A Trial Period

The Revinir had seemed cautiously pleased with Thisbe’s response, and the two had parted ways for the night, agreeing tentatively to meet again in the morning for breakfast. Thisbe sent her servant to the sitting room to sleep and spent a wakeful night wrestling with how to play the next act. She knew the plan had been for Fifer to send for Florence on the morning after Thisbe left. So they probably weren’t here yet. Should Thisbe buy time to make sure the people of Artimé could be in the area? Or jump right into the agreement, which would surely set off another round of problems that she would pretend not to expect? All she knew was that she’d been enjoying playing this part.

By morning, in the magical moment between asleep and awake, Thisbe had a good feeling about what to do. Her instincts had been on so far. And even with Rohan throwing a wrench into things, it had ended up working in her favor. The Revinir had seemed to believe Thisbe even more after seeing the message from Rohan.

Her eyes flew open, and her stomach pinched. Rohan. Thisbe’s heart ached. He must be falling apart—he’d said as much. But she could picture the pain in his eyes. It was a desolate feeling, as if all of their deep connections, their soul-binding companionship, had gone down the drain. All for the singular reason of Thisbe trying to get close enough to the monster to do away with her. It had to happen soon.

She went to the ballroom for breakfast. The Revinir was there with her servants. Was the dragon-woman ever alone in this place? It didn’t seem so. Which wasn’t good for Thisbe, but she didn’t let on. Instead she walked with confidence and surveyed the large amounts of food on the table. Apparently the Revinir still preferred to eat at a table like a human, despite the fact that she was almost all dragon by now. Her curled talons clinked the china plates as she shoveled great amounts of food into her toothy maw.

“Hope you saved some for me,” Thisbe said. “We have a big day ahead of us.”

The Revinir growled like a wild animal and ate like one too, which was a bit unsettling. And while the dragon-woman was half the size of an average dragon and tiny compared to a ghost dragon, she could still be extremely ferocious, and Thisbe didn’t want to ever find herself too close to her chompers. She sat down near the foot of the long table, within reach of a large tray of crispy bacon, and helped herself.

The Revinir took a cloth napkin and wiped her mouth. “We’ll meet at noon to declare our partnership,” she said. “Once that’s in place, we can talk about your request.”

Thisbe laughed. “Um, no. That’s not how this is going to work. I want a trial period of a week to make sure you treat me right. And if you don’t, I’m not declaring anything.”

“A week!” said the Revinir, lifting her head and straightening her neck to its full height. “Not a chance.”

Thisbe paused, holding a slice of bacon in midair. She turned sharply to her servant. “Will you pack my bag, please? I’ll be leaving right after I finish my meal.” She glanced at the Revinir, who was seething, then added, “I may as well fill my stomach first. I’m a very hungry girl.”

“I can stop you from leaving at any time,” said the Revinir. Flames curled up around her jowls.

“I know you can,” said Thisbe. “But we both know that would be a terrible idea. That would seal the deal for me to never work with you. I know you’re used to getting your way, which is why this is all so aggravating for you. But think about what you really want, Emma. What have you wanted from me since we first met? You had a plan, and you went for it. You knew you couldn’t ever be a true human ruler of the land of the dragons. Even if you’d somehow colored your eyes to black, you knew that you didn’t have the right genealogy to take that position. So what did you do? You turned yourself into a dragon.” Thisbe paused for effect. “A dragon! Who does that? It’s totally bonkers.”

The Revinir narrowed her eyes. “Where are you going with this? And stop calling me Emma.”

Thisbe went on as if she hadn’t heard. “All you needed was a true black-eyed person, descending from one of the two original ruling families, to throw their support behind you. And what do you know? You found one. Here I am. And after all of that effort—and to be honest, Emma, I think you’re stuck as a dragon for the long haul once you committed—after all of that, you are willing to let me walk out of here because I want a week and your word not to harm people in a totally different world? Honestly, after the way you’ve acted toward me, it seems fair to want to make sure you’re not going to treat me like dirt in our very crucial partnership. A week is barely enough. Maybe we should do two. Unless you’re ready to grant my request? I’d be ready to go forward with everything if you simply agree to that.”

The Revinir was still seething, but some of what Thisbe said was making sense. It did seem silly to let this whole thing fall apart for that. She wasn’t about to make the promise about the seven islands, but she supposed she could give Thisbe a few days to settle in. After all, the Revinir really did need a partner. And… she realized she wanted one too. She’d been alone in leadership her whole life. Having someone smart like Thisbe around seemed so refreshing. “I’ll give you two days,” she said.

“A week,” said Thisbe firmly.

“Fine. Let’s take it a few days at a time and reevaluate.”

Thisbe sighed dramatically. But that was all she really wanted. “All right. If you haven’t driven me out of here in a few days, we’ll reconnect about that condition and move forward with our plans.”

Thisbe’s servant returned to the ballroom carrying Thisbe’s rucksack and canteen. “Oh! Thank you, good person,” Thisbe said. “I won’t be needing these quite yet after all. But I can take them from here. I’m going on a walk anyway. It’s such a beautiful day. And I’ve never seen the grounds without being on the run from some dictator or other.” She wiped her mouth and tossed her napkin on the table.

“Your servant will go with you,” said the Revinir icily. “You don’t trust me, and I don’t trust you. That’s final. There will be no arguing.”

Thisbe wrinkled her nose. That wasn’t the answer she wanted. But maybe she could work around it. And she knew how to give a little too. “Ask her what her name is,” said Thisbe impatiently. “Then I’ll happily give her some time off work to explore the waterfall and lounge on the hills with me.”

And, Thisbe thought, figure out a way to give Fifer an update… and maybe even reply to Rohan. There was a good chance that finding the right words to say to him would break her heart.