《Endless Stars》 Sifting I: Crizzle, part i Somewhere above, as if waiting, the loversuns still shone. enveloping. meinstead. losteach other so quickly. couldsmell her, but that was awash in everything else, nothing but a tinge. Hinte had been more than enveloped, she¡¯d beenswallowed, just like me. walkand ask unanswered questions? It should have been worth it. Instead, I¡¯d lost Hinte again. gone. Tremble before me! sinking.
Below, furious molten glass burned beneath a fa?ade of hardened dust and glaze. The heat of the lake¡¯s blood rose and animated the air, driving it upward. I found it curious, as that same heat wore me down, draining my energy with every step I took toward¡­ with every aimless step forward. No sign of Hinte. allof it. burn, even from strides away. Hinte and I could avoid them???¡ª??we did???¡ª??but I only learned thatafterHinte snatched me from the path to one. I hadn¡¯t known about them then, and Hinte hadn¡¯t told meanything. stink; if it wasn¡¯t sohot; if the air wasn¡¯t so dark andspooky; if the ground wasn¡¯t the worst of lousy desert sand and ice-covered watercombined; if, honestly, if I just wasn¡¯t here.
For all I missed having Hinte around, it didn¡¯t really change that much. You were stillsifting, in spirit: trudge warily over a flimsy skin; pray the stars it doesn¡¯t smash open beneath you; bear the heat, and dryness, anddust;drink your water, but not too quickly; get used to the rumbling quiet, because Hinte definitely wasn¡¯t going to make any talk. hatesifting.¡± My lips had already moved before I¡¯d startled and covered them. burst, my legs punching me up, my wings spreading. I might have squeaked. But the voice sounded like Hinte, fearless Hinte, determined Hinte. So I hadn¡¯t squeaked at all???¡ª??I wouldn¡¯t squeak with her watching. She¡¯d brought me with her for a reason, and that reason couldn¡¯t have been making pathetic sounds when she called my name. Even if it were completely out of nowhere, with no warning at all. thatwas definitely what held me back. passit to me? Smile gone, I snapped my tongue and aimed a glare at Hinte. dryand seemed tinted vaguely green. dropit. I wasn¡¯t that useless. worthy, in her estimation. But I would bleed these crabs, brew her the purification mixture as a gift, and it would prove I could be an alchemist just like her. She would finally tell me why she came to the lake. * * * Sifting I: Crizzle, part ii In the time it took me to pick up and bag the crab, the bright-white figure had faded in the vog. When I flicked my tongue, there was her scent, minty grapes. The smell found her somewhere???¡ª??not far???¡ª??to my left. A leap and a short glide brought me along the scent gradient???¡ª??some strides behind her, if I had to guess. I had! It smelled better than my honey chamomile, at any rate. pleasant, not the way it had been with my brother. She didn¡¯t make it so, and I wasn¡¯t waiting for it. But I had to stop and stare at how silent and scowly she was this evening. Maybe she was shedding? knew she was glaring, even with her curling frills half-shrouded. wasn¡¯t a manifestation of the serpentine lake, prepared to swallow me completely; it was my friend. didn¡¯t almost bump into her again. In fact, I backed up several paces, so you could never mistake that. proper. toward what was tearing open the lake skin, but the wiver didn¡¯t seem worried; and she¡¯d never given me a choice besides trusting her. Did you do something wrong?¡± that mad at me, then.
At last, there came a final crack???¡ª??followed by even more humming. smiled, but the absence of a frown was starting to look like a smile, after so much time alone with Hinte. seen this; I knew from seeing it a half-dozen times before. slither for all the difference it would make! tried to, though she wouldn¡¯t try not too, either. I had slowed down, and she hadn¡¯t noticed. Why can¡¯t we be friends? doing things again, moving. It was okay. stench of this place. Or how her frills still adjusted as she walked along, even though I could hear nothing. I extended my own frills just to check again. Nothing! The lake skin rattled, our footsteps cracked the dustone, and my heart tapped in my breast???¡ª??except I didn¡¯t need frills to feel that last one. point of it, what she listened for. It felt like I had all of the pieces in my wings, I just needed to put them together. huge. I folded mine back, pressed mine back until they might as well have merged with my scales. That difference fledged a smile, my wings twitching and half-spreading, my hindlegs digging a little deeper into the ground. should. My wings could move me faster, take me farther, than my legs ever would. But¡­ I came here with Hinte. She wasn¡¯t flying, and I would get lost in the lake without her. flying again! That¡¯s what mattered. I bounced in the air a little. And I might have done it twice, if the motion hadn¡¯t sent an awful throb through my skull. Now that I focused, there gnawed a weary ache on the fringes of my mind. It quivered with every flap of my wings. Ignore it. I fly, at least? Please?¡± I held out my forefeet. * * * Sifting I: Crizzle, part iii As I slinked along, my only warning was a sudden lurch. My hindleg tripped on a crag! I stumbled, flew forward. One foreleg buckled. I threw the other out to break my fall. But the leg punched through the ground! Dustone cracked, disintegrating, and a burst of dust sprayed onto my brilles. I was more important, right now. The leg glistened a warm golden yellow. As I watched, it hardened to glass, glazing onto the scales. The new glass grew murky and speckled with flakes of stone and metal, already vitrifying where it met the air. me, and that hurt more, right now. No. It doesn¡¯t matter. died! Draw two deep breaths. Then four. Then six. Let it go. You lived, that was enough. that would be even more of a nightmare to clean. foreverto scrape off completely. I would have to wait until we left the lake, as much as it bothered me. But I slid my other foreleg over it, sloughing off some still-liquid hunks of glass. awful! The blackened, burned gash stretched a few claw lengths along my foreleg, bleeding and blistering. Lumps of mottled glass stuck out from my foreleg. And on the clear patches, the protective black slime oozed back, almost glued to my skin. The glass formed almost rubbery the closer it''d glazed to the slime; and the stuff flaked or crizzled more than it shattered. died¡­
Above me, Hinte stared, frills wrinkling as she huffed, sounding both annoyed and exasperated. on the lake, not in it.¡± She made a walking gesture with four toes. help me up? long rings. I¡¯d spent all evening in the Berwem. lifted Hinte. She had flown out into the cliffs every cycle in the few moons I had known her. I wanted to know why, and I wanted to help her. something of the stones¡¯ secret. I didn¡¯t hold my breath, though. you are injured. Do not lie to me,¡± she hissed. Hinte!¡± I rasped. fine,¡± I said, but even I found it weak. prevent these burns.¡± wanted to talk to. We could be friends.
For once, something new lay under the blackened ash sky and the fake glass stars shining from below instead of somewhere above me. Here, the crags and pits of the Berwem deepened, becoming troughs and valleys and gorges. Scaly plates of dustone met and hugged each other so tightly they folded together into mountains as high as my withers. She never tells me anything! I mouthed to myself. My imagined voice is deep and stormy, with clarity and anger I¡¯d never allow into my voice otherwise. It¡¯s like she can¡¯t be bothered to explain even the simplest things! pointless.¡± The words left me, and there was a certain emptiness where I¡¯d kept them inside for so long. should I care?¡± need your help. Go get lost in the vog or quit bothering me.¡± curious.¡± I stepped closer. She looked at me, a frill tensed. When she spoke, I smelled her anger, but I heard a certain note of hesitation. dare you!¡± My voice came out airy and unwavering. The words hadn¡¯t even left my mouth when my frills widened. I cringed. My legs stiffed, becoming loose and floaty dustone about to crack. As my tail coiled around a hindleg, I brought a wing to my mouth and coughed. It came easily with my throat already burned raw. on my own???¡ª??you will taste it!¡± * * * Sifting II: Shatter, part i I was alone. which ring is sometimes clear from context, but for me it never ever hurt to be precise. liked to fly. Hinte said it would tire me out, but unlike her, I would take breaks. Yet something she said echoed in my frills. ¡°I need to feel the crysts.¡± really?¡± I said aloud. Hinte had fanned her frills to feel that annoying hum. It tasted so obvious! How else had she found all of those half-buried crysts?
Even after a while, my frills hadn¡¯t felt anything interesting. Only my amplified footfalls and the low, slow groan of the Berwem as the currents below distorted the skin. was given me my only result since trying this gambit. again, I steeled myself. I needed to stop wasting time! So I dropped myself mid-flap, as if to trick myself into falling. And it worked; I crashed against the dustone. The crash beat the breath out of me, and the ground hit my legs like a lightning bolt. I bent and gave, falling onto my belly, but too late to save my legs from the pain. that, though, so maybe the crash had done something unseen? my stones. He deserved a name. I should give him a cliff-dweller name, since he had hatched in the cliffs, in a way.
In my bag, Sterk rumbled and rumbled, and never waned or faltered. It almost grated, really. When I had passed the stones off to Hinte, I hadn¡¯t heard a single click or keen afterward. It just showed, again, how little I knew about sifting. Sterk sat in my bag, yet when my feet pressed against the glassier, more resonant plates of dustone, I could close my eyes and hold him in my feet again, feel his sonorous rumbles against my scutes. had been walking to one of the shores. had to form closer toward the center of the lake. would find five crysts. that starless. Right? You have a time limit, it might say. I shook my canteen. My sixth of water had halved. After I stopped moving; because I would not trip again! In the almost clear air, the hazy outline of a sun hung above, rendered purple by the vog. Try as I might, I couldn¡¯t find the sun¡¯s partner. Taken with the color dying fading on the west horizon, you guessed it: first dusk had fallen. five. hiccuped. I jerked to a stop. Sure, he acted weird for a cryst, but I had never heard a stone¡¯s vibrations change so???¡ª??abruptly. Granted, I hadn¡¯t heard much of the stones anyway, owing to that mysterious silence whenever Hinte took a cryst. Maybe stones had acted this way all along? There had to be a sense to this. The endless stars bid the world lawful.
Something skittering in the distance crunched. I crouched, flattening on the ground, and peered toward the source. And a shadow emerged from the shadows. thank you, Sterk. You are such a good rock,¡± I said before I leapt, some instinct taking over. I landed with a crash. The crab bolted! I growled. How could something so resembling a rock scurry around like an oversized insect? stunk. The crab¡¯s smell? Urine? that one was simple. What to do about this one? ripped its last eyestalk out in its struggle! And, it scurried away like that. How were these things so agile! bug expected, and growled. Tired of playing with the crab, I punched the ground between us. Frowning, punching again, harder, the leg plunged into the lake. Little crab dug in, like fear. I grinned and lunged forth. My foreleg still prickled, plunged in the glass. It ripped wincingly through the skin as I leap forward. were the scuttling fragments? I¡¯d taken them to be some living part of the stones, but maybe the vibrations just attracted them as well. had grown darker this close to second dusk. * * * Sifting II: Shatter, part ii My flight took me to a rough and uneven part of the Berwem, where raised blades of dustone stabbed skyward and bands of murky glass seemed the lake¡¯s outjutting ribs. I landed there, after some beats of indecisive circling. Hinte was right; you couldn¡¯t find crysts by flying. rockwraith, should¡¯ve had me less afraid. But I was alone. I had already nearly died, and what would have happened if I hadn¡¯t escaped the ghastly glasscrabs? ax with you?¡± Nothing to fear. ¡°I???¡ª??okay.¡± I brought my forefoot to my cheek, about to scratch it, but flinched with a gasp as I touched the tender rawness. I¡¯ve come to like it.¡± They pat their breast with a foreleg. ¡°This your first flight in the fires? You act a little fledgly.¡± he let some streams flow.¡± They waved a wing behind them, pointing back the way they came. ¡°I¡¯m just here a-waiting.¡± off and sourcerous. But I wondered, and picked this guy up¡±???¡ª??he held up a necklace inlaid with a purple cryst, rough but also flat in places???¡ª??¡°and sand it down sometimes. Once heard they ward off curses and fouls spirits, so I keep one or two around when I can manage it.¡± Three crysts. I¡¯ve gotten more than halfway there! The new cryst glowed weaker than the others. It didn¡¯t look as drab as Sterk, but it wavered more than the crabstone.
I risked two swallows of my canteen while I flew. As I brought the tall, cloth-wrapped glass to my mouth, my hold slipped on the wet dew coating it. The canteen didn¡¯t fall out of my grasp, but I overcompensated and knocked it from my own claws. bought that canteen and my money wouldn¡¯t last forever. slight. But I needed to take every lead. So my wings folded and I fanned my frills. win! touched a crabstone, the effect became a whisper or suggestion, the same subtle shifts that had hinted at the second crabstone. useful. Could I regain Sterk¡¯s detection ability? I could hide the crabstones somewhere and carry only Sterk. But then glasscrabs might find and damage the stones, I couldn¡¯t risk that. I could place them high, on some cliff. But I didn¡¯t know these cliffs very well. If I won, and then I???¡ª??forgot where I hide the stones¡­ I¡¯d crumble. And I had no more room in my crab bag, so I couldn¡¯t even keep them in separate bags. I coughed a sigh. At least, the effect had helped while it lasted. And some good things happened. I found my fourth stone! So close. suffused the air. My frills fanned. The crunches came from all around me. I looked. Glasscrabs crawled over the mounds. fly. Eyestalks waved at the purple cryst in my foot. forward. Why did they act so aggressive? They¡¯re supposed to be flighty little prey. I flicked my tongue again, finding the urine scent on me. Oh.
¡­Three crysts. so close. I couldn¡¯t lose now, when winning was right above me. breathing and tried to untie that knot, to give me room to breathe on a more abstract level. When I pulled at the strings, tugged at the loops, the knot just grew tighter. I huffed frustration, and instead clawed and ripped at the knot. But the frayed strings twisted together, waxing to an awful cross-tied mess of thread that was even worse because you knew it was frayed so bad it couldn¡¯t be untied normally because you ruined it. dragged at mental exercises. They didn¡¯t work for me. I just had to let go and fly forward anyway. Drop the knot. Lick the tart venom from my fangs. think. Where were crysts most likely to be? Without knowing how crysts form, or how the glass flowed below the skin, I didn¡¯t know where to hunt for crysts. did taste good at any rate. Not good enough to justify stepping into the awful lake, but some sad creature had to live here, eating them anyway. They might eat you. eaten! More than I wanted to impress Hinte, more than I wanted not to pass out in the vog. Tongueless. Stone-frills. I don¡¯t need your help. friends. I¡­ I was better than this, wasn¡¯t I? * * * Sifting II: Shatter, part iii High above the skin, I saw the cliffs on either side, and the three big canyons that fed into the Berwem. Toward the center of the lake, off by a good flight, a dark, box-like shape sat low to the ground, looking the size of several houses. The surrounding lake skin looked flat, regular. Had someone built something in the lake? What did they use it for? Maybe it had something to do with sifting, the only thing this lake was good for. so unpleasant! lived on the humming stones, would feel it as well. I didn¡¯t want to deal with another troop of glasscrabs, who would only grow more vicious with their numbers. away from the hum. What? I lowered myself, glancing about. Glasscrabs bolted over the ground, fleeing. I tilted my head. crush it. Flailing wings spun me faster. I controlled it, angling for the attacker to smash into the lake under me. glowing, a shimmering green that swirled along the blade. Hinte was growling low and feral. scratch away from ripping into me. It left me with what felt like bruises. do this!¡± tongueless as yourself.¡± The wiver stood up. * * * Sifting III: Cullet, part i Up above, past the lake¡¯s shroud, there were birds, clouds and stars. I looked at the gray blackness above, hunting for something outside the mind-numbing tedium of the lake. My last canteen had drained to a half. We hadn¡¯t encountered any rockwraiths. not Hinte???¡ª??even if she wouldn¡¯t accept that. We had argued up and down about it awhile before I tried making my argument with a thrown rock. She retorted with a bigger rock and we did that again before she uncovered another cryst that way. I found another stone, one which was my find, with no quibbling from Hinte. I¡¯d preened and wagged my frills at the dark-green wiver. That lasted until she decided we should check again for another. are no more stones down there. I don¡¯t see the point.¡± My voice tended hoarse and small. My throat was about to melt, at this point. Even my saliva tasted coppery.
In the distance, the gray-black vog gave way to a grayer, blacker wall of crumbling dustone. Sprawling cliffs sheltered, the Berwem, on three sides. On the last side, there was also a cliff???¡ª??that one opened to a ravine. As far as I knew, through that ravine wound the usual route into the Berwem. lake shore, like no particular places as much as a kind of place, well, you¡¯d be right. You couldn¡¯t even tell which edge of the lake this was. hungry. I bit into it and ripped out a chunk of meat. rude. I liked messing with her, but she had just given me some of her lunch. She didn¡¯t have to do that. So I reigned myself in, aimed at my meal. now to give me this?¡± My fangs unfolded as I said this, but I retracted them. thinking.¡± She looked away. ¡°So I am letting you use the mixture now. Unless you will wait until we leave the lake.¡± Her tone on the last sentence floundered. It sounded a statement, but it seemed a question. Ushra. She wouldn¡¯t make some novice mistake that could ground me or worse. so long! Why don¡¯t we collect one more, while we head back?¡± Hinte didn¡¯t reply, as always???¡ª??she didn¡¯t argue, she just stated her will and let the world march in step. inspired in a way that escaped the silly squatness and heavy sprawlingness of cliff-dweller buildings. Feeding little scraps of meat to those pterosaurs, sitting under wind-warped clouds, I could cloud my eyes and imagine the little peak I lay on didn¡¯t connect to the ground. alone. * * * Sifting III: Cullet, part ii My gaze fell from the sky to the dark lake shore, roaming a bit before lighting on the green wiver beside me. Peering at her, I replied, late and disconnected, ¡°Well, does my red gem thingy count as a cryst?¡± I tried to smirk a bit. I dug this one up for sure. You aren¡¯t taking credit for this too.¡± smelled like the silvery white things. More black blood was streaked up the blade???¡ª??had Hinte tried to wipe it clean? were those things, Hinte?¡± I said, rubbing my leg where the creature had scraped glass away. ¡°The silvery ones. Were they rockwraiths?¡± joking. It¨Cit sounded like some kind of exotic cuisine. Or maybe a perfume.¡± I said it, and looked down. My feet were turning the knife over and picking at the blood. Hardened and sticky, when I poked the blood with a claw, it scraped off. anything at all. Why do you keep bringing it up?¡±
The smallest glasscrab was the first we¡¯d found???¡ª??first I¡¯d found. I grounded it with my own claws. My foot opened and closed, miming the piercing and ripping that had punctuated the first glasscrab. normal. I liked it. The Houses regulated hunting with heavy fines and constant guard patrols, because reckless hunting endangered populations. moved when I touched them, and a skeletal underbelly that didn¡¯t look crab-like at all, at all. insect! Ripping out its own eyestalks? Summoning a bunch of ghostly avengers? Maybe they grew squalled in this miserable lake. I wouldn¡¯t stay sane either. would stay in Gwymr/Frina. So I wouldn¡¯t need it. Would it ground her to just tell me even half of why all this mattered? Why even bring me out here if I was nothing more than a drag? Why, if we weren¡¯t even friends? Was I of any use at all? considerate? Do you still think bringing me here was a mistake? ¡°Do you think I was any help at all today?¡± thinking would happen?¡± She waved her foreleg away.
When we entered the lake again, the lake seemed intent on demonstrating, by contrast, how clear and breathable was the shore¡¯s hazy air. The fumes made threatening gestures as they drew down my throat, but even as we walked right into the burning sulfur, the electricity warded coughs. Why was Hinte still out here? Three more crysts. When we found three more of those blasted stones and left, I would not miss anything about this lake. My feet curled into the dusty ground beneath me. had been prying. I had been maybe a little annoying. I should respect her privacy. * * * Sifting III: Cullet, part iii We marched over the surface of the lake, and I shook my canteen again, still hearing droplets pinging against the glass. If the canteen had water in it, would I have drank a fifth by now? was obvious, but having my guesses confirmed pulled little drops of excitement onto my fangs. Perking up, I strained again to feel the telling vibrations. I failed to find the five stones that Hinte demanded. Maybe I had another chance to impress her, by helping her here. noticed the headache! I just conflated it with the overall awfulness of sifting. What! We could have been out in the cliffs picking flowers and instead you dragged me to this blazing hot lake! What did I ever do you?¡± you how to navigate the cliffs?¡± I, Kinri, the dust-breather, bearer of the immortality raisin, wielder of the ancient ghost-canteen of power and mystery. * * * Sifting IV: Melt, part i ¡°Kinri. Do you smell that? I smell blood.¡± do something felt so simple, so commonsense, almost not worth giving. But it worked. toward the blood? It might be???¡ª??it¡¯s dangerous. We should head back to town and???¡ª¡±
My wings had drooped, and my stalking faded to a march, then a simple low-walk, and now I just slinked after Hinte. At least the smell had grown stronger. They might eat you. Some kind of outfit covered the skin. Corpse? It didn¡¯t flinch or react at all. me careless. flew, ripping out the ape¡¯s throat. I jumped, but the knot in my stomach unraveled. It couldn¡¯t do anything now. different, the sky-dweller probably fell.¡± I looked again at the pool of blood, then up above us, at the overhang. * * * Sifting IV: Melt, part ii Alone, I looked at the ape. Its snoutless face and lanky limbs seemed squished or distorted, like someone pulled a dragon out of shape and peeled their scales off. I hissed at it, but seeing the gore below its head relaxed me just a nudge. It wouldn¡¯t, couldn¡¯t, get back up and haunt me. Right? pungent, like a metal dying. walk on those forelegs. Did it walk only on its hindlegs? How did it not teeter over? And was its underbelly exposed as it moved?
