Her room was simple, but well maintained. She didn't cover her walls with crude paintings of dragons, or clutter the corners with piles of discarded trash, like her brother. He always claimed it was to emulate the masters, but Karen was sure he was just lazy.

Not that laziness would be an inaccurate emulation - she giggled, and covered her mouth. She shouldn't even think such things! After all, they worked so hard to protect the aerie from vermin and marauders, to keep the fields safe so that their pets could farm in safety. And they were majestic to see in action - a sight to make your heart swell with pride...

But they sure did sleep a lot. It was up to their pets to keep a vigilant watch on the approaches, and to wake them from their slumber when danger threatened. Not that the masters themselves would be harmed, of course - they awoke immediately if anyone entered their sleeping chamber. Their senses were amazing, even in their sleep. No, they were awakened to protect their pets, and their possessions, and the aerie itself.

The children were different, of course. Djen and Kijj and Rey were awake almost every day, and since their parents were usually asleep, that left no one but the pets to care for them, and watch them, and keep them out of trouble.

Karen's task, in particular, was to take care of Djen - along with twenty other children, she'd stood there on the hot sands while the glittering egg quivered and cracked, and called out in wonder as the scaly, toothed nose poked its way out into the open air. She sighed as she remembered her first glimpse of the hot-headed little youngster, black-scaled like her mother. Voracious from the beginning, Djen had killed and eaten two of the children as they all crowded around to touch her. Karen treasured the memory of that first touch, slipping her fingers along the soft scales of the hatchling as the blunt muzzle tore into a still-twitching body, and bringing them back slick with blood. The tiny creature's eyes had flicked from one of them to another, but she'd never paused in her meal... Djen had been so innocent then.

The tradition stated that the children present at the hatching were bonded to the dragon, to be special friends and companions for as long as they lived. It was nonsense, of course - pets didn't have souls, so what would the dragon bond to? What would bond to the dragon? Telenthiris and Arridial had insisted that their children follow the tradition with Djen's clutch, but Lixia and Juzann had made it very clear just how little faith they had in such things.

In Djen's case it was especially silly, since the little fireball went through her pets at a furious rate. Karen wasn't sure if she was the only one left of those original twenty... she didn't really bother to keep track of such things, it just didn't make sense. Pets lived, pets died, at the dragons' whim. And young dragons like Djen tended to have lots of whims.

Strange that Djen was still a child, twenty years later, when Karen was an old woman, with many children of her own, she supposed, although she didn't really keep track. She'd given birth at least six times, and most of the pets' children lived for as long as the masters wanted them to. She was probably pregnant now, although she wasn't showing. As it was for all women, having children was her most important duty. The masters needed a new generation to watch the walls and fill their stomachs.

But when she wasn't actually giving birth, she watched over Djen. Who would probably be waking up soon. Karen made a last pass over her body to make sure that her hair was smooth and arranged, and her skin cleansed and scented, the slipped out of her cave to head for the children's sleeping chamber.

On the way she was joined by David and Michael. David pounced from the shadows and tackled her, tickling her rear and fondling her breast. Karen screamed and struggled, but it was mostly from surprise - usually, he waited until after the children had gone to sleep. As it turned out, he was mostly just interested in tickling her today, and had her writhing on the ground laughing uncontrollably until Michael arrived to remind them that they did have a duty to perform. The children were supposed to be bathed and polished every day, and they certainly wouldn't do it themselves without someone to remind them, and threaten to report them to their parents.

Karen rubbed the scrape on her breasts, and glanced at her raw knees, and hoped Djen wouldn't be mad that she was slightly injured. That David was a menace! She hoped one of the dragons ate him soon - Rey seemed to like his 'spirit', though, and had threatened to give him a thoughtstone. If that happened, she'd never be rid of him! When he died, the stone, containing all his thoughts and memories, would be passed on to one of his children, which would become him. There were some advantages to having no soul - it meant preserving what was unique was a simple matter, for the masters' magic.

At any rate, Rey seemed to want to keep David around, which meant that if she really wanted to be rid of him she'd have to hope that a dragon ate her. That seemed much more likely - it was strange that Djen hadn't gobbled her up sometime in the past five years that she'd been her attendant. None of the others had lasted anywhere near as long, even after Djen had grown old enough to start talking to her pets. It was tiresome, really - was she doomed to never be eaten, to grow old and wrinkled and grizzled, like the ancient pets who haunted the deeper reaches of the village, like ghosts?

Of course, thanks to David, she smelled of blood, now, and Djen was sure to be hungry when she awoke. Maybe today would be the day that Djen chose her, instead of having her choose from the pets Djen had pegged as her friends. Karen was no fool, and was pretty sure Djen was trying to hurt her by having her pick who would be eaten, but - Djen was such a child. Pets existed to be eaten. It was an honor to serve the masters, in that sense as in any other.

And, almost as important, Djen was terrible at telling one pet from another, and usually the hand-picked group might as well have been chosen at random. Karen didn't even know that many pets in the outlying villages, which is where the children usually stopped to eat. And a good thing, since their voracious appetites would have depopulated the aerie within a year, otherwise!

All this idle speculation was for nothing, though - for when they rounded the last bend of the well-worn staircase, and entered the children's chamber, it was empty - they'd tarried too long, and the terrible trio was already awake.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Michael said, "We're barely late at all - they should still be here."

David laughed. "Ah, they're kids. Let them have their fun. Their parents won't wake up for another week at least, and they'll have plenty of baths and polishings by that point."

"I'm just worried about what their 'fun' is going to involve," Michael said, "They're monsters!"

"Rey isn't so bad," David said, coming up behind Karen and fondling her. "The others just need a few more decades to grow up..."

Karen closed her eyes as David's hands wandered over her body. It wasn't really unpleasant, exactly, which was why she'd feel embarrassed to ask him to stop. And she'd miss being touched... she'd seen what had happened to the women who turned men away. Still, she wished he'd get the hint, when she never took the initiative to start or escalate matters... she just didn't find him attractive, especially when he started insulting the dragons.

"I don't see why you think we should be able to understand what they should be doing," she said, placing her hand on David's and holding it in place, over her breast. She'd just intended to stop his rubbing and pinching, but he took this as encouragement, and leaned forwards to lick at her ear. Lovely. "Their parents would stop them if they were being too cruel... maybe a little mischievous fun is what they need to grow up strong."

"The dragons made it very clear what was right and what was wrong," Michael said, "They punish us if we hurt each other, and tell us to care for each other as we care for them. They say that they have to give us rules because we don't have souls to guide us - that without guidance, we'd be as vicious and degraded as the vermin."

"I can't imagine the vermin as more vicious than Djen, or more degraded than Kijj," David said, "Dragons never do anything by halves."

Michael nodded. "I don't think Djen or Kijj have souls. It explains everything - their parents don't give them rules because they expect their souls to guide them, and so they're left entirely to their own devices."

Karen couldn't take it anymore. She struggled out of David's grip and turned to glare at the two men. "Stop it! Stop talking like that! How can you hate them? They're just children!"

"They slaughter us for fun!" Michael snapped, "That's how."

"I don't hate them..." David said, looking uncomfortable. "I'm just... I wouldn't want to be killed by one of them. Rey, I wouldn't mind... even Lixia or Juzann or one of the elders, but not Djen. Not Kijj. I don't love them like I do the others."

"Why not?!" Karen cried, tears welling in her eyes, "They're just being themselves, how can that be wrong? So they try to make us suffer, and cause us pain, why does that matter? We don't matter, compared to them. They're real people. We're not. We're just... we're just toys for them to play with. It isn't our place to tell them not to break us."

"Karen," David said, giving her a concerned look, and stepping towards her. "Karen, you don't really -"

"David, stop," Michael said, "You know Djen's picked on her more than anyone else, for her whole life. She's found a way to cope, pathetic though it may be. Let her be."

Karen growled, and glanced rapidly back and forth at the two of them. Heretics! That was the word for it, they were heretics. She hated them both and wanted them to die, wanted to kill them herself. But that would be wrong. And impossible. They were each stronger than her alone, let alone together. So instead, she screeched and ran from the children's room, back into the long winding staircase that led down to the aerie village.

They didn't follow her, so eventually she stopped running and calmed down a little. She sat on the warm stone stairs, and sobbed, sad because she knew that David was just saying what most of her tribe thought. They served the dragons because they loved them, yes, but they only loved them because the dragons rewarded them and protected them, personally, on an ongoing basis. They served because they knew the alternative would be worse for them.

And that was fine, most of the time, because they dragons did love their pets in return, but now, the last few decades, it meant that they were putting a lot of responsibility on the children. Djen and Kijj and Rey were too young to play the game that pets like David thought was how things should work. Rey, at least, was too meek to offend, and did the 'right' things more or less by accident, but Djen and Kijj were playful and confident, and had always scared them.

Karen wasn't the only one who loved the wayward children despite their actions. There were plenty of others who loved the dragons unconditionally. There were even more that said the right things, and wouldn't ever dare speak as impudently as David had, but wasn't it really the thoughts and actions that counted? Their thoughts were as twisted, and David's careless speech had never actually led him to betray the dragons.

So, basically, she was overreacting. He was no worse than the others. She wiped off her eyes, stood up, and froze. Something prickled at the back of her mind, like she was forgetting something important, but she couldn't think of what it was. And then, faintly, she heard screams below her, and ran towards the sounds to find out what was going on.

The staircase down from the Children's room opened onto a wide ledge, high up the wall of the central cavern that the pets used for their village. It was too early in the morning for the sun to shine down through the hole in the roof, but the glow of the sky lit the central square in a shadowy blue. There was more than enough light for Karen to see what was going on.

Djen and Kijj were on the ground in the middle of the village. Kijj was setting fire to the wooden buildings that dotted the common areas, practicing his fiery breath. The light from the flames reflected off his iridescent scales, painting him more orange than gray, and he laughed as his tail lashed, staving in the side of another building. All around him, the pets ran every which way in terror, some of them aflame, while the eldest pets of the village stood in front of him and pleaded with him to stop.

