"Malta is going to take the dragon?" Jani frowned at his words.

"NO!" he roared in his frustration. He tried to get up, but Bendir shoved him back, more roughly this time. Reyn swung at his older brother, who easily evaded the roundhouse punch, and warned him fiercely, "Don't try that. I'll knock you silly."

"Mama!" The wail sounded ridiculous coming from a grown man. "Malta went to the dragon." He drew a deep breath, then spoke slowly and carefully. "The dragon has Malta now, instead of me." He lifted both hands and patted at his head. "The dragon is gone. I don't feel her anymore. Malta made her leave me alone."

"That's good, Reyn." Jani tried to be comforting. "The dragon, is gone. All gone now. Go to sleep. In the morning, I want you to tell me all about it. I have some things to tell you, too." She ignored her elder son's disgusted snort.

Reyn took a huge breath, and sighed it out. "You aren't listening. You don't understand. I'm so tired. All I want to do is sleep. But I have to go to her. I have to take the dragon back and make Malta go. She'll die and it's all my fault."

"Reyn." Jani sat down on the edge of her son's bed. She tugged a blanket over him. "You're drunk and you're tired and you're not making sense. There is no dragon. Only an old log. Malta is not in danger. Her injury was an accident, not truly your fault. She grows stronger every day. Soon she'll be up and about again. Now go to sleep."

"Never try to reason with a drunk," Bendir suggested, as if to himself.

Reyn groaned. "Mother." He took a deep breath, as if to speak. Instead, he sighed. "I'm so tired. I haven't slept in so long. But listen. Listen. Malta went to the city, to the Rooster Crown Chamber. Go get her. That's all. Please. Please do that."

"Of course. You go to sleep now. Bendir and I will take care of it." She patted his hand and brushed his curly hair back from his pebbled brow.

Bendir made a disgusted noise. "You treat him like a baby!" He gathered up the bottles from the table and went to the door. One by one, he heaved them out into the swamp. Jani ignored his display of temper. She sat by Reyn, watching his eyes slowly droop and then close. Drowned in the memories. No. He wasn't, not her son. This was just the rambling of a drunken man. He was still himself. He saw her, he saw his brother. He didn't talk to ghosts. He was in love with a real live girl. He hadn't drowned, and he wouldn't.

Bendir came back into the chamber. He picked up the lantern from the table. "Coming?" he asked her.

She nodded, and followed her eldest son. As she shut the door, Reyn was breathing deeply and evenly.

"AND YOU WILL LEAVE HIM ALONE, FOREVER," MALTA STIPULATED BRAVELY.

The dragon laughed. "Once I am free, little one, why should I be interested in your brief little lives? I will fly away to seek my own kind. Of course, I will leave him alone. Now. Let me show you."

Malta stood in the black chamber. Both her hands and her aching forehead rested against the block of wood. She took a breath. "And you will go and rescue my father."

"Certainly," the dragon purred. "I already told you I would. Now release me."

"But how will I know you will keep your word?" Malta cried out in agony. More decisively, she added, "You have to give me something, some sort of a sign."

"I give you my word." The dragon was getting impatient.

"I need more than that." Malta pondered. There was something, if she could just remember it. Then she had it. "Tell me your name."

"No." The dragon was adamant. "But once I am free, I will bring you treasure such as you have never dreamed existed. Diamonds as big as pigeon's eggs. I will fly to the south and bring you back the flowers that never fade, the blossoms that cure your kind of any ill just by breathing their scent. I will fly to the north and bring you back the ice that is harder than any metal and never melts. I will show you how to make blades from it that can cut even stone. I will fly to the east and bring you back-"

"No tales!" Malta protested. "No treasures. I ask only that you will leave Reyn alone, and that you will rescue my father. The name of the ship is Vivacia. You have to remember that. You must find the ship, kill the pirates and rescue him."

"Yes, yes. Just…"

"No. Swear it by your name. Say that by your name you swear to rescue Kyle Haven and to leave Reyn Khuprus in peace. Say that, and I'll do as you say."

She felt the blast of the dragon's anger like a slap against her whole body. "You dare to dictate to me? I have you now, little bug. Deny me, and I'll ride your soul to the end of your days. I will rule you. I will tell you to pull the nails from your own hands, and you will do it. I will demand you smother your babies, and you will obey. I will make of you a monster that even your own folk will-"

A little tremor shivered the chamber, breaking into the dragon's threats. Malta pressed her lips together to keep from crying out.

"You see, you anger the gods with your demands on me! Do as I tell you, or they will make the whole hill fall on you."

"And on you, also," Malta pointed out relentlessly. "I care not what you threaten me with. If you could do such things, you would have forced Reyn to obey you long ago. Say your name! Say your name or I do nothing for you. Nothing!"

The dragon was silent. Malta waited. She was so cold. She had gone beyond shivering to a bone-jolting shaking that made her head pound and her spine hurt. Her feet felt numb. She thought she was standing in a puddle but could no longer be sure. She had come to the city, she had found the dragon, but she was still going to fail. She couldn't save anybody, not her father, not the man who had given up his city for her. This was all she was, a helpless woman with no power in the world. She dropped her hands from the wood and turned away from it. She began to grope her way across the room. She hoped she was going in the right direction.

The dragon's voice rang suddenly in the stillness. "Tintaglia. My name is Tintaglia."

"And?" Malta halted where she stood, breathless with hope.

"And if you free me, I promise I will leave Reyn Khuprus in peace and I will rescue your father, Kyle Haven."

Malta took a deep breath. She lifted her hands and walked boldly across the chamber. When her hands rested on the wood, she bowed her head. She sighed out all resistance. "Tell me how to free you."

The dragon spoke quickly, eagerly. "There is a great door in the south wall. The Elderlings created art here, in this chamber. They made living sculptures of my kind, from the memory stone. Old men would carve them in this chamber, safe from wind and weather. Then they would die into them and the sculptures would briefly take on their lives. The door would open, the simulacra would emerge into sunlight and fly over the city. They would live a brief time, and then their memories and false life would fade. There was a graveyard of them, back in the mountains. The Elderlings thought of it as art. We found it amusing to see ourselves copied in stone. So we tolerated it."

"None of that means anything to me," Malta chided her. The cold was creeping up her legs. Her knees ached with it. She was tired of talking. Let her do whatever she must do and be done with it.

"There are panels in the wall that conceal the levers and cranks that open the great door. Find them, and use them. When the sun rises tomorrow and touches my cradle, I will be freed."

Malta frowned. "If it's so easy, why didn't Reyn do it?"

"He wanted to, but he was afraid. Males are timorous creatures at best. They think only to feed and breed. But you and I, young queen, we know there is more. Females must be ruthless, to shelter their young and continue the race. Chances must be taken. Males will quiver in the shadow, fearing their own deaths. We know that the only thing to be feared is the end of the race."