I had never guarded anything before, but I tried what I could. Which meant idly looking around and up, for all the nothing that it did. My frills still were fanned, and my tongue flicked out every twelve or thirteen heartbeats, scenting the air. walk back home. I murmured, and the voice was definitely Kinri, all Kinri. She sung: ¡°From not the calm of night nor court of day ¡°Shall your high course be shadow¡¯d, study¡¯d nor sway¡¯d; ¡°In places lonesome or in midst of noise ¡°Your visage limns naught save the utmost poise. ¡°Till ruin betides the mighty and asqualled ¡°You¡¯ll rise with the mantle of the eld heroes called¡ª ¡°Specter! unseen agents of shadows stark; ¡°Specter! for lofts high and by keen stars mark¡¯d. ¡°Know that when fools had stood atop the world ¡°We wielded light with lucent cloaks unfurl¡¯d; ¡°Know that when dusk at last overrose the Sky ¡°We deigned that peace on wings of words should fly. ¡°Till starless foes above have languish¨¨d, ¡°Our family alone distinuish¨¨d! ¡°House Specter shall overmaster rot and dearth; ¡°House Specter shall unite the heaven and earth! ¡°From out the stars of night and dance of day ¡°Will our high course be but the only way; ¡°In all the world¡¯s woes and in all life¡¯s joys ¡°Our visage limns naught save the Specter poise. ¡°¡­Now sleep, O heir of Specter???¡ª??my Kinri.¡± me, yet only dances since I heard (and not really listened) to it simply being played, for crowds, at gatherings. And yet, I still remembered it with that long since dried voice and destroyed key harp, because there was something deeply personal, some verity, that the rote recitals???¡ª??backed instead by high strings and drums???¡ª??seemed to lack; something that had came aflame when she limned it with her violin and restrained voice. Thank you, miss. You¡¯re a savior.¡± The sifter turned around again, and began stepping away. They glanced back. ¡°Get home safe, alright?¡±
Faint flaps came from high in the air. A different, familiar shadow glided or fell downward. Some of my fear slipped away. Hinte had finally returned! But her descent looked unsteady, and from her legs swung big forms. fly with this weight! Hinte could barely glide down with it, and she was bigger¡­ stronger than me. could point out that she was injured too, so her argument didn¡¯t fly anymore; but my injury hurt my walking, and hers didn¡¯t. She was right. This was important. No time for pettiness. bleeding!¡± I said as I stepped closer to Hinte, reaching to get some bandages or something out of her bag. ¡°Where¡¯d you put that ointment from earlier?¡± Ugh. So stubborn! I placed and adjusted the last body without saying anything. The rope was looped twice around Hinte, and I let her tie the knot. It¡¯s like it¡¯s us versus the rest of the family, right, sis? My headband was uneven. I straightened it with an alula. * * * Sifting IV: Melt, part iii My left foreleg still ached as I walked after her, and the extra weight didn¡¯t help at all. But I bore it. This was important, wasn¡¯t it? fine. I¡¯d let her have her secretes. hurt, but I guessed it might balance whatever soothing the slower stride did for my legs. We walked back into the dust and smoke and heat of the Berwem, and I groaned. now you think to give it to me before we walk into the lake¡¯s death clouds.¡± I was joking, but it feel like that didn¡¯t come out in my tone. Pray don¡¯t tell. knew it wasn''t convincing. But I didn''t want it to be. I was done lying, and the new Kinri was painfully, stutteringly transparent. I could lie, I just didn''t want to. was more intense. Night had fallen long outside of the lake. What! You said they would eat me!¡± worse!¡± boring this was. I should have brought a kazoo or something. Hinte would hate it. Or maybe a flute! Did I still have that flute I would sneak away to play when I was a fledgling? I hoped I packed it in one of the bags I hadn¡¯t opened yet. I¡¯d only brought a few things with me when I left. twisted the knife stuck in Hinte¡¯s tail, and dragged it. Hinte screamed and released her hold. Go.¡± went, waving my tongue in the air, and smelling the sweat and blood of the fleeing ape. * * * Sifting V: Blow, part i We hunted. it. again.¡± behind it. I could land in front of the human, trap it between the crabs and me. spoke. ¡°No.¡± Its voice sounded garbled. ¡°Get you.¡± In its mouth, The hisses and growls of our language felt forced and alien. exploded! saying???¡ª??my point is that the ape is crafty, okay? We might have to work together to catch it.¡± I looked to the writhing mass of crabs. They¡¯d ripped the ape¡¯s wet rag to shreds, and were climbing over each other to chance at the cryst. spoke to me earlier???¡ª??it sounded like a horrible monster, but it speaks and understands. We can use that.¡±
My frills were dancing beside my head. My plan is going to be awesome???¡ª??Hinte will taste it. After waving my own tongue in the air, I leapt up again, and raced after the apes¡¯ scent. As I flew after it, I heard whistles resounding across the lake. The notes sounded complex, cacophonous, unmusical. Then came another complex whistling, from far behind me. That couldn¡¯t be good. leave? Let the Frinan guard handle all of this. We aren¡¯t cut out for any of this. We¡¯ll get hurt. We¡¯ll get killed! It¡¯s not worth it, Hinte,¡± I pushed word and sentence from my mouth, and it felt like breaths against a bonfire. Her face was passive, though ¡ª she only watched me. ¡°Please, Hinte. Let¡¯s just leave.¡± You left the apes alive.¡± really don¡¯t want to help you fight them.¡± worth something for once. That I was helpful.¡± I dropped the cryst. dead!.¡± I finally looked down, because I knew my fangs smelled sour, but at least it didn¡¯t have to look it. ¡°What was that you were saying earlier?¡± * * * Sifting V: Blow, part ii I lay there and dewed for a bit. stay. The heat, my thirst, the stinking vog, everything awful about this lake would get to me eventually. I don¡¯t know why I lay there???¡ª but if I moved, where would I go? death. It was something only the nadir had to worry about, something only my sister had to understand.
First thing you saw was my crab stabbed and discarded on the fringe. away. Live. Get yourself back.¡± I injected a little bit of cold authority in my voice, just like mother had taught me. The same tone you¡¯d use to order servants or hatchlings around. I hoped it didn¡¯t sound too condescending.
I breathed. It was over. ¡°We won.¡± I didn¡¯t mean to say that aloud. All the way back? Stars above. How did they pull this off in less than a long ring?¡± I reached down to pick up the crab, but Hinte snapped her tongue. * * * Sifting, V: Blow, part iii After we returned to the other bodies, I¡¯d grabbed last intact crabstone, and Hinte¡¯d placed both of the humans on my back for me. For a few steps, I thought I¡¯d at long won our argument about carrying equal weights. think.¡± know,¡± she said. When she looked back to me, her teeth were visible, though her fangs had retracted. ¡°It was¡­ Call it superstition or intuition. Do not worry about it.¡± having dangers. There is glass and cliffs and maybe I would get burned or fall or something. But you never said anything about olms, rockwraiths, humans or any of this!¡± My wing moved to my neck, feeling the bandages over the knife wound. ¡°I could have died. So many times.¡± her suit???¡ª¡± did, after talking to Kinri like he asked. But the ashwit wouldn¡¯t stop nagging my head off about slinking off on my own earlier. Got tired of hearing it.¡± Distract her, unbalance her. I didn¡¯t want a fight. ¡°Hey Hinte,¡±???¡ª??she stopped, half-turned???¡ª??¡°Don¡¯t you sift alone too when I¡¯m not here?¡± Walking home alone, friendless. her for today. Catch you on the wind.¡±
When I caught up to Hinte, she had taken out her compass, righting her path. I spoke before she did, ¡°I¡¯m sorry again. It¡¯s kind of ashy for me to fault you for not telling me things when I did the same to you.¡± meant the apology; but a part of me couldn¡¯t help but note just how well this move flew. She either had to forgive me for hiding things, or admit she shouldn¡¯t have hid things from me. Anti-magical. Warping energies, disrupting or distorting enchantments.¡± She waved her wing around. mean?¡± snap, and it was twisted. Shimmering green crawled up the black knife, emanating from the once-white streaks on the blade. something???¡ª??maybe a finger shifted, I couldn¡¯t be sure???¡ª??and then it hummed. focused and clearer in a way the others weren¡¯t, without sounding pleasant at all. destroy me if I slipped up once. compass to do that?¡± sky-dweller, a House sky-dweller at that. We didn¡¯t shun magic the same way Gwymr/Frina did. The Inquiry. Hinte spoke first. ¡°A jewel cutter, Glyster, is our???¡ª??my only client until the white season passes.¡± * * * Sifting VI: Vitrify, part i ¡°Hinte!¡± I yelled out. The human! It¡¯d saved me. Teeth sunk into my side ¡ª a fourth shadow. It ripped through the white suit and slashed my scales. I buckled. Head smashed into the ground. ouch. The other circled around to lunge at her neck again. But that was all I glimpsed. Force it closed. I reached???¡ª bit me! Its teeth cracked the glass and pierced the scutes. I grabbed its lower jaw. No! swung the shadow. Land in the lake, please! But as I let go, the third thing came. It lunged at a foreleg. Old glass bore the brunt. wouldn¡¯t. I dodged away, and it only clawed my face ¡ª but it clawed again and again. Blood dripping down my face, I couldn¡¯t submerge the shadow. I gave up. Rockwraiths will fly away after you stop moving. Hinte¡¯s voice, the distant wiver who hadn¡¯t seen me stand up to humans. feel them staring at me, waiting. think! They had caught Hinte by surprise, injured her even more. She was over there, alone. I had to help her. It awakens sleeping things, sleeping out the gray season. flee. Fly up into the sky and glide back to Gwymr/Frina. Hinte needed my help, but would I even make a difference? Maybe it was better if at least one of us lived. She could understand that, right? I would not let you die. think¡­
I had a plan, I just needed to find Hinte. She¡¯d been fleeing last you saw, and I¡¯d¡­ gone in the opposite direction. Aching legs slipped me into a high walk. I slinked over the gnarled ground as fast as I dared. The new speed ripped pain in my forelegs, but it didn¡¯t matter. pop that was only loud because it was so quiet all around and???¡ª
I had lost my crabs. I had lost the crab blood. My face and legs were red and wet. But, just maybe, there was a victory of my own: I had survived. And Hinte? The stars had to have spared her. They had to. We lived.¡± screamed. The pain fired up through my legs and side, winging from my mouth as a pained groan. Hinte stared at me, hidden gaze meeting mine, lines of her face softening further. Again. I will not fly for a half-cycle, at least.¡± do?¡± I asked. I had to learn more about alchemy if I was to impress Hinte without the Sieve. No shame in just asking, right? die Wundervernarbung.¡± Why did her voice sound so songly? Her uttering that polysyllabic monster sounded almost an excited lilt, if that could ever describe Hinte¡¯s voice. Die Wundervernarbung. It means???¡ª¡± means. Wonderful scarring or something like that???¡ª??I speak Drachenzunge, Hinte. You just can¡¯t expect me to pronounce all of those big fat words you all have.¡± I had finished with the one wing, so I moved around to the other. ¡°Tell me about the pink stuff, please.¡± Die Wundervernarbung¡± ¡ª (it was definitely a lilt) ¡ª ¡°was a miracle, plain and simple.¡± Hinte suffered for it. It wasn¡¯t fair! lucky. But after cycles on the farm, moiling on the technique, with no results, the Dozentin, the students, the farmer, had all grown weary. The farmer did not understand the complexity and hard work that goes into alchemical research, and the students didn¡¯t understand how long one must go with seemingly no results. that close to getting forest-dweller alchemy secrets for free! * * * Sifting VI: Vitrify, part ii I thought I looked cool. With my face bandaged up, I was like some fierce war-mistress of the sky! It almost put a skip in my step, but my legs still ached. Hinte had wrapped my sides and face, but there hadn¡¯t been enough bandages to cover my legs, so she lathered them with more Heylpflanze, then used a makeshift bandage from tattered strips of my sifting suit. Any danger of contamination or infection is unacceptable.¡± Hinte. So we cleaned and half-wrapped the wounds of the corpses. Just enough not to drip onto us. still hadn¡¯t told me how she had fought all of these apes at once. Even two had given us so much trouble. She said they were sleeping or something, right? But that couldn¡¯t be the whole story if she had all of those injuries ¡ª??which she did. dry. irritated, either from the pain, exertion, or my antics. I liked teasing her, but I wouldn¡¯t want to actually upset her. So I didn¡¯t ask. weren¡¯t.
On the cliff walls catwalks stretched along and across, but mostly along. They sat on two levels, the lower being two or three wing-beats above the ground, the higher almost ten or twenty. Dotted in-between the catwalks, the amber lamps lined the cliff faces, sparsely, all the way up to the very top and stretched into the distance. Around them stirred black wisps of moths or beetles, compelled to turn to buzzing ornamentation for the red light. The lamps peered like a myriad eyes staring us down as we dared to enter the town, all suspicious and wary. He must have been the shadow in the cliff that¡¯d scared me ten beats away and disappeared. He had been with Mawla, so it fledged sense. right after the dusty, crackling ground in the Berwem. I slid my claws over the stones as I walked, and relished the feel.
Towering above us stood the mighty Berwem gate, a mostly-stone wall blocking the ravine all the way to the very top of their faces. It bristled with images, and the lamps to make them legible even at night. and they lived. You two ought to hit up a card game or lottery before you turn in, with that kind of luck.¡± story to tell ¡ª¡± seriously.¡± Then, I react. My frills fold over my face. He¡¯s about to lunge again, I heard, a mental whisper from somewhere distant and old. They¡¯re all unbalanced, the instincts noted. Even the angry one. Self-disgust curled in my gut, but a plan spread its wings in my head, unperturbed. All it would take is one. I made as show of scanning the assembled guards. Two others bowed and even the other flinched. And the rest would fall in line.
The door shut, and I turned to my companion. ¡°What the heck, Hinte?¡± good. I hadn¡¯t had anyone ¡ª bow to me in a long time. more suspicious if he came down before then.¡± made sense to me, on the same level, in the same sense, that the guards¡¯ dynamic had made sense. But the idea that everyone had an ulterior, some cunning plan to downdraft you? I¡¯d had enough of it back home. If I looked at the world that way, I would find plots whether they existed or not. And surely real, normal dragons weren¡¯t like the walking masks from the courts and parties of the sky? They could be good. They had to be.
The outskirts of town this late felt empty. We passed only the occasional dragon, always someone dangerous-looking or some poor vagrant. Sometimes, shadows of fliers passed overhead; the ravine was wide enough for a single dragon to fly through. see the sky. I found Ceiwad again, somewhere in the east, a green-white circle speckled with dark spots. Scanning the rest of the sky, I hunted for the Master and his Serpent, two of my favorite constellations. * * * Sifting VII: Anneal, part i Along the roads into Gwymr/Frina the scattered lamp- and sign-posts mixed with bright-colored signs warning of trenches and sudden drops. Little glider-scorpions emerged from the deeper crevices, flitting in the night with the short, sporadic glides that named them. Often the whirring of bats rose with the calls and buzzes of the scorpions, but when one appeared, the other would grow silent, hiding or hunting. drink ghost water. And maybe a ghost wouldn¡¯t have a problem with alighting twice.
The stars still shone high above me. As I gazed up at that sacred vista my vision melted into the chain of remembered nights I had spent under this very sky, stretching back to my hatchhood. The comfort of lying out under the sky on a warm night, with the breeze caressing my scales, with the hoots and shrieks of black owls filling my frills, it called out to me. But would I have preferred an evening lying out on a lonely cliff to this fang-wringing adventure with Hinte? hide your fangs, earlier?¡± nadir, their final battle, was in the deep of winter, at the crest of a cycle. They met unexpectedly in a valley, each having come there alone, each to fight and kill a terrible Roggenwolf. Instead, they fought each other. Jammra, being a fearsome warrior, easily overpowered Wauchu. But before he could strike the final blow, she tried her final gambit. Seeking to exploit his compassionate nature, she told him of her miserable past.¡± and so on. hide your fangs, reminded me of similar phrases in K??rmkieli, the sort of maxims that had defined my childhood. I folded my frills back and my tail dropped limp between my legs. Hide your fangs. But I had left the sky to do just the opposite, to feel and express whatever I wanted. Could I confess that to Hinte? How would I even start explaining? ¡®Oh, one of your famous legends is completely wrong?¡¯ ¡®I think we shouldn¡¯t hide our fangs even if it kills us?¡¯ I had already frustrated her with one bit of carelessness. Wauchu gets to fly free?¡± * * * Sifting VII: Anneal, part ii The dragons we saw, above and below, changed from random straglers and loners to the more usual crowds of Gwymr/Frina, but thinned this late in the night. We began to see real houses, either below the catwalks or built onto the ravine walls, and we had entered the town proper. Digrif. What rotten winds we¡¯d run into him when I looked like this. cute. I wished we had a chance to talk more, but he never really noticed me. He never even remembered my name! I never invited?¡± Hinte before. almost makes sense. But it¡¯s still unreasonable. How can this be so asecret if she can just join you at random?¡± I can¡¯t come for once!¡± He upset the box again but caught it before it slid any. Silly Digrif.
A violent thrum of strings echoed from farther up the ravine. The intervals came harsh and dissonant, like a composition from House Locrian. A nostalgic trickle dewed on my fangs, and I fanned my frills. Interesting.¡± catch them? I have heard humans are dreadfully difficult to catch.¡± For his tone and mien, you expected a growl???¡ª??but his voice sounded precise and pitched in a way that didn¡¯t clash with the music. Why do they have to be stinking clever?¡± The musician had looked at me when I spoke, and it took only a beat for their frills to wrinkle into a sneer, and fangs to tinge venomous. What was that about? treasures? Legend says that humans carry magical gemstone.¡± The rod fell back into their foot. ¡°Or something.¡± persuasivity.¡± eat you if you looked at them the wrong way as well?¡± everyone sleeps. Stories are stories.¡± The tremolo rose, rose, rose to a peak and lingered there for a bit. There was some odd nostalgia to it, even within all the darkness, but it was something I felt, rather than being there in the music. The melody was trembling at its peak; I expected it to crash again, and ruin the buildup. Instead it glided down, as if the chords carried the song back to its beginning. Emptily, because it denied it the implied climax once again, but still pleasant. slum does a wonder for your health.¡± you two, an exiled sky-rat and a traitorous alchemist? It¡¯s a waste of time.¡± Neither their voice nor their playing had faltered. Mawla had stood up and stepped back toward the shadows of cliff face. retain that pleasure.¡± A single note now lingered, filling the ravine. Then it became a progression, crescendoing to another climax. proceeds her, just as your name proceeds you, Specter.¡± Kinri, not Specter. My family is irrelevant.¡± regret this, mudling.¡± Bauume spread their wide wings. ¡°This is a waste of my evening.¡± The musician dropped from his spot on the edge of the catwalk, gliding off into the night. problem?¡± I said. that cat-tongued wraith of a drake.¡± I flinched. Hinte jerked her head. wrong.¡± did.
It hadn¡¯t felt like not a long walk from there to the city center. This time we traveled without fuss. I had questions about the twirler perched on my lips, but the calm silence between Hinte and me along the way didn¡¯t bear breaking. It felt like I¡¯d made up for my thoughtlessness. fewer rays outpouring than the purple eye.
The town hall towered before us. Polished granite frame the building in regality. Shaped like a hexagon, it stood about a wing-beat or three high, and had two stories ringed with windows. The main entrance sat on the roof, and two ramps rolled down to the streets on either side quicker. * * * Sifting VII: Anneal, part iii ¡°This place looks so sad,¡± I murmured. stellar, that I found myself forgiving the artist¡¯s ignorance. flitted into the room, wearing a simple black and gold halfrobe covering her breast and falling over her forelegs. Her secretary would eat you if you looked at them the wrong way. I cleared my eyes and jerked my gaze back to the star mosaic. cheerful? must be important if you want to bother the faer with it! Why not tell it to me and I shall judge if it is important enough to bother her?¡±
The blue-green wiver slinked back up the ramp. In her wing-digits, she grasped a rolled up scroll of papyrus, and an inkwell. Her frills narrowed at Hinte, who¡¯d inched closer to the corridor while the secretary was gone, but she said nothing, only dragging her claws along the carpet, beckoning us. Like that, she led us down the middle corridor. deep, and the yellows were bright. You knew those dyes would cost far more than a few day¡¯s meals. glass and secrets, it was a sight. what?¡± else happen?¡±
¡®Adwyn,¡¯ I half-murmured to myself. Did it have to be Adwyn? The Dyfnderi¡¯s eyescales never clouded when he looked at me, and I had been indebted to him since the moment I walked through the stone gates of Gwymr/Frina. That debt hung, a dark cloud on the horizon. brandish it. My tongue waved further, and I caught a strange, cloying scent on the high guard that I didn¡¯t know how to place. old; and there had been no likeness between the black and gold armor he wore and the red and yellow sashes of the guards I passed on the streets of town. Specter???¡ª??but the difference was I did not care, something I doubted held for Rhyfel here. It must weigh. know of the spooky new sky-dweller in town. With nobility no less???¡ª??and don¡¯t look like that, you don¡¯t have a reputation. Not yet, I¡¯d say.¡± * * * Sifting VIII: Reglaze, part i Would this day ever end? This entire adventure had passed in one day, in one evening. Yet, in my mind, in my aching legs, and in my relationship with Hinte, a whole cycle might have passed. More had happened today than in any other cycle of my life. forget!) not on the purportedly-sacred crestdays and troughdays. Hope Cthwithach-sofran has time to teach you anything, else you¡¯ll have nothing else to show the day wasn¡¯t waste. Let Uvidet-gyfar drag you out to play cards at the Moyo-Makao every other day. Check by the courtiers again, you never know. If you grow bored of things???¡ª??when you grow bored of things???¡ª??you can beg the guards at the south gate to let you out, and fly some laps in the pretty red ravines south of town. Then sneak out at night and look at the endless stars. serious on my wings. My mindeye aimed searching, longing glances to the silly side of things. But the gyras spent in the courts and parties of sky, of my family dragging me to act just like them, obscured my sight, and all I felt were old instincts returning. Keep your frills by your neck. No one wants to see them. Flick your tongue if you must, but do not wave it. Nothing smells that good. And hide your fangs, you are not some dewy-fanged slut or farm-wiver.
