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Reyn spoke up from the floor. ‘Listen to her. The dragon is not to be trusted. You must guard your senses against her glamour, and your hearts against her clever words. I speak as one who was long deceived by her, and paid for that deception with a deep and painful loss. It is tempting to look on her beauty and believe her a wondrous wise creature, sprung from legend to save us. Do not be so gullible. She would have us believe she is superior to us, our conqueror and ruler simply by virtue of what she is. She is no better than we are, and in my heart I believe she is truly no more than a beast with the cunning to shape words.’ He raised his voice to be heard by all.

‘We have been told that she is sleeping off a full belly. Dare any of us ask, full of what? On what meat has she fed?’ As his words settled on his listeners, he added, ‘Many of us would rather die than be slaves any more. Well, I would rather die than be either her slave or her food.’

The world dimmed suddenly. An instant later, a blast of cold air, noisome with the stench of snakes, swept over the crowd.

There were shrieks of terror and angry shouts as the gathered folk cowered in the shadow of the dragon.

Some instinctively sought shelter near the walls while others tried to hide themselves in the centre of the crowd.

Then, as the shadow swept past and the fading light of day returned, Ronica felt the creature land in the Concourse grounds.

The impact of her weight travelled through the paving stones and made the walls of the Concourse shudder.

Although the doors were too small to admit her, Ronica wondered if even the stout stone walls would withstand a determined assault by the dragon.

An instant later, the creature reared up; her front clawed feet came to rest on the top of the wall.

Her cart-sized head on her serpentine neck looked down on them all.

She snorted, and Reyn Khuprus was staggered by the blast of air from her nostrils.

‘So, I am a beast cunning enough to speak, am I? And what title do you give yourself then, human? With your paltry years and truncated memory, how can you claim to be my equal?’

Everyone pressed back against their fellows to clear a space around the object of Tintaglia’s displeasure. Even the diplomats on the dais raised their arms to shield their faces as if they feared to share Reyn’s punishment. All waited to see him die.

In a move that made Ronica gasp, Selden jumped lightly from the edge of the dais.

He placed himself in the dragon’s sight, then boldly inserted his small body between Reyn and the dragon’s angry gaze.

To the dragon, he swept a courtly bow. ‘Welcome, gleaming one!’ Every eye, every ear was focused only on him.

‘We have gathered here, as you bid us. We have awaited your return, sky-ruler, that we might learn exactly what task you wish us to perform.’

‘Ah. I see.’ The dragon lifted her head, the better to observe all the folk. There was a general cowering, an unintended genuflection before her. ‘You did not, then, gather to plot against me?’

‘No one has seriously considered such a thing!’ Selden lied valiantly.

‘Perhaps we are merely humans, but we are not stupid. Who among us could think to defy your scaled mightiness? Many tales have we told one another of your valiant deeds today. All have heard of your fearsome breath, of the wind of your wings and the strength of your tail. All recognize that without your glorious might, our enemies would have overrun us. Think how sorrowful this day could have been for us, for they would have had the honour of serving you instead of us.’

Who, Ronica wondered, did Selden address? Did he flatter the dragon, or were his words to remind the gathered folk that other humans could serve her just as well. The people of Bingtown could be replaced. Perhaps the only way to survive was to claim to serve her willingly.

Tintaglia’s great silver eyes spun warmly at Selden’s flattery.

Ronica gazed into their swirling depths and felt herself drawn to the creature.

She was truly magnificent. The lapping of the scales on her face reminded Ronica of the flexible links of a fine jewellery chain.

As Tintaglia considered the gathered folk, her head swayed gently from side to side.

Ronica felt caught in that motion, unable to tear her attention away.

The dragon was both silver and blue; every movement called forth both colours from her scales.

The grace of her bent neck was like a swan’s.

Ronica was seized with a desire to touch the dragon, to discover for herself if the smoothly undulating hide were warm or cool.

All around her, people edged towards the dragon, entranced with her loveliness.

Ronica felt the tension ebb away from her.

She felt weary still, but it was a good weariness, like the soft ache of muscles at the end of a useful day.

