CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Maren 
We slept long into the day in Efren’s tavern. Late-afternoon sun was casting long shadows when I finally woke again. Kaia had left the room. The dragon kit nuzzled against me, and I nudged her back.
“How are you feeling, little one?” I said.
Sev.
I stilled. She’d spoken. The dragon kit had spoken. “Sev? What about him?”
He’s sad. We miss him.
She climbed into my arms and curled herself into a ball, resting her head on my arm. I scarcely breathed, I was trying so hard not to move, even though she was almost too big for my lap now.
“You’re right. We do miss him. But we might be able to get him back if we can free these dragons today. Do you think you can do it?”
The kit sniffed in disdain, which I took as an of course.
“Are you certain?” I said. “There will be many of them.”
Many is like one.
Many…? I didn’t follow.
The door opened, and Kaia came inside, carrying a tray with a small loaf of bread on it. After splitting it down the middle, our portions were little more than a mouthful each.
“Were you all right after I left?” I said. “I’m sorry—I should have brought you with us, but everything happened so quickly—”
Kaia shrugged. “It’s fine,” she said in a way that made it clear that it was not.
I tried again. “How long have you been up?”
“A few hours. I went out.”
“In the city? Really?”
“Oh, are you the only one who’s allowed to do dangerous things?” Kaia crossed her arms. “I was fine. I went to find the Aurati.”
The dragon kit spilled off my lap as I sprang upright. “What?”
“You heard me,” she said. “Efren and the others don’t trust the Aurati.”
“As they shouldn’t!”
Kaia held up a hand. “The Aurati in Lumina lost contact with the Ruzian Aurati when the blockade was put into place. You may find this difficult to believe, but the Aurati are still people. I thought I could find out what they think about what’s happening here.”
“And?” I said through clenched teeth.
“They’re fractured,” Kaia said, practically glowing. “Some of the Aurati are loyal to the emperor and the current ruling family, but others are not. They remember the way it used to be, and disapprove of how the emperor has treated Ruzi since the charge of treason. And there are many of the younger ones who would be protesting on the streets with the rest of the Ruzians, if they could.”
If they could. I refrained from rolling my eyes. They could, anytime they wanted. But they knew that if they did, they would be cast out or killed. “So?”
“So this proves what I’ve been thinking all along,” she said smugly. “The Aurati order isn’t an evil monolith. It’s made up of people. If I work with the Aurati, I could change their minds. I could lead a revolution within their ranks—especially now that Lumina has fallen. There’s no central Aurati authority.”
“You’re dreaming, Kaia. They won’t turn on the emperor, no matter who is leading.”
Kaia’s expression faltered. “They might.”
“They won’t. And I’m not going to entertain this fantasy of yours, not with everything else going on.” I beckoned the dragon kit. “Come on, little one.”
Tasia.
I stilled, shocked. Could that be—? “Is that your name? Tasia?”
The dragon kit—Tasia—nodded firmly.
“Is she talking to you?” Kaia said in astonishment. “That’s new… isn’t it?”
All of our discord was forgotten as Kaia knelt next to the dragon kit, looking at her in awe.
“What is she saying?” Kaia asked.
Tasia tilted her nose up. Hungry.
“She’s hungry,” I said, giggling in spite of myself.
Kaia laughed as well, and for one moment, all was well.
Then reality sank back in. Kaia got to her feet, looking away from me. I beckoned Tasia to my side, trying to calm my mind. Tomorrow would be the biggest test of Tasia’s and my power. We could not fail, not with so much at stake.
The Talons’ shift would change at midday. We had agreed that the best time to set our plan in motion would be about an hour prior, to take advantage of tired dragons without risking an encounter with all eleven. Which meant that I had only this evening to familiarize myself with the royal house and its workings.
Kaia, Efren, and two other Ruzians from her group accompanied us across the city that evening. Once again, all was quiet, devoid not only of protesters but also of merchants and guards. It was eerie. There should have been people here, but there were none.
Even though there didn’t seem to be anyone around to observe us, Efren insisted that we keep to the shadows, hugging the sides of buildings and skirting the edges of open spaces. She seemed almost too cautious, but from time to time a Talon would swoop overhead, and I would remember.
It took less than an hour to get from the tavern to the royal family’s house. There were signs that it had once been guarded—a long fence that had been partially torn down and a small structure that had clearly been a guard station—but it was long abandoned now. Most likely no one had wanted to use a house that would bring to mind the treason of its former inhabitants.
The house itself was three stories high, built solidly of wood. The roof was slightly slanted, but it looked all right to stand on. The door didn’t open when Efren tried to force it. Instead, after taking a look around, she broke a window and climbed inside. I flinched as the glass shattered.
After a minute Efren came back out through the door. “It’s all yours,” she said.
I stepped over the threshold and took a deep breath, adjusting to the stillness of the house. Something about this place felt familiar to me, though I couldn’t explain why. Perhaps it was because I knew that Sev had spent time here as a child. Tasia sniffed the air—it was stale, with the faint scent of old books. The staircase creaked as I went from the first floor to the second, and then the third. There was a carved wooden ladder standing by the staircase, which meant there had to be an attic or a skylight. I opened every door and found the skylight in the southernmost room, so I brought the ladder in and climbed up. The skylight was unlocked, though the wooden frame had warped slightly, and I had to shove it to get it open.
Tasia and I poked our heads out onto the roof. There was a clear view of the two Talons patrolling the eastern side of the city.
I climbed onto the roof, staying low. I wasn’t going to linger, but I wanted to make sure that the roof was still sturdy. There was a section on the eastern side where the roof buckled slightly under my weight, and I quickly backed away. Well, I’d just have to stay away from that side.
Satisfied with my exploration of the house, I went back down through the skylight and closed everything up. We were ready for tomorrow.
Efren and Kaia were waiting outside when Tasia and I came down. “Will it work?” Efren asked.
I nodded. I hadn’t explained much about freeing dragons to the Ruzians. They trusted my abilities without further explanation. I trusted them too—but not enough to share everything that I knew.
“Good,” said Fefren. “We’ll have people hidden in the forest in case something goes wrong.”
“Let us help you,” Kaia said, once we were back in the tavern and alone in our room.
“Who is ‘us’?” I asked.
“The Aurati.”
My jaw tightened. “We have enough help,” I said, though I was hesitant about whether having the Ruzians along was the right thing to do. Would they be able to contribute when the time came, or would they simply be potential victims in the event that something went wrong?
“The Aurati have more exposure to the Talons than the average Ruzian citizen. They could help distract the dragons while you’re busy freeing them.”
“No,” I said sharply. “I cannot trust the Aurati after what they did to you. They cannot be part of this.”
“Everything the Aurati did, they did to me,” Kaia snapped back. “I should be the one making decisions about their involvement.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand what you hoped to achieve by seeking them out, but I don’t have to. It was your choice to make. But they are not coming with us tomorrow.”
Kaia looked at me for a long moment. Then she walked to the door, opened it, and left the room without speaking.
I looked down at Tasia. “She doesn’t understand,” I said.
Tasia jumped onto the bed next to me and turned in a circle, then curled into a ball at my side, resting her head on my lap. Maren sad, she said softly.
Somehow, every conversation I had with Kaia seemed to go wrong. No matter what I did, I ended up feeling bruised. I flopped backward onto the bed and stroked Tasia’s back, trying not to think about it. Go to sleep, little one. Tomorrow will be here before we know it.