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She scowled. 'It's merely my dazzling sense of adventure … and a desire to be warm to my core. Your cloak is appreciated, but this place is freezing.'

She wasn't wrong. 'I knew you were a soft southerner …'

'Wow,' she said, drawing his attention back to the stairs. 'Is that … gold?'

'What?' A golden glow illuminated the last few steps. They hurried to the bottom, bursting out into a cavern filled with a series of bubbling pools, and … Gods … no …

'Are those dragon scales?' Fyia breathed. 'Now I understand.'

Cal's attention snapped to Fyia. 'What do you understand?'

'Everything,' she said. She reached out a hand to touch the nearest scale. It was enormous—bigger than Cal.

He would have pressed her further, but the spectacle was too distracting, elation thrumming through his blood. This changed everything …

'Your mother's been keeping this place from you,' said Fyia. Cal could practically see the cogs turning in her mind. 'That's why you're forced to have her around. It's why you defer to her, despite her lack of support. For this is the source of your wealth—how you feed your people when you have no way of growing crops, and animals are scarce. This is why you really came.'

Cal ran a hand through his hair, wishing she'd stop … willing her to continue, impressed by the sharpness of her mind.

'And it's why you're on good terms with the Fae'ch, when they are friends to no one … rarely even deign to be civil.'

'Aside from to your brother,' he said, the words out of his mouth without thought.

Fyia gave a half laugh. 'Aside from to my brother,' she agreed. 'But then, his face is a spectacle of its own, and if rumors are to be believed, they desired a fire-touched to reside among them.'

'But not you? Even though you have more to offer? A Cruaxee?'

'Did they want you for your Cruaxee?'

Cal hesitated. 'The Fae'ch couldn't care less about me, but they want these scales more than anything else. They're a powerful negotiating tool.'

'What do they do with them?'

'Magic,' he said cryptically, for he didn't know more than that.

'And now you hold all the cards,' she said, spinning around, taking in the thousands—tens of thousands—of scales.

'Yes.' Now he held all the cards.

'I knew not to trust your little speech this morning about how your people might overthrow you.'

'I spoke the truth,' he said, 'but now I have the scales …'

'You're in control.'

'We should return,' said Cal, his mind awash with tasks: dealing with the Queen Mother, keeping the location of the scales secret … Did the devouts know the scales were here? Were they the ones who retrieved them? No. Cal thought back to the scent he'd smelled at the tunnel entrance. Not the devouts …

'No,' said Fyia. She unclasped his cloak from around her neck and let it fall onto a scale.

'Fyia …'

'I'm going to get warm,' she said, stripping off her boots and pants.

'That is a terrible idea, and we have no food. You must be starving … I know I am. And there is much to do, not to mention they've probably sent search parties after us.'

'Don't you want one night off? Where no one needs you? We can hunt for breakfast in the morning, and return after that. And anyway, the dried meat and berries in your cloak are quite delicious.' She gave him a cocky smile that had him stepping towards her.

'You stole my food?'