Djen, meanwhile, was amassing a pile of corpses, slaughtering anyone foolish enough to get near her, and occasionally pouncing on someone who wasn't. Some of her victims struggled and screamed - this wasn't how the dragons normally hunted them, and they were confused and terrified - but she was twice their size and ten times their mass, with claws and teeth and scales, and no one resisted her for long. Oh, she drew the process out with some of her victims, twisting off their arms and legs, or gutting them but leaving them otherwise unharmed, leaving them to writhe and bleed on the sandy ground for a while before they stopped moving and were added to her pile.

Rey circled overhead, watching the whole thing, but the copper-scaled child showed no interest in joining in the fun... although he did have half a small pet in his claws, and every so often he'd take a bite.

Karen just sat and watched the children play, counting up the cost of their fun. How long would it take them to rebuild the destroyed huts? How many pets had Djen killed... and would they stay edible long enough to all be eaten? Maybe they could ask the older dragons to fly the bodies to the snowy peaks nearby, to preserve them in the cold? If they did, would the dragons eat frozen food? How many of her friends and relatives had died, today, anyway? How many more would be poisoned against the dragons?

That was the real question. The village could recover, physically, from anything the kids could do. Already, most of them had fled the open areas, and were hiding in the smaller caves. Only the village elders were still out there, pleading with Kijj, who started to grow bored of mindless destruction and glanced down at them, with a yawn. Djen landed behind them, and snarled something in a threatening tone - but of course they weren't intimidated. They all wore thoughtstones, and knew that they'd live again if they were killed. That was what made them elders, after all. Most of them had died more than once already.

It was Rey who convinced the others to leave, though - suggesting some other bit of fun, presumably less destructive. The three dragons took flight, and soared on the mountain's thermal, floating higher towards the open sky. Djen spotted Karen on the ledge as she flew past, and licked her tongue out over her bloody muzzle, smirking at her attendant. Karen just sighed, admiring the beautiful, vicious hatchling.

It took all day to clean up the mess. The fires burned out on their own, although they left nothing but ashes of all the old familiar buildings, most of which had been around since before Karen could remember - the cafeteria, the hall of the elders, even the nursery, where all the little children played. Most of the children had fled to the caves even before the adults, but the very smallest babies hadn't been able to understand what was going on, or hadn't been able to leave under their own power, and no one had thought to save them from the flames.

It was a setback to the village - there'd be a gap in the next generation, now. No one was especially sad to have lost them, of course, since they were too young to have enough of a personality to form an attachment to. No, they were sad for the hundred and thirty seven older children and adults that Djen had killed. There was more work to do, now, rebuilding the village as well as caring for the dragons, and fewer of them to do it.

Karen thought they were making too big a deal out of it, though. They wouldn't have to work that much harder, if only everyone would chip in - how many pets lived here on the mountain, and in the valleys nearby? Twenty thousand? Thirty thousand? Sure, this village was only a couple thousand, and had been hit hard, but the farming towns scattered across the outer slopes would replace the losses, and more, if they asked. There were always plenty of pets aspiring to a place in the center of their world, living in the aerie itself, getting to meet the dragons personally, and speak with them, and maybe even earn enough respect to be granted a thoughtstone.

Of course, she heard plenty of grumbling that seemed to be working on the assumption that today's rampage was how it was going to be from then onwards - that Djen was going to kill hundreds every day, and Kijj was going to come burn down everything they rebuilt. Some even knew enough math to work out just how long it would be before all of them were dead (a week), or before the entire mountain was barren of life (about a year).

Onrietta came over to Karen, as she worked to rake sand over the bloodstains that Djen's slaughter had left all around the village square. She was the youngest of the village elders, both in apparent age - her current body was only six - and in the length of her experience. Still, she was an elder, and both the garment of blue silk and the glittering thoughtstone embedded in her forehead made it impossible to forget. "Karen, stop, leave it for now. We're going to hold a meeting here, and the blood should be there, to remind everyone of what we're here to discuss."

Karen kept raking, "I don't think that you need any reminder to get the villagers to overreact," she said.

Onrietta grabbed Karen's wrist, far stronger than she looked, and stopped her raking by force. "Overreact? How could we possibly overreact to this? Personally, I think we should have left the cleanup until after Lixia and Juzann awoke..."

"Have you ever smelled an uneaten body, left to sit for several days?"

"Yes, I have," Onrietta replied, "I only look like I'm six. I'm far older than you, don't you forget it. And yes, we needed to at least remove the bodies. But these hatchlings' parents need to see what Djen and Kijj are doing! They've crossed the line -"

"The line? What line?"

"Just leave it be, until the meeting. We can argue then, with everyone present. I don't want to have to repeat myself for each and every villager, and I don't think you do either."

Karen growled, but dropped her rake, and stalked back to her cave to rest and wash herself before the meeting. She didn't really like the elders much - of all the pets, they were the least humble before their masters. Worse, they had good reason to be - the eldest dragons, Telenthiris and Arridial, had recognized them for their wisdom, and given them the thoughtstones, that they might live as long as the dragons themselves, and help watch over the village. That didn't make their open defiance hurt any less - knowing that they're wrong rarely makes someone feel better.

With the meeting hall burned, the meeting was held out in the open, under the stars - the night was clear, and cold, although the sand beneath their feet was as warm as ever, and held back the chill. The smell of blood was in the air, literally and figuratively - no one wanted to stand on the large sodden spot where Djen's horrible pile of death had briefly stood, and so they were ringed around it, as the stench wafted up from it, cooked lightly by the heat from below.

"We need to wake Lixia," Onrietta said to the assembly, "We need to ask her to discipline her children before they strike again."

"Nonsense," Kevin replied. Kevin was the oldest of the six elders, and known for his unmatched patience. Some said that his mind was addled, at the moment - his current body had been allowed to grow far, far too old, and was too old now for any dragon to want to eat. Until he died, and was reborn as a child once more by the power of his thoughtstone, his value as a member of the council would continue to deteriorate year by year. Many pets had pleaded with him to kill himself, but even in his current state he held on to his defining virtue. "Even when it made no sense," critics said - unless he happened to be supporting their side.

"Nonsense," he repeated, "Lixia will wake up before long, and we can tell her then. Surely the village will survive a few days."

"Not according to my calculations," said Werner, another elder, one who specialized in 'technology' - the everyday magic that creatures without souls, like pets, could use. He was the keeper of such secrets as how to make a fire if none was present, how to weave the silk cloth that the elders used to distinguish themselves from the common pets (who of course went about in their natural state, as the dragons detested the taste of silk), and apparently how to use mathematics to calculate how long the village could last under Djen's depredations.

"She isn't going to attack us every day, is she?" asked a fearful voice, from someone that Karen didn't recognize, or see for that matter - someone from out of the crowd. The notion that Djen and Kijj would return to attack daily was not a new one, but regardless it sparked a murmur of discussion throughout the crowd. "Of course she won't," Karen said, sneering, to no one in particular, as there was no hope of being heard over the crowd, "She likes to find new things to do."

"So tomorrow she'll find some other way to torture us?" asked a man near her - Bob? Job? Something like that. Karen growled, and crouched down, covering her ears to try to block out the scared yapping of frightened pets.

Eventually, Onrietta calmed down the crowd. "It's obvious that we need to send someone to wake Lixia," she said, and most of the crowd mumbled assent - that had been the general consensus. "I propose that we send the ones who should have been there to prevent the attack. The ones we assigned to the vital task of helping to raise the hatchlings. Karen, David, Michael, step forwards."

Karen pushed her way out of the crowd, and stalked forwards into the center of the ring, bloody sand squishing between her toes. David gingerly picked his way across the ground as well. Michael took two steps out from the crowd, then stopped.

"This is foolishness," Michael said, "We can't rely on Lixia to save us from her own daughter. We need to learn to defend ourselves, like the marauders do."

"No, no, we can't be so rash," Kevin muttered, but was quickly drowned out by another rising muttering as the idea passed through the crowd.

"The marauders always lose," David pointed out, loud enough to be heard.

"They lose against Lixia and Juzann, and the other adult dragons," Werner said, thoughtfully, as the crowd started to quiet again, "They might not lose against Djen and Kijj. They also rarely attack in groups as large as our village. The plan might have some merit, if we could learn their ways."

"This is crazy!" Karen cried, "One bad day, after centuries of service, and you're willing to abandon the masters and become marauders? You can't be serious!"

"No, no," Werner said, "We wouldn't actually hurt them. We'd just drive them away, while they're too young to know how to act. Once they grow old enough to outfight us, they'll be wise enough to treat us properly, and only kill from need instead of out of cruelty."

"Do you really think Lixia is going to recognize that distinction?" Karen said, terrified at how reasonable the others seemed to find Werner's suggestion.

"Indeed," Michael said, "If we fight, we can't fight halfway. We need to be like the dragons - we need to show them that we have as much right to exist as they do. We need to kill Djen, and Kijj, and Rey as well if he tries to interfere, unless they surrender to us. The dragons need us more than we need them - there are vermin and marauders living all over the world, without dragons to protect them... but where are the dragons that live without a nation of pets to feed and guard them?"

Karen stared in shock at Michael's heresy - as did most of the crowd, and five of the six elders (Kevin, apparently, hadn't been paying attention, and hadn't heard the speech). For thirty seconds, no one said a thing. Eventually, Onrietta looked around at the silent crowd, and asked, "What were we talking about, again?"

"You wanted us to go wake Lixia, to let her know what Djen is up to, and make sure she doesn't object," Karen offered.

Onrietta rolled her eyes at Karen's paraphrase. "Close enough. Karen, David, you are so charged."

"I'd really rather not bother her," David said, sounding a bit scared. "You know she's always hungry when she wakes up, and I was hoping - Rey said -"

"It's a punishment, David," Karen pointed out. "They blame us for the attack, so they're sending us on a task where Lixia is sure to devour us both."

"Oh," David said, softly, walking up next to Karen and glomming onto her arm and shoulder. "What about Michael?"

"He's managed to disappear, again," Karen whispered back, "He probably knew something like this was going to happen, so he didn't even show up to the meeting. And of course no one'll hold him to blame for it. He can get away with anything."

"Will you do it?" Onrietta asked, interrupting their whispered conversation.

