons glanced over at me, I forced myself to continue. “I do not hold ill will towards any of you." That wasn't entirely true, but in my mind, a Queen had to rise above her anger and her grudges. “I will not apologize for the wounds I have inflicted upon you, but nor will I expect you to apologize for those you inflicted upon me. We all did what we thought we must, and we all came away wounded. Let us merely be thankful we all survived."

I gave Sparrow a long, hard stare, then continued. “We are at truce now, and I shall treat you as respectfully as you treat me. As you have surely heard, I will allow you to remain in my land, as my guests, until you are healed enough to safely return to your people. Whereupon, I hope you will inform them that this valley, and its surrounding lands, are ruled by a Queen among dragons! If your ruler wishes access to these lands, they will have to negotiate with me. Till then, let us maintain this truce as long as possible, and hope we are not forced to shed each other's blood again."

Sparrow returned my look with her usual glare, but her hazel-gold eyes did not seem quite as hardened or angry as before. The difference was only just perceptible, but there nonetheless. “I've heard worse ideas." Then she turned her attention back to Nesh, offering him a deep bow, her beak to the snow, chest lowered. “As I was saying, I thank you for your efforts in saving my squad's lives, and mine as well. And for your coming here today to see what assistance you can offer.'"

“Certainly." Nesh smiled, and bowed his head in return, then swept a hand towards me. “As I told El…" He trailed off, and thought I had already given the gryphons my name, I was pleased to himself catch himself before he inadvertently offered it in full without my permission. “As I told the dragon here, when we first met, helping people is what I do. Friend, foe, enemy, ally, it matters not. Medicine is my calling."

“So which are we?" The gryphon tilted her head, her beak parted in what I assumed to be amusement. “Enemy, or ally? Careful, there might be a court martial in your future if you answer incorrectly."

Nesh only laughed, shrugging. “I suspect there already is. All that matters right now is that Ella has become a good friend to me, and…I've offered her my support, for as long as she needs it, and my friendship for as long as she'll have it. As for you, I'd like to think we're still on the same side. Oh!" He clasped his hands together. “I haven't formally introduced ourselves."

I stared down at him, cocking my head. “Is that necessary?"

Nesh waved me off, then clapped a fist against his chest and snapped his heels together. “Medic First Class Nesh, Fourth Battalion, Aerial Defense Regiment, Blackstone Division."

Sparrow thumped her paw to her own chest, then snapped her wings out and angled them back, her head bowed again. “Flight Captain Avalek, Squad Four, Special Reconnaissance, Gryphon Legion."

“Normally, this is where I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but…" He gestured up at the stitches that marked me in quite a few places. “Like she said, let's just be glad we all survived."

“Given the circumstances, I'm inclined to agree." Sparrow folded her wings back, and started walking towards the other female.

“Glad to hear it." Nesh shouldered picked a few of his odd devices, and followed her. “I should hate to find myself angrily arguing with a superior."

“She's hard your superior, Nesh." I snorted, thumping my tail against the snow. “Despite the size of her ego."

“Superior officer, I meant." Nesh glanced over his shoulder, grinning. “She quite outranks me."

“Nonsense." I gave a little growl, fully intending on defending my medic's honor, if need be. “At present, you work directly for a Queen now! And since there's only two of us, that makes you second in command around here." I smirked at Sparrow, my frills lifted, when she shot me a dirty look. “If anything, that makes you her superior officer as long as she's a guest in my lands."

“That's quite unnecessarily, but thank you just the same." Nesh smiled, and then stopped before the brown and gray female. “Hello there. You probably caught my introduction. But I'm Nesh, I'm a doctor turned field medic, and I'd like to examine your injuries, if that's alright."

The gryphon nodded, and soon, she was explaining her difficulties breathing and flying, and the pain in her chest and sides. Nesh put the prongs of his listening device into his ears while she spoke, and soon parted her feathers and fur with his fingers to press the other end to her chest. I decided to leave him to his work, and warm myself by the fire, instead.

I did give the injured female a quick glance as I passed her. “If it makes you feel any better about what happened, your captain blinded me in our subsequent fight, and then the three of them knocked the shit out of me a while."

The female turned her head, and a smile slowly parted her beak, her ears perked. “That does make me feel a little better, yes."

I padded towards the gryphon's fire, intent on settling as near the flames and far from the birds as possible. However, as I closed in on it, it was clear to me I would not that option. With the way the four of them had been sitting together earlier, they must have all been brushing each other's wings and feathers, at the least. I suppose that would help keep them warm, and gryphons were often more openly social creatures than dragons. Not that dragons were not often sociable and snuggly with our own kind, as well, but perhaps less so in public.

“Shove over, Blue Jay." I lowered my horned head and pushed it against the indigo gryphon's shoulder until he was forced to move or topple over. He moved aside a few paces, and I soon settled in on my haunches next to him. The flame's warmth washed across my scales, an orange-gold godsend. I curled my tail around his forepaws, then glanced at him. “Thank you."

“You hardly gave me a choice." He clacked his beak, getting comfortable again. “Nevertheless, I will not say no to sharing body heat."

“Oh, no." I shook my head. “We're not sharing anything."

“Oh yes we are, Queen of the Ice." The gryphon quite brazenly pushed himself up against my side, his feathers and fur pressed against my scales. He even stretched a wing and draped it partway across my back. “That's the rule of the fire. You want to share it's heat, then you share yours as well." Then he glanced up at me, his beak parted and ears splayed in gryphon smirk. “If you want to go back to being cold enough for your little human concubine's tongue to freeze to you later, that's your business. But as long as you're here, you're helping us stay warm."

I gaped at him, my jaws hanging open. I didn't even know where to begin taking offense. Which was worse, that he'd draped himself against me without permission, or that he'd assumed Nesh really was my concubine? I was certainly I had made no such jokes around them, anyway.

“Oh, don't give me that look." He waved the red-feathered male over, and soon, Blue Jay was snuggled between the two of us. “I know what you dragons get up to with your captives."

“He's not my captive." Exasperation edged my voice, but between the cold, the beating I'd taken the day before, and my own great fatigue, I lacked the energy to continuing arguing with the gryphon. And as much as I hated to have to admit it, the warmth of his fur, feathers, and the body beneath them were heavenly. I could certainly see why these gryphons got so snuggly in the cold. “Normally, I would tell you to remove yourself from me at once before I toss you into that fire, but…under the circumstances…"

The gryphon warbled, shifting against me. “If it makes you feel better, I wouldn't normally snuggle some scaly monstrosity either. But, in the interests of maintaining our truce, I am willing to make sacrifices."

“He's lying." Sparrow returned to the fire, sitting across it from me. “He's just trying to avoid freezing his balls off."

I rumbled laughter, glancing down at the indigo male pressed to my side, then to the crimson gryphon alongside him in turn. “I'm surprised you gryphons can even find them in the first place, with all your feathers and fluff. However, I will admit, so long as we are not trying to murder each other…it is not…" I worked my tongue around inside my muzzle, trying to choose my words carefully to save my pride and ego from any further bruising. “Unpleasant, to share warmth in the cold."

“See?" Nesh called out from nearby, where he was still attending the fourth gryphon. “Diplomacy works! And you look oddly adorable snuggled up with-"

“Shut up, Concubine!" The last thing I was going to do was let Nesh get away with teasing me in front of gryphons, no matter how friendly we were being.

“So he is your concubine!" Blue Jay burst into chirruping birdsong laughter. “I knew it!"

“You shut up, too!" I pulled away from him, then shoved him into the crimson male, toppling them both over. “That's it, I'm done snuggling!" That did not sound half as angry as intended, and I regretted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth. The rush of cold air washing over my side in the gryphon's absence didn't help, either. “Gods-damn it!" I wrapped my wings around myself, hissing. “I liked you birds better when we were trying to kill each other."

“I find that hard to believe." Sparrow chirped, perking her ears. “The concubine bit, however, I find quite believable." She turned her head to peer back at Nesh. “Are you sure you don't want to come back with us, when we're ready to fly again? Just blink twice for yes."

Nesh gulped, looking away. “I'm sure, thank you for your concern."

“I hope she's at least exceedingly gentle with you!" Sparrow snapped her beak, then shot me a glare. “Humans are quite fragile compared to dragons and gryphons, you know!"

“Yes, thank you for that nugget of information I never could have gleaned on my own." I flicked my tail back and forth in the snow. “I assure you, I'm quite gentle with him."

“And thank you, Ella," Nesh said, his face reddening. He let my name slip, but it hardly mattered now. “For dragging me into this not-at-all embarrassing discussion! Which, I assure you, is only an inside joke!"

The gryphons ignored his assertion entirely. Blue Jay gathered himself and got comfortable with the crimson male. In my head, I decided to keep with the bird theme, and dubbed him Cardinal.

Blue Jay gestured between Nesh and I with a forepaw. “So, you've got to be quite gentle with him, but in return, I should think he's got to be awfully rough, just for you to even feel him. I wouldn't think a human male could even handle a female dragon."

I glowered at the gryphon, my spines flared. Joke or not, I wasn't about to let some fluff-bird get away insulting Nesh's honor and prowess that way. “I'd wager he can handle a dragon better than you ever could, little bird."

The gryphon drew himself up, fluffing up his feathers. “If we weren't enemies, I'd be tempted to take up that wager."

“Being enemies didn't stop you from tossing yourself over me like a blanket." I tapped him on the beak with a single claw tip. “Now settle back down, before you embarrass yourself."

“And speaking of embarrassed…" Nesh shot me a dirty look as he went to dig some long bandages out of his satchel. “Could you perhaps not discuss my…erm…anatomy that way?"

“What's the matter, human?" Blue Jay chirped, his crown feathers raised in smug display. “Afraid you won't measure up?"

“Gods!" Nesh threw his hands up. “He's as bad as you, Ella! So much for thinking gryphons to be more civilized than dragons."

I grit my teeth. It was probably just because I was so tired, but at this point, they were both irritating me. The gryphon seemed to think a truce made me a companion to be bantered with and taunted, while Nesh seemed unwilling to defend his own pride.  Nesh might be alright with letting this indigo upstart get the last word at his own expense, but I wasn't. If Nesh wasn't willing to stand up for himself, I would stand up for him.

In fact, I was getting awfully fed up with Blue Jay's insults. Teasing me was one thing, but harassing Nesh was another. I lowered my head, issuing a deep, menacing growl. To another dragon, that noise would have meant I was no longer amused. A dragon would have known then and there to shut their muzzle, or they'd regret it.

But this gryphon instead found it an excuse to further harass Nesh. If Nesh did not wish to stand up for himself, I would do it for him.

“Look, human, if you'd rather?" Blue Jay smiled at Nesh, his wings half spread. “You can just watch me give it to her, maybe you'll learn a few new tricks!"

And then I smacked the smarmy gryphon in the testicles.

“AWWWRRRRRKKK!"

Blue Jay made a sound like a cross between a yowl, and a squawk. His eyes bugged out over his gaping beak, his ears flattened back, and for a moment he looked like a songbird who'd just been given terribly shocking news. Then he clutched himself with both forepaws, and pitched beak-fist into the snow. He landed chest down, but with haunches hoisted into the air, and gave a low, guttural groan.

“I've had enough of your disrespectful insinuations, bird!" I growled at him, then glanced at the others to make sure none of them were about to retaliate. “Nesh is my friend, and I won't have you continually insulting him, or suggesting I should let you mount me! Teasing me is one thing, but I shall not sit here and let you belittle my friend. Is that understood?"

“Uurrrrrhhhhh…" The gryphon's eyes rolled partway back, and he flopped over onto his side, curling up.

“I will take that as a yes." I tossed my head, curling my tail smugly around my paws. “Now, if you apologize, and ask nicely, perhaps Nesh will examine them to make sure they're alright."

“If it's just the same to you, Ella, I'd rather not." Nesh laughed, looking away.

“Be that as it may, I shall still expect him to apologize." I glanced down at the groaning gryphon, then scratched my neck with a wingtip talon. “Though, it may take a few minutes."

Across the fire from me, Sparrow warbled laughter of her own. “You had that coming, Kraas! I've told you time and again, professionalism! But no." She waved her forepaws in the air, leaning against her haunches. “You'd rather flirt with our enemy and her concubine!"

“You know, I'm not actually her concubine." Nesh carefully wrapped bandages around the other female's midsection.

Sparrow ignored him completely. “Far be it from me to agree with a demoness, Kraas, but sometimes you really just need to learn to keep your beak shut. I'm trying to hold a truce together, for your good as much as ours, and you're over here mouthing off, as usual."

Cardinal finally spoke up, flashing Sparrow a sheepish grin. “Now you know why I prefer to keep my beak shut. My head still hurts bad enough, let alone anything else."

“To play Devil's advocate…" Nesh worked more bandages around Pidgeon's mid-section. “That was a bit much, don't you think, Ella? You didn't even warn the poor bastard."

“I did warn him!" I tossed my head, snorting. “Does no one know what a growl means? Besides, I should have thought the fact I struck him there once already in battle was warning enough that I'd be willing to do it again! But now he knows that while I may have offered him a truce and a place to stay, I have not offered him the right to be disrespectful to my only remaining…" I trailed off, glancing away. “To my friend. Or to me." I shifted myself, glancing around at the others. “Be clear! Nesh does not have to be here. He chose to come here, of his own free will, to help you, even though you tried to kill me. I will not have him suffer your insults."

Blue Jay slowly pushed himself up onto a seated position, taking a few slow, deep breaths. He eyes were a little crossed, his ears still flattened back. After a moment, he glanced at me, his voice slightly strained. “If your going to make a habit of that, I'm going to sit further away."

For some reason, that made me laugh. I reached out and ruffled the feathers of his head until he ducked away and nipped at my paw. “Keep your insults away from Nesh, and you will have nothing to fear. Your superior is right, though. Do you always flirt with your enemies?"

Blue Jay stared down at the snow beneath his paws. “Guess I'd rather be friendly than try and start another fight. Last two didn't exactly go in my favor. We don't really seem like enemies right now, anyway."

“It was not that long ago you were trying to murder me." I hissed at him, flaring up my spines. “And less time still since I had my claws at your throat."

“Things change." The gryphon clicked his beak. “If I stayed pissed at everyone I fought with, or held a grudge at everyone who tried to kill me…" He glanced at the fire, then shrugged his wings. “You get the idea. Anyway, you said it yourself when you landed, right? No ill will? I like that. Forgive and forget, the humans say, and hope they do the same for you."

I snorted at him. “Spoken like someone who's done an awful lot of wrong, and hoped for an awful lot of forgiveness."

Sparrow chirped, tossing a pawful of snow towards Blue Jay. “It's like you know him already! There is a reason he keeps getting demoted, after all." She softened her voice. “How're your boys?"

“Sore." The gryphon rubbed himself openly with a paw, wincing.

“Nesh!" I turned my head to smile at my vassal. “Your services are required."

Nesh just laughed and shook his head. “I don't think so. Just…put them in the snow, or something."

“I'll be fine." Blue Jay made a noise somewhere between a laugh, a cough, and a warble. “I've had worse, you know."

Sparrow chittered. “With you way you talk to females, I'm not surprised."

“Wrong!" Blue Jay held a paw up. “I talk to everyone that way. Anyway, look." He set his paw down, swallowing. “I apologize if I offended you, or the human. I did not expect you to respond to my teasing, and when you did, I thought perhaps you were trying to be friendly, so I treated you as playfully I would another gryphon. I should not have assumed we were suddenly on terms so friendly. And human?" He bowed his head. “I was only teasing. You have my apologies, both of you."

