It is all very well for a man in expensive armour holding a sword to tell you to fight, but Janu only had his dagger, his thick but hardly stab-proof travel clothes, and a firm desire not to die. So he darted down a passage that he hoped was a side entrance and poked his head out of the end.

Oh shit.

He counted about fifteen horsemen racing down the mountainside towards them. Pennants fluttered from their spears and the midday sun caught on the plates of their lamellar armour. They bore kite shields of matching colours, but each with its own design. And they were coming to kill him.

Janu drew his dagger, for all the good it would do.

Behind him, a horn blew loud and clear. Janu glanced back to see Ilarion reattaching it to his belt while Galnai tied the princess to a stone pillar.

‘Your employers had better be close!’ Janu called to Ilarion.

Ilarion grimaced as he picked his helmet up from a pile of supplies. ‘They’re close. You hold off your entrance. We’ll take the other two.’

Easier said than done. Janu turned back just in time to see four cavalry archers loose arrows at him. He dived to the side as one flew past him and the others clattered against the rock.

Certain he had unwittingly picked the entrance with the most people coming for it, Janu gritted his teeth and risked another look outside. The spear cavalry had halted to dismount and the archers were wheeling for another volley. How much sleep powder did he have left? He put his back to the stone again and fumbled at his belt. He had portioned out two smaller pouches for the kidnapping and his main pouch, he felt by squeezing, had just under a portion left.

He poked his head out again, but four arrows immediately shot towards him. He threw himself out of the way at the last second. The blasted archers had given up their wheeling and stopped right in front of his entrance. All he had wanted to do was get a quick glance at the grass to figure out the wind direction. He looked up to the clouds instead, hoping the wind up there was behaving near enough the same as down here. Just about perpendicular to the passage he stood in. He would have to aim to the side.

On the other side of the stone building, there was a loud clack. An arrow flew end over end above them. So the archers weren’t just on his side, then. He loosened the tie on the powder pouch, dagger at the ready, and took a step away from the wall. One good throw would do it. He eyed the wall – high, but with a good arc and a lot of force, it might just go far enough. He heard footsteps approaching, drew his arm back and hurled with all his might. Then as fast as he could, he took a pinch of the anti-sleep powder from his other pouch and snorted it. Never put your faith in the wind.

By the shouts outside, he must have got someone. Knuckles whitening on his dagger’s hilt, Janu looked through the entrance. He’d got the archers, thank the gods, and one had fallen straight from his saddle. Two of the spearmen lay on the ground with another four or five stumbling around in a daze. That still left a handful of heavily armoured imperial soldiers with full possession of their senses. One would have been too much.

Janu held his dagger before him as the first of the spearmen charged. He met his eyes – narrowed with anger, intent on his prey – and felt the heavy pulse of his blood racing through his body. The wind roared as if to lend its own battle cry.

The soldier thrust his spear towards Janu. He smacked the shaft aside with his dagger, tried to grab it, was almost pulled off his feet for his trouble. It came back his way almost too fast for him to avoid. As it was, it scraped the flesh of his left shoulder. He tried to stab the soldier’s hand, but again the man was too fast for him.

Another spear thrust at him from the side. Janu had to throw himself right back against the wall to get out of the way, and that left the way open for the soldiers to rush in.

The wind roared again. No, not the wind. A black shadow swept over the stones. There was a whump outside, and the two soldiers fell sprawling as dust and stones and grass billowed past them.

After a moments’ blinking hesitation, Janu grabbed one of their spears and stabbed the men before they could rise, then again for good measure, trying not to think about the way their flesh sucked against the spearhead as he pulled it out. He tried to sheathe his dagger, missed, and dropped it on the floor with a muttered curse.

Spear held before him in both hands, Janu hopped over the dead men and repositioned himself in the entrance. Half of the men and horses had simply gone. The others all rolled on the floor, slowly getting back to their feet. For a moment he wondered if the sleeping powder had somehow caught fire and exploded, which it had never done before. Then he heard the rustle of feathers cutting through air, and a noise like bellows inflating, and that black shadow passed over his face once more.

Whump. A blast of air struck the ground, pressing the soldiers back into it. A horse fell on top of one of them, and the man’s scream cut through the air.