"Of course, elder," Karen replied, bowing her head, "And we thank you for this honor."

"Then go now, without delay!" Werner ordered, pointing towards the connecting corridor that led to Lixia's lair, on the far side of the aerie. "Wait -" Kevin muttered, but no one paid him much attention. Karen took David's arm in her hands, and dragged him out of the circle, and across the ruined village, as the villagers watched them go, and slowly dispersed.

A half mile down the corridor, they passed a small room at a junction, where a guard post had once stood ages ago, before Nreemin and Prekka had come to live in the aerie. Now the pets kept guard in and around that formerly abandoned lair, so there was no need to man this internal post, and instead it served as a rest stop for pets traveling to and fro beneath the mountain, between the dragons' lairs and the village. David dug in his heels, and dragged Karen to a stop, next to the soft pile of cotton sheets and cushions.

"What's the hurry?" he asked, nodding towards the cushions. "The hatchlings are all asleep by now, and won't do any more mischief until morning. We have hours and hours to waste, before we'll be too late for Lixia to stop them tomorrow."

Karen shrugged, and let go of him, and leaned against the wall while he sat down on the cushions. "I'd hoped to be an elder, you know. Rey said he was going to get me a thoughtstone. He was going to ask for one, for his hatchingday celebration."

"You don't deserve to be an elder," Karen said, "They're supposed to be wise, or at least useful. The only thing you're good at is keeping Rey happy, and that isn't a difficult task. None of your predecessors had any trouble with it." She paused. "Well, except for Johnathan. He's the only one that Rey killed himself."

David looked melancholy. "I never really thought about that," he said, "I mean, about them - your other mates, before me..."

Karen shrugged. "You never really thought about me at all," she said, peevishly. "You know, for a while now I've gone to Djen each morning, hoping that today would be the day that Rey would go off and leave her and Kijj alone, to devour you... or that today would be the day that Djen finally decided to pick me as her lunch."

David looked confused. "What? Where did that come from?"

"I never liked you, David," Karen said, "I didn't want to embarrass you by turning you away, so I took you as my mate, just like all the others before you. It was a tradition by the time you came around, that I'd mate with Rey's attendant." She laughed. "You know, I started the tradition to make Michael jealous. I used to think that I was in love with him. Back when I believed that one pet could love another."

David hugged a cushion to his chest, pouting. "And you're telling me this now, because you want to watch me go to my death, miserable and alone, is that it? I love you, Karen... I still love you, even if Djen's finally driven you completely insane."

"Right. I'm insane, you're a jerk, and in an hour or so it won't matter, because both of us will be eaten. That's why I'm telling you now."

David's look changed from sorrow to pity, and he smiled at her, "Oh, oh, I get it. You're just scared. I'm scared too. I just - Karen, come, sit with me, let me hold you. I can make you feel better, for a while at least. Let me make you feel good, even if it's only one last time."

Karen felt tears well in her eyes, and despite herself, she found herself sinking down into the cushions, and wrapping her arms around David - around his horrible, clammy body - and pressing her tearstained face to his horrible, clammy shoulder, while he stroked her hair. "You don't have a clue, do you?" she asked him.

"Shh!" David said, stroking her sides now, gently, lovingly. "No more thinking. This is a no thinking zone, you understand?" Karen giggled, and tried to let herself relax, and enjoy this last time. She did owe him that much. She was sure she did.

And it was enjoyable enough - maybe not the best she'd ever had, but certainly the best she'd had with David. But when it was over, David rolled over to go to sleep, like he normally did when they coupled after a long day's work tending the children, and she had to wake him up and remind him that they were on a mission.

"Do we really have to go through with this?" he asked, groggily, as he staggered down the tunnel after her.

"Yes," she said, "Yes, we do. If we don't, the villagers will do something stupid and all get themselves killed, either by Djen, or by Lixia when she finds out."

"Well," he said... "Do we have to... both go through with it?" He looked at her hopefully, that hope dying at her angry expression.

"What?! After all that talk about love?" David didn't even try to deny that he'd meant that she should go without him - they both knew him too well for that. "Yes, we have to both go. Lixia will wake up, sooner or later, and talk with the elders, and if she tells them that I showed up on my own to deliver the message, they'll ask about you, and she won't be happy."

"Oh, right," David said, "I'd have to live with that shame..." He seemed to be considering it.

"Remember, David. It's normal to be scared of the dragons, when you know they mean to eat you. It doesn't make you a bad pet. But it's your duty to go to them, if they ask for you, and offer yourself up to them. It's our purpose, our last and most important duty." Karen said the words aloud to remind herself, as well. The closer she got to the lair, the less certain she was about this path she'd chosen, and they were getting close now. But everyone before her had walked the path without faltering, and she wasn't going to be the one to fail. "We can't let them down," she said, squeezing David's hand.

"Right," he said. "Right."

A few minutes later, they arrived in Lixia's lair. It was Lixia and Juzann's lair, really - Juzann's copper and gray-striped bulk was just visible in the moonlight, curled in a far corner - but this half of it was Lixia's, and it was the black-scaled matron they approached.

Or, that Karen approached. David had pushed her away near the entrance, and lurked near the wall, there. "I'm here," he said, "But I can't go farther. I just can't. I won't run, I promise I won't run, but - you go first. Please." So it was Karen alone that walked the path, worn smooth by generations of pets, that led from the tunnel entrance to the hollow where Lixia slept on her pile of gold and gems.

The dragon's eyes slitted open as she approached, verifying that Karen was one of her pets, and therefore not a threat. She let Karen get within twenty feet before her great head lifted from the ground to look down on her. "Is it time already?" Lixia asked, "I don't feel rested, somehow. I hope I'm not getting old."

"Mistress, it is not yet time," Karen replied, lowering her eyes respectfully. "We were sent with a message from the elders. They want to know -"

"Stop," Lixia said, holding up a scaled claw towards Karen, then pointing a ten-inch talon at David. "You, approach, and give the message."

"M-me?" David said, terrified. Lixia nodded, slowly and deliberately, fixing her jeweled gaze on the cowering man. David stumbled forwards, across the sharp rocks and debris that littered the ground off the path, until Lixia snatched him up from the ground and held him at eye level.

She coughed, and David stammered out the message. "Your daughter - Djen and Kijj attacked our village, and killed many of us, and burned down all the buildings. They want you to stop them from doing it again."

"Why'd they send you?" Lixia asked, flicking her tongue across David's face. Urine dribbled from inside the dragon's great claw, as David wet himself. Karen covered her face in shame. She couldn't bear to watch.

"Er... they're busy rebuilding? They want you to give us your answer, and -" David gasped as the dragon's claws curled more tightly around him, squeezing out his air, and wheezed, "-and send us back - aaiiieeeee!" David screamed in agony as Lixia's teeth ripped into him, and Karen looked up to watch her mistress tear her mate apart. The scream faded to a gurgle, and his legs kicked twice, then were still, as the dragon's muzzle pulled back, stretching strings of muscle and organs between the two halves of David's body, then with wet munching and snapping noises, she chewed up and swallowed each half in turn.

Lixia carefully cleaned all the blood and other fluids from her claws and muzzle, before turning to face Karen. "He was lying to me. I don't like pets who lie to me, especially out of cowardice." She paused. "I saw you watching - did you know him?"

"He was my mate," Karen replied, feeling a bit detached, somehow. She wasn't sure why - she'd certainly seen Djen kill pets before, and it's not like she'd actually liked David.

"Did you have children by him?" Lixia asked.

"One, but he was very young, and likely killed in the attack David referred to," Karen patted her stomach. "I think I might be pregnant with another of his, now, but it's early..."

"Good, good," Lixia said, then sniffed at Karen. "Yes, you're pregnant. A shame. I suppose I'll have to eat you as well - we can't have that sort of stock propagating through our herd." Karen nodded silently, feeling a chill even though she'd known she was to be eaten as soon as she was sent on the mission. "So, how much of his message was real?"

"Djen and Kijj did attack our village last morning," Karen replied, calmly, "They killed 137 adults, and most of the very young babes, and burned down all the major buildings. David and I were the hatchlings' attendants, and the elders blamed us for the attack, and so they sent us here to wake you, as a sacrifice to your hunger, and a punishment for our inability to occupy your children with less destructive games."

"Do they really expect me to punish my children for being too rough with our pets?" Lixia purred, growling the one word and showing Karen her teeth.

"Some of them do..." Karen said, "But it's certain that if you don't, they'll take matters into their own hands. They'll take up arms, like marauders, and try to drive your children away if they come near the village again."

"Interesting..." Lixia said, "An interesting plan. I wonder if it would work?" The great dragon looked thoughtful. "They won't have proper training, so it's unlikely that they could harm the hatchlings, so at first the plan would fail - but they could hide in the caves and harass them... yes, it would be perfect."

Karen was shocked. "Mistress? You can't -"

"Shush," Lixia said, "Don't dictate to me, my pet. It's true, Djen and Kijj are too harsh with their pets, and Rey has a tendency to get too attached. Fighting a little war against the aerie village could correct both those tendencies - teach the first two some respect for their subordinates, and maybe give the runt some backbone. I think it's an excellent idea." Lixia drummed her claws on the stone before Karen. "Whose idea was it?"

"It was Michael's... but..."

"Michael? Who's Michael?"

"He was the third attendant, mistress - Kijj's. He wasn't sent with us, because he failed to show up for the meeting where the plan was -" Karen blinked. That couldn't be right. "He... he disappeared before we were sent, I guess. But it was his idea to fight back."

Lixia hissed. "I was going to reward him for his cleverness, but it sounds like he's too clever by half. I'll have to punish him instead... eventually. For now, he'll make a suitable leader for this resistance movement.

"Go back and tell them that I won't help them against my own children," Lixia said, curling back up on her hoard. "Tell them that I find the very notion absurd, and that it's our task to defend them only against external threats. And be very sure to remind them just how displeased I'll be if any of my children are actually killed."

With that, Lixia stopped talking, and her breathing slowed. Karen stood there for a while, before realized that the dragon was not, in fact, going to eat her, despite her earlier words. "So, I can go now?" she asked, finally, but there was no response. So she bowed once more, turned her back on the dragon, squinted her eyes shut, and walked slowly back out of the lair, along the smooth worn path.

