Morning announced itself with the usual chorus of bells and horn calls from Athon’s many temples, and the gradual accumulation of footsteps and chatter in the streets outside. The birds, long awake themselves, had their music and conversation drowned out in a few short moments. Only the starlings nesting in the eaves of the inn broke through, loud enough that Janu had been awake just as long as they had.

He had already paid and sent the runner. Now he sat and waited with a hot breakfast of fried flatbread and tea in their usual room, wondering in the clarity of morning what other high-paying job he might find himself if his crew wouldn’t agree to this one. If only his skillset were wider, he could have tried ordinary thievery. It couldn’t be too hard, could it? Gold and jewels were smaller than dragons and their eggs, after all, and the punishment for stealing it far kinder. Galnai had lost her ear for stealing a dragon in Khunuchan. If she had done the same here, it would have been her head – likely after a good deal of torture.

Janu shuddered, not as keen on his food as he had been a moment before. Perhaps that was the reason the man from Khunuchan was bold enough to ask so much of them. He didn’t realise the full extent of their potential punishment.

As he was finishing off the last bites of his meal, Galnai arrived. She gave the room a once-over before flopping down on a cushion.

‘You won’t see Fraidun any time soon if he went out spending his money last night,’ she said.

Janu nodded and finished chewing. ‘Oh, he was all right. I bumped into him last night and took him back home. A runner should be fetching him right now. So does he do that often?’

She snorted. ‘Every night after a job until his money’s gone.’

‘Really?’ He didn’t know what had made him assume Fraidun was more financially responsible than that, but he had clearly been wrong.

‘Have you set a time to meet with our contact?’ Galnai asked.

Janu shook his head. ‘I assume he’s staying close by. Maybe even in the inn. He said to ask the innkeeper for him if I changed my mind.’

‘Right then. I hope you’re right, or we’re in for a long wait.’

The wait that felt longest was the wait for Fraidun, who appeared an hour later with his hair still dripping onto the floorboards and his face still muggy from drinking. Janu asked the innkeeper to bring the man from Khunuchan in no less than an hour, then took Fraidun straight to the nearest baths to wash the smell and hangover from him. A near fruitless task, but a generous application of scented oil masked the worst of it and he looked more alive afterwards. If only they had had time to wash his clothes, or fetch whatever spare ones he might have owned back in his rooms. These were different to last night’s clothes, but they still stank.

They waited for their contact in silence, back at the inn. Janu saw no point in explaining more of the situation to Fraidun. He doubted a man in his financial situation would balk at such a high-paying gig, no matter the risk. He didn’t particularly fancy having to point out the higher class of prostitute he would be able to afford – or give the man false hope that they would even entertain an offer from him to begin with. What lasting good could money buy a man with no taste nor ambition?

Exactly an hour after his message to the innkeeper, a knock came on the door and Janu bade the man from Khunuchan enter. He did so, warier than the first time with two more people to greet him. His wide-eyed gaze lingered on Galnai. Janu couldn’t tell if it was thanks to her ear hole or if he had some objection to a woman being present. Galnai, for her part, stared back, her face even paler than usual. When Janu cleared his throat, they broke eye contact. Galnai brushed a strand of hair over her missing ear.

‘I’m glad you changed your mind,’ the man said. ‘My employer truly is set on this happening.’

‘Apparently so,’ said Janu. ‘And we’ve agreed to give it more consideration. But before we get into specifics, we should talk payment.’

‘Name your price.’

Preparing himself to haggle, Janu said, ‘Ordinarily we charge fifteen bezin for egg theft, twenty-five for dragon theft. We haven’t been asked to kidnap anyone before – those dragons were all either hatched before anyone was ready to bond them, or their bonded had already died. With that thrown into the mix, you’re looking at thirty-five bezin.

‘But you’re asking us to kidnap royalty straight from under the empire’s nose.’ Fraidun shifted in his seat, but Janu continued. ‘Ignoring the extra risk for a moment, we’ll likely need to spend money to go into hiding afterwards. Bribe money, travel money, funds for new lodgings until things quiet down. That pushes it up to fifty. We’ll need half up front as insurance for our families.’ Not that Galnai or Fraidun had any family that he knew of.

The man didn’t even blink. He just nodded as if fifty bezin was small change. ‘My employer can provide that.’

I should have asked for double. In disbelief, Janu asked, ‘You are aware of the value of a bezin, right? You’re not thinking of it like some Khunuchanian coin?’

His gaze flicked to Galnai and back. ‘No. My employers just have deep pockets and little need for money.’

‘Well.’ Janu leaned back in his seat. ‘Must be nice being them. So that’s settled. Fifty bezin.’ Near enough fifteen each after expenses. ‘So tell us what we need to know. So far you’ve told me they’re transporting the hatchling from Kurentim to Chorus after the bonding ceremony. What else do you know? Actually’ – Janu held up a hand – ‘before anything else, what can I call you?’

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That little flicker again. Why did he keep looking at Galnai?

‘Ilarion,’ he said, and while he nodded politely through Janu’s introduction of the others, he was obviously distracted. He threw himself into the details as soon as Janu was done.

‘I have it on good information,’ Ilarion said, ‘that the ceremony will be taking place next Wednesday. No other members of the royal family will be in attendance. I expect they’ll wait somewhere between a day and a week for the bond to settle before they travel back to Chorus.’

At this point he drew a leather-wrapped scroll from under his cloak and knelt on the floor so he could unroll it on the table. Galnai stiffened at his proximity, but he didn’t notice, too absorbed in his work. Janu gave her a concerned glance, but leaned over to examine the map when he got no response.

