He made it all the way home, without anyone catching up with him, which was a miracle, he realised later.

Drifting along, not feeling his feet against the floor or the wind against his face, he was as surprised as anyone when he found himself standing outside his own front door.

His partner opened it a moment later, although he didn't remember knocking. Her face was tight and worried as she reached for him, and he fell into her arms, breathing in her presence and allowing her to guide him inside.

She was speaking, but although he could hear her words, they washed past him, waves against the shore.

He was simply glad to be home.

-

He came-to an indeterminate amount of time later, sitting at the table in the morning room. There was a cold cup of tea in front of him, and somewhere in the distance, he could hear a rhythmic banging. When he thought back, he was aware that it had been going on for a while, but it hadn't registered with him until now.

Turnsvoice was sitting across from him, her face grave, her hands wrapped around a much fresher-looking cup than his own.

He studied her face, from his strange, faraway vantage point, and was struck by how much older she looked. He hadn't had a chance to look at her lately, and her appearance clashed with his memories.

Her hair was still the deep pink it had always been, but she'd had it cut short at some point, and the way it was tied gave her face a severe look. Her skin had a grey tint, which was new, and there were wrinkles around her mouth and eyes which he hadn't been there the last he looked.

She stared at him, her mouth tight, and his heart lurched, the look instilling him with a sudden urge to bolt. He didn't want to have this conversation, he didn't want to be here.

Then it was gone as rapidly as it had arrived. He was home, and he was safe. She would understand.

During the week of convalescence, he hadn't been up to speaking about what had happened, and even now he felt dreamy and lost, but it couldn't be put off forever. He was waking up, and he had things he needed to say.

The pool of ink in his heart frothed and churned, but he held his hand over it and didn't let it go. This wasn't a place for anger, only cold, quiet grief.

He stared down at the table, surprised to see a mug of tea in his hands, stone cold. Where had that come from?

"I…"

He took a deep breath, trying to meet her eyes but actually staring past her in the attempt. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave, I don't want to leave… But..."

She stared at him, unmoving for a moment before responding, "But?"

Her eyes flicked towards the banging, and then back to him.

He shrugged, trying again to look at her face but feeling his eyes slide past, "I fucked up." He pursed his lips, finding it easier to speak than he had expected it to be, "I think they're gonna hang me."

She raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Well, I wasn't expecting that one. What on earth did you do?"

He had meant to be forthright about what had gone on, but saying it out loud… It sounded ridiculous, and her frank reaction wasn't helping matters.

"Uh…" he winced, "I stole a… The... I stole a, the, I stole The dragon?"

She blinked, and he smiled a sheepish smile. "It was just sittin' there, you know."

"I'm sorry, that was a lot to take in, you stole a dragon, a full sized one?"

He laughed under his breath, "it was dragon day and" he shrugged, "you know me."

"I do," she said, her voice quiet and only a little confused. "Go on."

He took a second to collect his thoughts, and then dropped all his words at once. "Something happened down south. A city taken to plague or… Something. I only saw it from the air, later. But they wanted to send the dragon to look," he took a breath, "but they needed a rider. They wanted to send a child, an orphan they'd picked up from somewhere or other. They spoke as if they were disposable, just… Just something to use for their plans and then throw away afterwards."

The sea in his heart churned, and he shut his eyes for a moment, holding back the tides. Across from him, Turnsvoice reached out and laid her hand over his. He realised he was trembling.

"I can't let them do that. I couldn't…" he stared down into the mug of tea, not moving his hand away but also not acknowledging the touch. He couldn't, not yet.

"You did the right thing." Her tone was stronger than he had heard it in a long time, before it turned questioning. "Ok, but did you give it back, or do we own a dragon now?"

She hummed to herself, not giving him a chance to continue, "There are that many orphans in the city, that they can do that?"

"Apparently." He twisted in a sort of embarrassment, loosening his hand from hers, "I never realised. I never even thought about it. I gave the dragon back, not that I could've done otherwise, he was his own person."

He stared into the middle distance for a moment, and she waited for him to come back before she spoke. "Well. I reckon that's gonna be trouble, but you did the right thing. We can do something for them, at least."

"You don't get it. I'm going away. If they leave you with anything, you're gonna be fighting those very orphans for it."

He sighed, "That banging is, I assume them, trying to get through the front door?"

She shook her head, "They gave up on the front hours ago, they're trying the back now. But we have the shutters locked, and I sent the cook out with a rolling pin, every time one of them tries anything," she grinned with a sudden savageness, "well, let's just say there's gonna be a few broken fingers amongst them tonight."

She looked into him, gripping his hand tightly again. "I'm not gonna let them take you. Even if I have to go out there with the rolling pin myself. Just you watch."