The six elders - and Michael, looking oddly out of place - were still waiting in the open area, under the shaft that led to the sky, watching for Lixia to drop down from above and give them her answer, when Karen made it back to the village. She was tired, now - it was almost morning, and she'd spent most of the day walking or working - but she approached them regardless, and gave them Lixia's message.

Needless to say, they were surprised to see her alive, but like the message itself, it just served as a reminder that the ways of dragons were not for mortals to understand or approve.

"It sounds like she might approve of our plan, although she didn't say so in so many words," Werner said, since Karen had mentioned that she'd told Lixia of the threat of revolt, but had only given the elders the reply that Lixia had told her to give.

"Then she's a fool," Michael said. "We'll capture her children, and bend them to our will, and then hold them hostage against her. Soon, we'll rule this mountain."

"No, no," Onrietta said, "We'll stick to our original plan. If we see Djen near the village, we'll take up weapons against her, and drive her away, but we won't hurt her. Karen, you and Michael will have to attend to all three of the hatchlings tomorrow -"

"No!" Michael said, "I won't have any part of any play-acting. If we meant to do this, we'll do it for real."

"We can't be a party to actual rebellion," Onrietta said, "The dragons put their trust in us, and we won't betray it. We'll train the pets to fight and defend themselves, but that's all. If you don't want to help, then we'll do it without you."

The argument continued for a while after that, but Karen was too tired to care, and staggered back to her cave to sleep.

In the morning, she cleaned herself up and headed for the children's sleeping chamber - alone, as the elders had yet to appoint a replacement for David, and Michael was nowhere to be seen. The children were all, at least, present this morning - present, and utterly filthy. Djen was still coated and caked in blood, Kijj was stained with soot, and all three of them were lying in pools of dried mud, which was also splattered over their bodies and wings.

Djen, at least, was awake. "Good, you're here," she said, in a tired voice. "I need a bath."

Kijj, apparently, was awake too. "Hey, where's Michael? And David? We're dirty too."

"They won't be coming today, young master," Karen said, quietly, as she went over to the pool of water in the corner and filled a bucket. The hatchlings were too large to take a proper bath in the pool, now, so it was a matter for mops and brushes, and many many trips to refill the bucket.

"What? Why not? Are they still mad we burned down their houses? The elders were yelling and yelling at me, for like hours! Minutes! The whole time, anyway. I mean," Kijj paused for breath, "I mean, I was just testing out my firey breath. I can breathe fire now! I've been practicing for weeks, to breathe fire just like my father, and I just had to show everyone. I hope they're not still mad."

"Michael is, indeed, very angry," Karen said, pouring water over Djen's back, and scrubbing away the blood and mud. "David, on the other hand, is dead."

"Why?" Djen asked, relaxing under Karen's attentions. This was normal - Djen was usually quite tractable in the mornings, at least until after her bath. She was considerate enough not to be cruel to pets who were actively involved in pampering her right at that moment, at least. "He couldn't have been killed in the attack. We waited until the three of you were up here, Rey made us wait. He's going to be really angry when he finds out... who killed him?"

"Lixia," Karen replied, "Or, you could say, the elders sentenced him to death, by sending him to wake up Lixia and tell her what you three had been up to." Djen grunted. Karen continued, after a few seconds, "They sentenced me to death too, but Lixia decided it was easier to send me back with her answer than to wake up fully and deliver the message herself."

"I'm glad," Djen said. Karen stared at her, stopping her scrubbing. Djen couldn't possibly -

The hatchling turned her head to look back at the pet, and growled, "What? If you hadn't survived, there wouldn't be anyone to clean us off, and we're utterly filthy. Rey had a bright idea that we could go sledding down the glacier, two mountains over. He said there was a soft landing at the bottom... he didn't mention it was a sea of mud." Karen ah'd, and continued washing Djen's side. "You didn't think I cared about you specifically, did you?"

Kijj cackled, "She did, she did! I bet she's in love with you, just like Rey's in love with David! Or, was in love with David? I guess he's probably still in love with David until he wakes up and finds out he's dead. Should we wake him? Huh?" Djen didn't answer, and Kijj eventually forgot about the question, and started pacing around the room instead.

It took a long time to wash all three of the hatchlings, in turn, and at the end of it Karen was very tired. Kijj had tried to get her to wash all three of them at the same time, and had gone on and on about how she might accomplish this - getting more wildly impractical with each iteration - until she'd finally started on him.

Rey was even more upset than any of them had expected, when he heard about David's death. He'd wailed a long screeching wail, and thrashed about the room, smashing himself with a great scaly clatter against the walls and ceiling and floor. When he showed no sign of calming down on his own, Djen and Kijj had to leap on him and hold him down so that Karen could wash him - and his struggling still ended up knocking her down several times, giving her more scrapes and cuts to add to her collection. The worst was when his tail lashed across her face, nearly putting out her eyes with the spiky ridge that Rey had all along his spine - she was lucky enough to get away with a large slash down her face, instead. Djen healed it for her before she could lose much blood, but not before licking at it and tasting her blood, as if contemplating eating her. By that point, Karen was exhausted and battered enough that she might have welcomed the distraction.

By mutual agreement, they skipped the normal polishing and nail-trimming - Karen wasn't up to it, and the young dragons were impatient to get outside. Rey was particularly restless. "I just want to kill something. Lots of things! A whole village!"

"Your mother would be proud to hear you talk that way," Karen remarked. "The villagers might not be so happy about it, though."

"I don't care! They killed my David! They killed him! They knew how much I liked him, and they still sent him off to die! Why didn't you stop them!" He leapt at Karen, and knocked her to the ground, pinning her beneath his claws, and the massive bulk of his body.

Karen closed her eyes, and waited for Rey to finish it, but Kijj spoke up. "Because she didn't like him, Rey. Obviously. You saw the way she'd always get that faraway face whenever he touched her. And he was always touching her. He treated her like she was his pet, instead of Djen's."

"Why did mother kill him, instead of you!" Rey asked, then, shaking her. Karen didn't say a word. She could tell the truth, but it wouldn't help - it'd just make Rey angrier, for her to badmouth David now.

"Eh, we're clean now," Djen said. "If you want to finish the job mother didn't, I won't stop you, Rey. Anything if it'll stop your whining."

Kijj laughed, "Maybe we should ask her what mother said first, though. I think we forgot to ask that before, didn't we? Did we? Did you already tell us? I don't remember."

"No, you didn't ask," Karen said, "She said - she thought it'd serve you right if the villagers all became marauders and hunted you, like Michael wants. So the elders are going along with it."

Rey's weight vanished. Karen opened her eyes, and saw him cowering in a corner, trying to hide himself behind his tail and wings. "They're WHAT?!"

Djen laughed. "Idiots. I was already sick of killing them, but now they're going to go out of their way to make it interesting again."

"Ooh, I'll get to practice on moving targets!" Kijj said, spitting a ball of flame in Karen's direction - it hit the stone and sputtered out between her legs, the sparks burning for a moment as they splattered across her thighs.

"I thought you didn't want to kill the pets," Djen said.

Kijj tilted his head, and replied, "Well, it's different now. If they're fighting back, it's fair."

"So we're going to attack again?" Rey asked, "Right now? Or after lunch?"

"They won't be trained yet," Djen said, "It took Kijj a month to learn how to breathe fire, and he's a dragon, and they're just pets. If we go down now there'll be no challenge."

"I don't care about a challenge," Rey said, "I just want revenge."

"Well, I'm going to go get something to eat from the farms," Djen said, heading for the tunnel that led outside. "All the pets in the aerie taste like sulfur." Lixia was confident enough in her power and her pets to sleep in a chamber open to the air, but she was more protective of her children, and the passage that led from their sleeping chamber to the open air was well hidden. Karen had crawled up it once, at Djen's insistence, but it opened halfway up a waterfall, with fifty feet of slick rock above and below, and a jagged stony death awaiting the pet who tried to jump out and swim for it.

"Should I meet you by the main entrance, then?" Karen asked. That was the normal procedure on days when the dragons were going to hunt the farms, which was most days since they'd grown old enough to fly.

"No, I don't think so," Djen said. "Just go back to the aerie village, and train yourself to fight, with the others. And tell them to send someone else to give us a bath, tomorrow - you let them kill David, and made my brother cry. If I see you again, I'll eat you, and I won't be nice about it either."

"Yeah!" Kijj said, getting into the spirit, "And I'll set your hair on fire, and make you die bald!"

Karen was shocked. "Mistress - Djen -"

"Did I say you could use my name?" Djen snapped, rearing up on her hind legs and spreading her wings, in an attack stance. "Get out! Next time I see you, you die!"

Karen stumbled down the stairs, crying, for the second day in a row. The hatchlings didn't attack the aerie village that day, not that Karen would have noticed it - she spent the whole day in her room, sobbing over Djen's betrayal. It would have been better if she'd just eaten her - Karen wondered how Djen had learned to be so cruel.

The next morning, Karen dragged herself out of bed, and realized she hadn't remembered to ask the elders to find someone else to care for the hatchlings. She walked out into the village square, and passed a circle of pets holding crude sharpened sticks, waving them around wildly in the air to Michael's direction - was this supposed to protect them from a dragon's claws and scales? She found herself climbing up to the ledge, with the staircase, that led to the children's chamber, and wondered what she was doing.

"This is suicide," she said to herself, "Djen doesn't want you to come to her. She wants you to stay away. She told you to stay away. You aren't going to serve her, even though it'll mean your death; you're going to force her to kill you, because you don't want to live." When she put it that way, it sounded petty and selfish, so she tried to put the thought out of her head.

But she failed, and stopped just short of the sleeping chamber, and sat down on the warm stone steps, resting her head on her folded arms on a higher step, and listened to the hatchlings wake. If she closed her eyes, she could hear the scraping of their scales, and the rustling of their wings, and see them in front of her, as clear as if she was there in the room with them.

"I can smell her," came Djen's low, muttered voice, at last.

