Erin Evans - The God Catcher

Aundra turned a cold yellow eye on her. "Yes, I know. I know all that."

Tennora fell back a step. "You knew he was a dragon? You sent us in anyway?"

Aundra took the mask out of the box and held it up to the candlelight. The light danced over the edges of the feathers. "What's the best way to fight a dragon?" she said dreamily.

"A casting of… meteor swarm?" Cassian ventured as if it were a test. Aundra turned and frowned at him, as if she were only just noticing he was there.

"Another dragon," Mardin said, folding his arms over his chest and frowning.

"Yes, Goodman Eftnacost. Why put yourself in harm's way, when their pride and rage will take care of it for you? At least one of them will no longer be a factor. One is easier to deal with than two.

Especially when that one is wounded." She looked at Tennora again, with a jerky nod of her head. "And I appreciate your help in that, Lady Hedare."

"How could you?" Tennora said, too battered and exhausted to stop the tears that welled up in her eyes. "She asked for your help."

"How could I not? They are, neither of them, paragons of virtue. How could you bring one into my building?" she said. "You brought vultures into this city." "

Tennora met her cold eyes. "We brought the vultures out"-for the first time, Aundra's flat expression flickered-"for good or ill, and that is better than letting Dareun plot under everyone's noses. She just wanted her life back."

"So she can murder and steal and manipulate us all?" Aundra clicked her tongue. "You are young still and haven't learned to see past the lies they all tell. The dragon can't escape her true nature. No one can." "What do you know about her nature?" Tennora cried. "All you know is that her scales were blue."

"Tennora, calm down," Mardin said.

"Blue dragons can be reasonable," Aundra said, "but they're volatile creatures. You cannot trust them in the end, any more than a green or a red or a black or a white. They all hunger for destruction. Between the two of them they would tear this city's heart out if they could. Drink your tonic."

"You judge her too harshly!"

Aundra's feathers swelled, but she gave no other sign of her anger. "This is my home as well, girl. I do what I must to protect Waterdeep."

"She's part of Waterdeep," Tennora said. "She came here, didn't she? Same as you, same as any of us."

"That doesn't mean she's welcome."

"Who are you to decide that?" Tennora surged to her feet. Veron caught her arm.

Aundra picked up the case with the mask in it and shifted her hands over it in a complicated pattern. It vanished with a soft pop.

"A better judge than you, my dear," she said sadly, and crossed back to the window. "Oh yes." Aundra looked back over her shoulder. "She offered you a ritual? One that would improve your magical abilities?"

"She did," Tennora said warily.

Aundra smiled. "It doesn't exist."

With that she leaped into the night with a great flap of her wings, and Tennora collapsed onto her mother's trunk.

Mardin cleared his throat. "I'll make some tea."

"There, there," Cassian said, sitting down beside her. "I'm sure we can clean all of this up in no time at all."

Tennora ignored him and turned to Veron. "What are we going to do?"

He shrugged. "Wait her out."

"And what about him?"

"What about him?"

"We have to do something," Tennora said. "If either of them needs to be taken out of the city, it's Dareun."

Veron shook his head. "We don't know anything about him. It's too risky."

"You'd rather leave a pair of warring dragons-one of whom is clearly up to something-"

"I told you before, it's a spellscar. She isn't a dragon."

"She breathed lightning!"

"And it's probably her spellscar," Veron said. "Or a spell she learned."

There were spells for that, but Tennora had never seen one throw out such a huge amount of lightning or seen anyone do it who wasn't a wizard through and through. And she'd never heard of a spellscar that gave the afflicted so many powers. She thought of the look in Dareun's eye when Nestrix entered, of the way he'd said he didn't want Tennora.

"The other dragon recognized her," Tennora said. "Why would he take her if she's just spellscarred?"

Cassian patted her hand. "That was a man, not a dragon."

"Men don't smell like chlorine," she said. "He's a dragon. He's the taaldarax!" Suddenly the pieces fell together in Tennora's mind. "Oh gods."

"What?" Veron said.

"He's…" She looked up at Veron. "I know what it means. Taaldarax. The man with the copper caps called Nestrix a player and Nestrix said… Dareun is a xorvintaal dragon."

"Xorvintaal is a myth," Cassian said gently. But Veron's countenance became thoughtful.

"They say the dragons who play the great game take pains not to be seen," he said. "Whatever he is or isn't, this fellow walked right into your apartment and tried to kill you. Fairly obvious."

Tennora shook off Cassian and stood. "I spent a few short songs with him, and I know he's an arrogant hawksnarl and was ready to kill me over being robbed of a trinket. And Nestrix called him a wyrmling. He might be young. He might be new to the game. He might be a reckless player."

"Tennora," Cassian said, taking her by the shoulders. "The great game is a legend made up by adventurers who've seen one too many smart beasts."

"Cassian, if you don't stop touching me right now-"

"Enough," Mardin said. "Neither of you are helping."

Tennora buried her face in her hands, if just to grant herself a moment to think. She had to do something, and quickly.

But she was alone. Aundra wasn't going to help her. Veron might, but he'd turn around and take Nestrix back to Cormyr to stand trial-and he'd tell her so as soon as they found her. Dareun could only appreciate them announcing their arrival with the fight that would inevitably result. Mardin was afraid she might skin her knees or give herself nightmares. Worse, if he tried to come along, he was likely to do something rash in order to protect her, and give himself a fit and collapse. She couldn't lose him too.

And Cassian…

Cassian wasn't listening to a word she said. He was patting her shoulder again and suggesting she drink her tea and be thankful the problem took care of itself. Two days ago she would have been thrilled he was there, trying to soothe her. Now she wanted him out of her home. She couldn't rely on Cassian. She couldn't rely on any of them to trust her.

In fact, the only person she could rely on was the person she needed to save.

She looked up.

It wasn't a thought she'd expected to have, but there it was. She could count on Nestrix, who screamed in the rain, who boiled with dragonfear, who'd threatened Tennora's life.

Who gave me her eggshell, she thought. Who said I could do better than Cassian. Who saved my life.

The absence of the eggshell was a palpable thing. She pressed a fist to her chest where it had hung for two days.

She had to save Nestrix.

"You two shoo," Mardin said, stirring up the fire. "Give her some space."

Veron frowned at her. "I'll stay by the door," he said. "Outside. They might come back."

Tennora gave him a pleasant, false smile. "That would be very kind of you."

He held her gaze a moment longer, as if trying to tease her true thoughts out of the placid facade. She held the expression with a vengeance, her thoughts secret and racing.

After both had left, Tennora crossed over to the window and leaned against the sill, looking down at the face of the God Catcher and willing it to come to life once more. To tell her what she could do, how she could fix things. It merely stared back with its one stone eye.

She was on her own.

Mardin came over with a cup of tea and pulled the chair closer. The steam from the mug was fragrant with rose petals and bitter Chessenta black. Tennora sipped it, still quiet.