The map held little detail of towns and villages, but its coastlines, roads and terrain were the most detailed Janu had ever seen. He had only seen one continental map before. Most other maps he had seen were task-specific affairs: rough sketches of routes from one place to another, local maps of the boundaries between different towns. Was this a new creation? I showed only one of the empire’s two islands: Zentilum, where the capital city of Chorus lay.

‘There is a ravine the ceremony participants must travel though,’ Ilarion said, pointing to a spot north of Kurentim. ‘I recommend lying in wait at this location.’

Janu made a noncommittal noise. It was further into the mountains than he would have liked, but the only other good spots along that route were spots he had used before, and no doubt the empire would be extra cautious travelling through them even today.

Out loud he said, ‘We’ll be hard pressed to get out of there without anyone catching us.

Ilarion shook his head. ‘There’s a small goat path up the side of the ravine. You can enter and leave that way.’

‘Even then, by the time we’ve finished hauling the goods up it, we’ll have lost a lot of time. Even if we can get away without being noticed, which is possible, they’ll have ample opportunity to catch up to us. They’ll send word ahead to all the towns and villages to watch for us.’

‘Oh, you won’t need to worry about that. You’re going the other way.’ Ilarion jabbed at a spot further into the mountain range – further than even Zentilum. ‘This is where I’ll be waiting for you. You can hand everything over to me there and be on your way. If they don’t see you leave, and you don’t leave obvious tracks, they won’t think to look that way.’

Fraidun huffed out an alcohol-scented breath. ‘Long way.’

Janu realised he was tapping his foot against the floor and forced himself to stop. He looked Ilarion in the eyes. ‘So let me get this straight: You want us to kidnap both a live dragon and a member of royalty from under the noses of imperial soldiers. Then you want us to haul both of those as fast as possible into the biggest, most desolate mountain range in the empire without getting caught or lost.’

‘Yes.’ A flicker of mirth danced in Ilarion’s unsmiling eyes. ‘And I’m paying you fifty bezin for it.’

No one spoke for some time. Ilarion, meanwhile, pulled another map from beneath his cloak. This one was more like the maps Janu was familiar with – lines, distances, and landmarks.

‘I’ve mapped out the route you’ll need to take from the ravine to our meeting point. As long as you take the right turns, you can’t miss it. It’s an old ruin, very old, more like a pile of boulders than anything else. You’ll see it right at the centre of that valley.’

Janu eyed the spot he was pointing at, marked with a decent sketch of the very structure he had just described. ‘Is it sheltered?’

‘There’s no roof, but the sides make good shelter from the wind. If you set up a tent there and as long as no one has followed you, it’s a good place to spend the night.’

A chuckle drew everyone’s attention to Fraidun, who sat there shaking his head. ‘What possessed you to wait for us right in the middle of dragon territory? You got a brain in there?’

Janu kicked his ankle and Fraidun shot back a glare.

Ilarion struggled with his words for a few moments before saying, ‘It’s easier for my client, this way. Trust me, the dragons won’t pose a problem. It may be deep into the mountains for you, but it’s outside their usual range.’ He gave a sardonic smile. ‘For obvious reasons they don’t like straying too close to humans these days.’

The only client who would find that easier was the kingdom on the other side of the mountains. Janu had already stolen a couple of eggs for them. Either they wanted more, something had happened to their existing dragons, or this was really all a cover for kidnapping the princess. The thought just made him exhausted. He focussed on the end goal: fifty bezin. Fifteen bezin all to himself, five when he had paid off his loan.

Nerves started to kick in, then – acid shivers of apprehension that threatened to weave their way into his voice. ‘Do you have any information about how many guards she’ll have?’

‘Our spies observed them on the way to the fort three days ago. There were about twenty guards and one carriage with its driver.’

‘Mounted or on foot?’

‘All mounted.’

That wouldn’t make it easier for them to get away, although if their pursuers wanted to stay mounted, they wouldn’t be able to follow them up the goat path. Janu owned horses, but they weren’t the fastest. They would have to do, though.

‘Is there anything else you need?’ Ilarion asked.

‘No,’ Janu said. He looked at the other two in turn, but neither had anything to add. ‘Are we agreed, then? We’ll take this on?’

Galnai gave the slightest nod but nothing more. Ordinarily she would have had much more to say. And yet before this man: nothing.

At least Fraidun spoke. ‘Can’t say I like the risk much.’

Cursing his luck, Janu asked, ‘So you’re out?’ He should have laid out the situation earlier. If only he hadn’t been so blasted drunk.

‘Didn’t say that. Just don’t like it. Think it’s worth another ten. Buy us a bigger cart, better horses.’

Janu opened his mouth, but Ilarion jumped in before he could say anything. ‘Deal. Buy what you need.’ After a pause, he added, ‘But that’s as high as we go,’ like a man chronically unused to hiding his cards. He could have gone higher. Who in the hells was he working for?

Galnai scoffed, and a blush flashed over Ilarion’s pale face. The man stood abruptly, gathered the larger map from the table and nodded to them. ‘I’ll leave you to plan.’

After he left and had been gone for a few seconds, Janu turned to Galnai and asked, ‘You knew that man?’

‘No,’ she replied quickly. Then with more thought, she met his gaze and shook her head. ‘He bears a passing resemblance to someone I once knew, that’s all.’

Janu didn’t believe her, but he had more important things to think about. They would have to hurry to reach their destination in time, and he began listing what he needed to organise in his head.

Only much later did he realise that it should have been impossible for any ordinary spy to send news back from Kurentim so fast.