“Accepted." I licked my nose, arching my neck. “Friendly is…" I paused. Did I want to be friendly with my enemies? Were they even my enemies now? I already missed the days when I could answer most of my questions with strength alone. “Let us settle for maintain a peaceful truce, for now. Friendliness may come later, if we are lucky."

“As you wish." He held his paw up again. “In the future, if I do overstep the boundaries…do please warn me and give a chance to shut up first next time."

“I shall do my best." I smirked at him a moment, then decided to change the subject before the gryphon found a way to step all over his own apology. I gestured towards Nesh and the female gryphon .“What are you bandaging her for? I did not see any serious cuts or gouges."

“Support, actually." Nesh had her stand and lift her wings, best she could. “There's little I can do right now for broken ribs and torn cartilage, but tight bandages will help support her chest, at least. She needs extended rest until things have a chance to mend for themselves. A week, at least. This cold isn't helping either, so…"

When Nesh trailed off, my heart sank. I already knew what he was going to ask. And, just as quickly, I knew I was going to say yes. At least that would give us a way to force them to help us get more medical supplies.

“If you're asking about the lair, Nesh…" I waited until he gave me a single nod before proceeding. “I am tentatively willing to agree, but not until I've…made some alterations." No way in hell was I going to let them anywhere near the Mantle, or Melakar's many maps and notes. I'd have to move things, first, or block off the other hallways. “And after that, only if they agree to my terms."

“What the hell are you babbling about, dem…" Sparrow amended herself before she could finish calling me a demoness again. “Dragon?"

“It sounds like your friend is going to be here a while. So…" I circled a paw at the snow-covered landscape. “Unless you want to spend that time, freezing your feathers off, rationing your supplies…You're going to help me. In return, I'll offer you warm shelter."

Sparrow sighed, hanging her head. “What are you asking?"

“Simple." I stretched a wing, pointing towards Nesh. “My vassal and I need to make a trip to one of your cities. And that means…" I glanced between Sparrow and Blue, making it clear I expected them both to come. I suspected it was going to take the combined efforts of Nesh and at least half a gryphon squad to convince one of their cities to sell supplies to me, rather than seek to shoot me down. The fewer gryphons I had to allow to stay in Melakar's lair, the better. “We're going to need an escort."

*****

Chapter Twenty Two

Request

*****

Sparrow gaped at me, eyes wide and ears back, working her beak in silence. She looked like a bird who'd swallowed a fish whole, only for it to lodge in her throat. I wondered if the idea of escorting me to one of the human's cities was sticking her the same way fish spines would. I waited for things to sink in, and gave her a chance to speak.

“You…you want…" Even when Sparrow found her voice, she still had trouble putting her words together. “You want us. You want…Kraas and I…" She opened and closed her beak in silence again, then spat it all out at once. “You fly you into the Empire of Diandrios and escort you into a city?"

“Oh, yes please!" Nesh walked off, dusting off his hands. “That'd be lovely. When you can go?" It took all my considerable strength not to burst into raucous laughter at deftness with which Nesh had so casually turned that around on her. Before Sparrow even had a chance to reply, Nesh was already walking past her and towards the red-feathered male. “I believe you're next. I'm sure you know, but my name is Nesh, and I'll be your doctor today." He glanced at me, grinning. “I hardly ever get to see that, anymore." Then he turned away, and beckoned for the gryphon to follow him. “If you'll come this way, please, so I've some room to work."

Sparrow only hissed at Nesh. “We'll discuss this when you've finished."

Cardinal rose and followed Nesh over to his tools. I watched the red-feathered male closely. There was a bit of wobble in his step, as though he was as unsteady on the ground now as he'd been in the air. He dropped heavily onto his haunches before Nesh, and soon Nesh was questioning him, listening to his breathing, looking into his eyes, and so on.

Pidgeon took Cardinal's place at the fire. While the gryphons might not appreciate me giving them all nicknames based on the birds they must resembled, they were just going to have to live with it. I did not yet respect any of them enough to use their real names, nor could I be bothered to keep the monikers of a bunch of gryphons straight. Pidgeon turned her head back and forth, tugging at the bandages wrapped around her. They encircled her at an angle, across her back just behind her wings, and down under her belly, around her forelegs, and so on. She did not seem pleased with the way she restricted the movements of her wings, but no sooner had she started to mess with them than Nesh called back.

“Leave your bandages be!" Sharpness and authority edged his voice.

“But they are uncomfortable and feel awkward!" Pidgeon ruffled up her gray and brown feathers around the bandages, squawking. “And they've mussed me terribly."

Nesh turned towards her, shaking his listening device. “You mess those up, and I'm going to have to bind your wings to you next time."

Pidgeon squawked again and stopped toying with her wrap immediately. “How long must I wear them?"

“As long as I already damn told you." Nesh folded his arms, staring at you. “You've a number of broken ribs, and I suspect, plenty of torn cartilage. That's the closest I could come to a compression wrap, at least until your captain takes us for more supplies. I don't think I could wrap it tight enough on a gryphon to restrict your breathing too deeply, so you needn't worry about increasing your risk for pneumonia. Though to be frank, with broken ribs and breathing such cold air, it's already higher than I'd like, probably even for a gryphon. And if you can, you should lay down on your belly in the snow. The cold will help alleviate some of the swelling. At this point, all you can do is keep still and let your body heal, everything else is just in support of that."

“Oh, very well." Pidgeon eased herself onto her belly, then glanced at the others. “So what did I miss?" She shot me a glare. “I don't suppose anyone blinded the monster again?"

“You know," I said, glaring right back at her. “There was a time when humans thought gryphons monsters, too. But no…" I snorted, keeping my eyes fixed on her until she finally looked away. “No one blinded me again."

“A shame." Pigeon fluffed her crown feathers.

“She did, however," Cardinal said, breaking his silence while Nesh exchanged tools. “Punch Kraas square in the eggs."

Pigeon made a chittering noise, a gryphon giggle. “Yes, I heard the squawk." She flashed Blue Jay a smile. “I'm sorry I missed that. I'm sure he had it coming. The way he acts, it was only a matter of time till someone did that."

“Yes, thank you all for your loving support." Blue Jay ruffled himself up till he looked like an indigo and gray puffball.

“Oh, flatten your feathers." Pigeon waved a paw at him. “You're fine, you dirty old raider. I'm sure nothing was injured but your ego."

“Raider?" I glanced at Blue Jay again, tilting my head. “Well, that doesn't sound very patriotic."

“And hitting someone in the balls isn't very Queenly!" Blue Jay snapped his beak at me, though I had a suspicion his sudden ire was directly elsewhere.

I shrugged my wings. “Neither is sparing the lives of those who try to assassinate you. I suspect a human queen would have had all you all executed, would she not?" The silence that settled over them all, and the awkward way they rustled their wings, shifted their weight, told me I was right. “Luckily for you, I am not a human, and I alliances are far more valuable than corpses." I turned my attention back to Blue Jay. “You were in a raiding clan? I suppose that would explain your attitude. You must be used to constantly shifting alliances and trying to turn enemies into friends…and hoping for forgiveness."

Blue Jay ground his beak. “That was a long time ago."

“Leave Kraas and his past be." Sparrow slapped a forepaw against the snow, glancing at the other gryphons. “Is no one else even going to acknowledge the ludicrousness of their request?"

I offered her a coy smile. “I thought you were going to wait until Nesh was finished?"

“I was, but it's been eating at me." Sparrow lifted her crown feathers, her eyes boring into my skull. “You cannot seriously think we'll just fly you into one of our cities."

“That's exactly what I think." At least, it was now.

Though Nesh and I had not discussed it, I already knew what bartering chip he wanted me to use. Though it rankled me to no end to even considering allowing gryphons to use Melakar's lair, I also knew I probably had no way to find safe passage into a city without them. Even with Nesh, they'd probably shoot first and regret it later. With gryphons flanking me, they were far more likely to hold first long enough for us to explain ourselves. So long as the gryphons did not betray us, and rouse the local forces to their aid to try and capture me again.

When I saw Nesh looking my way, I turned my attention towards him. The way the gryphons had coordinated during our battle was impressive. Though Nesh and I were no where near that level, perhaps I could better project an appearance of coordination, show the gryphons how united we were. If they saw that I trusted him and vice versa, if they saw us as together in this, it would be easier to convince them. It would also help to illustrate that he was definitely not my captive.

 “Nesh," I said, bowing my head to him. “Tell them why they're going to want to do as we requested."

“Because in return, they're going to get shelter." Nesh turned to the group, pointing at Pigeon. “And she needs it most of all, because she won't be ready to fly again until everything's knitted back together. Now, gryphons may heal swiftly, but I would not be comfortable letting her fly for at least several weeks, if not longer. And she needs warmth, damn it." Nesh kicked a pile of snow, sending white spray flying. “You might be insulated enough to survive in the cold, but that's all your bodies are doing right now. Surviving. All your energy is going towards keeping yourselves warm, and that means very little energy left over for healing. And that's before we even get to the effects of hunger and thirst, and what that does to a body's ability to heal itself. I can only imagine how much food and water a gryphon must consume, let alone four of you."

Nesh slowly turned in a circle, scanning the hillside and surrounding area. “Now, I don't see any sources of water. I see supply crates, but I'd wager you brought enough for a week, at most, because you expected to be on your way home already. So before long, the two of you can that still safely take to your wings will be flying yourselves ragged trying to bring back enough food and water for not just the other gryphons…" He thrust a finger towards the humans clustered around the other fire in the distance. “But for them, as well. And before you tell me, three of you can fly? No." He turned towards Cardinal, poking him on the beak. “You keep your damn flying to minimal, as well, at least until the headaches and the dizziness of abated. Otherwise, you could pass out, or crash into a mountain in a dizzy spell."

Before Cardinal could protest, Nesh whirled around to face Sparrow and Blue Jay once more. “That's really just the tip of it, too. Medically speaking, it's a damn miracle any of you are up and about today." He jabbed the air in my direction. “Including you! If a human went through half of what you all put each other through, they'd still be bedridden. At best! And this cold?" He rubbed his hands together, then blew a stream of cloudy breath to illustrate his point. “Is only going to make things worse." He tilted his head towards Pigeon again. “She could well catch pneumonia out here. Hell, you all could, but she's especially vulnerable right now. So if you'd like to see how long it takes a gryphon to drown from the fluid in her own lungs, or to see if a hacking cough can cause those broken ribs to piece something…sure, refuse Ella's offer, and stay out the cold!" Nesh threw his hand up and turned away, exasperated.

Or was he feigning it? I could not quite tell. Nor could I tell how much of his medical warnings were genuine, and how much he was exaggerating to scare the gryphons. Either way, it was nice to see him speaking so authoritatively about something. One thing was definitely clear, though.. Nesh was absolutely right. Medicine was his element.

As his dire concerns sank in, I picked up where he left off. “Or, you could heal and cooperate, somewhere warm, with fresh water to drink, and a hot spring to soak and bathe in." Every word was another tiny little claw in my heart, and in my guts. There was a part of me, screaming deep inside, furious that I would even consider allowing enemy gryphons to stay in Melakar's lair. But I knew if I was to be Queen of a new nation, then I could not listen to that angry, prideful voice rule me any longer. “I will allow you to stay in my home until you all recovered enough to travel home safely. I'll even help hunt enough meat for everyone. Your human friends, too. And in return, I ask only that you escort me to one of your cities, so that I can buy more medical supplies."

Sparrow growled low in her throat, shaking her wings. “And that's your only reason for wanting to go? Why don't you stay here, and let us take Nesh?"

“Because I wouldn't trust you to bring him back." I glared down at Sparrow, flaring up my spines and frills, their red tips and edges on full display.

“Our other companions would still be with you." Sparrow fluffed herself up. “We would have to bring Nesh back to secure their safety."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nesh give me an almost imperceptible shake of his head. I was not sure if he was simply refusing to go with them without me, or warning me against letting her reach her own people unsupervised. Either way, I was not about to agree to her terms.

“No." I slapped a forepaw against the snow, crunching it down. “What would stop you from returning not with Nesh, but with a new rescue squad ten times this size?"

Sparrow threw her wings out in an ever growing cavalcade of aggressive gryphon gestures. “What stops me from doing just that once we've all made it home?"

I canted my head, unsure if she was suggesting I simply had to trust her, or threatening me. “Are you saying I shouldn't let you leave, after all?" I lifted a front paw, staring at it as nonchalantly as I could. “I suppose I could use more vassals."

“Oh, for shit's sake, Avalek!" Blue Jay threw his crown feathers up around his head, glaring at his captain. “Just agree already, and we can get out of this damn cold!" He glanced at my, clicking his beak. “I'll take you, if she won't."

“I need both of you." I drew myself up, flaring out my own wings. I was getting ahead of myself, but already ideas and plans were piecing themselves together in my head. I had to try and keep up. “My nation only has one doctor, and he needs supplies enough to visit all the tribes and villages we have. That'll take three of us. More importantly…I want to be seen as cooperating with you, so that-"

“Why?" Sparrow pawed at the ground, her claws tearing ruts through frozen earth and compacted snow. “To get us court-martialed when we return home?"

“No, feather-brained idiot!" I lashed my tail, increasingly frustrated with her difficult nature. “To plant the idea in at least a few of your people's heads that I'm not a demoness, that I'm not a monster! The idea that your people and mine can cooperate. I want your Queen, or empress, or whoever she is, to hear that not only did I spare your lives despite orders issued to kill me, but that I enlisted your help to care for my own populace."

“That's brilliant, Ella!" Nesh burst into giddy laughter, nearly dancing his way out in front of Sparrow. “Can't you see it? Her mate didn't want to fight you, didn't want to betray you! He wanted…he wanted to be your damn friend, wanted his people to be your friends! He was trying to build a nation, you see, and when you come to his lair, I think I can prove it to you! At the very least…I can help you see that…that Ella's just trying to do the right thing. All she wants is…is to find a way to make peace with us, with our people, and empire. We have enough damn enemies on our doorstep…wouldn't it be nice to have an ally there, instead?"

Sparrow tossed her head. “And what a difference one dragon would make."

“That's not the damn point!" Nesh stomped his boot against the snow, and then snatched Sparrow by the ear. “If you'd pull your head out from under your tail for five seconds, and at least try to see in Ella what I've seen, it would make the world of difference! You've a dragon here who, despite losing her mate to us, despite having her world torn away from her and her heart ripped out of her chest…is willing to put all that aside, in the interests of peace, and new friendship. And if you aren't willing to offer her even the slightest benefit of the doubt for that?" Nesh shook her ear till she yowled and pulled away, then turned his back to her. “Then maybe I should leave you out in the cold."

With a heavy sigh, the female gryphon lowered head. “Fine…fine, I will…agree to your terms. For now."

“Good." I only smiled at her, as if I had all the patience in the world, and had simply expected her to come around eventually. “Otherwise I'd have abandon you here in the snow, while Blue Jay and anyone else who agreed got to enjoy a nice, hot soak." I glanced towards my favorite human. “Finish with your doctoring Nesh. You and I have much to do before I will allow enemies into my home."

*****

Chapter Twenty-Three

Transport

*****

Nesh admirably kept his thoughts to himself until we had returned to Melakar's lair. For now, we returned on our own. As soon as I set him down in the snow, he finally spoke up. “I hope I didn't overstep my bounds, Ella." He walked at my side into the tunnel, satchel clutched to his chest. “I know the last thing you wanted was to invite the gryphons here but…I saw an opening to get into a city, and…well, I'm just glad you picked up on my cues! I wasn't entirely sure we'd be thinking the same thing!"

