By the time the multiple guards who joined the first had finished, I was actually still in better shape than when Melissa had worked me over.

Oh sure, every inch of my face ached, but they’d managed to not break my nose, or an orbital bone. I had my teeth, and I wasn’t drooling blood out onto the carpet when two of the guards carried me into the drawing room. Harp music played as they pulled me over to the sofa.

Three others waited inside, two of them too occupied with their own tasks while the third sat in the middle of a sofa, staring intently at me as the guard deposited me in the chair opposite him.

Dressed in an ornate suit of black and white, eyes of pure silver gleaming, it actually ached a little to look at him. A face that looked like it had been chiseled out of stone by a craftsman dedicated to not having a single mistake in their work. Drake.

His companions were as well, their human forms an ethereally beautiful woman currently focused on gently strumming a harp, while the other was a dignified older man engrossed in a book. Their own eyes glowed different metallic colors, and with how the eye was nothing but that color, they could be as easily looking at me instead of being engrossed in their tasks.

“Well,” the silver-eyed drake said. “A person comes to my house intent on telling me about how she desecrated the body of my dearly departed sister. Demands an audience practically, to tell me of the desecrations, and claiming to know more that it thinks my ears wish to hear. Do you have more, infernal?”

Well, at least it wasn’t foulhorn. I coughed, trying to clear my throat, and the drake who must be Valicent nodded.

“Of course, we are a little remiss of my duties as host, I suppose. Edwin, fetch some of the tea we had brewing. Maybe it’ll clear our guests’ systems some.”

I muttered a thanks as I tried to keep any blood from falling on the ground. Appearance was everything with draconics, and I would not irritate them by bleeding over their floor.

Within minutes, I had a hot cup in front of me, and with shaky hands, I took a sip.

My taste buds sang. This was green tea, earthy in taste, but it felt like someone had poured a star right into my tongue. Not in the searing heat way, but there was a taste, beneath the earthiness that felt like sheer starlight poured into a cup. The earthiness faded away, replaced with a sheer sensation I just could not place.

I couldn’t understand why my mind went to that as I kept on sipping, unable to put the cup down till I’d drained every drop of the drink. My mind remained in the cosmos still.

“So, Infernal,” Valicent said. “You said you had a story to tell about the death of my sister. How about you begin?”

I coughed, clearing my throat.

“My involvement in this case, and specifically your sister’s death, begins with a tip I received from a contact I buy alchemical supplies from-”

***

All told, it took two hours to tell the entire story, plus the questions Valicent has asked. He had done me the service of waiting till my story was over before bombarding me with a variety of questions about what had occurred. I told the truth about those I could afford to, deflected on others, and left some simply unanswered.

By the end of it he stared at me, eyes narrowed. His first companion still lazily played the harp, the second still seemingly occupied with his book. Neither fooled me. They’d been paying just as much attention.

“You are lying,” Valicent finally said in an even tone.

“Of course I am,” I said back, taking another sip of the tea. Hells I’d kill for this. How hard would it be to break into the kitchen? I mean, sure, angry dragons, but surely their anger could be doused in the shared love of herbal drinks between all sentient life.

No wait, these were dragons. They would jealously hoard their tea for as long as they could.

“A bold admission,” the one reading the book said, looking up from it. “Especially for one in the situation you have put yourself in.”

I shrugged. “Is it? You will figure I am doing so anyway, and admitting it just puts it out in the open. The real question is, was what I lying about relevant to what if your concern?”

“And what is our concern, little horned one?” The harp-player asked, finally pausing her melody.

The combined weight of all three drakes’ gaze, I could only hope all the other two were just drakes, felt like it could bowl me over. Brass, silver, gold, solid colors, but with an intensity beyond the stormiest of eyes.

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“The death of one of your own,” I said, as I carefully put my teacup down. “After all, people getting away with that can’t go unpunished, can it?”

“Neither can the desecration of our kind,” Valicent growled. “You scavenged my sister’s body for pieces to make potions. Broke into her resting place after she was already taken from us far too soon and carved into her body for parts.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “And I would do it again. Scavenger’s honor.”

Valicent looked affronted, second from striking, while the other two merely seemed amused.

“I could take your head for that,” he hissed. “In fact, what do you have that would keep me from doing so?”

“Dragons and drakes have kept servants for millennia, correct?” I asked.

The three of them frowned, the harp player choosing to answer this time.

“Correct, although your empire chooses not to respect some of our traditions,” the book-reader said. “There is no equivalent to the life-debt in your culture and they insist we follow suit.”

Slavery, they meant, banned in the Empire’s reach. Well, certain kinds of slavery.

“Not all chains are physical, as I’m sure you know. Mine are tight despite their intangibility. So if you wish to kill me, ask who will be upset after being robbed of a servant?”

