Rodgardae did not sleep. The bed was too narrow for the three of them to settle comfortably, so as the strongest of them he took the brunt and let Mani and Maid Aegirine pile on top of him. He was calm at last, strung out by the exertions of pleasing two lovers.

The seduction was unplanned and had, at first, been meant in good fun, a way to break through the Maid Aegirine’s wall of formal Kaaltendtian manners, and Rodgardae had known that the dancing would amuse his lover, who had a not-very-secret fondness for voyeurism despite the fact they had never done anything about it before. A few times they had been invited to “spy” on assignations of other couples in gardens or follies, and it had always wound Mani up into a fit of sex and lust, but a triamond? Never had Rodgardae humored the idea, not while they lived in the prudish country of Kaaltendt, and not while he felt so territorial over Mani, which was more a human reaction than a dragon one. But when he had pulled Maid Aegirine close to him, she had smelled so good, rich and spicy and like…well, he had not lied. She smelled and tasted of dragon to him. He assumed it was from her exposure to dragons at Endestern. What else could it be?

“Sleeeeeeep,” Mani complained quietly, nosing at one of his nipples.

“I feel like I imagined this,” Rodgardae admitted, whispering in Mani’s ear.

“We are all here naked and sated and you claim it’s a dream?” Mani laughed.

“Hmmm?” Maid Aegirine mumbled, squinting at them. The moonlight through the window over their bunk cast them all in shadows, and Rodgardae could not help but be struck by the romanticism of it. His lovers were so beautiful.

“Ah, Maid Aegirine—” Rodgardae started, but at the mention of her name she shook herself awake, pushed away and slipped off the bed. She stood up quickly as Mani and Rodgardae tussled with each other to sit up properly. She was naked and majestic and Rodgardae was gripped by the desire to fall at her feet, wings outstretched, neck low, tail high.

She took a deep, shuddering breath and stepped away from the edge of the bunk. “I cannot stay.”

“Maid Aegirine,” Mani started, but she slashed her hand through the air.

“I cannot stay,” she repeated, and turned to start picking her clothes up from the floor.

Mani tried to get up but Rodgardae held him tight. They could not force her to remain with them, as much as it hurt to think of her leaving. He felt a little fatalistic about it, as if it was no less than expected, and yet somehow he was not broken by it. Their joining had been something special and he felt like she was lodged firmly in his ribcage.

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Mani was looking over at him with an expression that said he knew what Rodgardae was thinking, and he didn’t like it.

“Is a triamond not to your taste?” Mani said harshly. Rodgardae pinched him but Mani shook him off.

Already tying up her underclothes, Maid Aegirine picked up on his tone and glared at him. “I am a dragon maid. A night of stolen pleasure is one thing, here on the high seas, but there are rules against any kind of extended affairs for a reason.”

“That hasn’t stopped Mistress Seraphinite,” Rodgardae pointed out, still holding his annoyed mate to his chest.

“And look at the trouble she invites because of it. None of us can ever be mated to a dragon, and I certainly don’t want to be thrown into prison for such a breach of propriety.”

“Things are different in Watt,” Rodgardae offered as Mani gave up struggling and collapsed on him with a huff.

“So I have been told. But I am a citizen of Kaaltendt, and Queen Theaedra is my liege, and I am a dragon maid.” She stopped as she put her over-apron back on, and looked at them on the bunk. It was too dark to see her clearly, cast in shadows as she was, but Rodgardae felt like he was somehow connected to her roiling emotions, feeling both the sadness and the determination behind her words. She did not want to leave them, he was certain of it, but she felt she had no choice. There was a deeper reason there, one she was not sharing with them, and he could not bring himself to pry.

“Maid Aegirine,” Mani tried, holding out his hand to her.

She shook her head and stumbled out into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

“No one who sees her will mistake what she was up to,” Mani grumbled, dropping his hand. “Were we such terrible lovers? Why would she turn on us so quickly?” He crossed his arms over his chest petulantly.

“She wanted to stay.”

“Does not appear that way to me.”

“I can sense her,” Rodgardae said, tilting his head thoughtfully as he considered his words.

Mani sat up, back against one of the window frame and slinging his legs over Rodgardae’s lap. “Interesting. You talk about her like she a dragon.”

“She feels that way…it is hard to explain.”

“Not really,” Mani said with a sigh. “Her family are dragons.”

“Oh?” Rodgardae considered that. “It explains some things, I suppose.”

“But not everything?”

Rodgardae locked eyes with him. “You were inviting her into a triamond based on one night together, and she is the first third we’ve brought to our bed. Does all of that strike you as coincidental?”

Mani hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose not. Although I hope she does not feel like we pressured her.”

“I don’t think so. I was not…picking up on that.”

Mani studied him for a long moment. “There is something to her that is more than just her family’s heritage, isn’t there?”

Rodgardae nodded slowly. “There is, but damned if I can tell you what it is, exactly.”

They both sat in silence as the ship sliced through the water around them, the waves and some distant noises from the sailors on duty above a background to their separate ponderings.