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The two men stared hard at each other, saying nothing, making no move. They were two figures, frozen in place.

I cleared my throat. Evidently I was the one who was going to have to cross that invisible line in the sand... be the one to speak first and bring these two men together. “Well. Obviously there has been a misunderstanding here.”

“Obviously,” Fell agreed, the word clipped.

“We received your message—” Stig started.

“And decided to march north in full armament,” Fell cut in.

Stig shrugged as though that were a minor thing and not at all a point of offense. “I was expected to take that message seriously?”

Fell took one menacing step closer to Stig, his voice low and dark as he said, “Hear me now. There is a dragon. At least one. Alive and well and out there, threatening us all.” He pointed to me, and I stifled a flinch. “It took Tamsyn. Ask her.”

Stig looked to me for confirmation, as though the sight of me standing before him—not dead—wasn’t evidence enough.

“Yes.” I nodded, my throat so thick the word was little more than a croak. “There really is a... dragon.”

“Well.” Stig settled back on his heels with a sigh. “This changes things.”

Frost flashed in Fell’s pale gray eyes. “Does it? No longer want my head on a pike now, do you?” His gaze shot to me. “You almost seem disappointed... like you wish she was dead.” My husband smirked at Stig then.

Stig’s face flushed with anger. He inhaled deeply, the breath lifting his chest. “You could never understand thedepthof my feelings for her, you heartless bastard.”

“I’ll remember that next time I’m in bed with her.”

Stig lunged for him with a strangled sound.

Fell surged forward to meet him.

I got between the two men before they could kill each other.

“Enough! You are behaving like little boys!” I flattened a hand on each of their heaving chests, glaring back and forth between them. “We are on the same side.”

As soon as the words left me, I felt awash in misery. Whether they realized it or not,theywere on the same side.

I was on the side of something else.

31

Stig

SHE WAS ALIVE. TAMSYN WAS ALIVE.

Complicated and ugly sensations curled and twisted through me as I watched her with Dryhten, herhusband. Relief. Obviously relief. But joy, too. Overwhelming joy. Because she was alive.

But also...

I really wanted to kill Dryhten.

Disappointment washed through me in a bitter wave when I realized I couldn’t. I no longer had a reason to do so. At least no reason that would meet with my father’s approval.

And then...

I realized I still could. Why not?

I was a warrior. He was a warrior. That was what warriors did. We fought each other. That was how scores were settled. Killing him would be doing the world a favor, after all, and I did not require my father’s permission to do that.

I’d have to consider how to go about this, though—selecting the right moment to justifiably challenge him. That wouldn’t be too hard. He always provoked me. He was the provoking sort.