"We leave now," he ordered, silver eyes watching everyone.

"Don't you want to know, Fire Breather, why I felt the need to take Princess Iseabail?"

Izzy smirked. "Princess Izzy. I like the sound of that."

"When I called you princess, you nearly bit my head off," eibhear needlessly reminded her.

"Didn't much like your tone when you said it, now did I?"

"It's always something with you, isn't it?"

"What's that supposed to mean, you big bas-Macsen!" Izzy crouched down and opened her arms, Macsen diving into them, covering her with disgusting slobber and messy fur. She loved it.

"Of course," eibhear complained, "you go for that damn dog first."

Eyes narrowing, Izzy accused, "You're jealous."

"Of a dog?"

"Of my dog. My loyal, dependable-"

"-never speaks so it can't tell you when you're being an idiot-"

"-dog!"

Izzy looked around and stood. "Where did everybody go?"

The cavern had cleared out, leaving Izzy, eibhear, Macsen, and the Dragon King of the Desert Lands.

Izzy faced the desert royal. He stared at them, his forearms folded over his chest, one talon tapping.

"Sorry about that," Izzy said.

"Why are you apologizing?" eibhear demanded. "He kidnapped you."

"He rescued me. There's apparently a difference."

King Heru VII of the Desert Lands watched Princess Iseabail and the youngest son of the Dragon Queen bicker. That seemed to be all they did. Bicker. Once he'd realized that they wouldn't stop soon, he'd ordered his court cleared. The last thing he needed was for his people to know exactly how ridiculous the Southland royal family truly was. He understood the value of having Rhiannon the White as an ally but there were still many who questioned the decision made centuries ago by his father to align themselves with the Fire Breathers. And that concern had only grown when it was discovered that the Southlanders had joined forces with the Lightning dragons out of the Northlands. Barbarians. Rhiannon had aligned her people with barbarians.

"Are you two done?" he asked Iseabail and her-quote, unquote-uncle.

The royal brat eyed him. "Who the hell are you?"

"This is King Heru," Iseabail introduced them, eyes widening in warning at the Blue.

"Centaur shit."

"eibhear!"

"Why would the king of the Desert Lands kidnap you?"

"What does that mean?"

The Fire Breather frowned. "What do you think it means?"

"You know exactly what I think it means. And I think you know that what I think it means is exactly what you're meaning."

"That made absolutely no sense."

"Shut up."

"But-"

"Just shut up."

Heru put his claws to his head. "Suns above. Are you two like this all the time?"

The couple gazed at him and asked together, "What do you mean?"

Rhi looked up from her sketch to see her grandmother standing a few feet away. "Hello, Gran."

"Hello, my dearest love. Do you have some time to talk?"

"Of course." She put aside her sketch.

"Should I shift?" her grandmother asked.

"No need." Rhi gazed up at her. "I love seeing you like this. You're beautiful."

Her grandmother stretched out, white wings extending from her back until they could lay flat, her tail reaching up and pulling fruits down from a nearby tree.

"I had to look for you, Rhi. You weren't at dinner with your kin, nor in your room, nor outside the grounds."

"Sorry. I just wasn't in the mood to go to dinner tonight. I needed some time alone. That's why I came here."

Grandmum looked around. "Did you create this yourself?"

"Aye."

"Do you bring your cousins here?"

"No."

"Smart girl. You know, it took me centuries to be able to create my own sacred space out of thin air, Rhi. When did you start?"

"When I was six."

"Well, let's never discuss that again." Her grandmother placed a book open in front of her. "Do you recognize this rune?"

"I do."

"Do you know the god it belongs to?"

"I do."

"Have you talked to him?"

Rhi nodded. "Aye."

"Often?"

"No, no. Just once." She leaned in and whispered, "I didn't really like him."

"Did you make him go away?"

"No. That was Talwyn. She really didn't like him. I think the fact that he not only didn't have eyes but no eye holes, really bothered her. She charged him with her sword. She was eight."

Grandmum put her talons to her temples and closed her eyes.

"You all right, Grandmum?"

"Just a bit of a headache."

"Oh." Rhi adjusted the sky so that it wasn't so vibrantly blue and instead was a soft and soothing pink. "Is that better?"

Grandmum opened her eyes and blinked up at the sky. "Did you just do that?"

"Uh-huh."

"You know, love, you don't seem to have a problem controlling all this. Yet you can't seem to control other aspects of your power. I find that surprising."

"I can control this because I'm not upset. Or angry. And I haven't seen Talwyn and Talan all day, so I haven't had to get in the middle of one of their fights." She made her hands into fists. "I hate when they fight," she growled out.

"They're not fighting," her grandmum soothed. "It's just us."

Rhi let out a breath and unclenched her hands. "Exactly."

"Um . . . Rhi?"

"Yes?"

"Did Chramn-"

"Don't say his name."

"Does it have power?"

"No, it's just ugly sounding."

"Right. Okay. Well . . . that particular god's rune. Do you know why anyone would tattoo it into their flesh?"

"Only those in his cult."

"He has a cult?"

"When he came to me, I don't think he did."

"But he does now?"

"I sensed he was planning one."

"Planning a cult?"

"Uh-huh."

"And you know this because-"

"I remember him saying he wanted me as his chosen one and there would be thousands, perhaps millions worshipping my existence."

"You're his chosen one?"

"No. He wanted me to be his chosen one. I don't think I was anything to him."

"And you turned down the worship of millions?"

"Grandmum," Rhi said, exasperated, "if you think Daddy's bad now about calling me and Iz his perfect, perfect daughters. . . imagine if I had the worship of millions? Millions! And you know what would happen then? Uncle Fearghus and Uncle Gwenvael would have to kill him because Daddy wouldn't stop going on about it. And with Uncle eibhear rarely being here, he wouldn't be able to stop them. Honestly, I did it for the best of the family.

"Besides," she said in a whisper and pointing at her face, "he had no eye holes. I try not to judge, Grandmum, and people are tragically born with all sorts of problems every day. But he's a god! Are you telling me he couldn't get that fixed?" Rhi pressed her hand to her face, chewed on her lip a bit. "I'm a horrible person, aren't I?"

Grandmum pressed her snout to the side of Rhi's face. "I don't know if I've ever told you this, Rhianwen, but you are truly worthy to be my granddaughter."

"Aww, thanks, Grandmum." Izzy reached up and hugged her grandmother's snout. "I love you, too."

"Now," Grandmum said, pulling away, "we've got some work to do. You up for it?"

"Of course. What do you need?"

Grandmum looked around again at the space Rhi had made herself when she was six and tired of the twins' constant bickering. After a moment, she smiled at Rhi, and said, "I think this will do."

Chapter 29.

They were escorted down a long tunnel to a chamber. It wasn't as large as some of the other chambers eibhear had seen in this underground cave, but it was comfortable enough, with a bed, table, chairs, and a fire pit and freshly slaughtered cow piled right outside the entrance.