Your father knew Ushra. Your tongue slipped.¡± If it¡¯s still a clinic when you got to wait ¡¯til the stars align with both moons on the crestday ¡¯fore he deigns to overcharge you for an examination.¡±
wave my tongue, but I flicked it out just a little more. Try as I did, there wasn¡¯t much more than that???¡ª??maybe a lingering lunch, maybe some tasteful colonge. I did a little frown. Mlaen didn¡¯t smell like much. felt like a long time. Maybe it was a matter of course, sitting here and twiddling my halluxes like I did, but it was a moment extended like there¡¯d been a shortage of them. up for traveling by the Berwem? In chain and leather?¡± Yes. I almost said it aloud. The humans had armies? He nudged Adwyn, and glanced the faer and Cynfe. ¡°You all know what happened to Banti/Gorphon. It ain¡¯t there anymore.¡±
are missing angle, here. Our cliffs are dangerous???¡ª??would these silly apes not just see that these explorers perished from their own foolishness?¡± He turned his gaze from me, regarding the nails of his forefoot held. confidence, rather than resting on our bellies and breathing for ignorance to save us.¡± stung. After all we¡¯d gone through, and she didn¡¯t even wave? * * * Sifting VIII: Reglaze, part ii The faer had walked from around the slab, and stood a few strides from me. Without the host of dragons falling in line around her, the faer¡¯s presence was merely intimidating, and not dominating. speak?¡± Kinri. Trust in the law, and not whatever impressions they¡¯ve given you.¡± I didn¡¯t see whatever expression she had. weighed, holding a faint whiff of accusation. ¡°I know why Specter sent you here, Kinri, exile or no.¡± sofran will meet with you and Gronte-wyre sometime tomorrow, to arrange a plan with the corpses.¡±
sang, high, mellifluous, saccharine, ¡°do you want?¡± Her claws didn¡¯t slide closer. Her fangs didn¡¯t glint. I didn¡¯t tremble. Even a little bit. am a cliff-dweller.¡± She looked back to her page. ¡°Something you¡¯ll never be.¡± alone, again. My wings hugged tight to my body.
definitely wasn¡¯t a cloud-dweller. what you might want, this close to the faer.¡± you???¡ª¡± want? You¡¯re holding me up.¡± somehow no one else with plain-dweller scales ever makes it this far in the administration. Ponder that.¡± you don¡¯t have plain-dweller scales.¡± as far away from the Berwem as your wings will take you. He said to take the heir and never think of him again.¡± I???¡ª??have returned, the rightful ruler of Gwymr/Frina. Now, it¡¯s a matter of waiting.¡± He gazed at me with a gleam in his clouded brilles, a triumphant smile that asked you to revel vicariously in his achievement. did have mission here in the cliffs. Here was a chance. Lowering my head in acknowledgment, folding my frills in submission, looking up in pleading, I said, ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you could make me someone important when you become faer?¡± My tone wavered just enough to notice without grating. alone he looked. Here was the rightful faer of Gwymr/Frina, sole heir of the eternal faer. And¡­ was there any one for him to share it with? I trust dragons? * * * Sifting VIII: Reglaze, part iii I pushed open the doors of the town hall. Opening the door, the heat of the night washed over me. I let out a sigh. Turning to leave, a weight lifted from my back. Though Cynfe¡¯s invective still burned on my fangs, the anxieties of dealing with politics and agendas sat behind me. For now. inappropriate, back in the sky. I tossed my head, clearing it. empty.¡± wrong. seared, a mark of exile into my scales, so deep that no amount of molting would heal it. It still hurt, but it faded and I could bear the pain. If I pressed, I could feel the welts spelling matua???¡ª??meaning grounded in K??rmkieli. My branded forehead ensured I could never be admitted into any skycity. I¡¯m fine, stone frills. My wings will heal.¡± She paused. ¡°You were hurt too.¡± died. And while it was not the Berwem, Hinte said the cliffs would not be more forgiving, that they were just another set of dangers. exciting, a break from the endless grind of my daily life. Down on the surface, without my brother Ashaine, there was no one to break me out of my routine. I met Hinte¡¯s gaze. Maybe I needed this, someone to make my life interesting. friend? I squeaked. A small, warm wave of heat rushed over my body. Despite the looming horror of war that I might have the blame for, I had my own victory to celebrate. After everything that had happened in the Berwem, me and Hinte had become friends! At long last. walk all the way back. I clenched my claws. I twitched my frills, but I could still hear Hinte¡¯s shouts and screams. Those brutish apes had threatened, injured my friend. I growled in the lonely night, startling someone in the shadows that I had not seen. Cringing, I walked on with my head lowered.
* * * Interlude I: Smolder, part i ¡°Silent winds, my friend,¡± said Hinte as she turned, waving her tail. While she appreciated Kinri¡¯s help in the lake, she breathed relief at parting ways with her. The exile had no appreciation of the thoughtful silence, always annoying her with unhatched questions. But worse, she acted utterly apterous when she opted not to ask questions. As if her tongue were rubber and her frills were stone. better than this. These were hatchling mistakes, and she did not have the exile¡¯s excuse of being a hatchly sifter. Her Dozent would be disappointed. Apterous rockwraiths. treasonous connotations because of grandmother. And so, she did not garner friends, or even friendliness. Even above the¡­ unsavory reputation of forest-dwellers themselves. surgeon. You did not become surgeon without being well-acquainted with dragon anatomy and physiology, with corpses and cadavers. system, and if a student needed extra cadavers for further research, there were forms to fill out, intervals to wait. Ushra¡¯s mind worked faster than that. It all begins. moving and you could see it if you built a telescope the size of a house. Kinri had said the stars watched you no matter how far you went. Apterous.

ii. * Hinte did reach her home. As she stepped from the gravelly lapilli to the soft, loamy soil, she felt at home on two levels. If you clouded your eyes and held your tongue, you could pretend you never left, never had to leave the forests. Hinte could almost forget what happened, why she now lived with her grandparents. Apterous. glass, another departure, something that was, in the forests, a luxury. But they lived in Gwymr/Frina now, where glass sold like brick. The walls, however, were built of wood, something that had traded places with glass as a luxury. It had slacked her tongue, seeing so many houses built of scoria or even stranger stones. The town had houses built of dustone or fire clay, too. But those were just sad. Eeh! Nestling hath returned!¡± squawked the bird. fledgling to you, Versta.¡± Ueh. Yer still in the nest, nestling.¡± Then a dark-jade alula poked the parrot. Versta gave a trill before turning his back to the dragons and hopping over to bowl at the center of the dinnerslab. What happened?¡± She looked much older than her likeness in the painting, but it was an echo of her true age. Being the matriarch of a famous alchemical clan would do that, too. Or would have done that. The gyras in the cliffs were already showing on her face. Hinte would not feel sorry for her. anything of what happened? You look like you just fought in a war.¡± lacuna, a hole where a dragon should be. as you know woven in. squawked. ¡°Nesty fledgling fell,¡± he said. gyfar?¡± She emphasized the honorific, and the implication was clear: This was no time for frilliness. Enkelin. Are you hurt?¡± important you inform us of what occurred in the lake. Those weapons could have been poisoned. And the rockwraith bite is venomous???¡ª??ineffective against squamata, but their foul mouths promote infection.¡± I shall clean them again.¡± As if commanded, Staune leapt from Ushra, then flew into Ushra¡¯s workshop. pressing,¡± Ushra said. ¡°Hinte, you had cleaned it ¡ª how?¡± were poisoned???¡ª??a simple, inorganic toxin causing burning irritation and spasms. Its effect is waning now.¡± smelling the wound. Ushra had been one of the greatest alchemists in the forest. His skill and scholarship alone would do that, but his sensitive tongue had been what turned him into a legend. for you, die Wunder causes complications only with foreign biological materials???¡ª¡± was life-threatening???¡ª??Kinri was stabbed in her neck. She would have???¡ª¡± your life, Hinte. Would you use Wunder if the next knife had come for your neck, and you had nothing left to save you?¡± Enkelin,¡± ¡ª she saw her granddaughter¡¯s frills wrinkle at the saccharine title???¡ª??¡°you could have at least taken one of the parrots with you. It would be safer.¡± I¡¯m sorry. fly! She¡¯s fat.¡± Hinte flinched at the name. knot, on so many levels.
On the porch, Ceiwad illuminated the night in palest green. Hinte had taken a lamp with her, and it cast a small muted circle on the porch. Versta took the opportunity to flex his wings, flying circles around Hinte¡¯s lamp, miming a moth. Hinte watched, nursing a glare in her frills. The venom dewing her fangs grew poisonous. She wavered first. know.¡± He leaned forward with a wing to his breast in some formal gesture. ¡°Our arrange-a-ment.¡± rock a its head! Never saw it coming???¡ª??like a black parrot, I was.¡± fern. I can show you.¡± Nyih. I can tell Toastyfeathers though. I bet minnows can¡¯t kill wildcats.¡± Nai.¡± Uah,¡± she trilled. ¡°You broke this long, no? A few more minutes won¡¯t change much, yes?¡± hungry, after sifting the Berwem, so she finished her plate before anyone else, even Gronte, who had started before her. She looked to her grandfather, her Opa. He sat, ignoring his food, holding an inked red feather, scratching symbols onto a small scrap of the fernpaper he kept on him in sheaves. I am trying to, she wanted to say. Why couldn¡¯t she just spit the words? Hinte looked down to her plate, but it was still empty. She glanced to Gronte. Would she say something else? Ask another probing question? * * * Interlude I: Smolder, part ii Though the G?ren house stood one story high, it had an attic. Reached through a ladder at the very end of the hallway, Hinte had used it quite a bit in the past, for the roof could be reached through the attic. She had gone to the roof a lot when she learned to fly again. Kouou,¡± was the response, just two notes repeated a few times. Hinte looked around. The attic was the blind darkness of night, so Hinte retrieved her milkmoth lantern from her bag. The light cast glairy white light. Kouou,¡± from the parrot. Hinte licked away the sour venom on her fangs.
Footsteps came from the hatch. Hinte stirred, not quite sleeping, but not fully aware. She did not know how long she held Monsun, but her lantern had dimmed, shining paltry light and almost dead. A wrinkled face appeared by her side, a purple parrot perched beside them. She didn¡¯t like to be pushed, either.¡± quiet?¡± he asked. whom?¡± Versta mimicked Gronte¡¯s voice. coocoo. She even know what respect is anymore?¡± polyps, and that was telling enough. Hinte shook her head, and walked further into the workshop. It was a joke, not a veiled insult. She was acting like Ushra`. Kinri meant well. her new friend hadn¡¯t been good enough. you don¡¯t need it. Yes, warriors might have won a battle or two with alchemical venom???¡ª??but what of the damage to their fangs? What of the damage to their glands? What of the feeble-tongued aspiring soldier who opts for a dragonfire operation, and the feebler-tongued alchemist who cripples their glands permanently or gives them a defective mixture?¡± lie. I¡¯ve hardly perfected die Wunder.¡± them needed dragonfire.¡± Versta trilled, punctuating Gronte¡¯s words. ¡°Shush,¡± she murmured. is being used.¡±
Ushra had shooed the wivers from his workshop. Versta followed Gronte without question, and Staune trailed behind them. She revealed her ulterior when she flew to the almost-empty bowl on the dining slab. While Staune finished off the leftover food, Gronte collected dinner plates. Ueheh, minnow.¡± Swiped, the purple parrot now had some of the feathers of his ridge crooked. flown, so high and hard, the fluttering, humming flight only a small fledgling could manage. Afterward, it had felt like her wings were broken. The world became silent. lived. Because of Sonnesche, Hinte did not end up like Monsun. Hye. Why it smell so sour in here?¡± weird. You don¡¯t make any sense.¡±
The floorboards of the G?ren house thudded as Hinte slinked to her room. The dim light from the fixtures faded as Gronte put them out. Hinte¡¯s heart fluttered in her breast, and her breath came in staccato pulls. The conversation in the dining room came sparse and dwindling behind her. * * * Rousing I: Relate, part i Oleuni¡¯s lonely light slipped into my room and glowed the curtains. I roused awake¡­ and then it faded, just as when the first dawn ring stormed in some time earlier; after that, it¡¯d only taken the moments to find the pillow aflung somewhere and bury my head under it before I floated back to sleep. I murmured promises about getting up soon and that¡¯s all I remember. later. Get up! To help with that???¡ª??really???¡ª??I played around with my sheets. Doing something should keep me awake, at least. I had to get up. sharp. I needed to file them. Maybe I¡¯d do it today or tomorrow. wraiths, walking, and then the meeting. dove into the covers, immersed myself in sleep. The memories pulled at the stitches of my dreams, and they gave me one last shudder before they drained from my mind: Tripping, falling into the glowing maw of the lake, even my trout slipping away from me as I melted. A perfumed olm leaping from the gilded plates of a dining slab, eating my tongue. A creepy human lumbering in the sulfuric clouds of Berwem, somehow dewing without fangs, and begging for me to just bury it. A shadow slinking through the vog, through the molten glass, through the water in my canteen, stealing the obsidian knife and bleeding away. Wraiths with mocking dragon voices that destroyed everything I tried to build. A mud-dweller with writhing frills, waving a shining bronze sword, saying, ¡°Listen, I¡¯ll take those fangs off you, Specter-eti.¡± Digrif finally remembering my name, except he pronounced it just like mother. Cynfe towering above me, ripping my wings off as her scales reddened to a bright scarlet. Hinte walking away, again and again. Hinte. Hinte, the friend I didn¡¯t deserve, who I¡¯d nearly left to???¡ª??a fate with the humans. ¡°Will I see you in the morning?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± didn¡¯t have time! Hinte expected me at her house???¡ª??and I didn¡¯t know when! Eww! I wiped at my jaw; but I didn¡¯t feel the cool smoothness of my scales. Instead, I felt a rough, shattered surface of glass moving as my foreleg, and my unclouding eyes met???¡ª??the murky glass of Berwem. have to share with Chwithach. had been one day Sinig couldn¡¯t joke about me being late, though.
There came a loud knocking at the door. need it, in the cliffs???¡ª??dragons here didn¡¯t wear more than a ventcloth unless they had a reason to. let myself get that angry, in a long time. cloak I had so far, my Specter cloak. K??rmkieli glyphs swirled across its silvery, cloud-gray surface. For buttons and decorations the cloak had precious gemstones. In the breast my name had been calligraphed in such a commanding style that it looked down on me even as I held it in my feet. gleamed. It reminded me of some the noble ladies in the higher houses of sky, who shined their scales. It looked beautiful. Tedious, but beautiful. Her eyes and sclerae were a shade dark enough you mistook for black. Oh? What for?¡±
Uvidet had disappeared down the stairwall, waving me bye with her tail. She twirled her tail in a circle instead of the side-to-side I saw so often. hideous! revealing, more than anything I could have gotten away with as a fledgling. But, with the heat and winds that blew as zephyrs instead of near-constant gales, you couldn¡¯t really be surprised. could not fly out with my forelegs looking like this! Having yet to live through a gray season, I had no ashcloaks, or any kind of cloak besides my Specter cloak. I had a raincloak, but it might look frilly in the clear weather. weighed, a reminder of what I¡¯d ran away from. I felt the empty receptacle where the cloak¡¯s plackets met just below the neck. image. I had brought it with me to Gwymr/Frina. Because it was mine, not because it was anything more than a piece of trash to me. beauty of it, could net me plenty. But the empty receptacle once held a shard of star-blessed Stellaine, the stone that fueled the magic of the cloaks. If I could repair that, find some Stellaine down here or another fuel source, it would be an implement again. I could live my whole life from selling of it. striking, regal. Maybe it would overwhelm, but better to try too hard than not hard enough, right?
The cloak was over my torso once more. My wings had found their coverings; it ran down the forearm to the alula, and trailed ribbons for each finger of my wing. It dragged???¡ª??of course it dragged???¡ª??but it looked elegant. I¡¯d ripped the ribbons, and they snapped with a click of clasps undoing. too craggy. It looked uneven, natural ground; but I¡¯d feel comfortable resting a drink on the floor. Another bit of local weirdness. diminutive in a odd way. She was smaller than me even, and her voice sounded whispery even when she spoke up; her wings seemed to forever hug her body, and she didn¡¯t say much when she did speak. * * * Rousing I: Relate, part ii A lot of Gwymr/Frina rose high into the air, buildings that stood four or five stories. The tallest buildings leant against cliffs, among them the inviting curves of the Moyo-Makao, now far behind me. old, and in fact more of a small country than a city. They hold the deepest gemstone mines, and they maintain an mighty military with a flawless record of defense. It¡¯s the carrot they dangle in front of any newcoming settlement: We can protect you, make you rich.¡± his???¡ª??it¡¯s right there in the name. If you lived here then, you lived ac Dwylla. So his refusal had been plain jealousy, not wanting to relinquish control of his town to would-be sovereigns.¡± Why? That sounds so frilly, refusing an alliance-jassa sekkyytt???¡ª??err, I mean refusing out of¡­ err, egoism?¡± Gwymr/Frina, the glass of secrecy. Ostensibly, they meant it in the old sense, secrecy being merely set apart, as our faer was so bent on having it???¡ª??but the subtext is there to be read. We had to be hiding something, to dare abstain from joining their protectorate, hehe.¡± His voice had faded to a murmur. ¡°I¡¯ve begun to wonder if they were right.¡± huge. atmosphere grew more sophisticated, more wealth on display. Any occasional panhandlers or starless walking about didn¡¯t???¡ª??couldn¡¯t???¡ª??come here. The roads looked better, not clear of waste; but I could almost feel comfortable walking on it. Almost. The yards stretched open, spacious and covered in mosses or hardy fungi. It tended something of a familiar rolling green look. less intact than the nets I had seen on the outskirts of town, over the farms. I flicked on my tongue. Maybe it wasn¡¯t so strange. In town, the nets were images, there to look secure. But in the cliffs, you needed the nets. They protected you every day, keeping pests and predators out.
Just moments of flight after that, I was gliding down to the road that led to the G?ren estate, Hinte¡¯s house. It stood low and sprawling???¡ª??and only one story high! A concave roof sloped, way steeper than any other you saw. That seemed dangerous, because ashstorms. But maybe they were braced. They should be braced. wood? ¡ª there yawned an estate like it had eaten four other yards. You could tell, from just their decoration, that they missed the forests. More flora grew in just their yard than the entire neighborhood. It held had the first trees I had ever seen in the cliffs. Hardy ash willows, a bleached white. I had liked them since I¡¯d first seen them, even when their droopy melancholic look. tasted nice! Ferns, massive though they were, just clouded in contast. alone. He¡¯s a good fellow, Rhyfel had said.