“You did overstep them." I padded into Melakar's main chamber. The acrid scent of smoke still clung to the air. I scrunched my muzzle, wondering if the scent would ever fade. Perhaps if I burned fresh spice moss, that would help. When I realized Nesh had fallen silent, I lowered my head and gently bumped his chest with my muzzle. “I do not blame you for overstepping them, Nesh, and indeed you were wise to do so. As you said, you saw an opening, and you seized it." I pushed past him, letting my tail brush against his lower back. “I would have done the same, in your place. I will not be happy having them here, but…" I licked my nose. After a day out in the icy air, the smell of burned books and wood seemed to affix itself to my nostrils. “If allowing them to stay here for a time will help me forge peace with your people, then…I suppose I am willing."

Nesh smiled, and gently stroked the edge of my wing. “I think it's what Melakar would have done."

“It is." I ground my teeth, spines flattened. “In fact, I have a suspicion he already did so. Someone knew the location of his lair, and while it's possible it was discovered by spies and reconnaissance I cannot help but wonder if he had not specifically invited someone here. If he was indeed the one betrayed by your people, then…perhaps someone believed they were running out of time to stop whatever was developing between them." 

“So you're picking up where he left off in more ways than one." Nesh chuckled, patting me. “Before you know it, you'll be negotiating with some general from my army."

“Oh, no." I shook my head as I turned around, surveying the room. I was careful not to bowl Nesh over with my tail. “When the time comes, I will not make that mistake. I will go straight to your Queen."

“Empress, actually." Nesh set his satchel down near a bookshelf overloaded with books. “You see, while we were a kingdom for a long period of our history, over the last hundred years we've actually forged an empire with a few other nations. They remain partly independent, but they do bow their heads to our Empress. And, she is trying to create a few new alliances, but… I suppose I'm digressing." He scratched his head. “The long story short version is, for the last century or so, we've had an Emperor or Empress, instead of a King or Queen. Currently, it's Empress Tirina, and she's quite popular."

I glanced back at Nesh, my voice flat. “How exciting for her." Then I titled my head. “You say she's allying with other nations?"

“Look, Ella, I know what you're thinking." Nesh held up his hands. “But you can't just fly into the capital and ask to meet the Empress."

I cocked my head. “Why not?"

“Because they'd shoot you down before you ever got near the capital, for one thing." Nesh glowered at me, folding his arms.

“They can try." I snorted, tossing my head.

Nesh gave me a long, hard look. Something new, and worrying turned in his eyes. “Ella, do you know what flak cannons are?"

I took a breath, held it a moment, then sighed. “I can hazard a guess."

“They'd shred you to pieces, if you were lucky. If you were unlucky, they'd just tear your wings off and leave you plummet." Nesh drew his lips into a line, rubbing his forehead. “They're new, and…I don't think I'm even supposed to know about them being fielded yet, but…Shavar's gotten ahead of us, in some areas, and so we've got to come up with new defenses. Look, you're just going to have to trust me. One step at a time."

I flopped onto my haunches, lashing my tail against a stack of books. They toppled through the air and tumbled across the floor. “Yes, Nesh, I understand. Step one is flying to one of your cities for your medical supplies, so word can reach your empress in the first place that the dragon she tried to kill is cooperating with your gryphons."

“Ella, I sincerely doubt Empress Tirina gave the orders to have you attacked." Nesh relaxed a little again, waving a hand. “For starters, she-"

I wasn't really in the mood for Nesh's ramblings, right now, so I paid him little heed. “Actually, I suppose step one is preparing this place to host the damn gryphons. Nesh, while I know you're as exhausted as I am, would you be so kind as to help me gather up all the genuinely valuable treasures and put them away? The rest of the mess can wait. I fully intend on making those gryphons clean up all the damage they created when they attacked me."

“Seems reasonable to me."

Together, we were able to make quicker work of the task. Most of the treasure in Melakar's main chamber was in the form of smaller items. Lots of individual coins of cold and silver were strewn about. There some beautifully cut gemstones, and bejeweled trinkets here and there. A golden goblet sat amidst a haphazard assortment of books. A decorative sword leaned up against one book case, and a jewel-encrusted shield lay beneath one of those that had fallen in the battle.

It took considerable will power on my part not to tidy up everything else, as well. Melakar's messy nature had always irked me, but over a lifetime I had come to accept it as just another part of the dragon who owned such a large piece of my heart. Now that he was gone, though, now that this was not truly his lair anymore, there was little excuse for such messiness. Yet I forced myself to leave the books scattered across the floor, and the furs and cushions strewn everywhere.

In part, it was because I wanted the gryphons to get a better look at the life their people had ruined. Though they had been here before, I knew they'd been as full of adrenaline as I had. There was no way they had truly seen Melakar's home. I wanted them to see he had been obsessed not with treasure and conquest, but books and knowledge. I wanted them to see he'd spent his last days not plotting some grand betrayal, not serving as spy for their enemy, but researching the history of nations, and how best to begin building one.

I supposed I'd better start reading those books, too. 

When we took a break from working, I fetched Nesh's present and set the bag at his feet. “Here. I brought you something earlier. I thought a time may come when you must defend yourself. Now that we are bringing gryphons here, it seems prudent you are prepared."

Nesh opened the bag, and gasped. He slowly withdrew the rifle, then held it reverently in both hands. “Ella, this is…"

“A rifle, I know." I snorted, pawing at the ground, then flattened my ears. “At least, I think that's what it's called. I know you don't want to hurt anyone, but…if you're ever in danger, when I'm not around…well, there's a pistol in there, too, and the things you need to fire them."

Nesh set the weapon down and threw his arms around my neck in a long, silent hug. I wasn't sure why he felt the sudden need to express his affection, but I did not mind. I rubbed his back with a paw, rumbling. Perhaps it was just because in his old position, no one had ever let him have a rifle before, only the smaller, hand-held varieties. Or maybe, each new show of my trust was just more meaningful to him than the last. He thanked me profusely, then stashed everything away in the chamber with the mantle, where we'd been putting all the other items of value.

We soon returned to securing everything valuable. As for everything, we left it where it lay, for now. I planned to get the gryphons and their humans to work for their keep. If they were going to be here for a week or more, the least they could do was clean the damn place. I would supervise, because I wanted to organize Melakar's books, and that meant knowing what was being put where.

When the job was nearly done, I glanced towards the archway leading to the rooms with Melakar's maps, his many notes and private treasures…and eventually, to the room with the Queen's Mantle. The thought of letting gryphons see Melakar's most personal treasures, private notes, and final works weighed my heart down like a leaden anchor. To think we might allow his murderers to gaze upon such things. I had to remind myself again that the gryphons were not his murderers. And if Nesh and I could prove to them that they were wrong about Melakar, perhaps they could even help us uncover the truth, however difficult it may be for me.

But I would only let them in those areas with my supervision. Before I left with Blue Jay and Sparrow, I planned to block off those rooms completely. The remaining gryphons and their human allies would still have full access to Melakar's main chamber, to his bathing pools, his drinking water and pantry, and his latrine pool. It still put me ill at ease to leave them alone here, but it seemed I had little choice.

“Do you trust them, Nesh?" When the work was finished, I settled myself in the room where Melakar had kept his nap. “You want to show this to them, don't you? The gryphons, I mean. And the humans with them."

“I want to show the gryphons, anyway." Nesh traced his fingers over the map. “I wouldn't say I trust them completely yet, but…I trust them more than I trust those humans."

I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes in suspicion. “Why?"

“I took a look at the patches on their coats while we were out there. They're not from a division I'm familiar with, and…I would have thought the Gryphon Legion has its own support teams including cannoneers. It's like, someone forced the gryphons to pair up with a new team just for this mission. A team that will return home and report back to an entirely different commanding officer." Nesh held his hands up. “Now, that doesn't mean anything, it's very, very possible they're a fast team, always ready to gear up and go on any mission at the drop of a hat. But…"

When Nesh trailed off, I picked up for him. “But, it's also entirely possible that if Melakar was betrayed, those humans may be working directly for the betrayer."

Nesh gave a single nod. “Yes. Granted, if that's the case, they're probably just supposed report back on what they've seen, what they've learned. What the gryphons may have learned. Make sure no one else discovers who really betrayed who."

“Answer me this." I lowered my head to gaze into his eyes. “Is it safe to bring them back here?"

“If they were on their own, I'd say no. But with the gryphons here, I don't think they'd try anything." Nesh leaned against a wall, scowling. “And like I said, it's very possible, perhaps even likely, that they were just the first available cannoneers. There's probably nothing nefarious about it, at all. Just keep an eye on them, that's all."

I snorted, slapping my tail against the wall. “I fully intend to." Then I pointed a wing tip towards the map, and Melakar's many notes. “Do you really plan to show the gryphons this?"

“I'd like to show Sparrow and Blue Jay, at least, if you're willing." Nesh's gaze wandered across the map. “Sparrow because she's the captain, and Blue Jay because, while he might be a bit of an asshole, he also seems like the most open minded of the four of them."

A smirk twitched across my muzzle. “Yes, I think he was as eager to mate with you as he was with me."

“Not the sort of open minded I meant, and you know it." Nesh turned and poked my nose. “Wipe that grin off your snout, you perverted old beast."

“Oh, Nesh." I licked his hand, my smile growing. “I've barely even begun to show you perverted."

“Oh, Gods preserve me." Laughing, Nesh turned away. “In all seriousness though, do you agree? I won't show them a thing if you don't want me too."

I took a deep breath and held it as long as I could. Only when my lungs burned did I finally let it out. “It pains me to say it, but yes. I think we should show them. Every little thing we can do to convince them Melakar was only trying to make peace is going to help." I pushed myself up, padding back to the front room. “Come on. We'd better go and get them before I change my mind."

Things were already moving faster than I wanted. I wanted to read every note Melakar made, about every location he visited. I needed to pour over every clue he left behind, to find out exactly what he was doing, where he had gone, and who he had met with. But that would take days, just to get to started, and probably weeks or longer to really put all his scattered notes, maps and other things together. If Pigeon caught pneumonia while I was busy writing books filled with Melakar's notes, that would likely be the end of the deal we'd struck with the gryphons.

There were other things I wanted to do, as well. Though I had declared myself Queen, there were rites and rituals that had to be conducted before I could truly call myself such. While in my head, I realized no one would ever know if I'd conducted them or not, my heart screamed at me to fulfill my obligations. If Melakar was the one to declare me Queen, he'd have put me through the complete Rites of the Queen's Ascension before he was willing to bow his head to my rule. It seemed only fitting now that I honor the wishes he could never make.

But Rites of the Queen's Ascension would take time, as well. Though the completion of the rite itself would not take all that long, it required substantial preparations. There were runes to be inscribed, blood to be gathered, words to memorize, witnesses to gather and offer a chance to speak, and so on. Granted that last one didn't really apply, anymore. But the Rites were meant to conducted at the Gods-Blood Dias, and that was deep in the mountains. All told, it would take days at least.

 For now, those were days I could not leave the gryphons waiting out in the cold, despite how much I wished to.

If Nesh hadn't been genuinely concerned for Pigeon's health, I might have left them out there another night. I was exhausted, and all I really wanted to do in the moment was curl up somewhere warm and sleep. But I knew if I fell asleep now, I might not wake until deep in the night, or even the next morning. I'd have to wait until they were all here, and settled, and then hope my paranoia did not wake me too often through the night.

Once Nesh was bundled up for the cold, we returned to the gryphons and their human allies, and began the process of relocating them. By then the sun was already low in the sky, and threatening to plunge a very cold day into a truly frigid night. The gryphons fires had nearly burned out, and I saw the remnants of at least one supply smoldering inside one. It seemed they'd already run out of the wood they must have gathered earlier. Much as I hated to admit it, that was another reason to get them into Melakar's lair quickly. The area they'd set up camp in was fairly barren, and wood was difficult to find. Doubly so with all the snow cover. I imagine they'd picked the spot for tactical reasons, and did not expect to be stuck there for days, let alone weeks, and with injuries.

We took Pigeon back first. Blue Jay and Sparrow worked together to help carry her, with one holding a front leg, and the other a rear leg on the other side of her body. It did not look comfortable for her, let alone dignified. Somehow, Sparrow and Blue Jay managed to avoid clipping each other's wings, if only just barely. Their wing beats were synced up, with Sparrow calling out a count for it. They must have trained for such a maneuver, as a mean to transport an injured gryphon so as not to leave anyone behind. I could have carried Pigeon myself, if need be, but I'd have had to carry her around her middle, which would have put too much pressure on her ribs.

I let Pigeon take the center of Melakar's bedding. It was the softest and plushest place, and best suited the most injured visitor. As battered as she was I knew I wouldn't have to worry about her wandering off, poking her beak where it didn't belong. I pointed the way to the drinking water, the hot spring, and the latrine, and then we returned for Cardinal.

He was able to fly on his own, though just barely. The red gryphon's flight was disturbingly wobbly, even more so than I remembered from the night before. Blue Jay and Sparrow fly at his wing tips, to help guide and steady him. I flew just behind him, watching closely. If he looked as if he was going to crash, I'd have to try and catch him first. Cardinal made it to Melakar's lair, but shortly after we'd landed, he grew so dizzy he retched.

“Better to do that outside the lair than inside, I suppose." I led him in, and got him situated near Sparrow.

On our next trip, I put the two remaining gryphons to work gathering up whatever supplies they wished to bring for themselves and the humans. I told them they could bring food, drink, and basic necessities, but that was it. I had Nesh go through everything to ensure no one was trying to hide weaponry, ammunition, powder, poisons, or anything else dangerous. Every item and article of clothing that Nesh cleared was packed into their remaining crates along with the human's cold weather bed rolls, and white blankets. Anything Nesh forbade them from bringing was tossed down the mountainside where their broken cannons lay. Together, we carried it all back and put it in the main chamber with Pigeon and Cardinal.

Our final excursions were to collect the humans. There were eight total, two for each gryphon who brought them here. I was even more hesitant about allowing them into Melakar's home than I was the gryphons, but I could not well leave them to freeze if I wished to forge an alliance with their empire. Still, after what Nesh cautioned me about, I was not taking chances. I forced them each to strip down to their naked flesh, one at a time, the same way I'd made Nesh do. This time, though, I took no amusement from it. I simply ensuring they carried no concealed weapons or other dangers. Nesh shook out their clothes while they were naked, to make sure nothing was hidden within the folds of their coats, and other clothing. None had armor on. They must not have anticipated direct combat. Or maybe humans just didn't bother with armor, anymore.

It took two journeys to the ridge and back to get them all. I was only interesting in carrying Nesh, while Sparrow and Blue Jay could only carry two humans at once. It was clear to me that a smaller gryphon like Sparrow was already at her limit trying to carry two men at the same time. If she had asked me for my assistance, I might have offered to carry another soldier for her. But she stubbornly persevered, and if she wished to pay for her pride with strained wings, so be it.

The sun was already melting into the horizon by the time the task was completed. I settled near the blocked off archway to watch my unwanted guests, a little while. The once voluminous lair suddenly felt crowded. Their voices buzzed and echoed off the domed stone. The scents of gryphons and feathers and humans and sweat smothered the place. With four gryphons, nine humans, and a single dragon, I could not help but feel as if my space was being invaded no matter where I was. Worse, I still thought of this place as Melakar's home. They were sitting on his bedding, rifling through his books, touching his possessions, looking at his paintings.

I found myself growling at them just for gazing at the portraits of our former family, as if it was a glimpse of a life they shouldn't be allowed to see. A life they had taken from me. Though I knew well enough we had not lived that life together in a decade, I also knew now that Melakar wanted that life back. They had ripped that chance away from us. And now, now they had the gall to trample about in his lair, to chatter in their gryphon and human tongues about the strange things they saw, about the odd scents in the air. My growls grew louder, and without realizing it, I unsheathed my claws, scratching at the stone floor.