“And who would we be robbing?” The book-reader said.

“The Imperial Government,” I said with a grin, ignoring the pain my face felt being contorted. “They’ll be upset. Especially when I came to be so helpful to you all.”

“By telling us who is responsible for my sister’s death?” Valicent said. “That might get you out of the door alive. Might.”

“I can offer you vengeance on the ones who orchestrated her death,” I said, taking another sip of the tea. How many cups had I gone through? The butler kept bringing more. This could get addictive.

“Like we could not get it ourselves?” Valicent scoffed. “We are drakes, Miss Harrow. We are long-lived, we are patient, and we never forget. A decade, two even, when the killers have convinced themselves no one is around anymore who cares, we will strike, and I will have revenge for my sister.”

“They are shape-changers, Lord Valicent,” I replied. “They’ve evaded detection for centuries before now. They will evade them for centuries more. When they finally settle on their new identities, will you be able to track them?”

A silence followed, the two flanking one’s looking curious to Valicent. Not for guidance, evaluation. Definitely his superiors in some way, even if just in the draconic social hierarchy.

“You claim you have a way to track them?” Valicent asked.

“With what I have in mind, tracking won’t be needed,” I said. “They would come to me. All I need is a pair of little favors from you to do it.”

“Ah, so you have come here because your own efforts are stymied,” the book-reader said. “You hope to get our aid instead for a task for you, in return for what we desire out of this. Perhaps we should seize the information from your mind and skip you as the middle-creature entirely.”

The other two seemed far too willing to entertain that as a possibility. Time to come down on it as hard as I could.

“Truth be told, I gave someone a letter and money before coming here,” I said. “If I don’t contact them in about four hours’ time. I’m confident I can keep their identity secret for that long. Once they time has elapsed, they’ll mail the letter to your prey, who will forever slip out of your claw.”

In truth, considering how little cash I’d had on myself, Varrow might just open the letter. After seeing all the veiled references that meant plenty to Lady Karsin but nothing to him, he’d probably toss it.

Not that the drakes needed to know that.

“Not to mention the entire issue of the empire being upset,” I added. “They also are an offended party at this point.”

“The break-in at the Archives,” the book-reading drake noted. “Details are sparse, but they were the caused, weren’t they?”

“I can’t really say,” I said. “I can say if you help me, I can deliver you the one responsible for your sister’s death.”

“And if you fail in this?” Valicent asked me.

“Eat me,” I said bluntly, and all three of the drakes jolted a little at that. “Or more accurately hunt me. If I fail so spectacularly, I imagine my masters would cut me loose, and we can test how good your ability to hunt really is.”

The book-reader chuckled. “You seem so blase about that being the case. Amusing to see in this day and age.”

I shrugged. “Sometimes a hand is dealt. Make the best of it you can till you either get dealt a new one or make the dealer deal new cards. My survival depends on them and hangs by a thread. Fight it? I die. Flee? They find me and likely write me off as more trouble than it’s worth. So, wait, work, and watch for the opportunity to change my cards.”

“Such a disloyal mind hiding behind the words of a loyal servant,” the harp-player noted. “Perhaps we should mention such things to your masters.”

“Go ahead,” I said. “If they haven’t considered it themselves, they are much dumber than I originally thought.”

Valicent breathed a wisp of flame to warm his tea, and I forced down the insane urge I felt to ask him to heat mine as well.

“The favors?” he asked.

I explained the first, which got confused frowns from all three.

“Simplicity,” the book-reader said. “I almost feel insulted by it.”

“Not a challenge,” Valicent agreed.

“It’s not much of one,” I admitted. “However, my other tools for attempting it are poor. Best to go for the best quality ones I can convince to aid me.”

“Hrrm, best quality we are, although never call just tools again small-horn,” the harp-player said. “Your second favor?”

This explanation took longer. The favor was more complex, took longer to explain. I had to stop a few times to take questions, but we got the basics covered in ten minutes.

“Much more public,” the book-reader noted.

“We’re more at risk as well,” the harp-player added.

“It seems to be one where you mostly stay out of it,” Valicent concluded. “We are the most at danger, bodily and in terms of reputation.”

“And I am most at risk in the other,” I countered. “Besides, this one I have no way in. To call it unassailable is a lie, but it’s very difficult to get into. You were right earlier. I can’t get into it on my own.”

“And if we were to simply assault both now that you’ve told us it is one of those two?” The harp-player asked.

I smiled. “Who said it was the owner of either house? Or that you would be able to surprise them. A lot can happen while you attack either, including the mastermind shrinking to the size of a rat and slipping away.”

“So you recommend we kidnap their children instead?” The book-reader said.

“It’s the one thing I think will not make them run.”

They both turned to look at Valicent, who steepled his fingers in thought.

“Very well. We agree.”