Through the first doorway of the corridor, in a room with a knee-high slab orbited by mats, sat another forest-dweller, with jade scales darker than Hinte¡¯s, on the mat just below a window. Through the other doorway, lay a room with some tall, barrel-shaped plant by the window and very comfortable-looking fluffy mats arranged in a triangle. One mat was big enough to hold two dragons, the other two only one. cute; but I could never tell her older self that. Well, maybe unless I wanted to dare her to find some way to administer poison with a glare was them. Looking closer, I could see an age difference between the likeness and its source. Other than that, the military garb was gone, and they now wore a gleaming locket I couldn¡¯t find in the painting. changed things. My next words would feel like a response, and I didn¡¯t know what to say. authentic, be Kinri instead of the once-heir of House Specter. want to say? wanted to say. seven times!¡± I looked down, cringing at the pathetic fraying in my voice. ¡°And about other things, too.¡± * * * Rousing I: Relate, part iii The dining room didn¡¯t impose, press in, or really stand out???¡ª??nothing like the meeting room from last night. But it felt drab and serious as it did none of those things. The tiles on the floor alternated black and brown, the dining slab looked deep and black and shiny, and scratched with white. Obsidian? How much had that cost? Gronte, Hinte¡¯s grandmother. my voice! I bared my fangs at the bird. permission. is kinda weird. Are they, um, like dragons? Can they think?¡± warbled. It sounded discordant and it drove stakes into my frills. The parrot lunged from Gronte¡¯ wing, and flew at me! But Gronte stopped it with her other wing. What is that supposed to mean?¡± My frills were already writhing, so I bared my fangs instead. walked out of the room, scratching its way to the hall. lopsided???¡ª??you may say ¡®hatchly¡¯???¡ª??but its a matter of parrots being very different from dragons, and so they don¡¯t take the same things seriously that we do, and don¡¯t understand every aspect of our culture.¡± polite, at least.¡±
¡°Kinri-ychy,¡± came Ushra¡¯s voice from beyond the other door; he emerged, and continued, ¡°show me your forelegs. My Enkelin asked me to take a look at them.¡± keep her scales,¡± Gronte said. that bad! black. What had they been in the painting? I don¡¯t think it was black. * * * Rousing II: Covet, part i I watched Ushra¡¯s black eyes as he stepped in. They were orbs almost sunken in a face hundreds of gyras old, and there were depths to those eyes. Whatever sense of dragons I might have, I wouldn¡¯t push it trying to read Ushra. hello, Specter-eti, G?ren-eti. I was looking for you both, in fact.¡± he come by to pick them up. Someone else always had. terrible about showing up to anything on time. But he¡¯d seemed excited about Hinte¡¯s exploits last night. Maybe he¡¯d show up earlier because of that? Were banned. You know that¡¯s not the case anymore.¡± Ceya, I have returned!¡± said the bird. Wasn¡¯t he checking on some Monsoon or something? do it, not lie about it.¡± Ueh, Toastyfeathers! Wanna bet that¡¯s not the one either? I¡¯ll take yer nut.¡± what are you doing in here?¡± I found myself almost dewing sorry for the little bird. is this all about?¡± unsightly, you know. Hearing an animal talk. Is it a forest-dweller thing, or are Ushra¡¯s magics stranger than I¡¯ve heard?¡± alchemist, not a magician.¡± adventuring!¡± His wings hitched up and down in excitement. He vibrated. did happen out in the lake last night?¡±
Hinte told her story, one foot held over the other. Looking down at her feet, she started only at smelling the blood and sweat. bounced on his mat. The rockwraiths. That was all me, the one point in this story where I might look middling heroic to anyone else. would not stop chasing me!¡± Digrif was shifting on his mat again, leaning about as far forward as he could without slipping. eat?¡± Staune hopped by Ushra¡¯s side, eating a sliver of chicken meat. I gave her a half-smile before continuing. It is not defeat until you can no longer play, I heard vaguely echoed. Adwyn.
Ushra looked to his neglected meal, and after a prodding by Staune, began to eat at last. I looked back to my food. Watching someone eat was impolite. It¡¯s intimate, something you only do with lovers or close family. But eating with the G?rens didn¡¯t make me feel any closer to them, just gave me a curling queasiness in my stomach. attacked you on sight?¡± trained to fight dragons.¡± Ushra broke his explanation to take a few more bites of his chicken, yanking one away from Staune. Adwyn let him, his brows furrowed in thought. Ushra finished, and continued, ¡°But why would men trained to fight dragons be out exploring our cliffs, this close to Gwymr/Frina? The town is on no human map. It is as if they were expecting her to appear.¡± blindness???¡ª??reasonable men remain unconvinced. But eventually, perhaps, some old warriors with experience fighting dragons hear of it, and come in, hoping for more glory.¡± large. I do not think they could track her within it.¡± paranoid, Ushra ¡ª¡± * * * Rousing II: Covet, part ii The table wasn¡¯t silent in the wake of the last conversation, but it had left a need to escape from the accusations and theories with smalltalk or actually eating the food in front of you. I took that last route, and so did Adwyn, while Digrif chatted laughingly with Gronte and Hinte???¡ª??and Staune, when the bird wasn¡¯t whispering with Ushra or scratching inked talons on his sheet of leafpaper. gesture of relaxation and not a gesture of relaxation ¡ª??¡°about your trip into the Berwem,¡± he said, his tone sounding like he nursed venom in his glands. what, exactly, you two felt the need to slink out that late into the night. I will, however, tell you that sifting the Berwem is not something you can do on whim. You need a writ of permission, otherwise you will face a fine, and possible imprisonment,¡± he said, and let that hang in the air. Point made, he continued, ¡°And I checked the records???¡ª neither of you have such a permit.¡± merely wanted to smooth this out before it becomes an issue. In fact, I brought the papers with me. Consider it our thanks, perhaps,¡± he said, placing a small bundle of forms onto the slab, sliding it toward the dark-green fledgling. your descriptions, to a detail.¡± The orange dark clouded his eyes, and waited. Enkelin.¡± we reacted: Hinte flexing her frills and gazing at Adwyn with that same defiant regard I¡¯d seen after the rockwraiths fled, while I was looking down, frills, wings, tails all waning small. It had felt good, was all I could think. sword, they were about to attack us.¡± did say that you antagonized them.¡± Adwym gave Hinte a half-smirk. experiment, just like old times. He¡¯ll understand.¡± Ushra clouded his brilles, his head easing back. Why,¡± she warbled, ¡°would a red-and-yellow have a sword? All red-and-yellows I saw have clubs and sticks, yes.¡± up to something.¡± severely burn???¡ª??there exist salves to diminish the danger of this, but you could not acquire them without a permit, for they are all regulated. I take it you made it yourself?¡± invented glazeward.¡± dragons, who assuredly do not live in these cliffs,¡± the orange drake finished with a frill-wink, while Ushra frowned. he didn¡¯t know that. He just assumed it. quite so greedy with the price.¡± could be called a rush.¡± finding the bodies, a few days will make no difference.¡± The alchemist was spinning a flourish with his pen just as he finished speaking. into the lake? Is that what the forms are for?¡± plan had been for Hinte to escort us into the lake???¡ª??after all, if she was there last night to find the bodies she must have had her writ. odd for one so young to be licensed ¡ª so I confirmed my suspicions earlier this morning.¡± He takes a long drink of his mug, finishing the contents. ¡°The new plan had me battling with the faer to schedule a nondescript investigation into the cliffs around the Berwem today and for I to accompany the guards therewith. A pain???¡ª??but you have left us no choice.¡±
The conversation faded again to mixed smalltalk and silence, and those who hadn¡¯t finished their food yet had another chance to???¡ª??though not any more reason to. Hinte still didn¡¯t touch her greens, Digrif still ate slow so he could talk to Gronte and sometimes Hinte (he didn¡¯t speak with his mouth full), and Ushra scribbled alone instead of eating. Gronte, Adwyn and I had already finished our plates. And that was everyone, wasn¡¯t it? Light Most Piercing?¡± At my blankness, she added, ¡°It is the story of Jammra and Wauchu.¡± The Confusion of Underbrush? It¡¯s???¡ª??worth your time.¡± * * * Rousing II: Covet, part iii I pulled the handle at the door¡¯s base, and was onto the G?ren¡¯s porch. By now the suns had emerged from behind the buttes, shining right into my face. My frills folded over my eyes blocking the light. Though I couldn¡¯t see, an aroma of the nuts and feathers lighted on my tongue and wings were flapping. Minnow?¡± annoying, yes. Slicktongue spent a longer time thinking than Citrusface yet he didn¡¯t even lick Slicktongue¡¯s words. So annoying.¡± She could be useful when dealing with the Frinan administration. I scratched my headband, and looked away, not up. ¡°So um, what¡¯s it like to know what everyone¡¯s thinking?¡± owe him. It feels like¡­¡± was a little weird.¡± As I was saying, sky-dwellers are suspicious because you had to do something to get exiled from the sky, maybe something illegal.¡± sound that shredded my frills! I yelled, and my wings and forelegs flew up to cover my frills. loud! Please don¡¯t do that again.¡± I helped her to the ground. She should show thanks.¡± Thank you, Versta. Let me replay the favor.¡± I grabbed the rock I fell on and yank it out of the ground. It flew from my foot at the purple parrot. He dropped from the branch just in time. Oh well. * * * Rousing III: Interpret, part i In silence I slinked away from the G?ren estate and toward my sinkhole of morning shift. Around me the west end was sleeping. The birds didn¡¯t chirp too loudly, there weren¡¯t very many dragons out walking, and even the wind seemed to hold its breath. sofran.¡± Your tongue caught the scent of eyepaint. Specter.¡± want?¡± I asked him. ¡°I need to get to work.¡± attitude, let¡¯s call it. There¡¯s the same inventive paranoia about both of them, by turns charming and vexsome. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed.¡± wanted a reply, and he had to know that. Transparent. knew it. The stars would keep her away from this mess, wouldn¡¯t they? library of snakes?¡± Constellation of Houses???¡ª??hates Dyfnder Geunant, and House Specter most of all.¡± He spoke slowly. left the sky, an expatriate, not an exile. And you hide your mark of exile???¡ª??as if it were some embarrassment. What, are you trying to escape your family here? You¡¯re running away?¡± going there. But would it be an insult to point it out? I needed to stay on his good side, at least till I had full citizenship. them.¡± Stars, I hope not, I muttered under my breath. I¡¯d seen that ugly eye of Dyfns???¡ª??that oversaturated-purple slit eye with a rainbow of even more oversaturated rays squirting out, just like the eyepaint Adwyn always wore. her.¡±
At some point the title stopped echoing in my head, and the silence it left wrung. Such a Geunantic phrase. sunny out. Rawr, it said, as it readied to swallow me and my energy and happiness. On either side of the door were colorful mounds of ash. Natural piles once, but now they had fragments of stained glass pressed in, colluding into a sort of rainbow mosaic. Claff¡¯s work. wiver-like. should go visit him. He must really feel awful, because he worked so hard when he was here. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll go see him this sometime. Later this evening, maybe. I???¡ª??thanks for telling me, S.¡± relaxing day of inventory,¡± I said as I walked past him. could say I did my good deed for today by not pointing that you¡¯re late, again. Or speculating on what that smell is.¡± I looked back and he was smirking now. I glared back. He only rolled his head, continuing, ¡°¡­Mehbe. Depends on what the crowds look like later. Wait for it.¡±
The innards of the shop greeted me, as they always did, lifeless and still, and smelling of some sweet fruity scent floating over dust and strange old plants. The line from the door split the shop proper down the middle; two counters were on either side stretching only a few strides long. Beyond that, the shop was shelves and tables, and some support beams. rings of mind-numbing waiting and hallux-twiddling, punctuated by bargaining and bartering and brokering. had been last night. I could never set the headband in the exact same position, so it brushed against the singed scales and smarted a little every now and again. did need to clean this counter, so I¡¯ll finish this first. stop cleaning her counter. I¡¯d droop my frills, and wouldn¡¯t lift my gaze from my counter. The Confusion of Underbrush in Drachenzunge. ¡°My syllabus demands¡­¡± I murmured, translating.

The Confusion of Underbrush

? My syllabus demands that multipart essays be individually numbered, that liminal parts be footed with ¡°To be continued¡­¡± & that the form & function of every part be exhaustingly stated in the subtitle of said part. ? Every so often, a student will come to me & ask why I demand their multipart essays be labeled so sillily; ¡°Any one of these seems quite sufficient,¡± they would say, ¡°but the ensemble together seems quite redundant.¡± In reply, I tell them tale of how the War of Underbrush was started, just as I will now tell you. ? There once lived a queen who ruled over a large city with a great & terrible army. She had a great many stupid advisers, & one smart one whom she trusted. The stupid advisers meted out what they thought would keep the large city happy, & sometimes the smart one countered this. ? Nearby to the large city, some of a certain race of dragons with spiny-frills had taken up residence in a dark damp clump of forest which no-one wanted. Till one day, the bigots of the large city demanded the queen do something, anything, about them. ? (This was an unenlightened age, & so a great many tongueless ideas were quite unfortunately in vogue: that spiny-frills would invoke the venom of the gods, that their witches would cook up unhatched eggs, even that they were plotting a takeover of the large city.) ? It came that the stupid advisers echoed the will of those bigots, & the matter was brought up at every meeting thereafter. ? ? ? There once lived also, in a different city, a famous, if trenchant, philophager, & a master of language renown for much, most of all her treatises in & of her mastery of backward branch. Call her Halhalje. ? They say her mother¡¯s mother was spiny-frilled, but she ever denied these accusations & no records remain to be quite sure. Yet in spite of these suspicions, she had risen high to prominence, commanding respect from the learn¨¦d across the land. It was all very impressive at the time. ? Halhalje had a particular delivery of lectures that was alternately the sweetened poison tone of those words said before some long-anticipated murder, or the bombast of such that might inflict those killings. All the while, her phrasing rarely strayed from that rarefied verbosity of academics, but it didn¡¯t quite suffer from it. It was a contrast. ? You will know that the forest¡¯s poetry spat out its philosophy, began her first lectures of the gyra. Even its name is poetry: know a ¡®philophager¡¯ is, in the literal, a love-eater; for a good poet should strip the world to its skeleton) . Halhalje would say this with some bite & a particular snap, & the sounds would fill the lecture hall. ? & know that a number far too large of schools of poetry had flourished, as is their wont, & that all but the most mercilessly abstract eventually spat out their own little school of exposition or argumentation. But you are fledglings, you won¡¯t care about that. Let¡¯s talk about two: the fair backward branch & the slimy long vine. ? Halhalje paused for a beat, & the crowd of students seated look bored, only a few paying quite rapt attention (for the philophager was a good speaker, but not a miracle-worker). To introduce her next point, the lecturer began breathing loudly, & then continued: ? When you talk, you breathe, said Halhalje. Arguments breathe just as well, & being smart dragons we divide them up like this & call the parts breaths. ? Know that that backward branch goes is two ¡®branches¡¯ in the first two breaths, probably your position & your interlocutor¡¯s, & it¡¯s done with a meeting of the branches that reconciles them, she said, & punched her feet together. The details get elaborate (as does, I add, anything academics find stimulating) but what you fledglings need to care about is the aesthetic: here, two branches subequal yet distinct, & a meeting which privileges neither side; an aesthetic of fairness. Remember this, & you might claw something worth looking at. ? Obversely, the long vine goes by persuasion, instead than negotiation, Halhalje started, & her tone had noticeable tarnished. The first breath argues for your interlocutor¡¯s position, the second will show how that weaves into a position partway between the two, & the last breath shows how this liminal position weaves into your own. Halhalje then sat down. This is an aesthetic of gravity, of the inveterate pull of reason???¡ª??or mere slimy rhetoric, most often. ? Regardless, one can see all the common here: both argue for each side & a composite; but the journey of one is the destination of the other. Halhalje was waving her hands around as was the usual gesture of summary. Suffer it to say that the aesthetics of philophagic argumentation determine the form & content. ? I could go on, but Halhalje, having yet to publish some book of her own, would scarcely appreciate her lectures begin repeated here. You know what matters for the story, regardless. ? It wasn¡¯t long after giving this introductory lecture one year that the philophager returned to her office to find a certain letter there. The aforementioned queen had mailed her. ? did he have to watch his hatchlings? Ashaine and I could do whatever we wanted as hatches, and we lived in the sky. What was there to worry about on the surface? ? ? Meanwhile, thing had not grown better in the large city. It came to pass that more & more of the queen¡¯s advisers & the large city¡¯s elite called for, nay, demanded, action against the spiny-frilled dragons. They asked them to be killed, or at least forced from the dark damp clump of forest which no-one wanted. ? Sensibly, the smart adviser asked of the queen to claw a latter to enlightened Halhalje, entreat her just what should be done about the spiny frills. Neither of them had read the phager¡¯s works. ? After many cycles, the phager did reply back, & with three scrolls. The queen, a patron of the learning herself, & fancying herself philophagic, studied the scrolls. ? In them, she read a long vine argument which grew from trusting & accepting the spiny frills, to a measured & sympathetic approach, to starving them economically to coerce them out of the dark damp clump of forest which no-one wanted. ? Against her initial judgment, the queen was taken in by this argument, & her treasurers & judges set to work to implement the philophager¡¯s interdicts. ? Like you would too, the spiny-frills in that dark damp clump of forest which no-one wanted did not take well to the embargoes. While some starved or were preyed upon, a few took to burglary & vandalism upon the large city which had denied them basic dignities. ? One day, a spiny-frilled bandit killed, perhaps accidentally, a visiting noble in a robbery gone artfully wrong. ? The large city was in uproar, & the queen, with all her advisers breathing on her frills, had come to a final decision. The great & terrible army was roused & unleashed upon the nestled village in that dark damp clump of forest which no-one wanted. ? Just like that, in a single day, the peaceable village in the dark damp clump of forest which no-one wanted was destroyed & its inhabitants were killed, drake, wiver, & hatchling. ? When that trenchant philophager Halhalje learnt of this, she was star-crushed; for she hated long vine, seeing it as a slimy, manipulative form. ? No, her message had been in backward branch. ? * * * Rousing III: Interpret, part ii My head lay on the counter. Two long ring each chimed at some point. I may have stumbled close to sleep once or twice, but never near enough to really rest. cryst. Gleamed. It looked more than an actual gem than the stinking stones we¡¯d dug up. Cut into many faces, each side was a little triangle. The vibration of the cryst rumbled even deeper, more intense than any of the crysts from yesterday. music???¡ª??almost sounded good. Adwyn had eyes that pierced, these eyes seemed only to prod. Only needed to prod. magic.¡± Anti-magical then, is that ¡ª¡± I cut myself off. The words had just left my mouth when I cringed. Hinte, deeper, wasn¡¯t I? without reaching for my ariose Specter voice. ¡°But it doesn¡¯t matter. There aren¡¯t a lot of practitioners around here, and the ones there are hide it for¨Cfor a reason. Saying this is magical makes it less likely to sell, not more.¡± least. In the east market, that is.¡± I could read a smile in the folds of their mask. Sterk,¡± I mouthed. I looked back at the mage, giving them a closer look. The question perched on the tip of my tongue. But I flicked and said, ¡°Only if you have some schizon to wrap it in. One hum is enough. Two will drag on my nerves, drag on everyone¡¯s nerves.¡± perfect, in fact.¡± was that?¡± I murmured, staring at Sterk.
Just then, a bell jingled, jostling me from my rest; and in stepped a brown wiver with her left frill ringed with piercings, a wide laughing mouth and dark-blue eyes that lit up as they lighted on me. She smelt oddly electric. at all.¡± love¡±???¡ª??her clouded brilles caught a glint of light???¡ª??¡°the lake as much as everyone else. But a day of freedom? That¡¯s a whole notch on its own.¡± Hide your fangs. at me. ¡°I like the way you¡¯re handling this.¡± I to blame for you being nice?¡± could be calm and professional. ¡°You think so?¡± But that wasn¡¯t what drew Mawla here, was it? was the mask. obvious.¡± have anyone. So even though I have some freedom today, I have nobody to while it with.¡±
A bell jingles, jostling me awake again. A cloying, poisonous smell told me who was there before I lifted my head. then she saw me. The Confusion of Underbush, like you asked.¡± * * * Rousing III: Interpret, part iii In the window a massive beast lumbered, long and lean, with a load pathetic compared to its bulk. Fourteen slim legs supported its weight, each as fat around as a dragon¡¯s. The length of the creature was repetitive, as if it had once been a natural thing, but had that midsection resculpted and appended to the end again and again and again like clay. Mossy chitin glinted in the light, textureless green alternating with foggy pools of collected water on its back and sides. Even from the door, I could scent the chemicals smelling like burnt garlic which kept flies and parasites away, and coupled with it the rank scent of the fungi and moss all over. just right and knit themselves a cocoon to brume out the summers, emerging each gyra with new chitin and fresh scent. stench of the caterpillar cow. It brought the forest-y odor of its flora, and yes, I could even smell the sweetness of its feed and the chemical scent of the buggrounders, but the unwashed mass of its body and the awful odor of its manure washed out any pleasantness. Its rear stood out of view, so I can only hope whoever owns this cow had a bag to catch its droppings. please let it be with Sinig, and not with Arall. After five boxes, they finished. Arall went back to her counter, while Mawrion gestured for Sinig and me to go back and organize the new stuff. Yay, but also ugh. wasn¡¯t that predictable, Staune! ¡°So um, what are you going to do today???¡ª??later, I mean?¡± hurt that you would betray the shop like this.¡± my idea!¡± smaller, then.¡± I let out a big breath, baring my frills. Changing the subject, I said ¡°I learnt all the major dragon tongues. Was made to learn, anyway.¡±
The ruddy-red drake glanced at me. ¡°You want more smalltalk?¡± do?¡± that tone. do?¡± The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.¡°When ash-clouds raged and spit their flakes, ¡°That hatchling molted, sprung a drake; ¡°When scoria filled the air in spray, ¡°That fledgling filled the ground, then lay. ¡°But I have watched you try and try, ¡°And true to time, your wings did fly; ¡°Yet then, to learn, I left my home. ¡°It dried my fangs ¡ª they were but bone. ¡°As dance and season came to pass, ¡°The greenery would never last; ¡°Bright skies grew black, suns seemed a sore ¡°Above, an¡¯ dull shadows crept into my core. ¡°Aground, life seemed most bleak and wrong¡­ ¡°But friends I made, and found my song: ¡°And lifted by these thermal bonds, I sang; ¡°Now love¡¯s sweet kiss bedews my fangs, ¡°And I become a mother¡­ ¡°Do I still love my brother?¡± I had stopped sorting to listen. When he finished, I folded my frills. ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± read poetry. It¡¯s¨Cit¡¯s not proper. Artistry is for drakes, wivers take up science. Or war. Or trade. But not song.¡± rule. It¡¯s just???¡ª??how it is.¡±
My box half-emptied with that thought on my mind. My life had certainly become a bit interesting lately. I¡¯d lost count of how many times I almost died in the Berwem, and then there was Ushra¡¯s conspiracy theory, whatever the guards and that inquirer were up to, and Adwyn. My thoughts danced like that, and settled on my question from earlier. does, but you never taste it until after it¡¯s all said and done. I wouldn¡¯t trust him as far as his dress falls, but the faer must see something in him.¡± I¡¯m going to change things, sister, he said. We¡¯re going to change things. A House Specter without masks, without tradition breathing down our necks. Your House Specter. would this cost? ¡°Hey, S, what constellation did you hatch under?¡± am a stargazer. Being determined doesn¡¯t mean anything. The seasons are determined???¡ª??they come every year. But will you tell an ashstorm it cannot affect anything?¡± meddle.¡± * * * Rousing IV: Validate, part i ¡°Hi? Who are you?¡± I asked the immaculately-dressed plain-dweller. out of place. Their green eyes met mine, and their frills spread out like an invitation. you, but not for me, scarcely for me. Why, look around you. Do you see any other with scales as blue or cloaks as regal as yours? Even a traveler such as I has scarcely seen the skylands, or a royal sky-dweller. And what a pity, when everything he¡¯s heard makes the wonder of heaven itself flush warm with envy.¡± you some kind of poet?¡± Nothing. Keep your spirit any sharper and you might cut yourself.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Whatever. I did have a purpose of sorts here. Of course this smalltalk has been enjoyable enough so far.¡± Which skyland, then ¡ª Is that the proper question for you, your sharpness?¡± up. Since gravity is no problem, we can do things surface-dwellers can¡¯t.¡± life in it! You cannot smile and laugh and joke with a scroll. There is no entre???¡ª??err, interak???¡ª??err, interactivity, yes that¡¯s it.¡± I laughed. ¡°What? Do not laugh at me. I had to find the right word. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is ¡ª¡± everyone looks like a drake and it is so confusing.¡± I was a wiver?¡± is Dynfderi.¡± I see.¡± The joke pulled a guffawing hiss from him and it bled back onto me. A passerby in a cloak peered at us with a confused look, then smiled and tossed their head. I glanced back to the traveler, and smiled at him.