“They didn't kill him, Ella." Nesh put a hand on my shoulder, gently stroking my scales. “And they're just…trying to survive, doing what they think is right for their people, same as you." Nesh smiled, patting me. “Take a breath, Ella, it'll be alright."

I did as Nesh suggested, taking in a slow, deep breath. By the time I released it, my claws had retracted again, thought it did not entirely alleviate the tension knot deep in my belly. I curled my tail around my paws, curling my neck down to brush my muzzle against Nesh's cheek in silent thanks. He stroked my muzzle, and patted my nose. I nuzzled his hands, and even gave his palms a gentle lick of friendly gratitude.

Nesh laughed and shoved my muzzle away. “Alright, alright, no need to slobber on me."

I snorted, lifting my head. “You'd not be saying that if I was licking you elsewhere, Concubine."

Nesh folded his arms, grinning at me. “You must be feeling a little less cranky if you're back to making concubine jokes."

“They aren't jokes." I smiled to myself, frills perked. “I'm just giving you a grace period to settle into the idea."

“If you say so." Nesh leaned against me, staring into the room. “Besides, wouldn't they make better concubines for a dragon?"

“The cannoneers? Possibly, why, is that the sort of reputation their position has among your people?" I tilted my head, murmuring as if considering the idea. “Besides, I should think they'd make better concubines for a male dragon."

Nesh gave me a funny look, his fuzzy eye ridges scrunched. “Why?"

“Because they're already used to handling and polishing large-"

“Alright, alright, alright!" Nesh held up his hands, face reddening in the lamp light. “I walked right into that one." He rubbed his forehead, chuckling. “Besides, I was talking about the gryphons! They're certainly a lot close to your size, and probably a lot closer to your anatomy."

“I've heard worse ideas." I gazed at the four gryphons, now seated together in the center of all the bedding. They were talking, preening each other's neck and wings, and rubbing one another's four legs. Gryphons were very social creatures, and such contact was surely soothing in a trying time for them. “Blue Jay would like that far too much, though. Besides, I'd wager my warrior's armor collection that I could have that fluffy egotist off in five minutes."

Nesh laughed and shook his head. “I'll take your word for it."

I curled my neck to smile at him. “I could have you off in half that, Nesh."

Nesh just rolled his eyes, his blush darkening. “You know, one of these days…"

When he trailed off, I bumped him with my nose. “Yes? What, you'll call my bluff? Ready when you are, Concubine."

“That's why I shut my mouth, actually." He rubbed my nose, then pointed into the room. “Company."

I lifted my head away from Nesh to see that Sparrow had separated herself form the other gryphons. She padded towards us, her mottled, brown-feathered tail swishing behind her. Somehow, she looked smaller than before. I suspected it was due to the warmer temperatures inside the cavern. Her feathers and downy fluff were not as puffed up when she did not require as much insulation from the cold. She settled herself upon her haunches before us, glancing back and forth between Nesh and I.

“I apologize for interrupting whatever…" She circled her paw in the air, indicating both of us. “Whatever this is, but we require food."

I stared down at her, my tone flat. “So hunt some."

Sparrow snapped her beak, fire in her voice. “I intend to!" Then she relaxed a little, the muscles behind her beak tightening. She flattened her ears. “But…I am forced to admit, I have little experience hunting in the tundra."

“This is hardly the tundra." I drummed half-unsheathed claws against the ground. “You'd have to fly another-"

“That is not the point!" Sparrow slapped her feathery tail against the stone floor. When I only continued to stare at her, she took a slow, deep breath, her dark-spotted chest fluffing out. “Which way do I fly to find the most game? Where are your deer, or elk? Are there hares? Mountain sheep? What am I looking for?"

As much as I wanted to tell her to take her feathered ass into the sky and go hunt until she found something like everyone else, that wouldn't be very diplomatic of me. Instead, I turned my gaze towards the other three gryphons and the humans milling about with them. “You're going to need a lot of food for everyone."

“Especially while you, Kraas and I are gone." Sparrow tempered her voice. “And the humans must cook their meat, as well. So they will require firewood. Do you know where…where I can find enough?"

“Do you know what I like about this?" I glanced down at Nesh, waving a paw in the air. “As much food and wood as they're going to need while Pigeon and Cardinal heal? I suspect they'd have had to come to me for help, even if had not gone to ask them for information."

Nesh folded his arms, giving the gryphon a solemn look. “I think you're completely right Queen Ellamyriss." The way Nesh spoke my name like a righteous title made me shiver, my scales clicking together. “Of course, the queenly thing to do would be offer to help them, without reminding them how it puts them even further in your debt. How they're forced to rely upon a dragon, a so-called creature of evil, to survive. I'm sure they're already well aware of that, and I'm certain they'll remember it, without being reminded."

Sparrow glowered at Nesh, looking like hawk boiling over with fury for the hare she wasn't allowed to hunt. Nesh, meanwhile, made for a very smug hare, simply smiling back at her.

“She'd damn well better," I said, drawing Sparrow's attention away from my concubine. “Because I will certainly remember." I pushed myself to my paws, arching my neck to gaze down impassively at Sparrow. “I will help you hunt, and gather wood. Learn these locations well. Before we set out on our journey, you will have to hunt enough meat and gather enough firewood to last your companions until our return." Then I looked past her towards the other gryphons, still busy preening one another. “Blue Jay! Cease your frivolous primping and come help hunt dinner for your companions."

Blue Jay grumbled under his breath as he rose and disentangled himself from the other two gryphons, but he did not hesitate to join us. “I take it the Captain already told you we'd need to stock some food before we leave, for the others?"

“She did, and we will." I walked into the center of the main room, calling out. “I am taking these two out to show them where to hunt, and gather wood for fires. If you expect to eat, then I expect you to behave yourselves in my home." Though I still thought of it as Melakar's, it had quickly become mine, as well. I saw no need for any of them to realize I had another home. “While I am away, my second-in-command is in charge." I swept a swing out towards Nesh, who gave a showy bow. “You will do as he tells you, and you will treat him with the utmost respect!" I dropped my voice. “Or I'll throw you off a cliff."

With that taken care off, I turned towards the exit, and broke into a bounding gait, leaving the gryphons behind. Though every part of me ached, and the motions pulled at sore wounds and stitches, I'd be damned if I'd show even the smallest weakness in front of the gryphons. If they wanted me to show them how to survive in this environment, then I was going to make them work for it.

As I returned to the cold air, and ascended towards the sunset, I called back to the gryphons struggling to catch up. “Come along, birds! Since it's clear no one's ever done so, it's time for you to learn to how to really hunt!"

*****

Chapter Twenty Four

Roommates

*****

I worked the birds until they were at least as sore as I was. From Melakar's lair, there were a few reliable hunting grounds, even in the winter. There was a sunken meadow dotted with small hot springs, where the steam kept the shorelines clear of snow. It drew prey in search of water to drink and moss to nibble. There were thick pine forests where deer, elk, and the occasional moose sheltered beneath copses of towering green conifers. And there were trails along the cliffsides, visible as little more than lines scratched upon the stone, where mountain sheep traveled.

The gryphons proved talented hunters, once they had prey located. Sparrow slew two deer, and Blue Jay managed a moose, which excited him as he claimed he'd never eaten it before. The moose was so large I ended up carrying it home for him, as it was just about beyond the limits of what even a gryphon could carry. Hell, it was uncomfortably heavy even for me, and my forelegs ached by the time I finally tossed it into the snow outside Melakar's lair. We dragged the food in, and fed with the other two gryphons. For now, the humans used wooden debris from broken bookshelves to build a fire just outside the cavern. While they cooked their dinner, I took Blue Jay and Sparrow out once more, to show them where to gather wood.

Dragons were not used to having to build large fires. The caves and tunnels we called home maintained a relatively steady temperature year round. It was warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and rarely did we have to do anything to try and alter that temperature. We gathered wood for our fireboxes, and for pyres and other events where great flames were called for, but that was about it. However, given Melakar's affinity for human vassals, I knew where he used to go to gather wood for their own cooking fires.

There were plenty of old forests in the lower reaches of the mountains. This time of year, most of the dead wood was buried beneath the snow, but a little searching and a little digging was all it took to locate more wood than the three of us would carry. That made for more than enough for a few nights. Now that the gryphons knew where to go, I could send them out to hunt and gather wood for their kin before we left for the city.

The idea of visiting a human city, even a small one, twisted up my belly. I had been to the simple settlements of the various peoples who lived through the valley. I'd even visited a few human villages, in my younger days. But it had been ages since I'd gone to any human habitation, and never had I visited one of their cities. I'd seen the pictures in Melakar's books, and heard his descriptions, from his own early visits to the cities we might have once considered safe.

But even that was ages ago now. Until I set eyes upon the great army massed upon my border, I had scarcely even imagined so many humans in one place. To think that their cities could be larger still, and filled with things beyond the scope of my imagination. To hear the gryphons talk, it almost sounded as if human empire was built entirely of machinery, and weaponry.

Though I knew the concept of machines, again from Melakar, something told me I did not even come close to understanding the full scope of things. After all, I knew of fire-belchers and ballistae and cannons as well, but now I had learned of pistols, rifles, anti-air cannons. And the way Nesh told it, it sounded as if even the things I had only just encountered were on the verge of being outdated. Perhaps they were already so. Nesh spoke of so many other things I had never heard of, did not understand, of fuels and gasses and oils and locomotives and sky-crawlers, and industries.

As the two gryphons and I flew back home with our collection of wood, I reassured myself we were not going to one of those cities. Surely, we were only going to a smaller settlement, somewhere on their frontier, nearer my lands. All we needed were medical supplies, after all, and to make it known that I was helping their empire's gryphons. I did not need a…a…locomotive for my lair, after all. I snorted, resolving to ask Nesh to explain just what that was.

For now, I pushed the thoughts aside. At least I knew whatever strange and terrifying things awaited me, Nesh would be there with me. He could stand at my side, stroke my scales, and calm me down as he always did. He could rub my nose, explain what things were in a way I understood, to help me comprehend this strange new world the humans had thrust us into. Nesh could smile at me, and hug my head to his body, and for a moment, everything would be alright.

I smiled as I landed. The thought was strangely comforting.

So much so that I left the gryphons to carry in my armload of wood along with their own. Ignoring their squawks and grumbles, I padded inside and went straight to Nesh. Before he could protest, I plopped down on my haunches and snatched Nesh up on my forelegs. I hugged him tightly against my chest, even shaking him back and forth. Nesh laughed, and did his best to hug me back, though the baffled look on his face told me he had no idea why I was suddenly being so affectionate. The gryphons and the other humans all gave me similarly confused looks. That was fine. That was fine. There was no embarrassment in my over my especially non-threatening display, no shame at hugging a human so openly.

Let them all know the ever-growing depth of our friendship.

I knew in my heart that if I was to have any chance of succeeding in forging an alliance with their empire, if I was ever to truly hope to make a home for dragons, that it had started here. With enemies, who became friends. With a human, and a dragon, who for the first time, finally saw beyond the monster, and the dragonslayer. Who finally saw a glimpse of each other's hearts.

In the moment, I realized my empire began with Nesh.

*****

That night, I slept like the dead. It was a pleasant surprise. I had not expected to sleep well with potential enemies sleeping only a few chambers away. The Earth Dragon knew I needed the sleep more than anything, but normally I was so attuned to unexpected noises and sounds that any little out of place thing was enough to wake me. But I had blocked off the archway tunnel leading into Melakar's secluded chambers after Nesh and I retired from the evening. The collection of crates, shelving, and other heavy items would not stop our guests from breeching the tunnel if they wished it, but the noise would have woken me long before they made it to where we slept.

Perhaps it was simply knowing they could not sneak up on me while I slumbered that helped me sleep so deeply. Or maybe it was because Nesh was there. Though I had not know him long by human standards, let alone those of a dragon, day by day his presence alone seemed enough to calm me, to sooth me in my moments of fury and fear. The truth was, I probably just slept so hard because I was gods-damned exhausted.

Before we slept, Nesh and I had turned the chamber with the Queen's Mantle into a much more private sleeping area. We carried in a large portion of the bedding from the main room so that we could create two separate beds. Nesh wasn't used to sleeping in the same room as me, but the bedrooms Melakar made for his previous vassals were connected to other parts of his lair. I dragged in one of the human-style mattresses for him, and set it up in the corner of the room so he need not fear me rolling over onto him in my sleep.

I do not know how long I slept, but it felt like late morning when I finally awoke. I opened my eyes to bleary slits, and saw Nesh groggily stumbling about in the faint blue light of a single glow-stone. He was only dressed in his lighter colored undershirt and trousers, and must have just awoken himself. I yawned and stretched all four limbs at once, toes splayed and claws unsheathed. The movement drew Nesh's attention, and he gave me a little wave as my stretch ended.

“Morning, Ella."

“Is it?" I licked my muzzle, then curled my neck and dug my palms into my eyes.

“Couldn't tell you, actually." Nesh laughed, digging his boots out from a pile of bedding. “How did these get…oh, nevermind. Anyway, I've no idea how you dragons can possibly tell time living in caves. It looks the same in here now as it did when we went to bed."

“No, it was brighter then." I snorted, pushing myself up onto my haunches. “I covered the other glow-stones before we slumbered."

“And that's only adding to my body's confusion." Nesh battled to tug on a single boot, hopping in a circle.

“You should go out in the sunlight." I stretched my wings, yawning again. “It will help your mind wake." I knew Nesh would ask how I felt soon, so I decided to beat him to it. I twisted my neck around, gazing at myself. My stitches all seemed to have made it through the night intact, and nothing hurt too badly. “You will be pleased to know I am in less pain and my wounds do not currently require any upkeep."

“That's a pleasant difference." Nesh finally got his boot on, and went for the other. “As for going outside, while I know you're right, my lack of coat should tell you I've got no intention of setting one single foot out in that cold air until I have too." He tried to tug on his second boot, only to stumble and fall on his rump. “OW! Damn it!"

I laughed and shook my head. “Is it always such a battle for you to put your footwear on?"

Nesh grimaced, shooting me a playful glare. “I'm so glad your first concern is for my health. And…no, if I was smart, I'd sit down to put my boots on. They're still a bit tight, they were new not that long ago." Without rising, he worked it onto his foot.

“Oh, hush, I'm sure your ass is moderately fine." I pushed myself up to all fours and shook my body, scales clicking and wings rustling. The motion left a tight pain in my lower belly. “Now, I have a number of pressing morning concerns to deal with, starting with a near desperate urge to empty my bladder."

Nesh laughed and waved his hand towards to the exit tunnel. “I'd make a joke, but I've got the same issue. After you, then."

“You need not wait for me, Nesh." I padded down the stone corridor, and into the room with Melakar's maps and notes. I spared them a glance but kept walking. “There is space enough in the latrine area for you, too."

“I don't even know where to begin unpacking that, Ella." Nesh ruffled his head-fur, reddening. “Besides, that wasn't what I meant. I was just trying to be polite, and let you go first. Plus…you've got to move all those barricades, anyway."

 I couldn't tell if Nesh realized I was teasing him or not. After all, there were some things even a dragon preferred to do in private. But if he hadn't caught on that I was jesting, I'd let him wonder about it. It took me only a few moments to move the crates, shelves and other impediments out of our way. I let Nesh through first, then followed him and moved things back into position behind us. While I was willing to let Nesh share Melakar's maps and things with the gryphons, I wanted them to spend a few days here, relying upon my good graces and generosity, first.