"What?" Kijj asked, sharp and shrill, "Who? That pet of yours?"

"Yes, her," Djen replied, "She's on the stairs."

"Is she coming up?" Rey asked, "I've got a splintered nail..."

"If she is, will you really eat her?" Kijj asked, expectantly. "I want to see you eat her."

"I'll have to, won't I?" Djen snapped, "I said I would, and I'm not going to make myself a liar over a pet."

"I wish you hadn't said that," Rey whined, "I don't think they're going to send anyone else up to take care of us - you saw how they were practicing with those sticks."

"You were the one who wanted her dead," Djen said, "You were all fire and blood and revenge, yesterday."

"Well, I'm not mad anymore," Rey replied, "I just miss David now, that's all. I want him back, and he won't come back, and killing people won't bring him back, it'll just make other people not come back."

Djen growled, and corrected him. "They're not people, they're pets."

"Right, pets," Rey said, dejected. The dragons were quiet for a while. "I don't think she's coming up, anyway."

Karen waited on the steps until she heard the dragons leave to go hunting, then crept up and tidied up the room. There were still a few things she could do for them, even if she was no longer welcome in their presence.

Then she headed back down to the village, to train. The sticks, she learned, were called 'spears', and were the best weapons for fighting dragons, because if properly made - that is, 'not out of wood' - they could pierce a dragon's scales and strike home at the flesh underneath, which Michael insisted was no different from a pet's.

There were about six hundred pets training in the village square, almost all of them from the aerie village itself. The elders kept sending runners to the farms to try to get recruits, but the farm villages had more critical tasks than merely caring for the dragons' aerie - they had to grow crops, and take care of animals, and patrol the borders watching for marauders.

They also found it hard to believe the stories about the attack. None of them, of course, had seen it firsthand, and they had seen the hatchlings acting normally on that day and afterwards, taking only a few pets for food, like they always had. Of course, now that Karen wasn't there for Djen to torment, they had to find different games to play with the selection process - lately they were having a farming village round up all its able-bodied pets to have a footrace, with Djen eating the winner, Rey eating the loser, and Kijj flying overhead lobbing fireballs into the race at anyone he thought wasn't making enough of an effort, and usually eating the first pet he hit solidly.

So the weeks went on, and the training continued, without any attack by the hatchlings. Twice, Lixia awoke from her slumber, on schedule, and visited the village to select a few expendable pets as food for the adult dragons. Most of the marauders in training hid during the culls - even Michael had to admit that they were no match for an adult - but Karen was still mindful of Lixia's comment about her child, and made sure to present herself for inspection each time... but Lixia never chose her. Karen wondered if she'd forgotten, or changed her mind, or if she was simply waiting until the situation with the 'army' had worked itself out.

For a while, it looked like it was going to work itself out without violence. They kept training, but the dragons never attacked, and the pets started to think that maybe they were overreacting. Yes, the attack had been destructive, and the losses painful, but if it was something that the children were going to do, say, once a year instead of once a day, then it was something that the village could endure. So every day, there were fewer marauders at Michael's training sessions.

Eventually Werner did the math, and reasoned that the pets' society could endure an attack like the one they'd suffered every three months, at least for the twenty years or so it would take for the children to grow to adulthood. He also noted that Lixia seemed to be aiming her cull more carefully at older pets, and at males in particular, to help the pets rebuild their numbers - which made three months a conservative estimate.

At the same time, Lars, the elder who knew the most about construction, was leading the villagers who weren't training as marauders in a reconstruction project, to rebuild the village center better than before. The chief way in which it was superior was the presence of 'dragon-proof' covered walkways leading from every major building and public area to the safety and shelter of the caves. When Werner saw the setup that Lars was constructing, he sketched some diagrams in the sand, and estimated that more than half of the villagers killed in the original attack would have been saved by Lars' walkways. He redid his math, and gave a new estimate to the acceptable frequency of attacks - once a month.

The other elders ran with this, and made one month a deadline as well as an estimate. If Djen and Kijj didn't attack by the time the month was out, they'd abandon Michael's scheme, and just concentrate on getting under cover if the attack was ever repeated. Kevin was the only elder willing to give the training more time, and as he was still very old and feeble-minded, he was ignored as always.

This frustrated Michael intensely, since he felt that he was finally starting to get somewhere with the training. So at the three week mark, he took the two hundred remaining trainees deep into the mountain, and passed out real weapons.

Karen was one of the marauders who'd stuck with the training - she didn't want to hurt the dragons, but both Lixia and Djen had told her to fight, and who was she to argue? She still went up every day to clean the children's lair, careful to never let them see her, but most of her time was spent learning to parry and thrust, to strike precisely in the spot she intended to, so that her spear could someday slip between Djen's scales and pierce her heart. Training with the wooden sticks, this was all completely abstract, as the wood would snap and splinter before doing any harm to a dragon, but when Michael pressed the ancient, metal-tipped spear into her hands, she realized that, just maybe, he wasn't insane - that maybe they could fight back, and win, at least against the youngsters.

"These are special," Michael told his marauders, as he passed them out. "Arridial enchanted these herself, when she was young."

"Arridial was young?" Martin asked, and the others laughed. The thought was certainly strange - Arridial had been old when Juzann was born, an event recorded in the aerie's written history, but still long before Telenthiris invented the thoughtstones, and so beyond the memory of any living elder.

"It was long, long ago," Michael said solemnly. "Back then, there were no farming villages - the valleys and slopes were full of vermin and marauders. The only pets lived here, beneath the mountain, and were warriors, trained by the young dragons to protect their home.

"These weapons were crafted by Arridial to give her pets an advantage in battle, to let them stand up to the marauders, whose life was spent fighting. They were designed with special magics to let them pierce the armor of the marauder's leader - for in those days the marauders were a nation to themselves, as organized as the pets are, or were before Djen's atrocity.

"The leader's armor was made out of the scales of a dragon - out of the crimson scales of Arridial's first mate, who had been killed by the marauders and butchered. These spears were designed to pierce dragon scales, my friends, which is why they were hidden here, far under the mountain, after that task was finished, a millennia ago."

"How did you find them?" Karen asked, running her finger over the runes etched into the stone shaft of the spear, "Does Lixia know that these are the weapons you want us to use against her children?"

Michael smiled a thin, vicious smile. "I hope not," he said, "And this is only one of my secrets. I intend to win our freedom from the dragons, as I promised the elders at the start." He looked around, pointing his own spear at each of them in turn. "Are you with me? Can I count on you to fight as if your life depends on it - to fight as if you'd rather die than yield?"

There was muttered assent. "I don't hear you!" Michael called, in the voice he used to lead his drills. Automatically, his marauders snapped to attention, and called out in unison, "Yes sir!"

Except for Karen. "Lixia will be very, very angry if we kill her children," she warned, gingerly clutching her spear.

Michael nodded. "Then Djen and Kijj had better run when they see us coming, or they'll make their mommy mad."

That night, Karen penned a note to Djen. Like most of the villagers in the aerie village, she knew how to read and write - one of the tasks the children of the village performed was to transcribe the ancient histories onto new sheets of parchment, so that they wouldn't be lost to time. She wasn't sure that the hatchlings knew how to read, though - they were still very young, and had never really had a reason to learn, although they did spend most of the day with their parents, when Lixia and Juzann were awake, and could have been taught then.

It was worth a try, though. "Michael has given us dangerous weapons of great power," she wrote, "Weapons designed to pierce dragon scales. If you fight us, you will be killed. But if you wait another week, or two at most, the elders will dissolve the marauders, and make Michael put the weapons back in the vault that we took them from, so be patient." She left the note in the room when she crept up to do the day's cleaning, in the middle of Djen's bedding, where she couldn't miss it.

Michael surprised her on the way back down. Her heart almost leapt out of her throat as he appeared around the curve of the stairs, and her spear was poised without thinking. He smiled approvingly, then pushed the point aside.

"I see you've learned to be a warrior," he said, "Or is it a spy?"

"I just - I clean the dragons' room, while they're gone," she replied. "They won't see me anymore, but I do what I can for them. I still love them, Michael."

Michael nodded. "Well, I have no love left for them. For any of them. These cruel games they've been playing with the farmers might not strike fear into the elders' hearts, but I won't stand for them. If they won't attack us, then I'll bring the fight to them, myself. I'll hide in the closet, where we always kept the supplies..."

"They'll smell you!" Karen said. Michael blinked. "They have a very keen sense of smell - they always know when I'm on the stairs, even if they can't see me. You can't sneak up on a dragon, Michael, not even in their sleep." She paused, and sniffed at him. "Even I can smell you, right now. You've been training all day, and never bothered to wash up."

Michael eyed Karen's spear, which had wandered back to point at his chest again, and slowly backed down the stairs in front of her. "I suppose I should thank you for the warning, then. I'll be back tomorrow, better prepared."

"You do that," Karen said, not relaxing until Michael had vanished back around the curve of the stairs. She slept that night on the stairs, just one curve up from the open ledge, wrapped around her spear - but Michael didn't come back. She was very sore the next morning.

And she was very worried all day, nervously keeping an eye on Michael's movements. She didn't think that Michael could actually sneak up on the children, but she wasn't sure, and she was very scared of what the spears could do to a sleeping dragon. So in a way, it was a relief when the fireballs started raining from the sky, and pets started running around in a screaming panic, while Michael shouted for everyone to take their positions - the dragons were attacking.

This was still worrisome - they weren't facing one spear in the night, now, but two hundred in the day - but Djen seemed to have read the note, as the three of them were keeping well up out of range while Kijj shot fire at the 'marauders' who were still out in the open. Karen had already been under cover when the attack started, but she darted across the schoolyard to reach Michael's side - it was worth dodging a few fireballs to keep an eye on her 'leader'. The third that Kijj sent her way nearly hit her, though - she'd run in a straight line, and he aimed at where she was going to be. Luckily for her, where she was going to be was under one of Lars' covered walkways, where Michael and a dozen other marauders were also hiding out. The roof shuddered as the fireball smashed into it, but held.

After a few more seconds the explosions stopped - there was no one left out in the open for Kijj to breathe at. "Come out, come out, little targets!" Kijj cackled, "Or I'll burn down your pretty little village. Again. Heehee!"

