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FYIA BATHED IN Alarge pool in their new safe house. It was heated by hot springs, and Fyia mused that hers seemed more like a kingdom of water, rather than a kingdom of dragons, with the heated springs, aqueducts, and canals that carried the stuff everywhere. Maybe dragons liked water …

Starfall sat opposite in the ornate stone bath, and Fyia voiced her thoughts.

'Yours is a kingdom of ash,' said Starfall, 'and yet, you do nothing about it.'

'I know there's work to do,' Fyia said hotly. 'I'm making changes, which, I might add, is what got me into this mess …'

'You're off chasing shadows, rather than leading your people. You leave me to do the hard work while you dart around the world, obsessing over myths and legends.'

There weren't many whom Fyia would let speak to her this way, but she needed Starfall. And what Starfall needed was to blow off steam; she'd been antsy since they'd arrived at the safe house. 'It's too much for you?' Fyia said, splashing water over her shoulder.

'Don't goad me, child.'

The corners of Fyia's lips twitched in irritation. A good argument was exactly what Fyia needed too, to banish the cyclone stirring her blood, and prepare her for Essa.

Essa's betrayal still cut like a knife … her brother's betrayal, and arguments with her aunt were like a storm in a teacup, brutal, destroying everything they touched, but short-lived and carefully contained. There was no harm in it.

'How dare you accuse me of chasing shadows? You deny the existence of dragons?'

'They existed once, long ago. They exist no longer.'

'They do exist,' said Fyia. Echoes of her dragon dreams rubbed across her skin.

'You hope they do,' said Starfall. 'But that is all you have; wishful delusions.'

'I know they are real, and you know I must find them, or I will forever have to look over my shoulder … will always have enemies within my lands.'

'Stay and fight,' said Starfall, leaning forward. 'Give them a reason to believe in you.'

'I am giving them reasons … have killed five kings. But there are those for whom only dragons will ever be enough.'

'Those like you, you mean?'

Fyia slapped the water. 'Yes, Gods damn it, those like me. Those who dare to step outside the boundaries others have laid down. I thought you, of all people, would understand that.'

'We're not talking about me,' said Starfall, her voice soft, but with a razor edge.

Fyia cast her eyes up to the ornate ceiling. A scene of water nymphs playing in a pond was painted there, and Fyia wondered if nymphs would ever return to her lands.

'You know my options are limited,' said Fyia, still looking at the ceiling. 'If I stay, they will undermine me every step of the way. I will be forced to defer to convention … to the rules of others.'

'Youshouldmarry,' said Starfall, her words purposefully inflammatory.

Fyia laughed cruelly as she met her aunt's gaze once more. 'And hand over everything I've accomplished? To become a trophy, good for nothing but bearing heirs?'

'So instead, you chase dragons in the hopes of greatness, letting everything you've fought for slip through your fingers …'

'I have already accomplished greatness,' said Fyia. Her aunt looked away. 'I will find the dragons, but I do not seek them for my reputation. Our lands will never be whole until they return.'

Silence settled, the only sounds the trickling of water as it flowed in and out of the pool.

'You know there are those who believe dragons bear the souls of all the fire-touched who came before?' said Fyia.

Starfall sent her a disbelieving look. 'You want to find them, so when you die you can live on? As a dragon?'

'No. I want to find them because they are part of who we are.'

'You're chasing a myth.'