A long ring cut through the laughter. The sixth ring. I glanced back the library, but the traveler had already starting talking again, ¡°Say, have you ever met a forest-dweller called Hinte? Acts like she¡¯s shedding every day of the cycle?¡± I see.¡± could become an alchemist. together.¡± I muttered. the Ushra, slaying a quartet of monsters in the fires? Or the same with that sky-dweller who hasn¡¯t been here six dances fighting humans with friendship and teamwork?¡± nothing to do with it?¡± did. I guarded the first human corpses while Hinte fought the rest. I scared off the wraiths! I didn¡¯t fight the humans, but I helped a lot otherwise!¡± practical.¡± was nice. And too silly to really do much harm. other theater. Fair¡­ Scrolling, I suppose? Taste you later.¡± Taste me. Oh. My tail, already coiled around my leg, strangled my hindleg. That must have been a slip of his tongue. He acted silly and slipped up a few other times in the conversation, too. It was nothing. No. ¡°I¡¯ll think about it,¡± I said slowly. ¡°I have plans today.¡± rash of violence lately. Some say there¡¯s a new drug on the loose???¡ª??and all the miasma coming with that. Best to stay safe, I say.¡± distinctive.¡± * * * Rousing IV: Validate, part ii Gwymr/Frina had only one library, the Sgr?li ac Neidr???¡ª??something, Chwithach assured me, reflected the smallness of the town instead than any lack of culture. Even then, the one thing that stood out to me about the library was its location our four libraries belonged to a noble House, whether Specter, Locrian, Obelos, or Cynosure; and each was a familial library that¡¯d opened to the public as a charity, before taking some life of its own. Meanwhile the Sgr?li belonged to Chwithach only, and he¡¯d opened it as a charity too, but in this case, the charity went both ways. long straight horns, lay on his back, wings spread, looking relaxed and lazy. His foreclaws held the scroll close to his snout, almost resting there, and his brilles had clouded and didn¡¯t seem to clear. Never flap in a library. Chwithach had disappeared behind one of these shelves. Where was he? I had just seen him.
¡°Hello, Kinri,¡± came a voice from behind, a thick, rich hiss that always had a friendly growl underneath. Calculations and neat clawings. Maybe there was nothing else worth mentioning about me. does! You will recall sea was the last dragon nation to sign the Severance of Earth and Sky. The sea always had good ties with the sky. Some even considered sea a part of sky, at intervals.¡± threatening.¡± are creepy.¡± incident.¡± every paper.¡± He patted a bag by his side, reaching in. When I looked back, his head had snaked forward a bit. ¡°Why can¡¯t you stay as long, if I may ask?¡±
I had dipped my attention into two of the papers, but couldn¡¯t immerse myself with the trip into the lake later today still looming over me. I kept peeking at the little ring-glass Chwithach-sofran had sat down near me to remind me of the ¡®shopping trip¡¯ later today. is someone whom I¡¯ll have look at it, and perhaps there¡¯ll be a chance of making another, and, spirits willing, one with less evidence of wear and malfunction. If so¡­ the possibilities boggle.¡± The nastiness infecting the sound was waxing worse, garbling his words, and even eclipsing some. Even then, I still heard that cute curiosity-tinged smile of his in the tone. Odd. The word sounds archaic and???¡ª¡± his head dipped a bit ¡°¡ª??from some language I can¡¯t place. Where did you hear it?¡± just right, then slipped them all into my bag. They fell into the pocket where the crysts¡¯ glass flakes had settled, instead of the one where I still hadn¡¯t cleaned the dried crab blood. It might take a vigorous scrubbing to get rid of, now. smelt. Had everyone been smelling that? Oops. off. I licked my eyes and peered a little closer???¡ª??and saw he¡¯d drawn his reflection. * * * Rousing IV: Validate, part iii Brightest Oleuni reigned high above, and was pursued by Enyswm. I climbed high above the hot air of the sifting town and again wandered the line to Hinte¡¯s house. I didn¡¯t rush, and relished the wind under my wings. Flight was luxuriating, and???¡ª??while it was completely cloying to say???¡ª??it lifted me after a morning in the Llygaid Crwydro. Which story do you think Gwymr/Frina would rather hear? that was the stench. worst day to work at any shop that isn¡¯t the east market. A whole day of almost nothing!¡± gwee-mer-ee.¡¯ gwuhmr vree-na.¡¯ (How was her pronunciation so much better than mine?), ¡°is a mix of plain-dwellers, cliff-dwellers and canyon-dwellers. It is why the natives here are a mix of browns, reds and oranges.¡± affected whine. ¡°I was just being descriptive¡­¡±
A short ring later, we crossed the canal, climbed a cliff-face and crept toward the lake. It gave us some privacy and something close to a sense of moving fast enough???¡ª??if only to me. Hinte ¡ª yanked my tail. I was halted in the air, and floundered for one tense breath before scrambling for my feet and some balance against the cliffwall. My fangs were cloying and I sputtered awhile before spitting out a coherent objection: not just do that!¡± jumped down toward the ground, at least to start, beginning at the most solid, most easily gripped outcroppings of rock and leaping to another and another. Then he missed and skidded down the face and hit smack the bottom. weren¡¯t slow lines, it turned out; it was the sheer volume of dragons entering and exiting that created the line. It was enough that you heard that murmur of crowds rising like smoke. tight, considering everything. late,¡± he said, in an almost unnoticeable lilt. Now some seriousness like a mist was arising in his tone, now. slow.¡± I glanced at Hinte, and the wiver mercifully didn¡¯t react. Unless those scores in the gravel by her feet hadn¡¯t been there before. was obvious???¡ª??but what was underneath it? Why harp on this point and not just get the job done? protectorate, and our name isn¡¯t just a title, unlike some countries. There is no end of threats to some orbiting stronghold, or militant insurrection menacing our freedom. More impressively, I served in the skirmishes against the spiders in the caves far up north of the canyons, and grounded the Ragan Mountain back when the Constellation was still making trouble.¡± He flared his frills and licked the wistfulness from his tone. ¡°Of course, what I do anymore isn¡¯t the same kind of interesting.¡± defected from the Concordat of Stars! We???¡ª??the Constellation has been peaceful for hundreds of gyras!¡± funny, then, how consistently the sky gets these so-called rogues? Or how sky never deals with these defectors on their own?¡± true. The Severance of Earth and Sky promised that no sky-dweller would land on surface-dweller land, and no surface-dweller could enter the skycities. request. The Saumsanra? My Oma speaks of him as if he were dead.¡± * * * Rousing V: Suspect, part i ¡°The bodies need to be guarded,¡± the pink-scaled guard was saying to Adwyn, ¡°don¡¯t they? You¡¯re plenty big and strong sure, but I can watch your back.¡± colorful cast here? Never seen these jokes.¡± have raised a gray point.¡± A forefoot had been lifted and tapped his horned chin. He nodded once.
The first thing you saw in the market was food, our food. obscure ¡ª and because of that, I¡¯d decided to settle here instead of the skip mountains or the hovering shores. Most exiled sky-dwellers ended up in either of those, and I knew why. I loved the Constellation¡¯s open skies, its immense heights, and everything. I just couldn¡¯t live where I would be reminded of them everyday. Nothing could compare to the sky, so I decided it would be better to forget about it, if it came to that. I decided it. at them, either. fish! I waved my tongue, yet before I could slink after it, Hinte¡¯d broken away herself and slinked over to that stall selling H?gre hog pork. Before I¡¯d even unclouded my eyes she¡¯d bought a whole roast. Being from a smaller kind of hog, about knee-high and half as long as a dragon, it sat clumsy and tottering in Hinte¡¯s cloaked wings. She tried to place it in her bag, but it wouldn¡¯t fit. I planted down beside her first ¡ª no question of that ¡ª but Digrif wasn¡¯t more than a few breath cycles behind me.
The crowd writhed and spilt over itself. Like pillars in the chaotic mass, wherever we looked there were guards in high-stands or high-walks, each one looking purposeful even if I only saw them stop and question a plain-dweller twice. The crowd flowed around them; for some???¡ª??often cliff-dwellers, often clad in halfrobes???¡ª??it was because they stopped and inclined their heads in respect, and for others???¡ª??often plain-dwellers, often clad in ashcloaks???¡ª??it was because they stopped and slinked around the guard, disappearing into the crowd. parted around the turt-mounted guards. expensive. course, I¡¯m ready, darling.¡± Glyster¡¯s voice was a saccharine hiss, and seemed to click her tongue once with each pause for breath, giving her words a giggly undertone. ¡°You know mining always picks up when the lake grows so savage. And more mining means more gems. I¡¯m excited!¡± weighed down with the number of piercings it had, and half of them had gemstones embedded. ¡°And you? I can¡¯t imagine you¡¯ll have all that much to do with the lake in the throes of the gray season.¡±
A short ring passed. I finished a small errand I wanted to run, acquired a scroll I¡¯d was searching for, an astronomical table. I flipped through it???¡ª in an alleyway. Nothing else of note happened. I made to return to Hinte and Digrif. * * * Rousing V: Suspect, part ii The suns condescended from high above like distant certainties. Lonely clouds floated about beneath them, and sometimes a suggestion of a skyland far away. The murmur of the crowd in the east market was a thick, and I waded through it. cliff-dweller. sour. things I need to do.¡± Saying that had both Hinte and Glyster peering at me. I brushed their gazes off. They weren¡¯t what whittled at me. Rubbing my hurt neck, I turned and started toward Digrif, while finding myself, in my mind, a ring in the future, meeting instead Adwyn¡¯s sifting gaze. Would he see right through me?
It was a weapons stall, and it displayed a few aluminum and bronze swords. plain-dweller. They had a gnarled, rough look. Their horns grew out of control, and some of their scales parted from their face. They watched Digrif with what might be good-natured smile. Or an ingratiating one. could we defend ourselves if we ended up in another situation like the one in the lake? him.
The weapon and armor stalls faded behind us, giving way to a new theme. Looking around, there were outfits resembling the sifting suits I¡¯d worn with Hinte yesterday, and some that didn¡¯t looked nearly as good. bottle. The advantages of having an alchemist friend, I guess. was similar, very similar, down to the handle. Maybe the humans had the same ideas? I put the sieve back in my bag, and kept looking around. before entering the lake?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t cross the seas nor skies astarr¡¯d, ¡°Until the fires have grown cold¡ª ¡°Like the legends haven¡¯t told, ¡°We sift while life is barred. ¡°We bare the heat, the drought, the lake, Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°The bossdrake¡¯s unescap¨¨d call, ¡°The fiery moil which bitters all¡ª ¡°We sift for heart¡¯s warm sake. ¡°The fires are trudge and toil for what? ¡°Reward so meager for the plight? ¡°Potential pay that makes it right? ¡°It simply doesn¡¯t cut. ¡°I do not sift for glass or gold, ¡°And nor to make a life???¡ª??that¡¯s true, ¡°But only for the love I knew. ¡°I sift for something old. ¡°My love escaped into the clouds ¡°Beyond which scarcely could I find ¡°The flames or words to change her mind ¡°The flames that could have vowed. ¡°Now time has past like scales that slough ¡°My fangs have faltered, dessicated ¡°(A sifter¡¯s final fall, but fated). ¡°It seems flames weren¡¯t enough. ¡°Across the seas and skies astarr¡¯d, ¡°Until my flames had grown too cold, ¡°Like the legends haven¡¯t told, ¡°I¡¯d sift¡¯d till hope was marr¡¯d. tongue-flap. I would look in a mask like that? ¡­I glanced, with effort, at the price: ninety aris. ninety aris. Staune seem a cliff-dweller. As I stared at the masks, the owner of the stall turned around to peer at me. They were a deep orange???¡ª??a canyon-dweller. Their face was specked with dark-gray freckles. They regarded me, cool and impassive. almost pity you and her.¡± was a good deal, I thought. It was what I wanted. generous.¡± feel the lightness in my purse. of course I recognize highness Adwyn. And that other hatchling has scales that nearly pin them down. Who are they? Donio? Digrif?¡± fraud, madam. Are you implying something?¡±
¡°Thank you, Kinri. This was quite thoughtful of you.¡± sifter wants a mask like these, they¡¯ll be paying out of their own pocket.¡± Adwyn popped his tongue. ¡°Basic caution implores us to use them, Hinte.¡± Adwyn¡¯s tone had become bronze, as if he would take to ordering Hinte around. It was easy to forget???¡ª??with his irreverent, observant demeanor???¡ª??that this schizon-clad canyon-dweller was a military veteran, a former commander. is the land of glass and secrets. Secret glass.¡± Digrif had tried putting on his gas-mask already; but he had it on backward, eye holes at the back of his head, and was looking in the wrong direction as he spoke. I walked over to fix his mask. not being calm, if by some small yet significant amount. ¡°She has tried.¡± scared, flimsy, can¡¯t trust her), and in that moment of hesitation, Digrif slinked right beside Hinte. could cover us, but we can¡¯t count on the humans knowing that, so I held back.¡± He looked over to Hinte, then me, starting to lick his eyes only to find them covered by the mask¡¯s goggles. ¡°Since you two are responsible for bringing the humans to us, I thought you would want a share of the spoils.¡± * * * Rousing V: Suspect, part iii We didn¡¯t go far from the sifting section before Adwyn stopped us and pointed at the ground beneath us. ¡°Stay here.¡± still. I prodded her. ¡°I don¡¯t sound like that, do I?¡± I whispered. special.¡± reasonable,¡± he said. And that was that. dance???¡ª??where did you learn that?¡±
We were slinking through the crowds, me on the opposite side of Hinte???¡ª??as far as I could get without it being obvious. Kinri. I¡¯m going to get it, obviously. Kinri. See?¡± obvious.¡± buying things. Most entertainment happens in the evening???¡ª??or at night. So I¡¯m wandering around to ground time, looking at things and maybe buying them if I want them enough. Maybe I could show you how, some time.¡± Sure.¡± strained. But why?
I flicked my tongue, scenting ink and fernpaper. Not just any ink though???¡ª??it was spicy and familiar. I¡¯d been smelling it every day for cycles. Was this where he bought it? I would be the one sneaking???¡ª Snake. I¡¯d fantasized about a having a snake since I was a little hatchling. They were sleek, cuddly, dangerous, and way better than skinks or turtles or monitors. My face wore every parcel of my reaction, and I didn¡¯t bother adjusting my mask. know. But it¡¯s not the bite that grounds you.¡± fascinating youth. I had a small fortune at times, but it had always been rather¡­ mercurial.¡± Chwithach looked away. ¡°But the truth is, Ceiwad here was a gift???¡ª??from the miser, in fact. Though my association with him is a part of that youth???¡ª??anyway, even though it was a gift, it was horribly expensive, and I insisted on paying him back, even though he only ever took half of it.¡± change things. Can you believe that?
When we left Chwithach, It had been Adwyn, and not Hinte, who¡¯d pulled me away. Hinte had walked up to us, yet when she saw who I chatted with, she gave him a curt nod ¡ª and the librarian returned it, with a pensive line in place of a smile. She left us after that. did have a necklace, humming with a hidden cryst. Mawla about then, too. She was nosing after you; but I sent her away. She¡¯s not the type you want to keep around.¡± gall trying to sell me of my cousin¡¯s necklaces. Its even got her signature on it! ¡®G¡¯ for Glyster!¡±
The spot Adwyn had chosen for the cart was an alley between a flat-topped brewery and a sagging house, both leaning against the market¡¯s eastern cliff wall. The crowds thinned here, and the sparseness seemed to make the red and gold of the Gwymri guard that much more numerous. Maybe they were; we were at the very edge of the net stretching over the market, and someones had to guard it. * * * Rousing VI: Concede, part i ¡°The bodies are gone?¡± I said with a snap of my tongue. ¡°Where did they go?¡± We¡¯d been robbed! I looked up, the confusion cracking and hatching a quintet of questions. How? When? Who? Where? Why? serious.¡± nothing at all to do with this! At all!¡± My frills flared and my wings unfurled before I folded them back up. I didn¡¯t do it. Why couldn¡¯t he see that? busy chatting with that weird gemstone wiver,¡± I said, pointing at my glaring friend. While she was talking with that wiver about crysts or whatever, I¡¯d wandered off to find a book stall, that¡¯s all. All I wanted was up-to-date astronomical tables. Hinte would have been busy awhile. wouldn¡¯t think of it right now. I had just been relaxing in the shadow of some alleyway, my mind caressing the figures in the book???¡ª??and then they¡¯d come. I didn¡¯t want to think of about how the plan might be changing. Everything was already wuthering out of control. Which stall, Hinte-ychy?¡± Adwyn hadn¡¯t looked away from Hinte. His voice had grown another kind of urgency. someone in the administration is behind this.¡± Citrusface is up to something. Thanks, Staune. indirectly. The G?ren house is more likely, but there¡¯s still the matter of their knowing when to spy. Which all again raises the possibility of someone betraying us.¡± Adwyn¡¯s gaze roamed over us, me most of all, seeming even more analyzing than ever. collapsed on my bed last night out of sheer tiredness. And then I roused and went to Hinte¡¯s house first thing. And then I went to work until it was time to meet you. There was no room for these schemes. I certainly couldn¡¯t¡¯ve planned this out now while being in your sight???¡ª??almost???¡ª??the entire time!¡± do need to figure out who betrayed us. They had to be at the G?ren¡¯s house. It wasn¡¯t Kinri or me, at all.¡±???¡ª??I grinned, and Hinte glared???¡ª??¡°Maybe it was that Ushra guy. He seems plenty creepy.¡± they suspect anyone in the administration who would do this?¡± * * * Rousing VI: Concede, part ii ¡°Hey! Hey guardsdragon! Over here!¡± Digrif called. have seen a handful of dragons carting around loads like that,¡± the cliff-dweller said, brilles flashing clear, ¡°and one of them was you. Were you robbed?¡± Adwyn? The military adviser Adwyn? Rhyfel-sofran¡¯s second in command?¡± The guard scraped into a bow. four of us, not three!¡± Adwyn is the only one who knew exactly where the bodies were.¡± you aren¡¯t the one colluding with the thieves?¡±
When Gwynt returned, he really needed to. Adwyn stood at the mouth of alleyway, and I didn¡¯t like the curled-lip, clouded-eye glances he sent back at me. Hinte watched Digrif and me with burning scrutiny, eyes only ever half-clouded; but at least Digrif and I were able to talk about pleasant nothings with smiles and only a few cringes for Adwyn and Hinte¡¯s suspicion. knew they were right and didn¡¯t even need to explain themselves; the other was a bewildered cliff-dweller who reminded me of Digrif, if instead of carefree he simply had no idea what was going on. Each had chains running between their legs, and a rope around their muzzles. We were chasing some ashcloaked wivers who were talking about Aurisiuf making a move. You¡¯ve heard the stories, Sofrani. Would you have us ignore something like that?¡± Yes. More directly, I¡¯d have you avoid falling for obvious bait. Do you think it¡¯s a coincidence that both of these things happened right in front of you while guarding something important?¡± Adwyn waved a wing toward the prefect. ¡°Take them to the town hall. We¡¯ll decide if they belong in Wydrllos later.¡± I saw both guards wince. frowning. He muttered, ¡°This a just how I need to start my cycle: unraveling damn conspiracies.¡± smiled. * * * Rousing VI: Concede, part iii Adwyn was still suspicious of me, I realized. He flew behind me, and when I looked, he was watching. I hadn¡¯t even done anything wrong yet. with the humans somehow? Like Ushra said?¡± might be able to hold a human corpse. Some innocent regular dragons would fit that description, too, right? It might be why Adwyn had chosen this way of carrying the bodies???¡ª??and might be why the thieves copied the idea. That remains to be seen???¡ª??we hope you understand we cannot just make exceptions on whim. Orders,¡± the cliff-dweller guard said, sagely. She has an idea, I narrated to myself. She convinced her sibling to move in front of the placating mother. As they stood, the smaller hatchling climbed on the other. Facing Adwyn, she expanded her wings???¡ª??her tiny little wings???¡ª??to their full extent. Her fangs were unfolding, and the saliva dewing on them caught the light. dolts!¡± and reaching for the growling hatchling. spat, twin streams of venom flying from the apertures in her fangs. there, wearing a sad, relieved sort of almost-smile. The fledgling, on the other foot, was glowering, twice as intense as before. If one could brew and administer alchemical poisons with only looks, I imagined we would each drop dead before we could swallow.