"Stay calm!" Michael shouted, "The roofs are covered in stone, he won't be able to burn us out without coming down where we can get him!" Apparently, Kijj decided to test that claim with a barrage aimed right at Michael's hiding place, because the walkway shook as fireball after fireball slammed into it - but it didn't catch fire.

"We have to get out of here!" Karen said, staring at the wooden support near her, which was starting to crack near where it joined the ceiling. The roof wouldn't burn, but the flames were heating the stone, cooking the wood underneath.

"Stay calm," Michael said quietly, "It'll hold long enough - he's only a kid, he'll give up soon."

"I heard that," said Djen's voice, far too close - Karen poked her head out long enough to see the small black dragon perched on the peaked roof of the school - still out of reach of the spears, unless someone was brave enough to climb onto the roof, and face Kijj's fire. Djen smiled at Karen, then called up to Kijj, "Keep breathing! It's working!"

"Damn it!" Michael shouted, pushing Karen aside and throwing his spear at Djen. Karen sprawled onto the ground, stunned and helpless for far too long, but Kijj was focused on the roof, still, and Djen was busy clawing at the spear stuck in her flank. "OW! OW OW OW!" she screamed, clawing at it until it pulled free, then flapping up into the air, getting out of range of any further throws. As Karen pulled herself to her knees and crawled back under the walkway, she noted that the throw had drawn blood, but didn't seem to have really hurt the hatchling.

Michael grabbed one of his marauder's spears, and patted the hapless recruit on the back. "Nice throw," he said, "You'd better go get your spear, though." The young pet nodded, gave a quick thanks for the compliment, then darted out into the open - and vanished in a flash of coppery scales. "Stop it!" Rey called, from somewhere up in the air out of sight, "Stop struggling! I'm just going to - OW!" Seconds later, a body fell to the ground with a crunch, "Stupid, STUPID!" Rey shouted at the corpse, "I wasn't going to hurt you! Why did you make me drop you!"

Then the roof collapsed. Karen was sort of expecting it, and managed to jump out from under the splintering wood and stone plates. "Run!" she shouted, "Zig zag! Don't run in straight lines!" She followed her own advice, but Kijj wasn't focusing on her - she heard sizzles and screams behind her, and caught a flash of black scales swooping past out of the corner of her eye - then more screaming. When she reached cover, she turned back to see half a dozen of the marauders lying on the ground, writhing in agony from horrible bleeding gashes or blackened and burnt flesh, while two others ran around on fire, and a ninth dangled from Djen's claws as she slowly disassembled him, hovering twenty feet above the ground.

Michael, unfortunately, had survived the collapse, and was safely under a different walkway, among another group of marauders. "Throw a spear - someone throw a spear!" he shouted, seeing Djen mostly motionless, and so close to the ground, but she was too far from the nearest cover to hit without going out in the open and facing Kijj's flame. Eventually, a brave woman charged out, spear held up high. As she threw, Djen dropped her dying burden and shot up into the air, easily dodging the throw, while Kijj's flames engulfed the thrower.

"You're right, Djen!" Kijj shouted, from high above, "This is way more fun than burning down buildings."

"Burn out another group so that I can swoop down on them again," Djen replied, "I don't think they've given up, yet. They aren't running away or anything."

Kijj started blasting with fireballs again, with a similar result - the walkway withstood the fire for a while, then the supports gave out, and it collapsed, leaving the marauders underneath confused and disorganized for long enough for Rey and Djen to swoop down and scatter them further, leaving most of them wounded or dead.

"This is crazy," Karen shouted, "We have to run to the caves! If they try to follow us in we can fight them on the ground!"

"I'm not retreating!" Michael shouted, "Run if you want to, I'm ending this now!"

"Yes, yes, come out and meet your end," Kijj taunted, then dropped a fireball on top of Michael's new hiding place.

Michael stepped out into the open, and dropped his spear. "Azerath!" he shouted, shoving his hands into the air. A fireball dropped out of the sky right at him, but somehow missed, splashing to his left. "Metrion!" Black lightning crackled around him, and Djen shouted, "Kijj, Rey! Get under cover! He's using -"

"SYNTHOS!" Michael cried out, and the lightning shot up into the air, momentarily darkening the entire cavern with its intense negative radiance. Far overhead, Kijj shrieked in agony, and kept screaming as he plummeted to the earth. Sand sprayed in all directions as he hit ground, and his scream cut off abruptly.

"Kijj!" Rey shouted, from out of sight. "No!" Djen cried, seeing her brother fall. Karen stepped out from the covered walkway, to see the two tiny dragons struggling to gain altitude - it was a long way to the top of the mountain.

Michael staggered, obviously drained by his display of power, but looked up at the fleeing dragons, and held his hands above his head once more. "Azerath!" he cried again, wobbling a little.

"No!" Karen shouted, and charged across the sand towards him.

"Metrion!" came the second word, after a longer delay, squeezed out from between gritted teeth. The lightning crackled, weaker this time, but slowly strengthened towards its former intensity.

Michael opened his mouth to say the final word, and Karen realized she was too far to reach him before he spoke it, and killed another dragon. But she wasn't too far to throw her spear. "Synth - aaaah!" Michael cried, as the badly aimed missile - they hadn't been trained to throw the spears - hit him in the leg, dropping him to the ground as the lightning lashed out around him, setting fire to the nearby buildings. A stray bolt hit Karen in the chest, and she flew backwards, landing paralyzed on her back, staring up at the sky, far above, as the black and copper dragons finally reached the exit, and flew off into the open air.

Karen lay there for a long time, unable to move, in a stunned daze, unable to count the time as it passed, except to watch the sky above. It hadn't grown dark before a larger dragon appeared above, armored in black scales, and surrounded in a glow of magic. Lixia had come to avenge her son.

She landed on the new council chambers, crushing them. She picked up Kijj's body in her claws - and healed his wounds, but he was still dead. "Who did this," she asked, but no one answered.

"WHO DID THIS!" Lixia screamed, as the council members and the marauders filtered out of the caves. The marauders tossed their spears at her feet. "It was us," they said. "I'm so sorry!" said another. "Please forgive us!" Onrietta cried.

"My son was not killed by these weapons," Lixia growled. "Answer me, who was to blame?"

Karen found she was sitting. Apparently, she could move now. She stood, and opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't remember what she meant to say, to save her own life.

"I see," Lixia said. "You wish to take the blame for this act, even though none of you were the ones who killed him. So be it, but know that when I find the one who is truly to blame, he shall suffer as well.

"For now, until I decide your punishment, no one is to leave this aerie. The village is sealed. Anyone who enters will share in your punishment, and anyone who leaves will envy those who stay." The council wept, and prostrated themselves, and begged her to be swift in her judgement, but she didn't hear them. In three powerful downbeats, she shot up and out of the mountain, scattering the pets surrounding her like dandelion seeds, and knocking over another of the rebuilt structures.

The spears, as well, went flying through the air, sticking into walls and ground, penetrating deeply whenever they hit. Karen saw one fly directly towards her, and reached out to catch it - it fell perfectly into her grasp. The spear tip was bloody - it was her spear, which she'd used to wound Michael.

Michael! Why hadn't she been able to mention Michael when Lixia was there, screaming for his blood? Where was Michael, for that matter? There was the bloodstained, scorched spot where he'd fallen, and the trail led towards the deep caverns...

No, she'd had enough of fighting. Karen crawled into her little cave, hid the spear under her bed, and fell into a long, deep sleep. She slept for almost a week, while the village mourned - oh, she woke up from time to time to poke her head out of her cave and watch the depressed pets of the aerie village shuffle around listlessly among the ruins and bodies, until the elders were forced to physically drag pets over to the wreckage to clean it up. But then she'd crawl back into her room and lie in bed all day, slipping in and out of sleep, without enough energy to even care what day it was.

Until one day she woke up to a festival air. Karen still felt sick, and tired of life, but outside it was more of a celebration. She dragged herself out of bed and out to the common area, and stopped the first pet to walk by - an old friend, as pets measured such things, who lived in a cave not far from hers. Miriam had been one of the initial recruits to Michael's marauders, but had dropped out early.

"Miriam - what's going on?"

"We're preparing for a party!" Miriam said, smiling. "A feast! A dragon feast, in honor of Kijj's passing. All the dragons in the mountain will wake up at the same time and come here, to our village, and not just that - all the dragons from miles and miles around will be here too!"

"What are you wearing?" Karen asked, for Miriam's arms and shoulders were draped with glittering loops of gold and gems.

"Oh, I'm practicing wearing my costume for the feast - it's strange to carry around the extra weight, and we need to look natural when we're serving the great dragons. Juzann opened up his hoard for the decorations, look around, everyone has some." Miriam frowned, "Didn't the elders give you any? I thought it was only the marauders who were going to the feast unadorned..."

"I was one of the marauders," Karen said, then started babbling, "Lixia herself told me to learn to fight... I think she meant for me to stop the others if her children were ever in real danger. I failed."

Miriam pounced Karen and hugged her, moaning. "Oh, you poor thing! That means you'll be on the menu, and I've heard the foreign dragons have... strange tastes. I hope it doesn't hurt too much. Lixia had the farms send in animals for us to practice on - I was on my way there when you stopped me. I really shouldn't be late... but..."

"It's okay, Miriam," Karen said, giving her a small hug back, and forcing herself to smile, "We haven't spoken much in the past few years anyway. Don't miss your practice session on my account."

Miriam nodded, and ran off cheerfully, jingling with each step. Karen wandered around the buzz of activity, scanning her gaze over the glittering crowd, until she spotted the other marauders, a dark brooding blob in the middle of the festivities. Yes, that was where she belonged.

The marauders were loosely gathered around a small child, who was lecturing them on the proper way to butcher a cow, which had already been killed. With a start, Karen recognized her as Onrietta - without her silks, although she still had her thoughtstone. As the young elder took her knife and opened the cow's belly, blood ran everywhere, and by the time she'd removed all the organs and set them aside into the proper piles, then sliced the meat from the bones and arranged it in a neat stack, she was coated from head to toe. "Now, we don't have time to teach you each to do this task, so instead you'll each have to remember one step, which you'll do in turn. But I thought it was important for you to see the entire process, at least once."

