Endless meetings were Rodgardae’s first impressions of war. He was fully recovered from the quick change he had made back when they landed at Allemann, but his sister who outranked him by several talons and was the war’s field marshal under direct command of the their brother the prince, was holding him back for some reason. He was not even sure of the reason because she had not returned from the front lines yet.

The front line itself was twenty miles northeast of Suychet, only a couple of miles off the coast and creeping ever closer to the Peveillin Cliffs of Ouien. The emperor’s forces were making inroads through the naval blockade, and his dragons were flying straight inland as far as they could go to drop bombs before being chased off. There were simply too many to have guards over every potential target at every hour of the day.

To the extent that anyone was willing to admit it, which wasn’t much, they all knew that it was just a matter of time before their defenses suffered a permanent breach, at which point the emperor’s military might would slam down on the Isle of Watt mercilessly.

Still, in the short term, he had his hands full with his own wing. Only one flight consisted of the twenty Kaaltendt dragons that had come with him, but they were walking around in a state of shock at the sheer number of Wattish dragons around them. Their instincts were swinging wildly between fight or flight, and in at least one case, a little bit of both, in that order.

They had lived their whole lives thinking that a flight of twenty or so dragons was massive, and grown up mostly surrounded by humans until they joined a military, which even so was less than 1% dragons. For all that Kaaltendt had the population and size to rival Iskaryyva, their Mad King Maganrad had utterly destroyed the nation’s ability to protect itself. He thought Emperor Rhezv was himself a madman for going on a war spree, since neither the Isle of Watt nor Kaaltendt would peacefully bow to his invasion, but his opinion did not change the facts of war.

As it was, he was enjoying a short break between meetings, drinking the tea Mani had sent his way. His companion was living up to his new role as Matrica of Endestern, Consort of Duke Raudolf of Kaaltendt and Duke Julvua of Watt, and Aide-de-camp to him as Admiral Leonteinparre the Younger, by running roughshod over the Kaaltendt dragons. He was forcing them to do practice flights randomly and arguing with Captain Wildt about ‘exposure therapy’ and Rodgardae was glad to be (mostly) out of the way. The paperwork being generated was more than enough, and it had only been twenty hours since they disembarked at the Suychet train station.

“Your Grace?” Doctor Worthan opened the door to his office, while a consternated guard stood behind him.

“Don’t worry, Lieutenant Brussieu. Doctor Worthan is allowed in anytime.”

“Of course I am, what a ridiculous thing to say.” Doctor Worthan closed the door on Lieutenant Brussieu’s shocked face.

“How can I help you, Milles?” He already had another cup on the tray, getting ready to pour a cup of tea for the doctor, when he saw his face. “What is it?”

“Maid Aegirine is missing.”

It was war, and tragedy was everywhere around him in different flavors, but something about those words made his breath catch. “What do you mean, exactly?”

“Last I saw her was early morning yesterday at the train station, while we were all disembarking. She was carrying a bag of rare and valuable medicines, and agreed to meet me at the hospital once you were done with whatever you needed.”

“Whatever I…needed?”

Milles sat down with an audible thump in the chair across from his desk. “Yes, exactly.”

Rodgardae shook his head. “I didn’t need anything.”

Milles frowned. “You didn’t send an ensign to get her?”

“I did not, and moreover, have not seen her since before the train pulled into the station.”

“But the ensign!”

“What ensign?”

“Ro.” Milles stopped. “There was an ensign. He was brought to Maid Aegirine by one of the other dragon maids. Maid Aegirine told me he was fetching her to meet with you for some reason. She left with him.”

“And you’ve not seen her since? Perhaps she…got lost?” Rodgardae steepled his fingers together, trying to put the points of the tale together. Suychet was not a metropolis but it was currently three times its usual size with the military encampment sitting on top of it.

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“If she did, then she did it very effectively. No one has seen her since.”

“Mistress Seraph—”

“I’m not a damn fool, Rodgardae! I checked with her first. She told me that Maid Aegirine was assigned to me and therefore was not her problem. Seemed rather short about it, but then, I was interrupting.” Worthan took off his hat and ran his fingers through his ginger hair. “I asked a few other maids, in case they had seen her. I also asked around with staff at the hospital. She’s just gone.”

Rodgardae simply frowned at him, at a loss. How could she just disappear?