‘What I require of you is simple,’ the dragon said softly.

‘Humans have always been builders and diggers. It is in your nature to shape nature to your own ends. This time, you will shape the world to my needs. There is a place in the Rain River where the waters flow shallow. I wish you to go there and make it deeper, deep enough for a sea serpent to pass. That is all. Do you understand?’

The asking of the question seemed to loosen their silence. People murmured amongst themselves in gentle surprise. This was all she asked, this simple thing?

Then far back in the crowd a man shouted a question. ‘Why? Why do you want serpents to be able to go up the Rain Wild River?’

‘They are the young of dragons,’ Tintaglia told him calmly.

‘They must go up the river, to a special place, to cocoon so that they may become full dragons. Once, there was a hauling out place near the Rain Wild city of Trehaug, but the swamps have swallowed those warm and sandy banks. Upriver, there is still a site that may serve. If the serpents can reach it.’ Her eyes spun pensively for a moment.

‘They will require guards while they are cocooned. You will have to protect them from predators during the winter months while they are changing. This was a task, long ago, that dragons and Elderlings shared. The Elderlings built their cities not far from our hatching grounds, the better to be able to guard our cocoons until spring brought the bright sunlight needed for us to hatch. If not for the Elderling city near the lower hatching ground, I would not have been saved. You can build where the Elderlings once lived.’

‘In the Rain Wilds?’ someone asked in incredulous horror. ‘The water is acid; only the rain is drinkable. The land trembles constantly. Folk who live in the Rain Wilds for too long go mad. Their children are born dead or deformed, and as they age, their bodies become monstrous. All know that.’

The dragon made an odd sound in her throat.

Every muscle in Ronica’s body tightened, until she realized what it was.

Laughter. ‘Folk can live by the Rain Wild River. Trehaug is proof of that. But before Trehaug, long before, there were wondrous cities on the banks of the Rain River. There can be again. I will show you how the water may be made drinkable. The land has subsided; you must live in the trees, as they do in Trehaug; there is no help for that.’

Ronica felt an odd prickling sensation in her mind. She blinked her eyes rapidly. Something…ah. That was what had changed. The dragon had shifted her gaze to a different part of the gathering. Ronica felt more alert again. She resolved to be more wary of the dragon’s spinning glance.

Jani Khuprus spoke from the dais. Her voice shook as she dared to address the dragon, but iron determination ran through her words.

‘Indeed, folk can live in the Rain Wilds. But not without cost and not without skill. We are proof of that. The Rain Wilds are the province of the Rain Wild Traders. We will not allow them to be taken from us.’ She paused, and took a shaky breath.

‘No others know how to subsist beside the river, how to build in the trees, or how to withstand the madness seasons. The buried city we once mined for trade goods is lost to us now. We must find other ways to survive there. Nevertheless, the Rain Wilds are our home. We will not surrender them.’

‘Then you must be the one to do the winter guarding,’ the dragon told her smoothly. She cocked her head. ‘You are more suited to this task than you know.’

Jani visibly gathered her determination. ‘That, perhaps, we can do. If certain conditions are met.’ She glanced out over the gathered people. With fresh confidence she directed, ‘Let torches be kindled. The settling of the details may take some time.’

‘But surely not long,’ the dragon intoned warningly.

Jani was not daunted. ‘This is not a task for a handful of men with shovels. Engineers and workers from Bingtown will have to help us deepen the river channel for you. It will take planning and many workers. The population of Trehaug may not be great enough to support such a venture on its own.’ Jani’s voice became more certain, and took on the cadence of a bargainer.

This was something she knew how to do well.

‘There will be difficulties to surmount, of course, but the Rain Wild Traders are accustomed to the hardships of the Rain Wild. Workers will have to be fed and sheltered. Food supplies would have to be brought in, and that requires our liveships, such as the Kendry, who was taken from us. You will, of course, aid us in recovering him? And in keeping the river mouth free of Chalcedeans, so that supplies can flow freely?’

The dragon’s eyes narrowed slightly. ‘Of course,’ she said a bit stiffly. ‘Surely that will content you.’