He smiled back a broken smile. "I can't hide in here forever though. I... They're gonna-"

Whatever his next words were going to be, they were swallowed by a sudden crash of broken glass from the first floor. There was a brief moment of silence, and then a lot of shouting, swearing and clattering.

Windwashes looked up, watching as the floorboards above him shuddered. They had never put a proper ceiling in here, he had liked the rustic look of the exposed beams and the way the heat travelled up into the room above, but it did mean you could see and hear every footstep on the floor above.

There was another crash and a lot more shouting, and then a lot of screaming and swearing.

Turnsvoice stared up at the ceiling alongside him and laughed quietly to herself, but there was a bitter note to it now. "I guess whoever that is, Cook has caught up to them. I guess we couldn't stave them off forever."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Windwashes sighed and shook his head, pushing the cold tea away from himself and standing up.

"Let him go!" he shouted at the ceiling, and the sounds paused for a moment. He shouted into the brief gap, "cook,-" he realised he didn't know her name "-bring him down here, please."

There was a longer pause, and then a grumbling of voices, a lot of creaking and only a small amount of swearing as the intruder was dragged down the stairs and thrown bodily into the morning room.

He entered with a stagger but managed to keep his feet beneath him, only taking a few hops before righting himself. It was amazing what a low centre of gravity could do.

Windwashes gave Brickwrath a brittle smile, and gestured across the table, as if this was a normal encounter, "my partner, Turnsvoice. I don't think you've met."

He looked from Brickwrath to her, "This is, uh, my mentor, from early in my army days. He's caught up in the same mess. I kinda found him on the road, and got the dragon to bring him and his friend back."

He was struck by a sudden thought and stared back at the man, "wait, how did you get through the first floor window, anyway?"

-

A few minutes later the three of them were settled around the table, fresh tea in front of them. The banging still hadn't abated, but it had slowed down.

"What on earth did you do to get those doors." Brickwrath grunted, "I didn't think they fitted doors like that outside of castles under frequent siege."

Windwashes laughed, "designed them myself, actually, then got a couple as a freebie at the end of the job. Never figured we'd actually need them, but I thought they looked nice. How'd you find us?"

Brickwrath puffed over his tea, "Figures. It wasn't so hard, we just followed the circus."

He took a sip, and then got right down to business, "well. Do you wanna talk about that farce earlier?"

Windwashes made a sort of half-shrug. "I guess," there was another bang from the back, and he winced, "I guess that's them coming to take me away?"

"Took 'em ten minutes to even notice you'd left." Brickwrath shrugged. He looked over the shuttered windows and then continued. "They ain't gonna execute you or anythin', if that's yer worry. They can't even fine you, not for any amount that matters. Might get you for abandoning the court room or somethin' though."

He grinned, the combination of steam and dim lighting making him look like a creature from a play, "Turns out they can't fine you for more than horse theft, and you not only gave the horse back uninjured, but were doing a needed service. So they can't even complain about that."

He laughed shortly, "I got a lawyer friend on board, once you left. If we're lucky, we might even convince 'em to give you a reward."

"There's nothin' in the books about Dragon Theft. They never bothered to codify it, and technically the dragon is their own person. It doesn' even count as kidnapping, cause he went out on his own the second time. Maybe coersion?"

He took another sip of his tea and gave an appreciative sigh.

Windwashes started across the table, as the churning in his heart slowed. Molten rock solidifying into black obsidian, washed over by the slow waters of relief.

He laid his head down on the table and didn't hear the next sentence. A moment later he frowned at the wood and then cocked an ear towards the back door. "The banging stopped."

Brickwrath nodded, matter-of-fact, "That'll be Elegantlillies then. I don't know what she got up to in the past, but-" he shook his head and then tapped the side of his nose, "better not ask, me thinks."

Windwashes nodded slowly, he had met people like that before. He had almost been one of them himself a couple of times, but had thankfully managed to dodge those bullets.

Turnsvoice looked confused, and Windwashes shook his head at her. "I'll explain later," he bit his lip, "if there is a later."

"Damn right there will be! We're not gonna let 'em take you anywhere." Brickwrath interjected, gesturing somewhat carefully with his mug.

Windwashes laughed, "Still looking after me, even after all this time."

There was a click from the adjacent room, and they all paused, looking over at the closed adjoining door. A moment later there was a slight scuffle, some shouting, and then the sound of an extremely heavy door slamming back into place.

They waited for a heartbeat, and then Elegantlillies was escorted in by one very flustered-looking cook. "I don't get paid enough for this," she griped, "this one let 'emselves in, you people can deal with it, I'm going home."

With no further ado, she turned and left, and Turnsvoice winced pushing herself up from the table, "give me a moment."

She hurried out of the room, giving a brief nod as she passed to Elegantlillies, who was already pouring herself a cup of tea from the pot in the corner.

"I haven't had this stuff in years," she said sniffing it. "Bit rich for my blood nowadays, but," she nodded to Brickwrath and then gestured around the room with a nod, "you have some fancy friends!"