The guard and Adwyn each returned to their searching. The guard was ripping through and examining the bags of what???¡ª??to all appearances???¡ª??really was just seeds and other farming supplies. At that, I followed their example and returned to my own job???¡ª??minor though it was. Gliders. The glider, plus their wings, saw them rising, hurtling for the cliff walls. had to fly well in the sky. And it helped that flying was the best. important. flock of red and gold sashes trailing behind us with only the slightest idea what was going on. stabbed? there, almost there. * * * Rousing VII: Agnize, part i As the knife plummeted, my hope fell with it. I hung there on the net for a few beats and then Adwyn arrived. pulled. done. Dragons flew so much faster in the air than we can hobble across the ground. They couldn''t escape us now. twistier.
When I dropped out of the sky in front of the cart, the only difference I noticed was the mother and fledgling had been chained, and there were six more guards orbiting the pile of seeds and seedbags ¡ª the cracked cart was gone. * * * Rousing VII: Agnize, part ii The fourth little ring rung out, and you''d be forgiven for thinking we''d worked on a schedule. Almost on time ¡ª but not really on time ¡ª the last of the guards lighted down in this little blocked off area. What started as a slow pulse of guards coming in, or (some) leaving ¡ª too slow to call it a flow or even a trickle ¡ª had accelerated until here came dragons that, if not familiar, had become recognizable after the big gathering earlier. have a human corpse as their finding. Instead, they had a H?gre hog. Maybe it was an easy mistake to make if you had never seen a human. But didn''t they at least have a sketchmaster drawing an impression or something? They should at least know what they were looking for. That messenger returning? feel?" confused. Baffled, even. I don''t have the simplest idea what''s going on, and I''m hoping this debrief might make something of any of this." someone had to have betrayed us. Could it have been him? I peered, trying to find some tell. He kept scratching the gravel, twisting his frills, and glancing around. But they didn''t really line up with his speech the way a real tell would. He just looked nervous. real. "If you think it will help. This is collaborative, to an extent."
I did it! I just bought this sword to defend myself, honest." any day now." Digrif shook his head and clicked his tongue. Someone had to have betrayed us, right? Could it have been cute, handsome Digrif? Who smelt so deliciously? Hinte said it was suspicious that he decided to buy a sword when he did. And he''s the only one we can''t definitely trust. I''m me, Hinte was there to kill the apes in the first place, Adwyn wouldn''t need all of this scheming, and maybe Gwynt was still hiding something, but he only came into the picture after the betrayal had already happened. would Digrif do something like that? It doesn''t make sense. And the sword doesn''t mean all that much, when he doesn''t know how to use it and his reasoning for buying it, well, it fledged sense. For him. suggested a conspiracy exists. Gronte? Versta? Staune? It was even sparser. Staune seemed trustworthy enough, and Versta probably didn''t have a scheming bone in his little bird body. Gronte didn''t want a war between humans and dragons. someone I should be looking at. I just¡­ really didn''t want to. Didn''t want to think of it. * * * Rousing VII: Agnize, part iii Adwyn was still talking. "¡­I ordered Kinri to return the corpse to Gwynt and Digrif, and I pursued the thief who still wore his cloak. At this point, a skein of guards was en route, with orders to split and pursue either thief. mold that clogs the throat and restricted movement. Water kills it, and this was the only thing that saved us. as it happened ¡ª even if that record is embarrassing. I saw what happened at the net: you reached the net first, but dropped your knife. I see that it is a small omission, but if we cannot trust you to speak honestly about the little things, how can we ever trust you with the bigger ones?" right. There were things I had good reasons for hiding, but this wasn''t one of them. It''s just¡­ I wanted to be instead of a disgrace some kind of hero, and heroes don''t drop their weapons, right? The Kinri who saved Hinte from rockwraiths, who stood against the humans, she wouldn''t drop her weapon. goals, Kinri? Ambitions?" Adwyn, the military adviser Adwyn, Rhyfel-sofran''s second in command," I echoed Gwynt''s words. I could make a good parrot. the military adviser Adwyn. Dragons recognize me for my position, but I am hardly famous in myself. The Rhyfel? Of course. The Ushra? Sure. The Aurisiuf? Unfortunately. But the Adwyn? You''ll never hear it uttered. I''m middling significant here, and that''s all I need for my ends." are your ends, Sof ¡ª Gyf ¡ª Adwyn?"
It was a very clear day, and a cloud had just passed in front of the sun. she said, "Hello Kinri, the Specter with no cloak." Behind me, her voice was a wind from the shadows. On the nape of my neck, her perfumed breath was a shiver. familiar in its inflection, that the confirmation quickened my heart further, flushed the blood from my brilles, and scared me. I shifted my face out of phase of my mind. It turned to a door, behind which things are heard but not seen. Such a delectable scent." What made it so vitrifying, though, was how it was said. Such a disgrace." intently at the mess of colors that was her cloak''s sleeve, letting it take up my field of view completely. I spoke again, drawling, "Is this an illusionmaster chiding me about appearances?" such a disgrace." We can scent a bevy of options from even our distant position. Thou hast made no advances with Bariaeth, whom thou knowest holds much power and no loyalty to the faer. Thou hast made no effort to capitalize upon thy relation with the high alchemist''s heir ¡ª which would be effortless on thy part. Thou art entertaining that vexsome canyon-dweller who stands in way of our plans. Thou seest the faer''s brother everyday, and thou hast not even noticed." intently the colors. My brow furrowed as I noticed how they seemed¡­ less vivid, almost distorted, compared to the other cloaks I''d seen, in the sky. wouldn''t." boring." never ¡ª even you wouldn''t have made such a game of it." such a disgrace pretend to know me. Thou shalt quiet thyself, and I will fulfill my mission." vandalized ¡ª" told you all it was like that when I found it! For all the things I did that you all couldn''t appreciate, I really didn''t do this one." such a disgraceful job of it." gyras. Even knowing what had come before and what came after, it had been gyras. I let her near forgotten scent draw out a smile on my face.
Adwyn''s frown was waxing deeper, and he cut my story off with a wing. His voice was soft, dangerous. "There is another Specter in Gwymr/Frina?" What is this new order of yours?" * * * Rousing VIII: Repine, part i ¡°I can¡¯t imagine killing me would end well for you???¡ª??or accomplish your goals, for that matter,¡± Adwyn said, peering down at me with a look of patience and recognition???¡ª??as if he¡¯d had this conversation before. up to meet eye with him, and I broke it just as quick. ¡°Granted you even had it in you to do it???¡ª??and you don¡¯t???¡ª??you wouldn¡¯t survive my assassination. And if those two conditions didn¡¯t hold, I???¡ª??personally???¡ª??wouldn¡¯t recommend this. And not simply because my life is in question, either.¡± He paused. ¡°Can you tell me why? What purpose could it serve?¡± them as well???¡ª??but he isn¡¯t whom I¡¯m thinking of.¡± any of this helps me!¡± The words came out hard and I flinched at how loud my voice was. Even in the privacy of the alleyway, I wouldn¡¯t, couldn¡¯t, risk anyone hearing this conversation. Lower, pleadingly, I said, ¡°Can you at least fake your death or something if I can¡¯t kill you? I need this.¡± serious,¡± he said. leaving was the cleanest solution at the time. But my brother appeared before I would have???¡ª??left. He said I should go somewhere in the Dyfnderi protectorate instead, and that he had a plan, and that when it all worked out, I could come back. Everything would be fixed. And I could finally be stargazer.¡± doubt. You wish to trust them simply because you can doubt their ill intentions.¡± shouldn¡¯t. Where were these dragons when you were exiled? How much help have they been to your living a life on the surface?¡± The orange drake looked away, and came back with some look in his eye. ¡°Why not trust me, instead? I can assure you I would never send you on a doomed mission.¡± you? I don¡¯t even know what you want!¡± smaller as time grows on.¡± For once, Adwyn smirked, and because of that I could believe him. knew I was guilty???¡ª??they called me the black ascendant???¡ª??but none could prove it. Our justice system is flawed that way???¡ª??or some would say, featured.¡± hurt her, and I wanted some way to make it right. So I went to the king. He is a wise, philosophical drake???¡ª??judgment being about all he is good for with our parliament allowed to do much of the more important things.¡± at me. ¡°I wanted a way to make things right. He didn¡¯t give me one, but he did give me a path to follow, that I might better understand. His first suggestion was monasticism.¡± This has become why I want further peace between our two strongholds, and why I do not think a path of violence is the one down which you should go, Kinri.¡± me anything. None of that helps me.¡± no hope of ever returning to my home?¡± can help you with that. In fact, I don¡¯t think you¡¯d even find that in the Constellation, were you to return. The same things you ran away from haven¡¯t gone anywhere, have they?¡± Adwyn shook his head. ¡°Alas, the choice is yours. Make your decision.¡± I fit into any of this? What could you want with my help at all?¡± Even with my back turned, I watched Adwyn¡¯s cast shadow, waiting for his reaction. right, of landing a retort he couldn¡¯t counter. But if his helping me was conditional on me being useful, if he only thought I was useful because of Hinte... * * * Rousing VIII: Repine, part ii Adwyn had left us alone, if after an exchange with Hinte that was her glaring and his smirking back until he bowed his head and turned to leave in the direction of the head guard and the scribes returning to town hall. I tried???¡ª??really tried???¡ª??not to wonder what message he would send the faer. Rhyfel, and I¡¯m just... your...¡± fly, while I was being stabbed in a burning building.¡± Hinte brushed an alula over a soot covered shoulder. secrets to counter alchemical strains.¡± up. Digrif was there, winging down behind the black-clad wiver. He landed with a thump, glancing at the alchemist, then behind her at me. Why are you going? I told you aren¡¯t useless, I admitted you were capable. Nothing is wrong.¡± say something, and when I do, it is just the wrong thing. What do you want me to say, Kinri?¡± dark? We¡¯re supposed to be heroes.¡± do want to be a hero, see? But to be a good hero, you need to be a beacon of happiness and positivity.¡± die, or be arrested, or¨Cor something, if you followed orders... would you?¡±
¡°So, now that the gang¡¯s all here, what¡¯s next?¡± The warm-gray drake had shifted position; he had started walking right before realizing we weren¡¯t going anywhere, and stopped. continue to trust you, tell me.¡± wasn¡¯t. At all!¡± smiled. ¡°If you want that is. Hinte¡¯s just being a little... Hinte, right now.¡± too pretty, smart enough.¡± I flicked and twisted my tongue. ¡°It wasn¡¯t fun???¡ª??the rules chafed, the judgments stung???¡ª??but I closed it off and flew on, because that¡¯s what you do when something¡¯s important and you care about it, right? But then I realized, why should I care about any of this? And it all fell apart.¡± plan. He said he was going to become the Zenith. And he told me he would bring me back to the Constellation when he did it. die never seeing the Constellation again. The last winner always plans for failure, right? Err, that saying sounds a bit weird in y Draig. the adventurers in the cliffs! They fought monsters and saved dragons, and blazed glory all across the country. Then, they found a Dyfnderi labor camp plagued by monsters, and disease and???¡ª??they say???¡ª??the terrible demon of the lake...¡± was a monster, basically. He struck mysteriously in the dead of night, and no one has ever seen his face. He could have been a conjuration of the demon of the lake, for all we know.¡± killed! On Dwylla-drwg¡¯s own orders!¡± She sighed. ¡°Did you not learn of the Inquiry with all of your ¡®history?¡¯¡± What!¡± Quieter, he said, ¡°Why would you do that? Why would they want that?¡± we do trust you. Right, Hinte?¡± means something.¡± * * * Rousing VIII: Repine, part iii ¡°I glimpse you¡¯ve made your decision.¡± everyone was taller than me???¡ª??but I couldn¡¯t help but notice it, here. ¡°There is being nice, and then there is neglecting to consider what Hinte would honestly have to lose in allying herself against Gwymr/Frina.¡± not accusing, I am being cautious. There is no clear indicator that Hinte is guilty or innocent. There are, however, reasons to believe she could be involved, and those are reason to be cautious.¡± you could be guilty. We have nothing to prove anyone is involved.¡± I very deliberately glanced aside, and dropped my voice to a murmur. ¡°One may be forgiven for wondering whether you are doing this for more than appearing to be active and effective.¡± endeavor to punish anyone who interferes with the workings of this???¡ª??situation. No matter???¡ª¡± certain interest go first, and pick her opponent.¡± didn¡¯t. They were both practiced habits. And when it came to what I wanted, at its simplest, Adwyn did want to help me. If there was something to be gained from attacking him, I¡¯d do it with more planning. * * * Rousing IX: Anticipate, part i When the eighth long ring chimed, it didn¡¯t stop on the sixth note. The timbre turned from the bells of the highest carillon to the raw or piercing double trumpets you only heard in the cliffs???¡ª??because of course the cliffs lacked the restraint and poise of sky music. And yet, the sound closed in like a coming doom. felt it, even away from the road, all the way by the cliff. That chord hung in the air, vibrating and fading glacier-like. The long release of the sound hinted at some unseen, resonating chamber. losing, necessarily) and he said, ¡°This can¡¯t bode well.¡± surprise. Had they expected this? watched, despite her ever-clouded brilles. It was as if all of her reactions were kept to herself, and she offered up nothing to the world. felt; it was time hanging in the air. Like that, Bariaeth¡¯s beatific smile became small and ambient; and even Cynfe¡¯s scowl faded. The faer continued to watch, cloudily, and the moment dragged even further on. intense in her gaze for a glance that wasn¡¯t there before or after. Whatever it was, she kept it from her face, which relaxed and waited, and her tone, which simply asked:
Mlaen had returned to her neutral, cloudy-eyed watching. With her mouth set in a thin line, you knew she wouldn¡¯t be the one to clear the silence. And whoever did would have the attention and judgment of the all the guards. Mlaen had crafted the delivery of her question, giving the words a sense of deep, officious importance, and whoever dared respond would be thrust to that same standard. Adwyn was laughing. I was clicking a little, but not so much that I missed the calm glare that leapt from Bariaeth¡¯s face right at the high guard. you doing here?¡± subtle. yawned. I remain faer. I was notified of the thieves¡¯ escape less than two rings ago. On my orders, the inquirers recovered another ape corpse and captured the remaining thief. Two inquirers did what one???¡ª??two???¡ª??three???¡ª??four skeins of my guards could not. This is a disgrace.¡± succeed.¡±
¡°Mlaen is taking this far more seriously today. I wonder what changed.¡± act.¡± do have investment! My friends are in this???¡ª??they might get hurt.¡± right beside us and we still couldn¡¯t stop them. Maybe we really don¡¯t belong here.¡± Used to be. They fought with a bunch of humans and???¡ª??lost.¡± gray season? It don¡¯t fledge sense.¡± twenty-two gyras old!¡± * * * Rousing IX: Anticipate, part ii I said, ¡°I just don¡¯t think the garters stand any chance at all. I mean, you name yourself after the most harmless snake, and do you expect anyone to take you seriously?¡± are cute. It¡¯s just, a Dim-Fflamio team shouldn¡¯t be cute, they should be fierce.¡± It almost has. tricked and lied to.¡± does everyone calling you Rhyfel the younger like we¡¯re about to forget? The elder¡¯s pretty old and dead, ain¡¯t he?¡± story.¡±
I didn¡¯t really know where to put myself. Where to stand with Hinte had always came easy???¡ª??maybe I trailed after her, maybe I¡¯d bounce in step beside her???¡ª??but now I had to think about it, and that was what awkward was. faer.¡± could have been important.¡± isn¡¯t a mission. We¡¯re waiting for the real mission to start, the one the faer says¡¯ll go the best among us. You two, probably.¡± Please stay. ¡°To be the winds which know no rest And wuther restlessly awhile Or sough in quiet is a joy And is unknown, to still, dead air.¡±
Above, valiantly, the suns beat light on the clouds, and resulted nothing except igniting a little glow. the houses are falling!¡± Gwynt finished in a high-pitch. The other guards chuckled loosely. the houses are falling!¡± He clicked. what they¡¯re selling. I was in the market today and saw a mountain-dweller glass vase. Glass! Can you imagine the nerve they must have, to sell glass to us!¡± significant, and Cyfrin ac Dwylla will be so much better off once that red tyrant is off the throne. Bariaeth will lead so much better.¡± * * * Rousing IX: Anticipate, part iii The carillon rang again, the second short ring. When I glanced, I saw dragons marching away with the blockades; and the road was opened up again. Guards slinked away from the area in pairs or flew lonelily away. I saw Jarce leaving like that, and the big plain-dweller wiver. prepared. An enemy of Gwymr/Frina stands before me, and she wears a weapon. A fool would be calm and pleasant, dealing with you.¡± innocent when you gaze is so narrow as to miss those truly at fault.¡± convince you. Rather, you must convince Mlaen-ychy there is anything at all to your speculation???¡ª¡± Allow me to finish. To try to convince Mlaen you¡¯ll need evidence. Should you even be capable of sifting the truth, you¡¯ll soon discover that I have no incentive to ally myself with them.¡± If they have secret smuggling deals with humans, and if they perform dark magic rituals to revive their dead prophet, well, whom am I to judge?¡± justice, you see.¡± any foreign fat-belly taste in this pit of a town? Glass and metal. It¡¯s all we¡¯re good for, you¡¯d think, when every fifth dragon you meet is some flavor of sifter.¡± trade.¡± sister was just telling me that I should work with you.¡± I looked up. ¡°One of us is lucky I really am an exile, I just wish I knew which.¡±
It was near the outskirts of the cordoned off area, smelling like tortoises and crushed plants, when I heard, as chased after Adwyn, a plaintive jagged voice. slow. More than slow the stone-shells.¡± Hinte.¡± Their growth stunts.¡± Hinte looked at Digrif. ¡°Do you know nothing of farming? This is simple.¡± * * * Rousing X: Harrow, part i Clouds drew in asudden and hid the suns, bearing down on the world. The ninth long ring came to a close like it was seeking us out in the cliffs, faintly. costly.¡± * * * Rousing X: Harrow, part ii There was a weird smell as we walked, and at first I thought it might¡¯ve been someone¡¯s lunch. taste. trespassing, and illegal. Completely understandable, really. was smart???¡ª??smarter than me, maybe. Ushra was that legendary alchemist, Gronte was that artificer turned fugitive. And yet, I couldn¡¯t swallow that answer. lunged and wrapped a claw around its neck, and there was silence. I come in peace, dragons.¡± say anything.
There were still skinks twisting about. Smelly tentacle-snails crawled, and that might have been a lesser spider scuttling about. Anurognaths leapt from cliff faces, some eagle cawed very far away, and maybe the shadow of a dragon unawares drifted by. know you have potions.¡± heal him.¡± Hinte. Scion of G?ren, heir of Ushra. I am not yours. You cannot order me.¡± Why? Do they think they can heal without Hinte¡¯s help?¡±
The tenth long ring came in the quiet. A chime, yet it seemed a knell.
I sat on a cliff and watched skylands float by. Lying on my back, frills full and eyes gazing sighingly at the sky, I couldn¡¯t have missed the thudding footsteps drawing toward me.
I stood on a cliff and watched suns drift by. Orbited by a harsh silence, I didn¡¯t miss the scraping footsteps drawing toward me. * * * Rousing X: Harrow, part iii I lighted down by the six dragons, Hinte not among them. The prefect nodded at me. Digrif dashed over and hugged me.