On the other side of the soldiers, a dragon with feathers the deep green of a pine forest spread its wings wide and landed.

Janu backed away, never taking his eyes off the dragon as it turned. He had made a clear point throughout his career of never coming face to face with an adult dragon. It wasn’t something he could steal. It wasn’t a fight he could win. And yet here he was, with only a few ancient stones between him and certain death.

The dragon stalked towards the downed soldiers, many-horned head held high, sharp claws poised to strike.

Janu’s back hit a stone pillar.

‘Ow!’ the princess said.

Turning with some reluctance, he realised he had squashed her hands against the pillar she was tied to.

‘Sorry,’ he said, and looked up the other two passages to see where Galnai and Ilarion were. Ilarion, apparently unphased, was pulling his sword from a soldier’s neck. Galnai had crouched low in her passageway, dirt caking her hair and clothes, her dagger held at the ready for enemies that weren’t there – unless you counted the massive white dragon finishing off the soldiers beyond the entrance.

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‘Galnai!’ he hissed, and beckoned her over when she looked his way.

She came crouch-running towards him, as if being half her height would matter if one of those dragons decided to arch its neck over and look inside the stones. Would the soldiers out there count as starters, mains, and desserts, or would they be the final course?

‘What do we do?’ Janu asked when Galnai had joined him in the centre.

Galnai eyed the skies, empty for now. ‘We be quiet. I think I saw a little alcove we could hide in around here. Sheltered from above. Untie her and we’ll go.’

The princess craned her neck this way and that in the direction of the dragon noises. ‘What if they’re after my dragon? If they’re looking for her? Do you think they can smell her?’

‘No need.’ They all jumped as Ilarion called out to them. He laughed when Janu tried to shush him and sheathed his sword. ‘They knew to come here for her. That is what they paid you for, after all.’

‘They paid us?’ Janu’s eyebrows shot so high he could feel them tugging at the rest of his face. He pointed to the white dragon, which had just delicately picked the tack from a dead horse and eaten it whole. ‘The dragons? Since when did they use coins?’ He felt a sudden, suicidal urge to run out and check them for pockets.

‘Well, they don’t really use them.’ Ilarion took his helmet off an examined it – it had a big scratch along one side where an arrow must have grazed it. ‘But some of them have lived over a thousand years. They collect bits and pieces here and there.’

Even Janu’s landlord wouldn’t have described bezin as bits and pieces, and he had active earnings.

‘Wait.’ Galnai was shaking her head. It was the first time she had addressed Ilarion directly. ‘You can communicate with them?’

‘Of course! They have a very detailed language when you take the trouble to speak to them, quite similar to some ancient human tongues.’ He bobbed on his feet like an excited schoolchild, then reddened when he realised he was doing it. ‘They speak most of the modern languages too, of course. They travel a lot.’

‘As do you,’ said Galnai. ‘How the hell did you go from being a levy troop to a messenger for dragons? And here, of all places!’

Janu eyed the two of them, not willing to interrupt so he didn’t miss whatever history he had missed between them, but also distinctly aware of the dragons outside that were still dangerous no matter how many languages they spoke and how much they had paid them.

Ilarion let out a heavy breath and met her gaze. For the first time, neither of them looked away. ‘I was captured, the very first battle they threw us into. No great surprise there. And for all the good our lord ever did us, well, I swore loyalty to the prince the first chance I got. Most of us levies did – the ones who still lived and weren’t stubbornly holding onto...’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t even know what they were holding onto. I think they just preferred death to change.

‘In any case, I did well. The prince made me one of his bodyguard a couple of years later, and just over a year ago he tasked me to come here to learn what I could of the dragons. So here I am.’

Galnai made no response, just examined the man with narrowed eyes.

Janu glanced outside to see the white dragon watching them with interest. ‘Brave of you to assume they wouldn’t eat you.’

‘I did observe them for some time first. I...’ Ilarion bit back the rest of his words, rocking forwards on his toes as if it had been a very physical restraint from launching into more explanation. ‘It would be best if I introduced you, I think. And better still if you untie the hatchling and the princess first.’

‘Yes, I like that idea,’ the princess said, nodding her head with great enthusiasm. She wriggled her fingers where they were tied behind the pillar.