Everyone else was already awake. The smell of blood and meats both raw and cooked told me they'd already eaten, too. Sparrow, Pigeon, and Cardinal sat together, preening each other, and chatting with a couple humans. I didn't see Blue Jay, but I doubted he had gone far. The other humans wandered around the room, inspecting items and flipping through books. I bit back a growl at the sight of them paging through Melakar's beloved tomes. Nesh must have sensed my irritation, because he set a hand on my shoulder, and gently stroked my scales. I gave him a smile, and continued into the morning.

“Good morning, assorted birds, and bearers of truce."

They all turned my way when I spoke up. Sparrow greeted me, and Cardinal and Pigeon both gave their heads small bows. Some of the humans did the same, others looked as if they wished they could ignore me completely. I wasn't exactly feeling chatty, especially with my enemies, so I was just as happy to ignore them in return. Instead I made my way into the tunnel that connected to Melakar's various springs.

I let Nesh use the latrine spring first, waiting outside the room to give him privacy. When he was finished, I relieved myself and then went to the drinking spring to quench my thirst. Just as I was heading back out, Blue Jay was entering. Blood smeared his beak, his face, and both his front legs. To a human, I imagined he might have looked terrifying. But to a dragon, the look was familiar, the look of a well-fed hunter.

“Someone's been gorging," I said, my tail tip flicking. “You didn't eat that messily last night."

“The Captain was with us last night." He flexed his wings in a shrug. “That city bird always yanks my tail feathers about conducting myself more professionally, feeding included." He flattened back his crown feathers, snorting. “But she wasn't watching this morning, and we ain't in the city now, so I'll eat however I damn well want."

I chuckled to myself. Gryphons had odd customs, and I suspected living amongst humans for a few generations was making them odder, still. Or perhaps, quite the opposite. Humans did so like the idea of taming things, after all. “It's a good look. Nothing wrong with blood-markings from a good hunt."

Blue Jay warbled his agreement, dipping his head. “I thought so too. There's half a mountain goat left outside." He flicked his wing towards the far exit. “You're welcome to it, if you want."

“Thank you." I lifted my frills, arching my neck to gave down at him. I wasn't sure if he was just being friendly, or if was just trying to stay in my good graces to avoid another smack. “I shall eat before I bath, then."

I continued onwards. As we past one another, the feathers of his wing brushed against my scales, slightly ticklish. His tail ran against me as well, sliding across my lower side, then over my hind leg in an almost provocative gesture. I gazed back at him, wondering if he was doing it on purpose. If he was, he hid it well, not so much as even glancing at me to judge my reaction.

As promised, he left food for me outside. Half a mountain goat would be a light breakfast at best for a dragon my size, but it would do, for now. I knew the more flying and exertion I could spare myself, the happier Nesh would be. I ate the meat in the cold, pleased to find it was still a little warm despite the freezing temperatures. Blue Jay must have claimed it nearby, and only finished with it right before he came inside.

I saved a few choice bits for Nesh, and laid them in the snow, near the cooking fire the humans made. A few metallic cooking implements sat around the fire, and I wasn't sure if they'd brought them with, or found them in Melakar's lair. Either way, I suspected Nesh would be happy to have pots and things to cook for himself. After I made my way back inside, I told Nesh there was fresh meat available, and then headed for the bathing spring.

The air in that room was warmer, and coils of steam danced in the soft blue light of several glow-stones. Pale moss and swaths of yellow lichen smothered the walls. Blue Jay was soaking in the bathing spring when I returned. The gryphon was mostly submerged, with just his head resting on the stony lip of the tub. His half-lidded eyes shone as gleaming slits amidst the indigo and black markings of his face.

He lifted his head, watching me approach. “Find the food?"

“I did." I eased down into the hot water without hesitation, savoring the heat that washed over my paw pads and up my scaled limbs. “Now shove over, Blue Jay."

“If I must." Blue Jay clicked his beak a few times, wriggling aside. “Was rather hoping for a peaceful, relaxing bath. Alone."

“Then you should have stayed home instead of coming out here to attack me." I dropped the rest of the way into the water, sending a wave crashing over the gryphon's head. He squawked and coughed and sputtered, vanished for a moment, and then popped back up, coughing again. “Oops. Do mind the splash, bird."

“Very damn funny." The gryphon rubbed his eyes, blinking away the water. “You nearly drowned me."

“I did nothing of the sort." I dunked my head, and while holding my breath, scrubbed at my muzzle with my paws to clear the goat blood from my face. When I came back up, I took a few deep breaths, rubbing my paws together to wash them under the water. “If I wanted to drown you…" I turned my head, gazing impassively down at the gryphon.

“Don't you even think about dunking me like some giggling fledgling!" He pressed himself up against the wall of the tub, hissing.

“That's what you're afraid of? A dunking?" I tossed my head. Droplets sprayed from my snout. “Not the fact that I could hold your head under the water until you stopped wriggling?"

The gryphon hissed again, but it was a sound of annoyance, not of fear. “Oh, please, Dragon. If you wanted to kill me…hell, if you wanted to kill any of us? You've already done down." He glared at me a little longer, then glanced away, his ears drooping. “You've already made it clear you could have, if you wished it." Blue Jay rubbed his throat, swallowing.

“So I could have." Since he clearly recalled the feeling of my paws around his throat, I decided not to press things. Though my ego wished for me to remind them, once again, of how I'd bested them, how they all owed me their lives, my heart knew better. My heart knew I had to conduct myself as Melakar would have, in my place, if I was to ever attain more than a temporary truce. So instead, I eased up against the other side of the tub, to give him more room and let him feel a little more comfortable. “Thank you for the food."  

Blue Jay offered me a faint smile, bowing his head once. “You are welcome."

The rest of our shared bath passed in silence, but not in discomfort. It was a result I was happy enough with. After all, if we could not manage something as simple as sharing a bathtub, there would not have been much hope for our truce to last the entirety of the time they had spent in my home.

Blue Jay climbed out of the tub before me, and I turned my head to watch him clamber out. Soaked as he was, all his feathers and underfur clung to him, slicked down against his body. He looked half his usual size, the outline of his body on display.

“You look like a drowned rat." I chuckled as he shook himself off. “Or a sodden songbird, dragging a drowned rat behind him."

“That doesn't even make sense!" Blue Jay shook off another time, and then vanished down adjoining tunnel.

When I was finished with my own bath, I decided it was time to put our guests to work. Nesh had already made it clear he refused to let me fly a long distance until my existing wounds had finished closing, and he had removed my stitches. I begrudgingly agreed. In case things went poorly, I needed to be in top shape. At least, I thought, that would give me a chance for my guests to make themselves useful.

If I was to be stuck here, in Melakar's old home, I'd be damned if I'd spend that time picking through his messy housekeeping. A small part of me hoped Melakar's spirt would not feel somehow dishonored when I brought order to his former home's chaos. But this was my home now, and I was not going to start my empire in a lair that looked as if a whirlwind of unsupervised hatchlings had torn through it.

Though Nesh and I had cleaned up the valuables, many other tasks remained. Considering the size of the ordeal, and the condition of the gryphons,  I put half the humans on what Nesh called laundry duty. They were to gather up all the animal hides, the furs, the blankets, the many pillows and cushions, and so on. That in and over itself was a monumental task, considering how much bedding Melakar had accumulated over the years. It occupied an immense pile that took up a large portion of the room. More soft things were strewn in scattered lines and smaller piles of the room, like the tendrils of some nebulous sea beast reaching for its many offspring. Gathering up all the bedding was the easy part. Once they had collected it, it all had to be washed in the bathing springs. Considering how much there was to wash, it was going to take them days, at least. Since it was so cold outside that anything wet would simply freeze, they were just going to have to spread the damp bedding out on the floor, or string up lines to hang it form in the drier parts of the caverns.

While some of the humans did laundry, I tasked the other for humans with picking up trash and debris. Considering the battle I'd had with their feathered friends, there was a lot of it to be rid of. Much as I knew it would have pained Melakar, I told them to consider any burned or otherwise ruined books, scrolls, tablets and so on as rubbish. I hoped I was not telling them to throw out anything important, but I reminded myself if it could no longer be read, then it no longer had any value or usefulness.

There was also a lot of sweeping and dusting to be done, cobwebs to be moved, lamps and lanterns to be polished, soot to be cleaned out of fireboxes, and so on. Because Melakar had kept so many vassals over the years, he had items they'd brought or made already stored away. The humans dug out some brooms for sweeping dirt tracked in and scales long shed and discarded, or gryphon feathers lost in recent battles. They also fluffier implements to help clear away excess dust from areas Melakar rarely went.

I put Blue Jay and Sparrow to work gathering and sorting out all the books left laying around. It was important, I thought, that they see the sort of things Melakar had been reading and studying in his last days. I had Nesh follow them around and point out the titles and subjects of books written in the local human tongue. As it turned out, Sparrow could read that language, as well as several others. She was well educated when it came to the written word. Nonetheless, I kept Nesh supervising them to ensure the texts were treated with due respect. Nesh also helped hammer it into their heads that Melakar had spent an awful lot of time researching alliances, and the courtly protocols of various peoples and nations. Granted, I knew that would not absolve him in their eyes, since even if he meant to play enemy nations against one another he'd still need to know how to act around them.

Since Sparrow could read a few different tongues, I also had her start to sort out the books she came across. For now, I'd make do with only basic organization, sorting them by the language they were written in. That way, even if it was a tongue she could not read or had never seen, she could at least put it with other books that shared the same written characters or alphabets. Later, I planned to better arrange Melakar's entire library. I wanted it to be organized by language first, then by subject, and within that subject, by the year in which it was written, if possible. Then other forms of written knowledge would be organized in similar fashion, if possible, the scrolls arranged together, the old gryphon wood blocks, and so on.

Since Nesh was supervising the book handling, I had him keep a list of all the books Melakar appeared to be studying lately. Many of them were about the founding of nations, or about the old rites used to induct a new queen, or how to handle diplomacy with hostile nations, and on and on. I intended to read those myself, and wanted them available for easy reference. Nesh wrote down every such book, and listed the language it was in, and the location it was going to be stored in, for now.

For the time being, I had all the newly arranged books stacked in neat, even piles alongside and in front of the many bookshelves that ringed much of Melakar's chamber. Eventually I hoped to store everything within the shelves, but I saw little sense in doing so until we had a chance to rearrange what was already there. Further more, some of the shelving was so old or in such a state of disrepair it threatened to collapse under the weight of so many books. And that was without considering the units that that were destroyed during my fight with the gryphons. I decided to add repairs and rebuilding to my mental list of things I expected my guests to help with.

Pigeon and Cardinal I set to arranging and cleaning the pile of dragon armor. It was simple work they could do without straining themselves while they recovered. I showed them what to look for to distinguish armor designed for male and female dragons. They found pieces from at least three distinct sets, two for female and one for male. I had them lay it all out from nose to tail, and make a list of what parts were present from each set and what was missing. I went over their lists myself, adding notes to the parts that would fit me for easy reference. Then I made them clean and polish it before carefully packing it away in some crates I dug out from deeper in Melakar's lair. Eventually, I wanted to display all the pieces I wasn't going to use myself.

During their cleaning, the humans discovered a few boxes filled with sturdy leather straps and brass buckles. The leather was still stiff, and the brass buckles barely even scuffed. The wooden boxes they came in had something scrawled across them in a language I could not read. I think it was urd'thin, probably the name of the craftsmen or trader Melakar obtained them from. Melakar must have commissioned or otherwise purchased new accoutrements to go with all the armor he'd gathered up. If they were already sized and cut to fit slots, then they'd probably been measured to fit Melakar. But perhaps he'd tried to get some made that might fit me, as well. When the time was right, I'd find out. For now, I kept the straps with the rest of the armor.

I let my guests have a break for lunch, which I helped the gryphons hunt. Then they worked again until it was time for our evening meal, and after that I let them relax. Nesh made his night examinations of wounds and general health. He was pleased with everyone's progress, including mine, which was good because I was damn tired of being sore all the time. I blocked off the corridor again at night, and retired with Nesh to sleep, leaving my visitors to do the same.

The next few days passed the same way. Sparrow and Blue Jay hunted breakfast in the morning. Sometimes I joined them, other times I slept in and let them handle it. Then we bathed in the hot springs, and after they'd dried their feathers, I returned them to work. We made good progress, and within several days Melakar's main chamber was nearly clean. The vast majority of his sleeping things had been washed. The floor was swept, the cobwebs cleared away, and the whole area felt more like a living space than the slovenly library Melakar had been so infuriatingly willing to tolerate.

When the basic cleaning was finished, I set some of the humans towards fixing the broken shelving. Several of them proved adept with carpentry and engineering, but without a full suite of tools there was only so much they could do. I wanted to have brand new shelves built, but that was going to have to wait for now. As long as things weren't falling apart, that would suffice. Others I asked to start scrubbing the stone around the bathing and drinking pools, to scrape off the moss and lichens, and so on.

Nesh and myself spent most of the days supervising our so-called guests. I was still not comfortable having so many potentially hostile humans in Melakar's lair, especially with Nesh's suspicions kept in mind. I asked Nesh to keep an eye on them, with the thought that they might lower their guards around him a little more than they would me. If they had any further ill intent, I doubted they would speak such aloud during the day, when instead they could whisper their treasonous thoughts at night, when we weren't around. But it did not hurt to be watchful.

They stuck to themselves, speaking and sitting with one another most of the time, rather than the gryphons. It lend credence to what Nesh had said, that they were not a group who usually worked with gryphons. Or at least, not with these gryphons. The gryphons in turn did not seem especially eager to engage with them all that often. They talked now and then, but both seemed more eager to spend their time with their own species.

While Nesh watched the humans, I stayed nearer the gryphons, watching what they were doing, and where they were doing it. Listening in was often difficult, given the spent half their time speaking in gryphon. But their demeanors gradually changed, and within a few full days, they acted less and less like a military squad, and more and more like a social group. Sparrow still snapped at the others to be professional around me, but they did so only begrudgingly. If anything, we had lapsed into casual tolerance of one another. I did not really want them here, and they did not want to be here, and yet, here they were stuck.

I was unused to spending time around gryphons, and I confuse to finding their behaviors both fascinating and baffling. They were far more openly social and affectionate with one another than dragons often were. Often they were leaning against one another, or snuggling under a wing, or draping themselves across each other at night. While dragons sometimes did such things as well, we did so far less casually. That sort of behavior was more commonly reserved for very close friends, or for family members. And dragons would rarely snuggle even a lover in full view of enemies, truce or no truce.

And then there was the preening.

It never stopped.   

Maybe it was just because I had no feathers of my own, but it seemed as though the gryphons never ceased grooming them. Sort through a few books, pause to preen a wing. Polish an armor piece, pause to preen a wing. Lay against another gryphon, preen their back for them. Argue with another gryphon, and spit a loose feather at their paws in anger. To my view, it seemed as much about ego as it did cleanliness or tidiness. Any time any of them seemed to think they had so much as a single feather out of place, they had to pause and rearrange them. Even Sparrow, who usually conducted herself with an officer's professionalism, had to pause what she was doing to fix mussy feathers.

In the evening, the four of them always settled together in the center area of Melakar's old bedding. Often they'd lay against one another, or drape their wings over each other. Sometimes they'd stroke each other's limbs, or nibble at each other's feathers. I wondered if gryphon groups were always this physically sociable, or if it was a sort of coping mechanism. I knew well enough this had to be as stressful for them as it was for me, and frequent gentle touch might simply have been the way gryphons calmed their companions.