“Rodgardae, what I’m trying to say is that I think there is foul play afoot,” Milles added softly, seeing his confusion.

A surge of panic, odd and misplaced, skittered down his back. “Surely not.”

Milles shrugged. “I’d be happy to be wrong. Very happy. Especially since she had that bag of medicines with her, a few of which might be the only supply in this entire city at this point.”

“You think someone grabbed her for the medicines?”

“It’s war. Black market goods are selling for high prices, especially dragon medicines. People do desperate things during desperate times.”

“Would you recognize the ensign?”

Milles shook his head. “I absolutely would not. I was deep in conversation with a few colleagues, and he kept his back to us anyway. Which, now that I think about it, is odd.”

“The maid?”

“Possibly. She was older…I think I’ve seen her with the headmistress a few times.”

“Hmph. Given that she was there as your assistant, if I had really sent someone to fetch her, I would have made sure that they cleared it with you,” Rodgardae added grimly. He stood up. “I do not have time to track down one errant doctor’s assistant, but I know she would not just disappear. This calls for a keen mind and someone who can afford the time to investigate.”

“Matrica Roki?” Milles said with a meager smile as he followed Rodgardae out.

“Mani will figure out what is going on,” Rodgardae said, nodding. He knew his consort would not appreciate a problem like this being landed on his shoulders, but on the other hand, he cared about Maid Aegirine and would want to know about her possible situation.

They tracked him down at the large, expansive drill fields deep inside the military base on the outskirts of the city proper. He and Wildt were facing off in another heated argument, Wildt reduced to pointing and flapping his arms like wings as they were obviously yelling about Lieutenant Dersk and Lieutenant Yvetle, who were flying in lazy circles above them, looking down occasionally to see if there were instructions coming their way.

They saw Rodgardae before Mani and Wildt did and landed quickly, tucking their heads down and their wings folded tight in the Kaaltendt fashion.

“I’m here for Matrica Roki. Your exercises are canceled, go make yourselves useful somewhere else,” he said as he walked up. Mani and Wildt had finally seen him approach, and stopped their “discussion”.

“Your Grace?” Wildt asked, frowning. “I thought you were at headquarters all day.”

“All day and for the foreseeable future, if my sister has her way,” Rodgardae confirmed with a sigh. “But Doctor Worthan has brought something urgent to my attention, and I wanted to hand it off to our Matrica.” He turned to Mani, whose eyebrows had gone sky-high. “Sorry to do it, Mani, but I think you will agree it is urgent. Captain, I want you here as well, you will be assisting the Matrica as much as you can. I’ll pull a couple of Wattish sergeants to help as well, since they will be more familiar with the city and locals than either of you.”

“What on earth is going on, Ro?” Mani’s expression and failure to use his titles gave away his worry. Rodgardae waved at Milles to step up and explain the situation, and when he was done, Mani looked genuinely upset.

“Would it help to even know where she was last seen?” he asked, obviously guessing the answer.

Milles shook his head. “Not really. We were in the middle of our train platform, and she disappeared into the crowd pretty quickly. As I said, the ensign, if he was that at all, took pains not to face us directly. I doubt anyone would be able to recall him, except possibly the maid who brought him there.”

“Mani.” Rodgardae stepped up and grasped his upper arm. “I simply cannot take any more time away from my job than I already have. I must return to headquarters, especially since my sister and our brother the prince is due back later today.”

Mani grimaced, but placed his hand over Rodgardae’s. “And Worthan has to return to the hospital, I’m sure.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I will take charge of the search. Don’t expect an update from me until this evening, but I’ll alert you immediately if we find her before then.”

They shared a look, and Rodgardae felt through their bond the same fear and panic he had earlier, overlaid with determination. Maid Aegirine — Agadart ver Kleelan — technically meant nothing to either of them, and yet, they shared a bond that reached out to her and probably always would. It was a feeling Rodgardae cherished, even as sad as it made him that the three of them would never be a formal triamond, but more than anything, he wanted to simply know she was safe.

He leaned over and blew propriety out of the water by kissing Mani softly. “You know I trust you above all others,” he whispered. Mani wrapped his hand around Rodgardae’s neck to bring him close again and press their foreheads together.

“I will get to the bottom of this, my beloved. I swear to you.”

Rodgardae nodded, relieved, but he wasn’t sure if Mani was talking about Agadart’s disappearance or the mystery of Agadart herself.