It was my very first day inside the walls of Gwymr/Frina. Everyone stared, everyone peered. Whispers and mutters stalked me. this. Days stretched by, and it dug into my nerves. I was out to buy food, and the digging struck something. I¡¯d turned down an alleyway???¡ª??I just wanted to escape the stares. The alley was a dead end. three dragons walking up to me with that kind of curdling confidence, I wouldn¡¯t¡¯ve tried my body against their if my inheritance was on the stakes. Hinte, granddaughter of Gronte.¡± Their frills folded under their cowl. ¡°Ushra has invited you to dinner. I¡¯m sure these dregs will not even try to bother you.¡± She turned so that her gaze fell over each cloaked figure. Two of them flinched, but one only made a sneering sound. dare???¡ª¡± no one else had. relate. was the answer. I was doing silence wrong. get it. Or hadn¡¯t. I¡¯d tried asking Hinte about it, but she just ignored the question, and I couldn¡¯t tell if that was significant or just Hinte being Hinte. * * * Interlude II: Confess, part i The drake felt death breathing down his neck. He laughed. like you.¡± your messes,¡± the secretary replied at last. ¡°I have a stack full of untranscribed reports lingering because of this moil. Every day I wonder why Sofrani bothers keep you around.¡± Who else was there? Instead of saying it, the adviser overtook the secretary, aiming toward the dusty corridor, toward his office. ineffective, and???¡ª¡± lost anyone, Adwyn?¡± rather.¡± You chose to follow me. He didn¡¯t say it. He licked a brille, tongue nimbly curving around his eyepaint. He choose to say, ¡°A nice walk and talk with a friend?¡± is becoming a quantity of interest. Surely it¡¯s worthwhile that we read each other¡¯s pages on the matter?¡±
¡°You fucked up, Adwyn.¡± watched. Contemplative, analyzing, regarding, peering, looking: all of these, but there was something more, something hidden. As ever, her brilles remained clouded. still. piqued. So I inquired the Sgr?li ac Neidr just whether any dragon had checked out any relevant scrolls, or otherwise shone interest in humans.¡± Return of Dwylla.¡± Her inflection could have been disbelief, or something about as skeptical. any reason why these are your suspects?¡± know you didn¡¯t allow them to sit in on your conversation with the G?rens.¡± why.¡± groups in town.¡± The red wiver scratched her right cheek with her left wing, and he knew she covered some twitch of a smile. She finally elaborated, ¡°You guessed it without his help.¡± Suspicious.¡± the faer. No working of this town escapes my gaze.¡±
Adwyn had, in his head, practiced the flow of the day¡¯s events. Enough that when delivering his recitation to the faer, he found his mind traveling distant the landscapes of his mind. Then, starkly, a detail he¡¯d kept hidden shone suddenly out. behold, a sky-dweller spy. What could anyone gain?¡± protects us from the sky.¡± how you saw through the Specter¡¯s cloak? It could prove enlightening.¡± we, have never heard of such an ability.¡± no one has glimpsed to sell this white light. It would be above profitable.¡± the eternal faer.¡± I have been here for nearly seven dozen, and no shadowy assassins. Only disgruntled plain-dwellers.¡± She smiled an impervious smile. her than you think.¡± puzzle might betray to some an ignorance of scale; but Adwyn left no puzzle unresolved, whether it took days, cycles, or dances. And as it stood, it could not take longer than negotiating the sleeping faer into an canyon alliance. vexing, to have a goal and yet be unable to pursue it. * * * Interlude II: Confess, part ii When Adwyn high walked back down the corridor, he curled his wings besides him. Frills pressed against his neck, and his tongue was sifting for something out of place. clung. It didn¡¯t seem to have gone anywhere. scheme? Yet she lacked the opportunity or desire to scheme anything relevant. you should have planned, but subtler than you can manage. some did not, and knowing the high secretary would check and transcribe every report, this was one of the few times some species of pity for the wiver gleamed in Adwyn.) no church of Dyfns), liaison with the apes, and no doubt the one who¡¯d sown chaos in Rhyfel-ann¡¯s guard. known that some scarred, tailless plain-dweller, one Brigg of Aludu Dymestl, had stood hidden atop the empire of drugs that had rooted in the cliffs. Fruitless dances had flown by, and the problem had festered. he were the prime mover, the one alone who saved Gwymr/Frina, it could look quite bright under his name.
There was no sound of footsteps padding up, no swish of robes, no huff of cyclic breath. And not even that ghostly nerval hum which haunted living things. severe,¡± he said with a hisslaugh. ¡°I glimpse that inquiry is dark work, but Dyfns¡¯s breath, have a drop of sweetness. Are you this dour in the bedroom?¡± It was easy, to joke, to stoke the giddy flames in his soul. An inquirer. Was this luck? Dyfn¡¯s plan? Had he caused this? inquirer, yet isn¡¯t committed to parchment?¡± almost as though the term has come to mean something more.¡± important and confidential.¡± you?¡± * * * Interlude II: Confess, part iii The eastern side of town, withered or blighted, slouched beside the Berwem. The northern side grew wild and overlarge, and the west was vibrant and green, yet fruitless. the younger. You invited me here.¡± the seal is loosening?¡± late.¡± why, yet? It¡¯s been dozens???¡ª??no, hundreds of gyras. You¡¯ve stopped sending me updates.¡± Hundreds? why.¡± The alchemist flicked his tongue. ¡°And yet, you say the seal is loosening. Pray tell what that means.¡± now. My strength is tied and Gwymr/Frina is in danger. I have to be there to protect it.¡± know this. I shouldn¡¯t have to tell you again.¡± rot.¡± incident this morning, I was split. On one fork I could not dream any of that violence from the little fledgling, who would try to pick me fruits before they ripened. On the other it sounded just like the sort of strange turn her character has begun taking.¡± do with it. She¡¯s changing, Rhyfel.¡± I know and have not taught her. Mixtures I do not know. Someone is teaching her, and I can think of a single dragon in the cliffs who knows more alchemy than I do.¡± loosening the seal means, Rhyfel.¡± you are not the only one who could repair it.¡± near the fires.¡± win?¡± Rhyfel watched the alchemist not react. ¡°What¡¯s happened to you, old friend?¡± free, Ushra?¡± hope.¡± up to while you were out touring the plains.¡± Rhyfel had a certain high tone of voice that had Adwyn tightening his tail and digging into the gravel. He was grinning quite savagely. the younger. Adwyn.¡± He took now to be time to turn and measure his way back in the starry black of the night, farewells coming after him.
Moments like now, together with that scarlet drake under the bright skirmboard sky, whether upon the rooftops or streets, had always seemed to limn life with some private chroma. He had not reflected on it, yet all the same these instants had always felt quietly significant to him, as of some visual seed that a painter would grow into a piece to be remembered for a long time. Adwyn sighed. When did you go to Dyfnder?¡± always has a way of reaching him.¡± if only that were all it took.
Adwyn left the scarlet drake without saying goodbye, fearing it would sound final. right. us bring it equilibrium.¡±
Somewhere in the distant dark Adwyn heard an explosive smash. It would sound mighty were it near. Winging over the faintly scented air of the west side, it came anonymous, pathetic. thought of Hinte. was too late. aha!, he thought, of course. He did smirk at his luck, though. know. Haune had had another child. And she had been so scared.¡± Dwylla. I had failed him. Ushra had gone to go find???¡ª??something, out in the plains. Rhyfel had left for Dyfnder to fight the spiders. I was the one who remained, who should have remained, should have saved Dwylla from his madness.¡± The Return of Dwylla. we were both right, and wanted to laugh. worried, to know what you can do to this town with just a pouch full of electrum.¡± Arrogant.¡± Should reign above all.¡±
Adwyn had waited for something profound to light the silence. screeched. Qyer!¡± know. He hates to keep me informed of things. He had asked me about magical energy sources, not long before, so take your hint from that.¡± Was there design besides interrupting our plans?¡± will, shortly.¡± * * * Interlude III: Witness, part i Adwyn knew it was mistaken, but sense was sense. Inquirer, and you refused to let us accompany you!¡± The smaller orange drake glanced away. ¡°Something is up.¡± must see Mlaen. Surely you aren¡¯t holding that up?¡± reflected. asking. accept it, to acknowledge what couldn¡¯t be denied, to move past? Adwyn couldn¡¯t tell you it wouldn¡¯t work. Couldn¡¯t tell you some half of him didn¡¯t want it. Logic, rationality, philosophy, the disciplines of order and sundry, they all had come as easy to him as everything else. Adwyn had to know. puzzle, to see their true face, to scry their true motive. The Return of Dwylla? The human demonhunters? The old pillars of Gwymr/Frina? Do not inform the faer. Adwyn would care about its future. report this?¡± secrets at the heart of Gwymr/Frina.¡± uninvolved. Why, you could certainly stand to make my life easier, less complicated. That should not go unnoticed.¡±
Adwyn paused a moment to see the paintings. Cynfe¡¯s work. They smelt oddly of ink, and had the glow of the finest oils. Forms seemed to struggle to life, shadows sinking away and highlights popping. One painting stared out over the red distance of the land of glass and secrets, as it was known from its highest peaks. A land crossed and riveled deep with serpent-like gullies and ravines and gorges, with blooms of green or black life scattered all around. The suns neared colorfully the horizon, and thunderous storm-clouds weighed high above. dragons. He had to sift the walls to find it, tucked away in a corner. The one painting, with a dragon, was of Mlaen. A portrait. It could have???¡ª??should have???¡ª??been one of the centerpieces, but Adwyn knew why it wasn¡¯t. The Mlaen dwelling in this painting regarded kindly, softness in her cheeks, a smile. As Adwyn looked longer into her painting, he felt a voyeur¡¯s shame ride up on him, the sense that in this painting was a moment, someone¡¯s moment, and it wasn¡¯t his. glassheaded plan to stir trouble in the pits, and she wants you to take this so she doesn¡¯t dew when you ground yourself.¡± targeted listening in service to some scheme.¡± but my mistress said she would make me strong and confident and not like sp¨Cspineless whelps like him. I¨CI haven¡¯t talked to him in a???¡ª??while.¡± she worries about.¡±
Behind them the Berwem gate crashed close. It was a plunge???¡ª??tangible progress toward the pits, a visceral separation from the civil into the wilds. The lamps had turned to red, and the catwalks thinned. implored him to stop, let them rest their wings for a spell. He should have left them then. secretary, and no guard.¡± not even tend close to smelling those things again. something has to be said. This quiet¡¯s getting on my nerves.¡± Why? I find it peaceful, natural.¡± do. But that hinges on her handling what she gets herself into. I¡¯ll simply observe how this turns out for her.¡± * * * Interlude III: Witness, part ii There should have been a guard here. Light my path. why. What was the impetus? appearance. ¡°How flattering. Perhaps recognizing that will encourage you to make sense. It should.¡± His tone frayed on those words. known.
The figure flew up to become a silhouette on high. Adwyn looked up the cliff wall. sense???¡ª??you care about many things, but I don¡¯t glimpse your self-sacrificing life amongst them.¡± A pause. ¡°Is it simple cowardice, then? Fear to tread near the shadow of the night?¡± Walk?¡± him. beast.¡±
¡°Do you care for spiders?¡± vermin. Extermination befits them.¡± Death is an old friend. We¡¯ve had our disagreements, but she¡¯s best kept at peace. Adwyn felt something???¡ª??bitter light on his fangs at this. * * * Interlude III: Witness, part iii They walked atop the cliffs now and they came again to the elevated rill. In the night Adwyn almost walked blind into it, and glanced at his side again; the amphiptere had crept up again, but didn¡¯t lunge. She reared up as high as his withers and waited like that till the drake petted her. what?¡± tonight. It would be simple for you.¡± Come.¡± die.
¡°It seems things have grown more dire than I recognize. There must be a nest nearby.¡± Do not let it claw you.¡± pop that frills twitched.
The black iron gate to the depths of the pits still hung open behind Adwyn. A moment of thought, and then he closed it, shutting off completely this chamber from the meager light of moons and stars. He had the murderer¡¯s lamp, and held it near. It made the whole world feel very small. The slight fingers of light couldn¡¯t touch the walls. Cool, and transparent, and brilliant. * * * Interlude IV: Slumber, part i Death was breathing quietly in the dark. malignity, and it settled into his scales. He would molt next cycle, he knew; and it wasn¡¯t soon enough. gone. Please forgive me.
When he felt himself skip a thought, that was when Adwyn ceased waiting. It had gotten late, hadn¡¯t it? The adviser would finish this now, before exhaustion became intolerable. inspiring temperments in himself, as some he knew were. He didn¡¯t consider it a virtue. effective king, someone like him? He found it vaguely annoying. was Rhyfel the elder, that Gwymr/Frina¡¯s beacon of justice and comaraderie was the murderous, thieving bandit who¡¯d roamed the cliffs, who¡¯d stolen the Berwem outpost from the Dyfnderi protectorate, who¡¯d conspired to dethrone Dwylla. Adwyn would have listened to his reasons???¡ª??but if the scarlet drake did not even find him worth telling?
The pits were unlike a web. Who taketh to the highest skies, or In memoriam, or Walk fain in the gaze of Dyfns. The numbers he found were as early as gyra 547, and as late as 651. ceiling had collapsed, too.
With the other dragon gone, and the hungry tiredness only looking worse, Adwyn had to think deep about navigating the pits. did one smell? Linen. Ancient embalment. Something... fungal. An unwashed dragon???¡ª??the moltling, he thought. Should he follow them? going somewhere instead of wandering. do something about them? These are my pits.¡± * * * Interlude IV: Slumber, part ii The smell of sulfur was stronger down here. Adwyn could see the yellow of it settled into the walls, but the stink of it came from elsewhere: bubbling pools crowding the edges of the cave path like gutters. puzzle. Cold curiosity. Adwyn didn¡¯t care. hummed. Its tone was a centperfect unison with the overmastering pitch behind them, that vibration which suffused. It¡¯s a mighty convenient use of power, ain¡¯t it? The voice sounded like the high guard???¡ª??but even his imagined Rhyfel had no right to talk about fairness anymore.) suffering dragon.
As the murderer walked back down the winding tunnels of the pits, even the mites seemed to avoid him. He felt his heart keeping rhythm in his frills, and his burning legs seemed to move without him. It was these bodily things that kept time moving forward for Adwyn. Everything of his mind seemed utterly still, or lost deep in the past. Can you show me to the door?¡± After you do as I say.¡± They spread their wings and lifted their head all the way up???¡ª??barely reaching Adwyn¡¯s withers. have been useful.¡± Again the scratching alula not reaching their chin. ¡°...You may.¡± live in these soulless depths. before I had to travel these caverns, you must understand.¡± dangerous. Why hadn¡¯t he? He¡¯d taken the vow. He still had honor, dignity. And when the weight of life strained his back, and finally bid him to slouch, for what end did he still struggle forth now? such pain; fire hurt more than heartbreak), Adwyn had a few breaths longer to work. * * * Interlude IV: Slumber, part iv ¡°What is this ¡®monster?¡¯¡± first conversation with something a bit more social.¡± my name, but you shall not need to remember it. Suffice it to call me the blind wiver. Everyone does.¡± you are the hatch¡¯s mother, no? Who is?¡± my faer. This isn¡¯t Gwymr/Frina.¡± A sigh. ¡°But if the little one thinks you¡¯re worth helping, there must be something.¡± helping you. This is me allowing you to proceed.¡± She reached into her silken robes, retrieved an irregular length of metal. ¡°You shall need this key to enter the labs, and only through there shall you reach the hallowed chamber.¡± owned. You purportedly have a mission. Focus on that, and ignore any shiny thing you think might not be missed. It will.¡± shall be coming with you.¡± The moltling sulked out from the shadows.
Adwyn was fledging immensely tired after an evening of dragons smugly denying him answers. Once, twice was chance, thrice and he started paying attention. Why would a dragon deny him answers? Not seeing a reason to give them to him? And why not that? Because Adwyn wasn¡¯t on their side, he wasn¡¯t their friend, they wouldn¡¯t open up to him. allies. And yet, in some capacity, there was a hesitation, some axis along which they did not fully align with him. hot!¡± my way, so we go the hot way. It is longer.¡± snap, and then the now familiar crackling of magical electricity. It coursed and pulsed through the iron grout of the walls and blue knots of shock danced at intersections.
His claws scored the granite where he stood. In truth, those feet resembled more sea stars or gnarled knotted roots, and every foot a different species. One leg upheld like a pillar, another bent like a tentacle or whip, one like a foreleg, and another couldn¡¯t be seen but at this angle ought to have been. There were too many tails???¡ª??three? Seven? Five and a half? Irregardless, Adwyn had seen the wriggling of an agitated archon spider. The wings weren¡¯t wings, and Adwyn didn¡¯t like to look too long at the trunk. Was it too long or too short? The scales???¡ª??if they were scales???¡ª??of the things didn¡¯t like the light. Adwyn glimpsed perhaps they wanted to be white, but they bubbled and stretched, and blood or pus always seemed to be a possibility away on every scute. Adwyn forgot the tails, and decided there were six limbs. He wished it would stay that way, but the tendency of the flesh seemed to be exploring every possibility. A scale became a tendril became a horn became a decaying thing falling off; elsewhere the line of thought was picked up, turning to roots or grasping bony things or things that flapped. Never in places that made sense. The neck emerged after several false starts and it wasn¡¯t properly long. You could call what was on the end a head???¡ª??you had to. It didn¡¯t have the only eyes, the only mouths, the only flaring nostrils or curling horns, but it was a convention. The eyes there were there, crowned uncontested the face, and they were the right shape, yet clouded. The mouth sat closed rather than groaning or screaming like other infected, and Adwyn wondered if coherrent speech rested there. When the cracked, twitching lips parted, many tongues flicked out in rhythmless cacophony. There were exactly nine frills, evenly distributed on each side. Overall, one supposed it fit many definitions of a draconid. One¡¯s mind refused to squint when faced with such an ontological threat???¡ª??but if one did, one could see the resemblance. And yet, the entirety of the creature was flickering unintelligibly in Adwyn¡¯s mind just as much the dithering sections of skin???¡ª??was it once a wraith? An ugly outgrowth of the vitriolic pools? Two infected dragons who¡¯d lain too close together? Was it a dragon at all, at all? Had it once been a dragon? Adwyn stared long, and in all his study at the universities and monasteries and libraries of two nations, he couldn¡¯t weave together the proper words to render such a creature in entirety???¡ª??and it was for the best, for no dragon truly wanted that.
In a place called the pits, one expected to fall for longer. The orange drake landed sharp on his back, hard rocks poking into him. Beneath the atrium and its granite blocks, the fire clay had washed away and left a cavern. The glowing mushrooms reclaimed it, while the shining flows of glass were sated above. Down here things were slimier and full of insectiod chittering, and an explanation at once gleamed when Adwyn turned his head right. It was a cowardly act. But he had proven himself one to flee many times down in the pits. He was honorbound to serve Gwymr/Frina. But what was Gwymr/Frina? The true nature of the capitol of the land of glass and secrets forever seemed to swirl and shift under him. Increasingly he could not separate the conspiritorial rot that writhed here from the beauty worth preserving. He owed it to Mlaen, his only friend. Was he truly serving her best by remaining here? Did she need him? There was already the treasurer, the high guard, and that ridges¡¯ adviser. Did the Frinan administration truly need another murderer? dry.
Striding forward, orange feet made quick work out of the cavern below the atrium. The tunnels sought out like tendrils, in many directions, but going left and climbing, he returned to corridors with cyclopean blocks and unfaltering pillars. He was sure he¡¯d walked past the length of the atrium, so wherever he was, it lay behind the atrium. somewhere, smelling assortedly of vitriol, saltpeter, lards and oils, glazeward and respira, and every manner of dried plant one could find in the cliffs. He knew also, from the master high alchemist who dwelt in the Geunantic palace, the smell of aqua regia, alkahest and aver. meaning that would tie it all together. too violent. stopped. It rolled away from the snout strike and raked him with a wing. The sword was not let go of. leashed or restrained. burned.
At longest last, Adwyn had reached the door in the depths of the pits. Ahead, a iron portal (the archaic word felt appropriate) filled the corridor. Its frame panted with endless geometrics and that gleaming Pteryxian script. spidersilk robes. We¡¯re waiting till the time is right. For a new faer. You fucked up, Adwyn. * * * Gazing I: Notice, part i Sometimes the stars visited in fire and rock and for a night we fluttered a little nearer to heaven. die, without it even flinching. for me, after a absolute storm of a day, and right now, that meant more than even the wanion fireball we wrenched from the ocean in 545. mess. I gaped, and the alchemist just regarded me, her lips upturnt slightly. I turned around, drew my wings across my breast. whole day!¡± I covertly, under a wing, glanced back at Hinte hoping for???¡ª??I wasn¡¯t sure what. Specter, and not a Kummitus. It¡¯s supposed to be universal. So it¡¯s House Locrian instead of House Ristiriinen, Cynosure instead of Huomion T?hti, Selcouth instead of???¡ª¡± Selcouth?¡± She saw me nod, and slowly said, ¡°Tell me what that is.¡± is!¡± Sky-dwellers.¡± Forest-dwellers,¡± I rebutted. ¡°Mother always said you were godless. Why are you like that?¡± were free thinkers. We did not let a church cower us into submission.¡± friends. No secrets?¡± you pray for, Hinte?¡±
This could have been???¡ª??should have been???¡ª??my first enjoyable flight all day. Not to be tainted by nervousness (of being late to Hinte¡¯s), or dread (of what Adwyn really wanted), or anticipation (of trudging through the Berwem again) or sheer panic (of chasing the thieves). flying, winging out to the cliffs southern to relax and gaze the stars. I wanted it to be like that. relax around Mawla, and not worry if I measured up to some invisible standard. She already thought I was cool, and not even knowing my boring day job or seeing Hinte???¡ª??more heroic than me by far???¡ª??could change that. colorful. While the ridges had their businesses in Gwymr/Frina, rare was the mountain-dweller actually living in the cliffs; but all of them seemed to end up here, on the south side. The canyons seemed to hesitate in sending over anything save advisers or diplomats; but when those dragons deigned their way north, all of them seemed to end up here, on the south side. And while news never left the land of frost and flame, sometimes dragons did; yet, as if the ash-dwellers wouldn¡¯t go farther north than needed, they too ended up here, on the south side. here and not in the sterile, rootless center. someone to talk to. I¡¯d learned the same thing each time: the south side was still Gwymr/Frina. stories about forest-dwellers. They couldn¡¯t all be like Hinte. And that one had a necklace of bones so I definitely didn¡¯t want to find out more.) them. could just fly on past to the cliffs southern, but then the guards would scurry after me and ask questions. Easier this way. petty. But I had a certain tendency to be noticed by the guards anyway.) writhing, not yet. Hello, Ffrom. Were you reassigned? youse¡¯s nonsense about a conspiracy. To think I¡¯d be shackled for doing my job???¡ª??to think I dodged Wydrllos just ¡®cause that sleepy faer needs more guards.¡± He popped his tongue, jabbed the other guard with a wing. ¡°Some bleeding ship Mlaen¡¯s running, ain¡¯t it.¡± The other guard shrugged his wings, kept chewing something black. doing your job was ever the problem. You did it poorly. Even I can guard a dead human.¡± I chased the thieves to their hideaway, I fought them to a stalemate while big Rhyfel and your squirrel friend were takin their time, and for my trouble I got a building burnt???¡ª¡± You are the reason the thieves could act at all!¡± I lifted my head up, drew my wings for composure. I ought to deny you. What will you stir in the cliffs after that dire nonsense in the market? On the heels of two other drafty figures, no less.¡± N¨CNonsense?¡± My voice frayed, and my head fell. I tried to lift it high. ¡°I am a hero. I helped save the town today! You ought to let me in for that alone.¡± spit the fuck off, Ffrom. You¡¯re a guard, not a rambling drunk. You ain¡¯t got no reason to stomp on this little wiver, and you ain¡¯t got no reason to detain her. Keep your frustrations to yourself.¡± was cliffs southern, some kind of chalky rock that crumbled at a touch and when it rained ran like venom. It stuck to my feet when I walked, but it wasn¡¯t gravel and that counted for everything. present, and yet just as unphased by the day¡¯s tragedy, the loss of life. It was worse. fuck off me!¡± that cut through everything. The world wasn¡¯t ok. There was still something to do. * * * Gazing I: Notice, part ii My flight turned from bounding to rapid threshing. The sound came from my right, didn¡¯t it? I flew toward it, tending lower. I flew past a high butte. Were the ferns up there waving? The wind didn¡¯t???¡ª fuck off me!¡± Staune mimed, including (mercifully) the distant volume. The parrot then made a harsh thoughtful sound and said, in Ushra¡¯s voice, ¡°Slicktongue says that¡¯s a bad tone.¡± Unacceptable! I shall come with you, yes.¡± Mawla was in danger. What would I do if the guards found her already???¡ª screeched. Just for a second. I flinched in my flight, almost fell out the sky. Staune.¡± now.¡± I angled my wing, poured determination into the vans.