Of the four of them, Blue Jay was the most openly sociable. I recalled what Sparrow said about him being a raider, when he was younger. He was the quickest to lay against the other gryphons or invite them to do the same to him. Blue Jay was also the only one of them to invite me into their group socializations, despite the dirty looks it sometimes earned him from the others. I declined, for now, and he was wise enough not to press the issue and earn himself another smack.

Blue Jay also demonstrated that his previous flirtatious behavior with not only myself, but Nesh, was not a fluke. Once he felt a bit more relaxed in my home, he was quick to tease and flirt with all three of the other gryphons, male and female. To his credit, he stuck to his word and kept Nesh out of his playful insults, and his flirting. Everyone else was fair game, including me. And so long as he kept his paws to himself unless I gave him permission otherwise, I was willing to jest and tease him in return. He mostly focused upon Sparrow, and Cardinal. I did not know gryphons well enough to know whether it was all in jest, or whether all that socializing might turn more amorous when Nesh and I had retired for the evening. I certainly did not care if they slunk off to the bathing pools or somewhere else for some private time.

Sparrow was nearly Blue Jay's social opposite. She strove to conduct herself as Captain of her squad first and foremost. She had her gryphons refer to her by that title around me, and made the humans do the same. When we spoke, she spent half the time gritting her beak, biting back whatever anger or sarcasm she had rattling around her head. Sparrow's conversations with me were often almost uncomfortable formal, and polite, and it was clear to me that if not for the truce, she would have been eager for a rematch. Yet, she also held a begrudging respect, and were we to fight again, I believed now it would simply be a battle for honor's sake. It stuck in her craw that I had bested her. She knew she owed me her life, and I believed she no longer wished to take mine, as a result. But I still saw fire in her eyes. She still wanted to kick my ass, given a chance.

I liked that about her.

Sparrow was usually the last one to join the gatherings at night. I wondered if she thought it a Captain's place to be above the social concerns of the other gryphons. She sometimes sat alone, near them but not quite within reach. Again, I did not know gryphons well enough to know if she was being aloof, or alone. Was she avoiding them, or did she feel she was not invited to be part of the group? Inevitably, at least one of the others made a point to invite her, and soon enough she was busy preening and being preened. She and Pigeon seemed especially fond of one another, and I could not help but wonder about the dynamics of their four-gryphon group.

Pigeon was not as outspoken as Sparrow or Blue Jay, but she had an acid tongue when she did speak. More often than not, when I heard her voice, it was to make some cutting remark at another gryphon's expense, usually Blue Jay's. I did not sense that she disliked him, specifically, but she was the least tolerant of his flirtatious antics and ego.

Occasionally, I caught Pigeon glaring me. I got the feeling she did not like the way I ambushed her before the battle was truly joined. That was fine. I did not like the way they had opened fire on me with cannons before so much as speaking a single word. Still, a short conversation with her made it clear enough she understood that was simply how battles went, sometimes, and I had nothing to fear from her.

At least until she was healed.

Cardinal was the quietest of them. He kept his thoughts to himself, at least when I was around. Often times I saw him whispering to the other gryphons, or muttering to himself under his breath, or even murmuring in another gryphon's ear. When he did speak up, it was often to ask me some question, or to answer something Nesh asked him. Other times he suddenly chirped out some unexpected joke that had the other gryphons warbling mad laughter.

He was often the first to flop down and lay against Blue Jay at night. Then while Blue Jay talked and teased the rest of the group, Cardinal often just rested against him, preening Blue Jay's feathers or nibbling at his neck. He usually only spoke up when he had some hilarious retort to whatever ludicrous boast or invitation Blue Jay had made. I would not have been at all surprised if there was any amorous intent between them, though being stuck in the lair of an enemy was hardly an easy place for such things to develop, let alone to pursue them.

As a group, sensed no open hostility in them now. They seemed to have realized they all owed me their lives for sparing them after our battle. Now that I was sharing the warmth and shelter of my home during their recovery, they owed me even more. While it was clear they did not like me in the least, I did not believe I had anything left to worry about from them, for the time being. Besides, I did not like them, either. At least we had grown to tolerate one another's presence, even if I was longing for the days when Melakar's lair would no longer smell like gryphon.

In the evenings, I tried to study Melakar's journals and information, to learn more about his efforts. But between my own body's healing, and the surprisingly tiring work of supervising a den filled with potential enemies, I ended up exhausted each night. I paged through some of his journals, read some of his notes about various numbered locations upon his great map, but my brain had trouble absorbing the information.

It did not help that it was a slow, tedious process. Melakar had always been a bit scattershot, and the notes he had written about his travels reflected that. In one location's document, he first discussed talking with some kind of human military officials in hopes of learning how to arrange a meeting with a king. But in the next paragraph, he was rambling about how impressive the architecture of some such human building was. On another page, he talked at length about odd protocols of another nation's imperial court, only to veer into a review of the deliciousness of their cooked foods, and something called custard. Admittedly, when I asked Nesh to explain it, it did sound delicious.

The chaotic state of his journals was dismaying, to say the least. The truth surrounding his death was like loose, dry sand. The harder I tried to grasp it, the more it slipped through my fingers. It would probably take me weeks, if not months to read everything he had written, and that was just counting the things he'd been working on recently. I would need Nesh's help, too, considering how many human language books he had. I could not read it all as easily as I could speak it.

By the time I had nearly run out of chores for the gryphons and their allies, I had made little progress. Worse, I felt as if I was running out of time. The truce I'd offered the gryphons would not last forever. When Pigeon was healed, they'd have no more reason to stay here, and when they returned to their people I would have lost one of my few in-roads to getting into one of their cities.

That wasn't even considering the fact that their army remained camped at the edge of my territory. They were coming for my valley, them or another army, and every day I spent puzzling through jumbled writings was another day closer to the conquest of our sacred valley. I had hoped to be able to point out specific bits of information that could vindicate Melakar in the eyes of the gryphons, but I just did not have the time to find them. The best I could do now was to show them the maps, and all the books and documents, and let them draw their own conclusions. Nesh could help give them a tour through everything, the way he'd first done to me.

That settled it, then, I thought as I settled in to sleep.

Tomorrow, I'd show Sparrow and Blue Jay everything, and hope it would be enough. 

*****

Chapter Twenty-Five

Maps

*****

Sparrow paced back and forth, her mottled, dark brown wings half unfurled. Her beak was slightly agape, tongue protruding out just a bit. With two gryphons, a dragon and a human in the confines of what I'd dubbed the map room, the chamber was quite cramped. Sparrow had little room to pace, and yet she managed it by taking only a few steps in each direction before spinning around and stomping back the other way. Sometimes when she turned, her feathered tail bumped against me. Other times, it smacked up against Blue Jay, who sat on his haunches just before the map, carefully studying it. If not for the care Nesh put into tidying up the area before we let them in, I doubted we could have even fit everyone.

“This proves nothing, you know." Sparrow paused her pacing long enough to glare at me. “If anything, it proves he did betray us." She slashed her paw in the air, angrily waving at the map. “This reads to me like a record of all the places he was spying on! All the information he was learning, everything he was reporting back to them!" She set her paw down, glaring at me again. “You know, if you're so keen to make an alliance, you should turn all this over to us, let us present it to your superiors so they can learn exactly what's been compromised. That would go a long ways towards proving to them you're not a part of…of…whatever he was a part of."

I shrugged my wings, silent for the moment. I was happy to let her fume. As far as I could tell, she was as angry at her companion as anything else. The two gryphons had only been looking at the map a little while now, their attention drawn to various critical locations Nesh pointed out. He also shared Melakar's notes with them, the images he'd drawn and so on. It did not take long for the two of them to draw differing conclusions.

Where Sparrow saw evidence of some kind of crime, Blue Jay saw vindication. Despite that, the smaller female hadn't really gotten worked up at first. She explained to me how it could be a record of information he'd collected for their enemies. The invisible lines she drew, and the deductions she mad were rational and believable enough that I was half afraid she be could right. At least, I was until Blue Jay rather loudly sided with Nesh's assessment. Blue Jay thought the that the maps indicated Melakar's attempts to reach out to anyone willing to make peace. no matter what side they were on.

Even that hadn't rattled Sparrow. She was calmly debating him…until Blue Jay let it slip he was starting to believe that their superiors might have shot Melakar down for far more nefarious reasons than even I had considered.

 “I don't know why you're so worked up." Blue Jay glanced over his wings, clicking his beak. “I only suggested-"

“You suggested treason!" Sparrow stomped a forepaw, and battered the indigo male with one of her wings. “That's why I'm worked up! You want to see how big a gallows they have to build to hang a gryphon? Or would you rather they execute you by firing squad?"

“Oh, please." Blue Jay ducked his head away from her wing. “You know full well I haven't committed treason! I'm merely suggesting onr of our generals might have." He glanced my way. “Which, to my Captains credit, an accusation of such against a superior officer without proof is…tantamount to treasonous, itself."

“Especially coming from someone with a disciplinary history as checkered as yours!" Sparrow paced a few more times, muttering under her breath. “What did you think 'last chance' meant, Kraas? You won't get another! You'll either be tossed out on your ass, or back into a jail cell!"

“And I thought being hit in the balls by a dragon, hurt." Blue Jay flattened his ears, glancing away. “Just pull out my pinfeathers one at a time, why don't you?"

“Perhaps that was too far." Sparrow sighed, softening her tone. “I just don't want you to make things worse for yourself."

For now, I was content to let them hash this out amongst themselves, but I was starting to piece things together about Blue Jay's history. I wondered if it was Sparrow herself who offered him that so-called last chance, or if her own superior had just stuck her with him, like it or not.

Though I was content to let them argue and listen in, Nesh had other ideas. He stepped forward to stand between the two of them. He lifted his hands out, holding one in front of each gryphon's beak. It looked as if he was attempting to make their paw-pads up gesture of acquiesce. “Why don't you both take a deep breath, and let Kraas explain his thoughts to Ella?" He gently touched Sparrow's neck, brushing fingers through her feathers. “You don't have to agree, but just let him explain, please?"

Sparrow bowed her head. “So long as he doesn't step too far over his bounds."

Blue Jay glanced around the room, his eyes alighting on each of us for a few seconds. He lifted his crown feathers as he spoke. “Let's assume that all these locations marked on the map, are places he visited personally. He's been all over Diandrios, as well as the lands of our allies, and our enemies. But he's also been to city-state trade hubs neutral to both of us, to old gryphon lands, and so on. Under other circumstances, this would look like some curious old beast's boastful travelogue. And even given that we know otherwise, it still doesn't look like a spy's confession. If anything, it looks to me like…like desperation." He glanced back at Sparrow again, ruffling his crown feathers. “As though he was so consumed with the desire to make an ally, any ally, that could help him protect his people's lands, that he went looking everywhere."

The indigo gryphon shrugged his wings, sighing. “And in the end, that desperation cost him his when we shot him down."

I swallowed hard at that, looking away. Poor Melakar. Blue Jay was onto something, I think. Melakar told me to flee this place, because he had realized we could not fight against that great army, and he knew I would not back down. An army like that would make anyone desperate. And yet, in his own way, he fought back, by trying to make friends from his enemies. A beautiful ideal he gave his life for.

“Maybe we shot him down due to some great misunderstanding." I begrudgingly returned my attention to Blue Jay when he spoke again. Blue Jay sharpened his voice, glancing at Sparrow. “Or maybe it wasn't an accident, wasn't a misunderstanding. Think about it, Captain. He would have needed approval from someone very, very high up to have visited these places. He'd need escorts, he'd need people to help keep his visits a secret, and so on. We both know that the Empress and her contingent have enemies, and that she has some-"

“Enough, Kraas!" Sparrow snapped her wing out and slapped it over his face.

“Now, now," I said, reaching out to gently peel back Sparrow's wing. “You promised to let him speak. Blue Jay, is that what you think happened? That your people betrayed him?"

Blue Jay gave Sparrow a long look, and she finally huffed and glanced away, retracting her wing to allow him to speak freely. The indigo gryphon held up a paw. “I'm saying it's possible. If we assume that the Empress gave someone the go-ahead to negotiate with a dragon, which…has never happened before. Then it's safe to assume that not everyone in our empire would agree with that decision. Someone may have ordered Melakar shot down because they refuse to even consider working with dragons, or…" He reached out to gently smooth down Sparrow's agitated crown feathers. “Or, they may have wanted to make it look like the dragon betrayed us, in order to reflect badly on the empress. Now, to my Captain's credit, suggesting something like that about our superiors is damn near tantamount to treason, unless you've the proof of it. Luckily." He patted Sparrow's neck. “None of them are going to know I said as much, unless my dear captain here reports me."

“Of course not!" Sparrow clacked her beak. “You know I wouldn't do that to you. But you've…" She turned her attention to Nesh and me. “He's a history of getting himself in trouble, and I don't want him to make things worse. It's bad enough our mission to come after you was a spectacular failure. Once we've been seen working with you, he might well get cast out of the Legion entirely this time. Or worse." Sparrow shot the indigo male another hot glare.

“Back to raiding it is." Blue Jay warbled playful amusement. “Or what was it? Rotting my feathers off in a cell, again?"

Sparrow nipped at him a few times till he withdrew from the smaller female. “Unprofessional fool!"

I ignored the bulk of their exchange, for now. “Speaking of being seen with me, I want to leave in the morning. So you two will need to spend the evening hunting enough meat, and gathering enough wood, to last your compatriots the duration of our trip." Before that even time to settle in, I waved at the map. “Blue Jay. Does this really indicate to you that Melakar was betrayed?"

“No." Blue Jay shook his head. “But it indicates it's possible. Just like its possible that Captain Avalek is right, and it indicates he betrayed us. More likely the truth is somewhere in between."

“I begrudgingly agree." Sparrow paced a few more times, grumbling under her breath. “The only way to know for sure would be to study every last note and report Melakar made, and…as you said, that would take months. And even then, it may not be clear cut."

“As of now, I am more inclined to agree with the dragon." Blue Jay shrugged his wings, sweeping the floor with his feathered tail.

Sparrow nipped at his wings. “You would be."

I glanced down at Nesh, who had remained silent in order to let the gryphons hash things out among themselves. “That makes one of them, at least."

Nesh grinned up at me. “I'll take what I can get."

“As will I." I lifted my head, arching my neck. “Blue Jay, would you like to join my empire now?"

“Might as well." Blue Jay chirruped laughter and flashed Sparrow an open-beaked grin. “The old one's kicking me out anyway, from the sounds of it."

Sparrow only glared at him, but I laughed with Blue Jay. “That's what I hear."

I pushed myself up to all fours, then turned away, careful not to knock anyone ever with my tail in the cramped quarters. I gestured for Nesh to go first into the next room. He gave me a wide-eyed look, surprised I was planning to take them there, as well. But in my mind, if I was going to show them the map, I may as well show them everything.

“Come, Birds. There is more I need to show you."

In recent days, Nesh and I had tidied up the room that now served as our sleeping chamber. All the spare treasures and trinkets were picked up and put away inside crates stacked along the walls. Other boxes contained most of the loose items from the room, along with Nesh's few possessions. We had arranged the books on small shelves near the pedestal for the Queen's mantle, organized by language and subject. My bedding took up a large portion of the room, with Nesh's bed neatly fit into a corner. The portrait of myself wearing the Mantle now leaned up against the far wall. Some nights, I liked to gaze upon it as I dozed off. Other nights, I found I could not bring myself to look upon it at all.

I padded into the room and settled near Nesh, who stood near my bedding. He'd already uncovered a few glow-stones and lit a mirrored lantern, illuminating the room in contrasting shades. The two gryphons followed me. Sparrow gave a startled cry when she saw the Mantle. A moment later, and Blue Jay made a low, warbling cooing noise. I doubted either of them would be able to tear their eyes off the thing for a little while, let alone focus on the contents of assorted books and tomes. So I beckoned them forward and waved at the Mantle.