Onrietta motioned the group over to another dead cow, leaving the butchered mess behind. "A dragon like Kijj has about five hundred scales, and removing them will be the hardest part. Half of you will be in charge of removing six scales each, and we really can't practice that part..."

The training continued all day. Karen was one of the pets that Onrietta decided wasn't paying enough attention, so she got scale duty - but she still had to watch while the more attentive students practiced on several cows in turn, as Onrietta carefully informed each of the difference between a cow's stomachs and a dragon's, and described the vessel which each organ was to be placed in.

Kijj had been killed in battle, and the best kind of funeral for a dragon who died fighting his foes was for his relatives to swoop in while his foes celebrated their victory, and slaughter them all. Since not even the marauders had celebrated Kijj's death, Lixia and Juzann had decided to stage a re-enactment of the death of Fyr, one of Arridial's children who hadn't survived to adulthood. Like the marauders who'd killed Fyr, the marauders of the aerie would butcher Kijj while the visiting dragons watched 'secretly' from the shadows at the edges of the chamber, and stuff themselves on his flesh - and then once the marauders were too full to defend themselves, the dragons' loyal pets would run in and skewer them on their own spears, so that the dragons could roast them like sausages.

Not that Fyr's murderers had been roasted like sausages - Arri and Telen (as they were known at the time) had simply eaten them in the traditional fashion. The sausage part was a strange foreign custom that the visiting dragons were bringing with them. And of course, the villagers playing the part of the loyal pets were no warriors, and the shadows of the aerie cave weren't deep enough to hide dragons of the size of those who'd be attending, so the marauders would have to cooperate or it would never work.

"It's very important that all of you do your part," Onrietta told them, as the sky darkened at the top of the shaft overhead, "Lixia wants this to go well, to honor her son, and send his soul into the afterlife in proper dragon style. She won't just be angry if we mess this up - she'll be embarrassed, in front of all the other dragons, which means Arridial and Telenthiris will be embarrassed - the whole mountain will be shamed. The whole mountain is already shamed by Kijj's death at the hands of his own pets, and this is the only way we can show them that we aren't the traitors they suspect we might be."

There were a few who argued with Lixia's judgment - they worried that with all the marauders gone, Djen and Rey would go back to their old tricks. Karen told them of her conversation with Djen, and how the young dragons had only attacked for a second time because they were looking for a challenge - without the marauders, the village would be as safe as it had ever been.

Others were angry that they were to die for Kijj's murder, when none of them had actually killed him. Onrietta - and many of the marauders who weren't angry - reminded them that they'd all been trying to kill the youngsters, even though they'd never managed to hit home with their spears.

Onrietta also informed them that Lixia had made a special offer - if anyone could locate and turn in the one who had actually struck the killing blow that knocked Kijj out of the air, they'd be given a thoughtstone, and in that way survive the feast. But no one could remember just who that had been.

With that, she let them go. They were told they had the night and the day to do whatever they wanted - the feast was scheduled for sunset tomorrow. Of course, the mountain was still sealed - the animals and other accoutrements had been transferred carefully across the boundary - and they weren't to eat anything except for the packets of herbs and spices which the pets who were acting as cooks would bring them.

Since all the actual work to get ready for the feast was already assigned out, this didn't leave much for them to do except sit around anticipating their demise. Many of the marauders were mated couples, and vanished into their caves to enjoy a last fling, but Karen was still without a mate, and (like most of the unmated women) wasn't really interested in joining the orgy that a few of the men were trying to arrange.

Eventually, one of the other marauders approached her. He recognized her as one of the attendants who'd cared for the children, and wanted her to tell him more about Kijj. He wanted to know that the dragon they were to die to honor was worth it.

So she told him about Kijj - about his innocence and enthusiasm, about his constant drive to improve himself and hone his skills, and about how much pride he'd taken in his flames, those last few weeks, when he'd finally figured out the trick. She told him about how Kijj had always tried to pick out the lazy and unworthy pets from the farms, to eat, and made sure they knew why they were chosen - and that if there was more than one substandard pet, he'd destroy the houses and farms that were poorly kept.

"So he burned down the village because he thought we were lazy?" someone asked from behind her, and Karen realized that there were dozens listening to her talk.

She shrugged. "Maybe... we hadn't rebuilt the village in a long time - generations. The farmers have to rebuild their huts after every major storm, but we're protected from things like that here in the aerie. So he might have felt we were getting soft." She sighed. "But I think what he really wanted to show us was how proud he was of his flames. He wanted us to be proud, too."

"Kijj killed my mate, with those flames" one of the marauders said, angrily, "She ran out to throw a spear at Djen, and he - he -"

"He hit her with one shot, dead on, from hundreds of feet in the air!" Karen exclaimed, waving her arms, "He almost hit me from the same distance, when I was running full out! He would have been a strong protector of the mountain, a scourge of marauders everywhere."

"He laughed while he did it," the man croaked, wiping tears from his eyes.

Karen held him, and smiled, and stroked his hair. "He took joy in everything he did. The mountain won't be the same without his laughter."

Karen spent most of the day comforting the other marauders, with words at first, and later they did have their orgy, right out in the village square. A few of the cooks wanted to join in, but were chased off with fearsome growls and mock anger. "Cursed dragon pets, you think you're worthy to join the marauders?" Martin snarled as he poked his wooden training spear at Miriam, who was trying to reach Karen - halfway through the day, they'd been given the mock weapons, and told not to lose them, since the intention was to use them as roasting skewers as well as marauder props.

"Karen, help!" Miriam cried, hopping back a few steps, jewelry tinkling.

"Away from us, wench!" Karen called, "You serve the dragons, and have no place here! The only dragons we serve are at dinner!" The other marauders cheered, and laughed, some disentangling themselves from each other and taking up their spears.

"Karen, Djen wants to talk to you!" Miriam cried, as the marauders chased her away, "Onreitta told me that she said to tell you to go wait near the top of the stairs... ow!" Miriam staggered as a thrown spear whacked her in the legs - it hadn't been thrown well, and had spun sideways before hitting her. "And you'd better hurry, because the feast starts in less than an hour!"

Karen stopped laughing, and struggled to extract herself from the pile. Martin stopped her with a hand on his shoulder. "Where are you going? We already have a dragon for our feast, there's no need to hunt another."

"I have to -" Karen started, but Martin interrupted her.

"If she has something to say to you, she can say it at the feast. I'm sure she can have the cooks deliver you to her alive, if she asks. And if she doesn't, then it wasn't important anyway. Do you really want to spend your last hour running up and down stairs?" His hands moved over her body, wordlessly offering an alternative.

"I guess you're right," Karen said, turning to kiss him, and they sank back down to the sandy floor.

Onrietta was the one who eventually broke up the whole thing, coughing pointedly to get their attention, then pushing them into their places in the wide open area that had been set up for the feast, where Kijj's body lay at rest, surrounded by golden platters and bowls, lit by dozens of large torches as well as the fading sunlight. As the blue of the sky deepened towards black, the first of the dragons appeared in faint silhouette, and began their procession.

The pets of the aerie village were closer to the dragons than any others, but aside from the ones who were assigned to the elder dragon's caves, most had never seen a dragon larger or older than Lixia, the eldest of the four adults. Lixia was there - at the front of the pack, in fact - but she was dwarfed by the gray and silver Telenthiris and the mottled copper Arridial. Those dragons were familiar colors, at least - black and gray and copper, the colors the pets associated with dragon scales.

The foreign dragons were unmistakably foreign, lighting up the cave with brightly colored greens and blues and reds, and other bright solid colors, like giant scaly flowers. They made the local dragons look plain and drab in comparison... except for Lixia, perhaps, whose brilliant black clearly put her in the same category. These were her relatives, from the land where she'd lived long ago, before she was Juzann's mate.

Karen stared in fascination as the dragons flew in - thirty of them, or was it forty? There were thirty adults or older, she figured, and there at one end of the cavern were Djen and Rey, chatting and playing with a dozen other youngsters. The dragons really weren't very well hidden in the 'shadows' at the margin of the caves - there were too many torches for the shadows to be at all dark - and it was hard not to stare.

For a while the cavern rumbled with the sound of dragon voices as the guests chatted with each other, and Karen could pick up snatches of their conversations. She heard one dragon offer surprise that Telenthiris' family 'really did' keep humans as pets, instead of 'kobolds' or 'goblins', whatever those were - weren't those types of vermin? Nasty, inedible vermin? Why would a dragon keep them as pets, Karen wondered? She heard another mention that he really wasn't looking forwards to Lixia's cooking, since the word was that usually these country dragons didn't even cook their food.

In general, the visiting dragons didn't seem to show much respect for the occasion, but Telenthiris and Arridial were there, staring solemnly at them, ignoring the chatter, and that was enough. The pets of the village knew which dragons they served, and if other dragons were gauche or rude, that hardly mattered.

"Quiet, quiet!" Lixia said loudly, at last, and the dragons' chatter died down. Lixia pointed a claw at the marauders, arranged around Kijj's corpse. "Be quiet, and stealthy - there is our prey, unaware of our presence. They think themselves the brave hunters, here for a feast. We will wait silently, here in the shadows, and bide our time - then give them a feast they will never forget!"

A few of the dragons chuckled, and there was the occasional hiss of dragon whispers as they talked quietly among themselves, but Lixia's speech had been the cue to start, and the marauders went to work. Scaling Kijj's hide was a clumsy process - they hadn't been able to practice it, and Karen was one of the few that had ever seen a dragon's scales up close, and knew where and how they were attached. At least the knives they were given were sharp enough to make short work of the tissue that held the scales in place, once they were pried up enough to expose it, and others followed Karen's lead and passed the word on, and eventually all of Kijj's gray scales were piled in an iridescent heap in the large emerald-studded bowl, and their part of the work was done.

Karen didn't want to watch the others butcher Kijj, so her gaze wandered around the room, passing over the dragons who watched with rapidly decaying amusement. The marauders were working as fast as they could - she could hear the wet noises as they methodically disassembled the small dragon's body - but it would still be a while before any of the dragons could eat.