¡°Kinri is coming and she¡¯ll ground you. You¡¯ll see. She¡¯s definitely coming. Obviously.¡± Mawla stood panting, backing away. Her ashcloak pressed tight to her. useless Specter. Might I ask where she is? If she¡¯ll bother with you???¡ª??and why would she????¡ª??then what ever is keeping her?¡± They???¡ª??he? ???¡ª??stood a hooded figure. Deep green robes. Menacing toward Mawla with a club in a large wing. Venom dripped from their fangs and it smelt sharper than fermented poison. calm. I accomplish? busy at the market, isn¡¯t she? Somehow, I know that will keep her away. It isn¡¯t hard to fathom, with how readily she abandoned you before.¡± herself? Who else but she made the mistake of involving herself in these matters?¡± care. This isn¡¯t about her, and I am not involved in the market operation.¡± manners?¡± Their tone scorched dry. They continued, ¡°Are you this dreadful to whomever you meet, or are you just as witless as your kind looks?¡± trash of this mudpit? I am above you.¡± shame. I don¡¯t hope, but I thought there was a possibility that one with breeding as overvalued as yours would have sense. But Specters were always self-destructive and worthless.¡± He spat. thought now was the time when he would fly away with his tail between his legs.¡± I scratched my cheek. ¡°Do you agree, Mawla-ann?¡± The honorific was a???¡ª??choice. But I needed Mawla to know I liked her, that the musician¡¯s words were residua. forgotten that your name carries nothing down in the mud? I will not take orders from you.¡± such a crack. peer at me with his head atilt. Cowl shifting as though his jaw were working. Had he thought I wouldn¡¯t? Yes. I¡¯ll be fine by tomorrow. Have to be if it turns out there¡¯s sifting again.¡±
We didn¡¯t get far, Mawla leaning against me to walk, before we had to stop. quiet sounds, quiet I think because dragons were nearby. You got used to that quiet, letting your footsteps come softer, letting your reassurances to the dragon beside you go murmured, letting the quiet in. it, and you had to stop. pecked. There was a spot of red on her black beak, now. Liar.¡± You liar.¡± You did it all yourself.¡± When I say ¡®Now!¡¯, you jump out and surprise them.¡± quick and save her! It was over in instants. ¡°There was no time to call for you.¡± Get Up already!¡± Strong feet gripped my sides and lifted. I was held in the air then dropped on my fours. The sifter returned my earlier hug. * * * Gazing I: Notice, part iii From the other side, it seemed an accident. The southern gate cut into a shallow streamworn bed out of Gwymr/Frina???¡ª??long since dried, but it had the watery texture. On the other side around the gate there¡¯d been dug a wide tidy area. The stone fa?ade was painted and laved. Walking up from the wilderness, though, splashed mud caked this side, and the banks of the dried stream slumped over the stone like a slimy eater. Bauume. And the dog wouldn¡¯t hesitate to hurt her, either. smirk on that scarred face. knew something. ¡°Have you seen a parrot?¡± parrot. But I do know about your friend here. Tell her to lift her hood.¡± Mawla had stopped nudging me, gone very still. Let them go.¡± any greencloaked dragons.¡± and unprovoked assault.¡± I might not be there to help.¡± looked at him with that analytical eye my family had trained, seeing dragons as no more than bags of tells. I was not sliding back toward that: I gave everyone a doubt¡¯s benefit, clouded my eyes to those tells. My patience had just???¡ª??mysteriously???¡ª??ran out with this particular dragon. Hinte had been right. mistake.¡± that voice. Spectacle of a medusa cloak. I found odd; whenever we had tutoring together, she never could focus on anything abstract. Patterning a cloak was everything abstract. intimidate, or maybe someone had patterned it for her. impressed? Dost thou miss this power?¡± It had felt good. That was just a club. To have a cloak and once again rend light, to control perception, control light???¡ª??wouldn¡¯t that feel good? would be easier if they were. One less pawn against Mlaen, hm.¡± Don¡¯t, Uane. They haven¡¯t done anything to deserve that.¡± cat,¡± she muttered. ¡°Keep better control of thy pets, next time. I could have hurt it worse. Killed it, perhaps.¡± Starsnout.¡± I smiled. taller than me. please don¡¯t taunt my sister. She could kill you.¡± I would never be exiled.¡± I am far too capable.¡± She gave me one of her smiles. ¡°Unless thou hast some plan in mind, big sister?¡± Parrots have good eyes. I¡¯ve seen everything that matters. about, but not enough to gloat with.¡± off in your gut. You¡¯d be on edge. Not enough to gloat with. Something was wrong with the cloak. power. And thou hast none. No worthwhile allies, no cloak. So much nothing.¡± Quiet.¡± Then she said, ¡°I am beginning to wonder if thou simply dost not care for thy cloak the way we do.¡± thyself.¡± anything when all the administration now knows.¡± you. Killing isn¡¯t???¡ª??isn¡¯t very subtle.¡± ever kill anyone? clubbed Bauume.¡± My tail felt the tool still in my bag. are our ends. I said, ¡°But I can.¡± who has thy loyalty, but it is not Ashaine. Thou hast spat upon our designs.¡±
¡°What a skink,¡± said Mawla. She was trying to stand up. I got off her. her. If that cat is the one who cares enough to show up, well it doesn¡¯t say much nice about the rest of them.¡± want to be.¡± kill. Adwyn.¡± Perfectly acceptable.¡± Take to the highest skies, I prayed. are nice???¡ª??you go out of your way to be nice. Just riddle it: what sort of great big scheme do I blow into? I¡¯m an ashy sifter, that¡¯s all you know. You¡¯re silly.¡± want? You never hear about them except as some spook in the sky.¡± Why? If these are the sorts waiting for you back there???¡ª??you ain¡¯t said they aren¡¯t???¡ª??what could you possibly want in shouting range of them?¡± awful squawks. * * * Gazing II: Peer, part i ¡°C¡¯mon, Kinri. Let¡¯s go.¡± She meant to the Dadafodd; she¡¯d said that¡¯s where we¡¯d find the drake. ¡°C¡¯mon. My leg is getting done with me standing on it.¡± Rhyfel is flying this way.¡± high guard?¡± Mawla still had a that artificial high accent to her voice, but on that last phrase it dropped, turned to something frayed and ripped, sounding something like the nadir who spent their lives smoking yakah roots. ask.¡± walls. Black bamboo holding up the sagging dirt banks, filled up with dustone like grout. It flared massively at the end, and created this big landing area in front of the gate. Mawla leant against the gully wall farthest from the gate, and I sat in the center. won¡¯t be here when Rhyfel lights down. If you ain¡¯t coming with me???¡ª??I¡¯ll have to leave by myself.¡± Just tell me.¡± because you won¡¯t tell me?¡± I nudged her. And then again, until she looked at me. ¡°There are too many people keeping secrets, Mawla. Not enough being open with me. I don¡¯t want to have to suspect you too.¡± Mawla. No. You don¡¯t get it. You aren¡¯t a criminal. You aren¡¯t wanted. I know why you¡¯re on the list, I¡¯m why you¡¯re on the list.¡± She¡¯d looked around???¡ª??just with her head, snaking it???¡ª??but I looked down, didn¡¯t meet eye. ¡°It¡¯s my fault.¡± want to tell her. I didn¡¯t tell her. She just, figured it out. Read it off me.¡± might have had something to do with it???¡ª??I told her you didn¡¯t, but she still wants to question you.¡± Well then,¡± she said. ¡°Never the heck mind. This is fine. I¡¯m fine. Don¡¯t worry about none of this.¡± high crime. The kind of crime where only half of you goes to jail cuz the other half sticks around in gossiping mouths. You wake up and see that under your name and you fly to the obvious conclusion.¡± got this. Trust me. I¡¯ve flown through worse than this.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t hear all of it, don¡¯t you worry. Whatever secret crime you to are up to¡¯ll get dealt with just as soon as I¡¯ve got less on my plate.¡± Kinri.¡± He inclined his head. He didn¡¯t look at Mawla. When he glanced at the scarlet drake, and saw he was still engaged in a staredown with the yellowbrown wiver, he looked back to me and asked: ¡°Where is Hinte?¡± immediately. If I still wanted to be a Specter (did I want to be a Specter?), not answering that question would be my first step back in that direction. wanted to kill these guards. I couldn¡¯t let that happen. Not again. She was a danger and the administration surely had to know about it? Rhyfel the younger wasn¡¯t like Ffrom. He was high up. I could trust him. my question. Ushra.¡± easing in for the next half a ring?¡± Oh. Oh no. I know what she¡¯s going to do. No. She¡¯s going to ruin everything.¡± indicated. hope. There was still the hard edge of anger in his voice for the alighted guards. Ushra, obversely, hadn¡¯t even flinched, hadn¡¯t even spared a word or thought for them. This is the drake Hinte looks up to. We will,¡± he said, and turned around. A subtle twitch of his wing for Rhyfel to follow, but instead the high guard spoke up. No, then. Alchemists save dragons.¡± Staune was small and moved quick. Her feathered form ducked into a pocket of the robe, and she came flapping away, a jar of wiggling green held in her bird feet. six tresspasses???¡ª??her record¡¯s a mess. The charge right now is high trespassing and high treason. She¡¯s been implicated in the Berwem mess.¡± peered at Mawla, brilles pale. She gave me a smile that grew very slowly, as if at each beat she decided whether to smile a little bit more. I don¡¯t know how my look changed in response, but the smile soon faltered, and she looked away. Kicked a leg at Staune, watched her jump. Mawla? All I gotta ask in three questions, then the investigation can all fall on Wrang where it belongs.¡± * * * Gazing II: Peer, part ii ¡°C¡¯mon, Kinri.¡± Mawla¡¯s leg wriggled beneath my slimy feet. ¡°I want to actually get somewhere before tomorrow. I¡¯m getting done waiting here with you.¡± important?¡± Mawla can take care of herself?¡± dragon. Why would you go out of your way to help those creatures? Is an animal worth as much as a dragon?¡± no one asked. They were standing right there airing all their problems and they didn¡¯t even pause to think you might melt into their plans. They don¡¯t want you, Kinri.¡± I still need someone walking with me so I get to Dadafodd with all my coins in my pocket. They sound sweet to you?¡±
Out of that gully, we walked side by side down into the thickening houses and rising buttes of the south side. Here at the very edge of town hollows dotted the fringes, packed mounds of ash or dustone, maybe skeletoned with bamboo. If you looked up, you¡¯d see big holes dug into this or that butte, but you had to look to find them. Sometimes out of them a dragon looked back at you. linger in the south side at night. lingering. Should we run? Together?¡± I won¡¯t tell you because you¡¯re not important enough to matter. Spit off, you miserable miser.¡±
Going even a bit further east, and you started passing more dragons. Sometimes they met your eye, sometimes they turned down the next alley. Sometimes they have a winghand over a long sharp thing strapped to their foreleg and they only turned away when they glanced at Mawla¡¯s face and sparked recognition. Mawla ac Aludu Dymestl? What¡¯s up with that?¡± * * * Gazing II: Peer, part iii Dadafodd. biggest butte I had ever seen in Gwymr/Frina. Opening from a front door wide like three dragons. Made of natural rock blending with dustone and fire clay bricks, and black bamboo supports???¡ª??which looked less a disparate hodgepodge than a uniting of different materials and constructions. Peering out from glass slabs so thick you could see the light refract through them. So that¡¯s what that was.¡± Is that all?¡± Not leaving would have been the obvious way to do that.¡± Could we stop her?¡± so close. C¡¯mon.¡± killed dragons. We could have killed them, but we didn¡¯t. If we could spare them, they could have spared them.¡± My drakefriend?¡± Blood rushed to my brilles.
Mawla had said she knew a drake. I decided I did too. crwths. They could have been the violins or harps of the sky, between the steady bowing and the delicate fingerings, but the instrument had more of a buzz to it. They played harmony for the stubborn low melody of a pibgorn???¡ª??some fatmouthed flute. bright???¡ª??nourished a kind of the dim coziness I liked. My dark scales blent with the dimness, and you could almost miss their hue. see the tension around the slabs where the other races sat. Made it easy to tell where any (brownish) red scaled dragon would sit. doing something. for someone. Something was happening over there, and my feet were quietly carrying my curiosity before my mind had decided it really wanted to know. interesting about you, something that made you worth a second glance, worth a closer watch? When you wanted to just sneak and eavesdrop, then return to your actual task? I hadn¡¯t noticed them, that was the lie I told with my posture. Visibly, I had all my attention on those four random dragons. when all the action was happening! A whole skien of guards!¡± Inquirers.¡± Where is he, Ehnym?¡± a twin asked. ¡°He¡¯d tell you. He tells you everything.¡± just in case there were another Chwithach who¡¯d had guards at his house. He speaks highly of you. ¡®Never seen one so quick with figures, or clawing so neat.¡¯ dragon. He¡¯s enamored with you, for all that you don¡¯t deserve it.¡± you prattle on?¡±
¡°Yo, K,¡± Sinig said. ¡°I thought I told you not to lick after trouble.¡± He raised a wing and languidly pointed an alula at Mawla. ¡°In case you don¡¯t know, she is trouble.¡± back rest. He lay on his back, one foreleg resting atop of the rest, the other held up to gesture or scratch his chin. He was careless relaxation. this feel like Sinig holding court. dragons in the room. Sinig. Mawla. Two others, at Sinig¡¯s left and right (even though it really didn¡¯t suit either of them) were Arall and Mawrion. he deferred to Sinig. Mawrion, owner of the Llygaid Crwydro, Mawrion, the boss of Sinig. Deferred to him. Pride.
We slinked out Sinig¡¯s alcove quick, Arall high walking like she didn¡¯t care if we followed. Mawla was treading up in front of me, strutting right beside the big plain-dweller wiver. She was grinning, Mawla was. equal way???¡ª??for the first time. * * * Gazing III: Glimpse, part i ¡°Begone, skyrat,¡± the forest-dweller said. ¡°You are not welcome here.¡± her unholiness. name, and it¡¯s a lot more dignified than ¡®skyrat¡¯.¡± My emphasis sounded definite, and not overcompensating. aagh, it¡¯s them! Much more dignified.¡± The doctor???¡ª??that¡¯s what they called her when they weren¡¯t joking. Her room smelt near-fatally of alcohol and acids???¡ª??stuff that cleaned, yet stuff no one had bothered to scent palatably. Her black robes were crawling with needle holes and gold threads that lingered where Drachenzunge words had once been sown into the robes, but now were torn off. (I stared long enough to parse clan names, patients names, and philophagers. I stared long enough to know she was called Zelle and the parrot Knocha). Begone. I do not desire your presence in my quarters.¡± Why! I haven¡¯t done anything at all. You have no reason not to want me here. I¡¯m Mawla¡¯s friend.¡± A frill???¡ª??quickly???¡ª??uncurled to point at that wiver. refuse to service you.¡± Aurisiuf???¡ª??of whom I need say no more. She is the daughter of Feuer???¡ª??whose incessant warmongering fuels the forests¡¯ self-immolation???¡ª??and of Haune???¡ª??whose fetishization of religion had resuscitated long-dead, better dead, dogmas.¡±
The Dadafodd sat protectingly over its underground chambers like a mother her clutch. All the guest rooms lay down here, the doctor¡¯s room deepest of them all. I wondered why, before my body gave a telling shiver. A chill lingered down here in the deepest. Would be useful???¡ª??for something. up???¡ª??maybe out, too???¡ª??but the precise path eluded. Just walking through any vaguely inclined hall, as I did, might be working. Or might not be. could. It was more politics, more history. A future zenith had a mind for names and motives, of course she did. And a???¡ª??once future zenith like me still had a mind for names and motives. not a comforting situation. scary. almost answered the implied question???¡ª??but conversation didn¡¯t flow with this drake. He made it... clipped. hard parts: finding Hinte at all, convincing Hinte at all. Whether it was already too late at all.) why, but perhaps there¡¯s something to you.¡± Fleeing? Is Chwithach-sofran in danger?¡± finding her. I can help with that.¡± I remain able to help.¡± And I don¡¯t want you to. * * * Gazing III: Glimpse, part ii Second floor Dadafodd, threshhold of a door. It was half opened and I half stepped through. I glanced frowning up at the sky. I was thinking. wouldn¡¯t be catching Hinte. It would be finding her. Even Rhyfel and Ushra were having trouble with that. Any gradient was long blown away by now. They had said she was going to Chwithach???¡ª??at least, that had been where they were looking. But Ehnym said Chwithach was fleeing???¡ª??and whoever had the other shell was audibly flying. was Chwithach running? I didn¡¯t want???¡ª??he couldn¡¯t be tangled up in all this conspiracy. But he had something secret going on.) Move.¡± through the door, had I? I must¡¯ve been blocking the way. do something. do? It carries sound from the distance, he said. The librarian would be on the other side of it, and it¡¯d be just like in the library: I¡¯d speak into it and he¡¯d speak back, conversation. Magic conversation. do to make it work again, and get to talk to Chwithach again, and ask him what was going on. ridiculous (hilarious, absurd, silly) if I called forth a demon just by flicking some rods, and after maybe a few more false start and the hatching of some nerves, I brought the magic shell to my earhole again, praying the stars it wouldn¡¯t roar. of course he wouldn¡¯t hear me while flying???¡ª??but now, maybe?.) fine. Back into my bag it went. Listless, thoughtful, I looked up at the stars. I should do something, I thought. Look at what you accomplish when you try to do anything, another me responded. capable of it, I was sure. But Kinri didn¡¯t talk that way. late. And did Mawla even want me to stick around? I saw the last look she gave me. Was she having second thoughts, finally? did???¡ª??have an ally in him. A plan. This was good.
¡°You look around like you¡¯re waiting for someone.¡± subtlety. Do you want them to catch on? reason to resist the guard like that.¡± you have a grasp of what¡¯s truly at stake?¡± Come with me.¡± Kinri.¡± There was a warmth to that voice. There was one other wiver in all the world who¡¯d spoken my name that kindly. I knew the figure had to be a wiver now; only a mother could nurse that tone. ¡°Don¡¯t be so hasty, darling. I think you of all people should see the big picture, hear what Hinte and Chwithach aren¡¯t telling you.¡± sharp pulled free. * * * Gazing III: Glimpse, part iii ¡°So um,¡± I started as we walked through the Dadafodd, ¡°I¡¯m Kinri and this is Digrif???¡ª??you know that, I guess???¡ª??but what about you? What¡¯s your name?¡± trusting you thing.¡± skeptical, dear. You do not trust easily, do you?¡± She knows.¡± The priestess shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s nothing important, worry not.¡± And look how she repays that trust, that voice of mine-but-not-really-mine noted). bite. The priestess???¡ª??had???¡ª??nursed tenderness in her tone... but clearly it wasn¡¯t something she was beholden to. at me, with something like a smile. act, dear. I actually care about you, Kinri, I do. You¡¯re lonely and homesick, working a dreadful job and struggling to keep a room at a ratty inn. You¡¯re so starved for friends or allies, that the alchemist is whom you turn to. I see that, Kinri, and I dew for you.¡± this is where you want us to meet.¡± right, on every account. annoyed, is all. If you¡¯re so put off by it, why don¡¯t you start making sense? What are you all doing here? What¡¯s going on?¡± feminine. * * *