Janu couldn’t work out whether to be relieved or concerned that they were handing the princess to dragons instead of humans. For the hatchling, the difference was obvious. For her... He knew full well the cruelty of humans, but nothing of dragons besides their lethality and Ilarion’s scant reassurances. But untying her was a positive sign, so he did as asked while Galnai unbound the dragon. When he stepped back, it was stretching its limbs and shaking out its wings, though its head always drifted back to watch the princess like an obedient dog.

The princess rubbed her wrists, gave Ilarion an inquisitive look, then bounded along the passage towards the white dragon before any of them could react. The hatchling stumbled after her, its legs weak from being tied so long. They both stopped by the entrance, the princess peering out from behind the stone wall, the hatchling standing in the middle of it. It cocked its head this way and that, examining the larger white dragon which much the same curiosity as its bonded human.

Ilarion stared after her and chuckled, then gestured for Janu and Galnai to follow him. They did so, although Janu couldn’t muster anywhere near as much confidence as the princess. When a rumble sounded from the white dragon’s throat, he almost turned back and ran. The green dragon had joined her and a stone-grey dragon sat off to one side, which meant the other way was probably clear now. But he certainly couldn’t hope to outrun a dragon, even on horseback, if they chose to follow him. Maybe a moving target would be better sport.

‘This is Ushuene-amaak,’ said Ilarion, approaching the entrance, ‘the eldest of all dragons and the closest to a leader you will find amongst them.’ With the princess and the hatchling still blocking his path, he placed a hand on Popilia’s shoulder. ‘Go on. She won’t bite.’

The hatchling emerged first, followed closely by Popilia and Ilarion. He made a low bow to the white dragon he had called Usuene-amaak. Noticing his actions, the princess performed a curtsy of her own.

To Janu’s astonishment, the dragon returned their gestures with a slow incline of her head, which was framed by an almost crown-like arrangement of four large, curbed horns. Gold and silver markings glinted from her feathers, and her golden eyes regarded them. When she spoke, her throat vibrated like a bird’s and her mouth hung slightly ajar, but her lips didn’t move.

‘I thank you for the safe return of my daughter, Ilarion,’ she said, her voice deep and melodic. In the next moment she lowered her head to the hatchling, examining it intently from all angles as its head turned to match her movements. When she was done, she flicked the end of her fluffy tail, and her next words were cooler. ‘And by extension, these thieves you hired for the task.’

Janu froze. At once it hit him – that all this time, the eggs he had been stealing were those of an intelligent race. That the hatchlings he had taken, the hatchlings that others bound to their will, were children taken from their parents. And one of them, twice the size of his house, was speaking to him now.

‘I apologise that they have seen you,’ Ilarion said. ‘I had hoped that they weren’t being followed.’

‘No matter. That is dealt with now.’ Ushuene fixed her gaze more intently on Janu and Galnai. ‘But they must come with us, now they know the truth. We will clean up here, and none will be the wiser.’

Janu opened his mouth to argue, then thought better of it. No doubt if he refused to go with the dragons, he would simply become part of their ‘clean up’.

Ilarion bowed his head. ‘I will follow through the hidden pass with the horses.’ And turning to Janu and Galnai, he said, ‘Ride with them when they offer. They are hard to offend, but do at least try to be polite. You’ll be safe with them, and I can answer any questions you may have when I catch up in a couple of weeks.’

Before he had finished his sentence, Ushuene two two great strides away from them, then leapt up into the sky and with one beat of her wings was away. The green dragon that had killed the soldiers on Janu’s side of the stones paced closer and lay down. Its eyes, as far as Janu could judge their sentiment, held little kindness.

With little other choice, they followed Ilarion’s instructions and climbed onto the green dragon’s back, all four of them clinging to whatever handholds they could find amidst the sparse spines that covered it. Ilarion himself had already emerged from the stones with the horses and their supplies, and the grey dragon was fastidiously piling corpses in one spot.

Muscles bunched beneath them. The green dragon growled, stretched its wings out to either side and cleared the ground in one leap. Janu’s heart leapt into his throat in the same moment. The ground rushed away beneath them.

As they wheeled to follow the eldest of the dragons, flame burst from the mouth of the grey dragon left on the ground, licking over and consuming the pile of the empire’s dead.