"How'd you get in?" Brickwrath enquired, curious, and she shrugged.

"Can't give up all my secrets now can I."

She took a sip of the tea, and closed her eyes for a moment, breathing it in, before heading towards the table. Windwashes pulled her out a seat. "Nah, convinced the idiots outside to go home and then just picked the lock. You gotta buy better hardware, mate."

He blew out through his nose, "I think rain got into the locks a couple of years back and we replaced 'em with something off-the-shelf. I guess we need to do it again."

She nodded, still breathing in the tea, "was good enough to keep out most anyway." There was grudging respect in her voice, and he got the impression she had been about to elaborate, but had stopped herself.

She opened her eyes a moment later, to find them both staring at her. "What?"

They shook their heads in unison, "not my business," they both conceded, and she nodded.

They sat quietly and drank their tea until Turnsvoice came back.

"She wasn't as annoyed as she seemed," she said, helping herself to a fresh cup and frowning at the nearly empty pot, "just upset you broke her rolling pin in half. There was no need for that."

Elegantlillies laughed an easy laugh and nodded a greeting. "I'll buy her a new one, once we're out of this mess."

They chatted for a minute, exchanging names and such, refilling the pot, and somewhere along the line a tray of small cakes appeared from the kitchen, slightly stale but still good.

It was the most human he had felt in a long time, and Windwashes appreciated it. If he didn't focus too hard, he could almost imagine them as friends, here for a day out in the city. Ok, it was a strange party, as somebody had locked the shutters and the cook was refusing to cook, but still.

He looked at the empty cake plate, devoid even of crumbs now, and across from him, Elegantlillies leaned back on her chair, making it creak alarmingly.

"So we set up to meet our lawyer at the town hall tomorrow morning -that's the place you ran away from by the way- are you ok with that?"

He nodded at her, "Yeah, yeah, just as long as it's not sprung on me like this morning…"

She gestured back in agreement. "That was dirty. The only reason they separated me out was they knew that shit wouldn't work on me. They put me up in a nice room, gave me breakfast, and only then dragged me to that farce. But don't worry…"

Her grin was predatory. "We can do them for that, too. They didn't even tell you what you were in for, just locking you up like that. It's kidnapping, at best."

She nodded to Brickwrath, who made a sort of 'who, me?' gesture, "and you, you're not even a citizen here, which means they had even less right to do that. It should have been a civil matter, but…"

She went on for some time, and Windwashes got more and more impressed as she did. He hadn't thought much of her back on the road, a hulking figure in the gloom, afraid of the dragon and worn down by weeks of hardship. But here, after a good bath and a few nights' sleep, she was in her element.

"I'm coming with you." Turnsvoice slotted in as the spiel wound down. "I let those bastard take my daughter from me, I won't let them take him too."

Elegantlillies raised an eyebrow at her, but shrugged, lifting her empty mug in a gesture of agreement. "No idea what happened there, but why not. More voices on our side isn't a bad thing."

Turnsvoice licked her lips, and placed her mug on the table, her lips pursed. "We had a daughter, she went away to school, they were meant to take her there safe and then bring her back, and instead she died."

Elegantlillies and Brickwrath blinked, and after a moment he spoke up, "You trying to say the Dragon killed her, or one of the postal workers?"

Turnsvoice shook her head, "Nobody knows what happened. She made it to the school apparently, but after that, nobody knows."

She glared down into her tea, and if looks could boil… "But it was them that convinced us to let her go, they even paid for the trip. That should have looked after her once she was there."

She stared down into her tea, and Windwashes reached out, giving her his hand, as if he could take on her grief for the both of them.

Nobody had anything really to say to that, and after some more small talk, they headed off to bed in the guest rooms, and the two of them were left to clear up the mugs and plates. The servants could always have done it, but they were long ago abed and besides, both of them had come from humble backgrounds, so it wasn't a chore.

"You did well," Windwashes said quietly, stacking the small plates atop each other, "I never knew how to word it…"

She didn't look at him, collecting discarded mugs, "It was easy. I just spoke the truth."

He winced. "They never said she…"

She cut him off. "She's dead, Wind. Maybe they never said it, but they implied it. The people they put in charge of investigating it as much as confirmed it. She's…"

Her voice broke for a moment, but she took a deep breath and carried on, "She's dead. She was our little light, and now she's dead. But there are other children out there who aren't. We don't have to do nothing."

She pushed open the door to the kitchen, but let him go through first, following a moment later. "You did the right thing, not letting them exploit some poor kid like that. The three of you, the four of us. We're strong, we can change things. We can stop it happening again, in places where there's nobody like you to step in and do the right thing."

He gazed at her, seeing her again for the first time, before abruptly realising he was staring and nodding in agreement instead. "Alright."