“Yes, yes, you may approach it." I set my paw back down, smiling. “You may even touch it, if you're careful. However, you are not to tell the humans this is here. I don't trust them, yet. I don't really trust you two, either, but I believe you will abide our truce, at the least. I'm only showing you this to try and prove a few things."

“What is that thing?" Sparrow circled around the pedestal, her eyes wide, and ears flat back in lingering shock. Her beak hung open. “Are those real jewels? Is that real gold? Is it pure, solid all the way through? I…I knew dragons were said to hoard treasures, but I thought it was a myth! You…you could fund a whole damn army with this!" She reached out, and reverently brushed her paw over some of the inlaid stones, then cupped the hanging tail of the Fire Dragon, crusted with rubies. “What is this thing?"

“That," I said, arching my neck in pride. “Is the-"

“It's the Queen's damn Mantle!" Blue Jay stepped towards it, his wings half-unfurled, and his ears straight up. “You…You have it now? This is where it ended up?"

I slowly turned my head towards him, flaring my spines. I'd have been angry he cut me off if I wasn't so baffled by the fact that he knew what it was. Judging by the way Nesh was staring at him, slack-jawed, he was as shocked as I was. I gathered myself, thumping my tail against the ground for their attention.

“Yes, it is called the Queen's Mantle." I glanced at Sparrow, who ruffled herself up as if suddenly indignant that a foul creature like me should have something that sounded so important. “It was the symbol of our clan's power, when…" I unsheathed my claws against the floor, idly scratching little lines. “When we had a clan, anyway. Many generations ago. It was like a crown, essentially, worn as emblem of the queen's ultimate authority."

“Actually," Nesh said, rubbing his increasingly-bristly chin. “Didn't you have a king once in a while, too? What did you say his name was, Alchemist the Gray?" He blinked, then shook his head. “No, it wouldn't be Alchemist, would it, that was stupid."

“Algakest, Nesh."

“That's the one!" Nesh bounced on his toes, then knit his furry eye ridges. “Was it still called the Queen's Mantle then? For that matter, was Algakest referred to as Queen? I'm not asking to a make a joke, mind you." Nesh held his hands up. “I'm genuinely curious. As I'm starting the term Queen is perhaps more the rest of the way you've translated it. See, to humans, Queen specifically means a female ruler, and king, a male ruler. Now, to dragons I rather doubt the difference matters, and I'm starting to think perhaps, in your own tongue, you use Queen interchangeably, and-"

“Nesh, it's not the time," I said, thumping my tail. “So with respect, shut up."

Nesh laughed and bowed with a playful flourish. “Yes, your majesty."

I turned my focus back to Blue Jay, my spines flared once more, crimson edges of my frills on threatening display. “The more important question in my mind is, how do you know what that is?" I put a paw to my chest. “I'd never even seen it in person until…" I trailed off, realizing I was coming awfully close to revealing I may had mislead them about just whose home this really was. “Till he brought it here."

“So he brought it back?" Blue Jay circled the thing, pushing past Sparrow in a way that left his feathers brushing all across her body. She nipped at him a few times, but I could not tell if she was responding to an affront or an invitation. Either way, he batted her face with his tail, and earned himself another nip. That one made him hiss, but other than that, he ignored her efforts to chastise him. When he reached the front of the Mantle, he sat before it, stroking it with his paw pads. “I suppose I should have guessed as much, given all the places it looks like he's been."

“You haven't answered my question." I growled at him, a low, frustrated sound. “And I have to express my irritation by nipping at you like your Captain did, I'm going to draw blood."

Blue Jay snorted, glancing at Sparrow over the Mantle. “So does she, half the time."

Sparrow glared right back at him, pinning her ears. “Which ought to tell you something about your unacceptable behaviors."

Blue Jay just tossed his head. “City gryphons." He took a moment to preen his wing, then returned his attention to me. “I know what it is because there was a time gryphons had it."

I drummed my claw tips against the floor. I'd heard similar stories, and I would not be surprised if it was true. All I knew for certain was that it had gone missing in ages past, somewhere in the midst of our clan's gradual downfall. Since then, it was little more than a rumor, and a myth. Were it not sitting before me, I might have thought our kind never truly owned something so beautiful. Even as a rumor in my youth, it was generally assumed it was either sitting in some human kingdom's treasure room, or long since melted down and formed into something more useful by whoever had claimed it.

Several long moments passed in awkward silence. I stared at Blue Jay without speaking, and soon, so did Nesh and Sparrow. At first he seemed pleased by the attention, taking the time to preen his other wing while we all watched him. But when no one spoke for longer still, he swallowed and shifted his weight a few times.

Finally, he gave a frustrated squawk. “Well, isn't anyone going to ask me why gryphons had it? Or how I know that gryphons had it? Or-"

“I assume it was stolen." I snorted, and then did my best to emulate him. I stretched a wing tip forward, and idly nibbled at it as if more interested in easing a mild itch than hearing whatever tale he was so dying to tell us. “Probably by whatever infamous and ill-spawned ancestors you claim, given your seeming knowledge and excitement."

“Oh, please!" Sparrow padded around the pedestal to stand next to him. With him seated on his haunches and her standing, she still had to stretch her neck to nip at his ears. “Kraas hasn't got any notorious ancestors, famous or infamous! Just because he comes from a raiding clan doesn't mean they ever did anything of note!"

“That is patently untrue!" Blue Jay pulled his head away from her, then tried to shove her aside.

“So…" Nesh nudged me with his elbow. “How long do you think they were lovers for, before they split up?"

“Shut up!" Sparrow and Blue Jay snapped at him almost simultaneously.

I smiled down at my vassal. “I'd say years, at the least, to have built all that up." I waved my wing at them. “Blue Jay, enough flirting with your ex-mate. Tell me what you know." 

Blue Jay smoothed back his ears and crown feathers with his paw, grumbling to himself. Then he cleared his throat with an odd noise, half growl and half warble. “As a matter of fact, it was stolen, in a daring, dangerous raid conceived of and executed by gryphons who are in fact, relatives of mine." He adjusted his wings and tilted his head. “Admittedly, distant relatives."

“In other words…" Sparrow cocked a wing as if ready to buffet him with it. “One of them was said to have had blue feathers, and so you're claiming him as your relative."

Blue Jay ignored her and her threateningly positioned wing entirely. “It happened back when gryphons were still warring with dragons for territory, at least to my knowledge. Both our species greatest of clans had long since fragmented. While your people squabbled over who should next rule them…" Blue Jay threw both wings out, one of which blocked Sparrow off from view entirely. “Ours heroically swept in under their very muzzles, snatched their greatest treasure, and flew off into the night! Then, using it as symbol of their own might, used it to help unite the other raiding clans. A truly great moment for gryphons, everywhere."

Sparrow grabbed at his wing with both hands, shoving it down out of her face. “A great moment for thieves everywhere, anyway."

Blue Jay pulled his wing back, folding it against his body. He splayed his ears. “Well, we can't all be hatched in a human city."

Before they descended into quarreling again, I lifted my voice, speaking loudly enough to draw both their attention. “It's not inconceivable."

Much like a great and powerful clan of dragons once ruled the valley, so to did a powerful gryphon clan once rule their own lands. And just like us, there were many other rival clans often vying for power. It was said that the long enmity that existed between our peoples came into being during our first contacts with one another.

In the eons before the great human and other bipedal civilizations that swept across the world, dragons and gryphons were the greatest creatures in all the land. Melakar once told me the proper term was apex predators. Each of us was at the top of our respective ecological niche, and as our populations expanded, need for food, water and shelter pushed each of our people to claim more and more territory. When we met each other, we both needed the same things. Apex predators, Melakar said, often had trouble co-existing. Each species needed to claim enough food, water, and land for its own expansion, and so we sought to take it from each other.

Generations of often blood conflict resulted. Eventually, truces were made, concessions given on either side, but the anger towards one another remained. Now, many generations later, time had reduced that animosity to something resembling a long-simmering general dislike. I did not particularly like gryphons, but neither did I hate them. I was perfectly willing to consider some of them friends, and allies. I imagined they felt the same way about dragons, though Sparrow seemed to have absorbed the humans twisted religious hatred towards our people. At least Blue Jay seemed more open minded.

The raiding clans Blue Jay claimed ancestry from got their start and the reputation from the days of war between our people. Raiding clans were warrior gryphons, training from their youth to fight, to protect, and often, to conquer. There akin to noble warriors, once, undertaking battle and conquest for the betterment of their species. There was something in that I could respect, as it sounded like something dragons had once done.

But as generations past, and there was less land to conquer and fewer dragons to fight, some of the raider clans turned against each other. It was no longer dragon territory they claimed, but the lands of other gryphons, of smaller clans. And as more time past, their habits got them ostracized from their people. They became more akin to bandits, stealing from everyone, gryphon, human, dragon, and so on. That was about the extent of my knowledge of gryphon raider history. I suspected, based on what I'd pieced together, that Blue Jay was once part of some such clan. He clearly had combat experience and a lot of training, but I imagined his people had taken to raiding human nations. Somewhere along the line, he'd been caught.

“What do you mean, it's not inconceivable?" Blue Jay puffed up his chest. “Everyone from my clan knows that story! It was our ancestors who stole it! I even saw the damn thing once, when I was a fledging! It was in a secret place, known only to the clan's elders and our High Talonmasters."

“Talonmasters?" I snorted, splaying my ears and flicking my tail. “That's a stupid title. Do you also have a Chief Feather Arranger?"

Nesh laughed and nudged me with his elbow. “Or perhaps an Admiral of Preening!" Then his smile fell. “No, wait, they wouldn't have an admiral without a navy. Although, they do fly, so…"

“Quit while you're ahead, Nesh." I curled a wing down to drape it over his back.

Blue Jay puffed up even further, till he looked like an indigo and gray pillow. “If you're done belittling my people's grand traditions-"

“Of thievery," Sparrow said, clacking her beak.

Blue Jay ignored her again. “Then I'd be quite interested in hearing how you reacquired it."

That was something I wanted to know, too. But I wasn't sure I wanted to tell them that. “I still don't know how your people acquired it in the first place." I scratched my neck with a wingtip talon. “While I believe it's entirely possible, perhaps even likely that it was stolen by gryphons, I doubt your people took it." I held up a paw to silence his reply. “I do not mean that as insult. I simply mean I can only imagine that it has switched hands and ownership so many times over the last few hundred years that it may well have been possessed by a dozen different gryphon clans. Hell, I remember rumors of human kingdoms that claimed to possess it, trophy to commemorate all the dragons they had slain. I also heard a cadre of va'chaak warrior-merchants smuggled it to the far ends of the known lands, seeking passage to the unknown realms beyond the sea, where they planned to use it to found a new empire."

“Actually, Ella, most of the unknown realms are…" Nesh trailed off when I stared at him. He bowed his head. “Right, not now, my apologies."

“My point is, gryphon," I said, returning my attention to Blue Jay. “While I am willing to believe you heard all manner of stories about it, so have I. And while I am also willing to believe you've even glimpsed the thing before, that doesn't prove to me your people took it. Besides, if you did…wouldn't you already know how Melakar reclaimed it?"

“I…haven't exactly been in contact with my old clan for a while." Blue Jay warbled in thought, working his beak. “Did he tell you about how he got it back?"

I grit my teeth. Sooner or later, I might have to break down and tell the truth. “Another of his many adventures he did not wish to talk to me about. I don't suppose you know how he reclaimed it?" A smile split my muzzle. “Perhaps through glorious battle?" I snorted, then shook my head. “Not really his style, sadly. More likely, I suspect he negotiated for it, through…" I arched my neck, forcing strength and pride into my voice. “Through glorious, glorious diplomacy!"

Blue Jay shrugged his wings, chirruping. “Either that, or he knew just which important gryphons to pleasure to earn it back."

If he was trying to rankle me, it wasn't going to work. “If a few tongue-favors are all it took to get something that valuable back from your people, I would seriously question your clan's priorities. Though, I can also tell you, it's hardly something he'd have needed time to consider."

“Yes, he was quite the…the…" Nesh waggled his hand as he sought the right words, then thrust a finger at the gryphon. “Quite the dragon about town, I'll have you know."

I glanced down at him, snorting. “You're not helping, Nesh."

“How would you even know, Medic?" Blue Jay warbled and tilted his head, gazing at Nesh. He flicked a wing tip towards me. “You never even met this dragon till her mate was already gone."

“Yes, well, I can assure I've heard plenty of stories." He folded his arms, rising onto the balls of his feet. “Plenty of stories, alright. Too many, some might say."

Sparrow chittered gryphon laughter. “Oh? Is that how you've been entertaining your captive, Dragon? Telling him all your lovers mating conquests?"

Nesh scrunched his face. “Actually, you'd be surprised how much she talks about-"

“Nesh!" I snapped my jaws. “Do I have to throw a blanket over you for a while?"

“I'm not a parakeet, Ella." Nesh rolled his eyes. “But point taken."

I only stared at him, my frills half-perked and ears splayed in confusion. “What is a pear-ah-keet?"

“Wait, if you don't know what they are, then why would you throw a blanket over me?" Nesh scratched his head.

“To shut you the hell up for a while!" I wrapped my wing around him, pulling him up against my body. While Nesh pushed ineffectually against my wing membranes, I turned my gaze back to the gryphon. “So you don't know he got it back?"

Blue Jay shook his head. “Not the slightest idea. But…" He pushed himself up to his paws, and wandered to the makeshift bookshelves Nesh had arranged on either side of the Mantle's display pedestal. “I cannot help noticing some of these tomes appear to be titled in the gryphon language, or to be of gryphon make. There could be more clues in there, if…" Blue Jay glanced at me over his wings. “Can you read the gryphon tongue?"

“No." I licked my nose, grimacing. “But Melakar could. Can you tell what they're about from, or what they're about?" Though I knew the gryphons could easily lie to me about the titles and contents of things I could not read, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for the time being. “Maybe he retrieved them whenever he retrieved the Mantle."

“I'll admit, one did immediately catch my eye." Blue Jay unsheathed a single claw and ran it down the red spine of one of the books. Runic gryphon sigils were embossed upon it in gold. “This looks very new, and not many gryphon clans make their own parchment or books. So, that might narrow things down, though it's just as possible they had it made and written up in some human city, as well. But it was the title that really struck me."

Nesh wriggled his way out from under my wing, grasping at its edges to pull it down past his face. His fingers tickled, and made my membranes twitch. “Well, don't keep us in suspense! What's it called?"

“Irrik Oro." Blue Jay tapped the book, then retracted his claw and set his forepaw down, turning back towards us. “Which is a specific, and very important phrase in our language that only loosely translates into the common tongue."

Sparrow made a thoughtful warbling noise. “Blood bond."

“See?" Blue Jay offered a gryphon smile, beak open and ears perked upright. “Even the city gryphon knows." This time it was Blue Jay who snapped his wing out across Sparrow's face to cut off her retort. “Irrik Oro refers the shared shedding of blood. Clans who fought together, who drew blood for each other." He softened his voice, his ears drooping. “Who bled for each other. Even died for one another. It's come to symbolize a tight bond since then, but, originally it meant something bigger." Blue Jay turned his head, staring at the painting of me wearing the Mantle. “It looks good on you."

I flattened back my spines, not wanting to look at the picture right now. “When you say, something bigger, what…what exactly do you mean?"

Blue Jay took a deep breath, then glanced back at Sparrow. They shared something knowing in their gaze, and it put me ill-at-ease. My belly twisted when they both turned their gaze upon me, suspicion shining in their narrowed eyes. Their postures changed, muscles tensed up. Blue Jay rankled his feathers, and Sparrow did the same, her hackles raised. “You…really don't know?"

