She stepped back, shifted into her dragon, spread her wings and bowed her head to the Khun, holding the position until they understood and, in absolute silence, returned her bow. She straightened, folded her wings, turned her gaze to Steel, and waited. It took him only a moment to realize that he, as king of the Khun, needed to be the first to shift into whatever their new alter form would be. He drew a long, nervous breath, then cleared an area larger than his mahrac would ever need in hopes that his deepest wish for the Khun would be realized.

Then, looking into Tani's eyes, he summoned his mahrac.

"Not bad," Tani's voice said into his mind.

"What?" he asked, then looked down to see that he was bigger even than Tani, his flesh covered with deep black scales that shone like glass in the fading sunlight. "I thought I would be red, like you."

"No, you're the Dragon King," she replied, not knowing precisely where the information was coming from, but knowing it to be true.

"Does that mean I can spit fire like you do?" he asked.

"Yes, Steel, you can do everything that any other dragon can do," she said. "As can I."

"Does that mean that you're the Dragon Queen?"

"It does."

"Perfect," Steel said. He spread his wings and leapt into the air, stunned by how simple it was, how light he felt, how fast he went! He sped around the valley, then flipped over and spun around in circles, Tani laughing in his mind the whole time. Then she joined him and they took off, side by side, toward the mountains.

"This is a good place to try," she said.

Steel agreed. He opened his mouth and breathed out, surprised when a thick stream of something white and icy cold came out instead of flames. His icy breath froze solid in the air and fell to earth with a thud, shattering into a million slivers of ice.

"Well, that wasn't fire," he said, disappointed.

"No, it wasn't, but don't make the mistake of thinking that freezing things is any less dangerous than burning them. Try again, only put an image of flames in your mind first."

A moment later Steel pointed his nose skyward and roared with joy after melting a pile of rocks into lava. "Finally," he said. "Thanks to you, Tani, I have the power to protect my people."

"It's a good feeling, isn't it?" Tani asked. "Shall we go back and see how the rest of your people are doing?"

"Our people, Tani," Steel said.

"Our people," Tani agreed happily. They could fly so fast now that it took just a few moments to return to the valley in front of the caves. They were both thrilled to see the air above the valley filled with dragons of all sizes and colors except for red and black. Those two colors were reserved for the king and queen. The women were on the ground, looking up, but they were dragons too, big and formidable, some spitting flames, some ice, their combined joy filling the air. Never again would a puny Nomen be able to force them to do anything.

"Congratulations, Tanjelia," Garen said. "We are honored to have witnessed this event, and our hearts are filled with happiness for you, and your new people, the Khun. We will now return to the Ugaztun for the night and will see you in the morning. Enjoy your celebration."

"Thank you, Ata," Tani said. "Goodnight Mom, Ata, Dede, Popi."

"Goodnight, Tani," Lariah replied, and then they were gone.

"What are those words you call your fathers?" Steel asked as they soared above the valley, watching some of the men race each other in the darkening sky.

"They all mean father, or dad," Tani said. "When you have three fathers, you can't call them all Dad because it's just too confusing. It's customary for the eldest to be called Ata, the second Dede, and the third Popi."

"I wonder if our children will come singly, or in threes," Steel said.

If Tani had been walking, she'd have stumbled. As it was her wings froze for a long moment in shock. Then she turned away from Steel and flew toward the cliff top where she landed and shifted. She heard Steel land just behind her but she didn't face him. Instead she walked away, struggling to sort out her emotions.

"Tani?"

"Yes?" she asked, not turning around to face him.

"Why are you angry?"

"I'm not angry," she said with an exasperated sigh. Suddenly Steel was in front of her, blocking her way. He waited for her to look up, then searched her face carefully.

"Tell me," he said.

"Remember earlier when you asked what you didn't know?"

"Yes," he said, surprised. "I'd forgotten."

"I know you did," Tani said.

"Please forgive me, Khalute," Steel said. "I swear I don't mean to be difficult, but I am so confused right now. I've no idea what you're talking about, or what I'm supposed to say and I know that if I haven't already said or done the wrong thing I will any moment now, and I don't mean to do that either, I promise, I'm just very...,"

Tani silenced him by pressing one finger lightly against his lips, her eyes dancing with laughter. "I love you, Steel."

"I love you, too, Tani," he said, smiling against her finger.

"I have a question."

"Yes?"

"It concerns children."

He frowned. "Which children?"

"Our children."

"We don't have children."

Tani rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I kind of noticed that."

Steel held back his grin, sensing the seriousness beneath her words. "Okay, what about these children we don't have?"

"I want to know when you think would be a good time to start having them."

"I don't know," he said, surprised. "Um...two years?"

"That's kind of a long time," she said. Steel shook his head, at a complete loss.

"Well, a year then," he tried. "How's that?"

"I don't know," she said, frowning and shaking her head. "That might be a bit long, too."

"A year is too long?" he asked. She nodded. "All right, well, what do you think?"

"I was thinking nine months would be a good time."

"Okay, sure, if that's what...you...wa...," he trailed off, feeling as though he'd been hit in the head with a sack of feathers. It didn't hurt, but he couldn't seem to gather enough together to form a coherent thought. He gave his head one hard shake, then looked into Tani's eyes.

"How do you know?" he asked, placing one hand gently on her flat stomach. "It's only been a couple of weeks."

"My dragon told me," she said.

Steel's smile faded. "How long ago?"

She dropped her eyes. "Yesterday, the first time I shifted."

There was a wealth of meaning in her words, but even more in the way she said them. He was just beginning to fully understand the depth of her pain when he'd chosen to believe Naran over her. When he'd called her an outsider. When he'd rejected her and her love. He wasn't sure that an eternity was enough time for him to make it up to her.