One of them couldn't wait, and Karen's gaze (like many others) was drawn to the scream as the blue-scaled creature snatched up one of the serving staff and devoured her alive. Lixia glowered in the hasty dragon's direction, and he gave a contrite smile as he swallowed the last bits of his victim, and set the jewelry she'd been wearing down at his feet after picking it from his teeth. None of the other dragons were quite that rude.

With that incident, and the general spectacle of the hungry dragons surrounding them, Karen almost didn't notice Michael's face, peering down at the feast from a high ledge - not the one to the children's chambers, at least, and in fact not one that Karen had ever explored or thought about. If Michael was there, it probably led to the deep caverns, where he'd been hiding, ever since... ever since he killed Kijj! She had to tell Lixia.

But how? "It's time to eat!" Martin said, spinning her around to face the pile of butchered meat. He dragged her over and made her a sort of sandwich, of choice bits of meat wrapped in a fold of skin from one of Kijj's wings, while taking a steak-like cut himself. The dragons, all around the room, were watching them closely as they ate, the marauders' feasting only increasing the dragon's own hunger, and there was no way that she could do anything without everyone in the room seeing it - let alone approach Lixia, who was sitting among three of the largest foreigners, talking to them in whispers.

She could try to wave and point, but Michael was sure to see her gesture, and once he was gone - once he realized he'd been seen, in fact - she was sure no one would remember that he had ever been there. Somehow, she had to get word to Lixia without being noticed. She gnawed on the tough wing skin and uncooked meat, hardly even noticing the taste, while scenarios played out in her head, none of them leading to a favorable result.

Eventually, all the meat was gone - Karen had eaten less than most, but even she felt full and bloated, and it was hardly playacting to flop to the ground and lie there, groaning, with the rest of the marauders, next to Kijj's stripped skeleton. "Now," Lixia shouted, "While they're sleeping off their meal! Go, my pets!"

The cooks shouted and charged, making a horrible clangor with their screams and the jingling of their jewelry, falling on the marauders in groups of five, four holding them down while a fifth impaled them on one of the wooden spears. The marauders screamed and writhed as the sharp stick pierced their innards, and most were dead before the bloody end of the skewer finally poked its way out of their mouths. Only a few struggled feebly as they were taken to the kitchen area for seasoning, and sometimes roasting, if they were going to a dragon who couldn't make his own fire.

Karen called out to Miriam, who was in charge of one of the groups. Miriam pointed, and her four assistants took hold of Karen's arms and legs, and held her pinned to the sand, while Miriam positioned the spear. "Miriam, wait! I need you to take me to Lixia, alive! I need to tell her something!"

Miriam paused, and looked sad. "Karen... I can't do that. It would ruin everything. Lixia's so happy that the feast is going so well, but if I took you there alive it would make a scene."

Karen fumed - her friend obviously thought she was having a last minute attack of cowardice. But she looked over to Lixia, and saw that what Miriam said was true - Lixia was busily talking to all the important foreign dragons, and it wasn't likely that she'd even notice that Karen existed. But then, with a sudden thought, she glanced over in the other direction, where Djen and Rey were sitting bored, waiting for their food. "Then take me to Djen - she said she wanted to talk to me, didn't she? No one'll notice what happens over by the hatchlings."

Miriam wasn't happy about it, but lifted the spear, and had her assistants carry Karen over to the kitchen area by her arms and legs instead. There she was slathered in butter and sauces, and her hair was carefully shaved off ("So it won't singe,"). Miriam was willing to take Karen to Djen alive, but she drew the line at depriving the young dragon of the seasonings the cooks had worked so hard to prepare.

Throughout the process, Karen kept glancing up to make sure Michael was still watching - but he hadn't noticed that she'd seen him. He seemed to be watching Djen and Rey. Karen made sure to hold her eyes away from his ledge as she was carried over to the children. She didn't want him to catch on - if she told Djen, maybe Djen could discreetly get a message to Lixia, through the other dragons, without Michael finding out until it was too late.

"Hey, how come she gets her meal first?" one of the foreign dragons complained.

"Young mistress," Miriam said to Djen, apologetically, lowering her eyes, "We've brought you your meal uncooked, because she seems to think that you have something you want to say to her before you eat her."

Djen glanced at Karen, and scowled. Her scales bristled up angrily all along her back momentarily, before she got hold of herself. "I told her to meet me before the feast. I have nothing to say to her here, in front of everyone. Take her back to the kitchen and roast her properly." With that, she turned her head away.

"Djen, I didn't come here for that." Karen said quietly, but quickly, as Miriam's assistants lifted her back into the air. "Look behind me, above the pair of blue dragons, on the ledge. It's Michael."

"Michael!" Djen snapped, and her gaze shot up to follow Karen's directions. Karen couldn't see, but obviously Djen had spotted him, as she spread her wings and leapt into the air, flying across the center of the chamber.

"Djen, no! You can't face him by yourself!" Karen said, struggling free of the cooks, who didn't try very hard to hold onto her, not knowing what to make of this. "Miriam, thank you, thank you, but I can't let her face this by herself. I'm following her. Don't try to stop me!"

"Um..." Miriam said, backing away, as confused as the others, "I don't know..."

"If Djen doesn't want her, I'll eat her," said the loudmouthed foreign hatchling, pouncing at Karen.

Rey knocked him aside, and stood between her and the other dragons protectively. "No, she's Djen's meal. And if Djen wants to eat her in the caves, she's allowed, because this is her home, and not yours."

Karen ran back out into the middle of the chamber, leaving a trail of dripping sauce as she followed Djen's flight path. Halfway, she thought better of it - she was already far behind, so she might as well stop home first, and get a weapon. Her spear should still be under the bed where she'd hidden it.

Onrietta was there to ambush her as she emerged from her room with the weapon - and following the line of the elder's glowering gaze back past her head to the far end of the room, Karen could see that Lixia was watching as well. "Lixia wants to know what you think you're doing," the elder said. "Miriam said you were going to meet Djen in the caves for a private meal, but if that was the case you wouldn't need a dragon-slaying spear, would you?"

"Djen is chasing after Kijj's murderer," Karen said, "And I don't think she can face him on his own. I have to help her."

Onrietta paused, as if holding a conversation in her head. "Lixia said that Kijj was killed by dragon magic, magic no pet could have wielded. She told me that there were the signs of two paralysis spells, one that downed Kijj, and a second that backfired. She said that she remembered seeing you lying there, paralyzed by the second spell."

"She thinks I killed Kijj," Karen said, resigned, "And she thinks I'm going to kill Djen. Is that it?"

"She would think that," Onrietta replied, "If you had a soul, but she examined you closely, and you show no sign of one. You couldn't have cast the spell. To be hit by the backlash, you must have been very close when the second spell was interrupted, that's all."

"I interrupted it," Karen said, remembering.

"Then go, with her blessing," Onrietta said, and in the distance Lixia growled a word of power that drew all eyes to her - except Karen's, because Karen found herself transported instantly to the ledge above. And more than that, she could smell Michael and Djen, and follow the trail of their scent as clearly as if it was a painted road glowing in the darkness.

She raced through the darkness, following the scent, faster than she'd ever run before - but before, she'd had only two legs, so it made sense that she would be faster now. She might have wondered what had happened to her if she'd been in any position to think, but the form she'd been given was good at running and at following a trail, and terrible at thinking.

Soon she saw purple light ahead of her, and heard the crackle of lightning. Was she too late? At the edge of the light, the spell ended, and she shifted back to her true form, still clutching her spear, and her mind cleared enough to take in the scene before her.

Djen was not winning. She was pinned to the ground by a cage of lightning, eyes squinted shut with effort as she struggled to stay up. "Mother taught us... to resist this spell... give it up," she hissed at Michael, but it didn't look like she could continue to resist it for long.

Michael was not really winning either. All his effort was focused on the spell, and he, too, was reaching the end of his endurance. "I won't rest until I've driven a spear through your heart," Michael growled, and Karen's heart skipped a beat as she saw one of the ancient spears lying at his feet, with fresh blood on the tip. Michael was wounded too - his fur was stained red all along his side and up his back.

Karen blinked, and Michael was his old self again - bare, pink skin, like hers, with two arms, two legs, two white, fluffy tails, two feathery wings... no, that wasn't right. What was he?

It didn't matter. He was distracted, and she had a chance, if she acted now. Remembering her training, she gripped her spear, and ran silently across the room, aiming the point of her spear between Michael's shoulder blades. It was easier than she'd imagined it could be, the enchanted metal and stone piercing fur and flesh and bone as easily as any dragon's tooth, and the purple lightning died, leaving the room dark. Karen's spear jerked, but she held onto it tightly despite the weight on the end of it, and pressed the tip into the ground, pinning the creature she'd known as Michael in place. A scaly claw knocked her aside, and she went sprawling to the ground, while inhuman screams rang out through the empty caverns.

For a while afterwards, there was silence, the Djen's voice came, "It's over. He's dead."

"Are you sure?" Karen asked, whispering into the dark. She crawled across the rough stone towards Djen's voice, until her hands touched the hatching's familiar scales, and she climbed up the dragon's side to hold her reassuring bulk against her body.

There was a wet tearing sound, and a loud snap. "Okay, I took off his head, and he didn't react. I'm pretty sure he's really dead. He was the one who killed Kijj, right?"

"Right," Karen said, sighing with relief. "You'll be safe now, then. At least I can die knowing you're safe."

"Die?" Djen asked, "Why would you die? I'm hungry after the fight, but there's plenty of meat right here."

"You said you'd eat me, the next time you saw me. You told Rey and Kijj it was a promise."

Djen snorted. "I forgot about that. Look, you found Kijj's murderer. Go find Lixia, claim your reward. I'll eat you tomorrow if it means that much to you." There was another ripping squelching sound, then the sound of chewing. Karen clung to Djen's back, feeling the dragon's muscles move under the scales, as she chewed and swallowed. "What, go!"

"Mistress, I would never dream of disobeying your orders," Karen said, softly, "But I have no idea how to get back."