Ever so slightly, I used my wing to ease Nesh back, gently urging him to get behind me. In case things suddenly went bad, I did not want him to be between us if it came to battle. I forced myself to keep my claws sheathed, and my fangs veiled within my muzzle. There was no reason to push them from suspicious into outright hostile, if I could help it. Yet only when Nesh was out of the immediate potential area for danger did I reply.

“I don't know what?" I kept my voice as even as possible, not wishing to present myself as threat.

This time it was Sparrow who took over, her Captain's instincts perhaps coming out again. “I found it increasingly difficult to believe that as the so-called Queen of this valley…" She swept her paw towards the painting, her claw tips slipping out. “A position that would indicate you've held for some time…that you do not know what your own mate was up to. If that book is what Kraas suspects it to be, it is a very important thing that surely a Queen would about."

Blue Jay clicked his beak, a single, sharp concussive sound. “She'd have had to sign it."

A frigid shudder ran through my, rustling my wings. I'd have had to sign a book? I had no idea what the gryphon was talking about, and all at once, they seemed very dangerous knowledge to be missing. I suddenly felt as if I'd spent the last few days blithefully treading on very thin ice, and finally, I had plunged into the deep, cold unknown. The gryphons seemed to know more about what Melakar was doing than I did.

I had been dishonest about our lives together in hopes of convincing them we were building an empire together, that despite the emptiness of our valley I had long been Queen with plans to build something greater, but now that dishonestly had its teeth sunk firmly into my haunches. I'd unintentionally made it seem as if I was feigning ignorance, and now, they were rightfully suspicions of my intentions, endangering our truce.

Sparrow threw her wings out, her feathers fluffed. She looked twice her normal size. “If you're feigning ignorance about an irrik oro with one of our clans, for reasons I could not fathom, then I cannot help but wonder what other things you are not being honest about." She dropped her head and gave a low, threatening hiss. “Are you covering for something? Do you have a clan out there after all, hidden away in the mountains, waiting to ambush our people? Have you brought raiders here to help you? No…No, I do not think even a raiding clan of gryphons would support something that foolish. So what, then, have your people fled to join them? Wise, but why they leave their Queen and her chief diplomat behind?"

Little by little, a great realization pieced itself together in my head. A blood bond, with gryphons. Something 'bigger' than just a bond. Something they both seemed to think important, that surely I would know about. A brand new book, only just made, that they thought a ruler would have to sign. But that made it sound like…

I gasped when it struck me. “It's an alliance!" I dropped back onto my haunches, heart thumping against my chest plates. “It's not a book, it's a written treaty! That's how he got the Mantle back!" Incredulous laughter spilled from me before I could stop it, and I curled my neck around to grin down at Nesh. “Concubine, we have a treaty-alliance! At least, I think we do…" I couldn't stop laughing, my wings shaking at my sides. “Melakar, you magnificently diplomatic bastard, how did you do it?"

Sparrow and Blue Jay glanced at each other, confusion taking the place of suspicion in their eyes. Sparrow gradually furled her wings again. “She…she really doesn't know?"

I quickly swiveled my head back around, pointing my muzzle towards the book shelf. “Is that what it is?

“I cannot know without reading it, but…" Blue Jay flexed his wings, his aggressive posture slowly relaxing. “That was a time when that was exactly what an irrik oro was. An alliance between clans, a claim that they would fight for each other, and even die for each other, if necessary. The terms were written in a pair of books, made either by gryphons or other species, and each clan was given one. The rulers of each clan signed them in blood, and then such treaties were considered binding." Blue Jay waved his paw at Sparrow. “Avalek's clan forged an irrik oro with Nesh's people, the first non-gryphon clan to receive such an alliance."

Sparrow nodded a few times. “It's partly how the Gryphon Legion was founded. But…As Queen, you…you'd have to know this. If you didn't…" Sparrow took a deep breath, then let it out in a long, slow sigh. “How long have you been Queen, Ellamyriss?"

“Unofficially?" I chuckled, bittersweet. It was time for honesty, in all its painful purity. “About five days. When I declared myself queen to you, out there in the snow, after our second fight. I think that was the moment I made my final decision about it. About my valley. I…I didn't even realize the scope of it, at the time, but I think that was when I decided to stay and fight for this place, as Melakar would have fought for it. Not with claw and flame, but words and alliances."

“So…" Sparrow scratched at the stone floor with a few claws. “Your mate was King, after all, and you've just taken over for him."

I clenched my muzzle, and lashed my tail against some bedding. “I do not think Melakar would have ever dubbed himself such, but…" I sighed, hanging my head. “For all intents and purposes, it certainly seems that way. I will not officially be Queen until I have undertaken the rites of royalty. Which I will require Nesh's help for, and will take several days of preparation and travel, at the least. So they will have to wait until after we have been to…" I licked my nose, anxiety twisting my belly into an uncomfortable knot. “Whatever city you plan to take me to."

Sparrow tilted her head towards Blue Jay. “We have one picked out, but we can talk about that later. For now, you…" Her eyes darted about, from the Mantle, to the portrait, to the books and eventually back to me. “You…really didn't know what he was doing?"

“No." I shook my head. “If he was King, then I was General, or…or enforcer." I rumbled under my breath, shifting my weight back and forth a few times. “I do not think he wished to tell me of his efforts until he had everything secured. Whether to shield me from any potential dangers, or simply because he feared I might try to change his mind, that I might succeed, I do not know. Maybe he just feared I'd laugh at him."

“Ella." Nesh came forward again now that tensions had eased. He sat a hand upon my foreleg, gently stroking it. “Tell them the rest. I think it's time."

In all his many ramblings, Nesh said a lot of foolish things. The humans had an expression, about feet in maws. Dragons had a similar saying, about chewing one's own tail. But despite all that, Nesh had far more wisdom in him than I think I cared to admit. He was brilliant with medicine. Perhaps he was just as wise with matters of the heart, and of the soul. In this, I would trust his judgement.

“The truth is," I said, my voice soft and trembling, a mournful ghost wandering an empty corridor. “I hadn't talked to Melakar in a decade, if not longer. This place…" I waved my paw around us. “It wasn't our home, not for ages. It was only his. After our son left home, we…we fought. Often. Angry fighting, shouting, blaming each other for any little thing. For the sudden emptiness we both felt in our home, and in our hearts, when Vevarek was gone. And I think…" My throat tightened, hot and painful. Tears brimmed in my eyes. “I think I pushed them both away. My son, and my mate. With…with my stubbornness, my anger, my…my refusal to choose safety, over duty. I pushed away my son…"

Tears ran down my muzzle in wet streaks. “And I blamed my mate…and I shattered my family. And for…" I lifted my paw to wipe my eyes. “For ten long years, I have been alone. Losing myself in my duty to the valley. Waiting, waiting for the end, I suppose. Hoping my son was happy, somewhere. That…that Melakar was happy. In…in the back of my heart, I still loved him, but…I could never find the courage inside me to seek him out, to apology. And so…while I wallowed in…whatever self-piteous swamp I'd mired myself in, while I thought only to protect this place with fire, and blood…Melakar sought another way. A way, I fear, he was afraid to share with me. Perhaps…he did not want me to ruin his chance to save our valley, the way I now fear I had ruined the family we once made together. I had…"

My throat squeezed tighter, and I growled a few times, trying to clear it. I sniffled, and wiped fresh tears from the scales of my face. “I had so many chances, to go to him, to put things right…I thought…I thought I'd have decades, a century. And then one morning, I found him bleeding to death in the snow, and there was no time left at all. And all I could do was hold him, while he died. And…in the end, he…he told me to flee. To let him be the last to die for this place. Even in the end…" I stole a glance at the portrait, and it finally broke me. Sobs overwhelmed me, and I scarcely forced words across my tongue. “He was...thinking of...me."

“It's alright, Ella." Nesh wrapped his arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. He stroked my scales, holding me while I cried. “It's alright."

“We can…" Sparrow's voice was gentle now, subdued and reverent. “We can give you some time, Dragon. Come on, Kraas."

Through bleary, half tear-blind eyes, I saw her wave her wing towards the door, signaling it was time for her and her companion to depart. I gave Nesh's hands a grateful nuzzle, then lifted my head, trying to put some strength back into my voice. “No!" My words came out as a rasp, but at least it was a commanding rasp. “Stay."

I was not going to shirk from this. Though it humiliated me to cry before my enemies, it was not the first time I had done so lately. If they were to know the truth, then they may as well know he whole truth. My truth. Besides, I all too well I may not be able to bring myself to speak of it again. The gryphons shared a look, then settled back down, waiting quietly.

“Somehow, I…" I took a shaking breath, fighting to steady myself. “I always thought I'd…have more time. But he kept to his end of the valley, and I to mine. We saw each other a few times, but…only ever spoke a few terse words, and always about the valley, always about duty. He never…never once mentioned to me what he was doing…" I turned my head, forcing myself to stare at the painting Melakar had made of me, wearing the Mantle. “Or that…that he still loved me. He…he must have thought I hated him. That…I didn't want to see him. That I would call him a fool, naïve and optimistic, if he ever dared tell me he wished to save our valley by making peace with our old enemies. And…"

I swallowed a few time, trying to dislodge the stubborn, uncomfortable lump in my throat. “And I would have. And even as he took his last breaths, even as he lay dying in my arms, he…he spoke nothing of his progress, of his successes. He…just begged me to leave. He had seen the might of your army, and he had seen the fury of my heart, and he knew…I would spend myself, just to defy a foe I could not hope to beat. And he was right…I'd have died for this valley." I sniffled again, shaking my head. “And I'd have died for him, if I could have saved his life. But I could not save him, and I could not save our valley. At least…not like that." I stared at the portrait for a long time, and tears streaked down the pebbly scales of my face. “But he had come up with another way to save our home."

A whimpering sob wracked me, and Nesh hugged my neck again. I encircled a foreleg around him, thankful for his comfort. After a few deep breaths, I turned my attention back to the two gryphons. “When you first saw me, flying here with Nesh, I was not returning home. We were coming to Melakar's lair, to collect his belongings. All your ambush interrupted was…was my mourning."

Both gryphons shifted, gazing at their forepaws, rustling their wings. Neither spoke up.

“It is an age old tradition we have. When a dragon dies, loved ones take possession of their belongings, of mementos and trinkets, things large and small alike, anything with a memory wrapped around it. A little piece of them that might live, through another dragon. But for me, there was…more than that, to coming here. More than grief and mourning." I splayed my ears, licking my muzzle. Tears left a hint of salt lingering on my tongue. “I had to know what he died for. What he was doing. And…and at long last, I have my answer. I will likely never know all the specifics, why he was betrayed, who was truly responsible for his death, but at least I know what he died for." I lifted a forepaw, and swept it around the room, as if indicating everything beyond us. “For our valley! For our people! Maybe even for your people, gryphon. He was building a nation, an empire, forging alliances. And that portrait?" I glanced at it, but only for a moment. I had looked upon his vision of me long enough, for now. “I think he wanted me to lead it…but not until everything was ready. Not until he could come to me, and prove that it was not some old fool's optimistic dream, but that it was had become a reality. That had he built the foundation for a nation of dragons, that he had forged the chains of alliance, and that he had laid for us a pathway to peace…And that all it needed now was a Queen. He must have thought that was the only way I'd ever agree."

I heaved a sigh, my wings drooping. “There was a time he was right. But then I saw that portrait, and I realized, at long last, that it was my fault we had parted. My stubbornness, my bitterness, my anger that kept us apart. All the very things Melakar refused to give in to. I saw in that painting the person he hoped I could be someday. And then…" I hugged Nesh against my body, gently rubbing his back. “Then Nesh confessed something to me, something deep, and personal, that I will not share with you. But…it made me realize that this…this human, this…dragonslayers' medic…was a better, with a bigger heart, than I had ever been. Nesh was…Nesh was the sort of person Melakar wished I would be. The sort of person I sometimes wonder if I ever was…as though I'd long since faded into my own shadow, consumed with bitterness and self-pity. It's like…" I unsheathed my claws, scratching at my chest plates. “Like a skin, I want to shed." I dropped my paw back down, strength rising in my voice. “And shed it I will. For Nesh, for Melakar, I have pledged myself to be a better person. To be the person they deserved, to…to be the Queen our nation deserves."

Slowly, I pushed myself up to all fours, a grand and powerful determination replacing the sorrow that still burned in my soul. “And a Queen I shall be. Make no mistake, gryphons. I will see our nation brought to life. I will see a home for dragons built in this valley, or beyond it if I must. Give me a chance, and I will happily forge an alliance with your people, with your empire, and I will be your greatest ally. Or, you can force me from my valley, force me to build my empire in some far flung land…and you will find me an enemy beyond your reckoning. And when I return, it will be with an army of dragons and all who would call us friend, and I will take back our sacred valley with claw, flame, and blood. The choice will be yours. I can be be your staunchest ally or your most ruinous adversary. But one way or another, this valley will be mine, and it will be home to dragons again. I promise you this, gryphons. I will complete Melakar's dream of a nation for dragons, whatever it takes. For his memory, and…and for my son." I quieted. If I succeeded, would Vevarek come home? After a moment, I bowed my head to the gryphons. “How I complete that dream, well…that choice will be yours."

“Well said, Ella." Nesh rubbed my smiling at me. “Very well said."

“Thank you, Concubine." I chuckled despite my sniffles, nuzzling his hand when he moved it to my jawline.

Blue Jay took a slow breath, till all his indigo and gray feathers were puffed out. He let it out just as slowly. “If you'd given that speech to the Empress, you might well have convinced her."

Sparrow chirruped softly. “Or gotten yourself killed then and there, so she wouldn't have worry about some army of dragons descending upon her someday." She quickly held her forepaws up. “That was a joke…mostly. Look, Dragon. I…I believe you mean what you say. We might not like each other, but…I think we'd both agree, we'd each make better allies than enemies. When the time comes…" She trailed off, shaking her head. “No, I'd better not promise anything."

“I'd rather you were on our side than have to kick your ass again, anyway." Blue Jay warbled laughter.

“You didn't even come close to kicking my ass either time we fought!"

“S'not how I remember it." A crooked smile spread his beak.

“If nothing else…" Sparrow lifted her eyes to the portrait. “I believe you now, that you were not involved. And…if Melakar formed an irrik oro with a gryphon clan then…suffice it to say, I don't know why he would betray other allies. That's…as far as I'm willing to go."

“Apology accepted."

“I didn't apologize." Sparrow shot me a glare, but her anger and irritability melted as quickly as they came. “I am, however…" She turned her attention back to the painting. Her voice softened into a gentle whisper. “Sorry for your loss."

That hit me harder than anything else she could have said, simply because for the first time since I'd met her, I knew she meant it. And for perhaps the first time in all her life, Sparrow sympathized for a dragon. That made for two of them, now. Two people who were raised to hate us, who saw as monsters and demons. Two people who came to see us as so much more.

Two people who grew to recognize the pain in the heart of a long lonely dragon.

“Th-thank you," I said, my voice a barely audible murmur.

I pulled Nesh close again, gently hugging him. I doubted he knew why I was hugging him again, and that was fine. I was feeling hopeful now, for the first time in a long time. If I could change the minds of dragonslayer's medic, and of a gryphon who thought me a demon, then surely I could change so many more. I might not be a diplomat like Melakar, but so far I seemed to be making do. That was two for two, now, from hatred to sympathy. One of them had already turned to friendship. Perhaps in time the other would, too.

Though I didn't know it, at the time, I was already building my empire.  

*****

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