"I'm so sorry," he burst out with tears in his eyes.

"Sorry?" she asked, her eyes suddenly wary.

"No, Khalute, not for that, never for that. I'm already excited to see what our child looks like, to discover his, or her personality. I'm completely happy about that, I promise. I'm sorry for what I said to you yesterday, and for how much I hurt you, and I'm so angry with myself for being such a fool and I swear I will spend the remainder of my life making it up to you."

"Good," Tani smiled. "To start with, I haven't eaten all day long and our son is starving."

"Our son?" Steel asked in a choked whisper.

"Yes, our son," Tani said, smiling. Afraid they were both about to burst into tears, she cleared her throat and said, "I would like food, a warm fire, a hot bath, a soft bed...to start with. Can you provide these things for your soon to be family Ganzorig Khaan?"

"Yes, Khalute," he said happily. "With pleasure."

"Hmmm...no, food first, pleasure later," she said.

Epilogue One.

Weeble walk along the wide corridor, barely acknowledging the bows of all who saw him as he passed. It wasn't that he didn't love the adoration, because he did. Very much in fact. He just had a lot on his mind at the moment. Sometimes he wondered if the Ruling Cache had made an error in judgment with the Master. He was intelligent enough Weeble supposed, considering the source of his raw material, but something was missing.

"Ah," he sighed to himself. How he missed the Xanti. What they lacked in intelligence they made up for in sheer cunning and subterfuge. But the Xanti were gone, and there was no getting them back. He should know, too, since he was the accepted genius when it came to cloning. They'd had more than enough samples to work with when the Xanti had dropped dead all over the place, and they'd preserved every one of them. Weeble had nearly worked himself to death for ten years trying to resurrect the Xanti. In the end he'd had to admit defeat. Without a female, it simply wouldn't work. The male Xanti genome was just too limited.

So, a new plan had been made. It was a good plan, he was sure of that because most of it had been his idea. But was Master the right choice? He stopped in front of the double metal doors that led into the Throne Chamber, and took a moment to admire himself in their reflection. The ten robotic legs that he now possessed, patterned after the glorious Xanti of course, made him taller, faster, and more agile than any Doftle had ever been in the history of their diminutive race. That he'd had to sacrifice his own short legs so that his nerves and muscles could be attached to the platform holding the legs had not bothered him in the least. He'd been the first of his people to undergo this transformation, and he was enormously proud of it. Only three others would share the gift with him as decreed by a law that he, himself, had written. After all, how special would it be if all Doftles walked around on magnificent legs like his?

Weeble ran one four fingered hand over his smooth blue skull, then reached for the sensor set into the wall beside the doors. The doors opened, he entered and they closed behind him. He bowed, then began speaking without preamble as Master preferred.

"Master, we've received unpleasant news from the mine," he announced.

"Unpleasant news? I shudder to think what constitutes unpleasant in your tiny brain, Weeble," Master said sardonically. "Well, what is it?"

"The Khun have been freed, the Nomen have all been destroyed, and the android damaged and captured. It's now in the hands of the Jasani."

"Unpleasant?" Master asked. "Is that the word you used?"

"Yes, Master," Weeble replied.

"Bit of an understatement, don't you think?" Before Weeble could answer, Master continued. "Where are the Khun?"

"They remain on Garza," Weeble said. "It will not be difficult to gather them up and put them back to work again, although I do believe that allowing the women and children to starve is what pushed them to rebel. We should send more rations next time. That should keep them in line."

"Perhaps," Master said. "Next time, we must send Nomen who've been more formidably altered, Weeble. Make them so they're not so easily killed."

"Our resources are running thin, Master," Weeble pointed out. "We've no more rhagyrum, and without that, we cannot make controllers. We don't have enough ordinary metals to make more bio-tronic parts with, and since the Jasani have taken the parts of those killed on Garza, we can't even recycle them. The next batch of Nomen we send will have to be standard issue, I'm afraid. Until we receive more rhagyrum, I'm afraid that's unavoidable, Master."

"When can the mine return to operation?"

"As soon as the Jasani leave the system," Weeble said. "They offered to take the Khun with them, but the offer was declined."

"You know this how?"

"The android functions well enough for us to pick up sounds within its range."

"Jasani," Master growled. "How I hate them. They interfere with everything."

"Yes, Master," Weeble agreed calmly.

"If those damned Nomen had brought the princess to us for a controller as they were ordered to do, we wouldn't be in this position."

"Yes, Master," Weeble agreed. "It's unfortunate that they disobeyed orders and died instead."

"Yes, unfortunate," Master agreed snidely. "There's got to be a better and faster method of mining that metal than using humans. They cause too much trouble and are too slow."

"Agreed, Master," Weeble said, fighting not to roll his large black eyes. "Unfortunately, we have been unable to find any other species with intelligence enough to mine, who are also strong enough to do the work. No machine made anywhere in the galaxy is capable of handling liquid metal, and we've been unable to modify one to do so that doesn't also destroy most of what it collects."

"And yet you call yourselves intelligent," Master said. "Prepare a new batch of Nomen for Garza, Weeble. And a new android as well. Have you activated the self-destruct on the one the Jasani have?"

"Yes, Master, unfortunately, it failed to operate."

"Of course it did," Master said. "Double the Nomen this time, and provide some real security for the new mine compound. I want that mine operating as soon as possible."

"Yes, Master," Weeble said. "Will that be all?"

"For now," Master replied.

Weeble bowed solemnly even though it was impossible for Master to see him do it. He stared at the figure floating in the cloudy gel that filled the tube that sat alone in the center of the room. Then he turned on his ten shiny metal legs and left the Throne Chamber.