It was late in the evening, yet Rodgardae had retired to his quarters only an hour before. His brain hurt from all the meetings and strategy sessions he had endured. His sister, Admiral Leonteinparre the Elder, had arrived in a swirl of anger and misery. Lives were being lost in staggering proportions in their attempt to hold the emperor’s forces off the coast, and it having become a battle of attrition, the Wattish forces were destined to lose.

No one liked to acknowledge the truth, least of all his proud and moribund sister who had grown up believing the Isle of Watt was invincible. Trying to convince her and the other elders of the impending disaster was its own battlefront, as they just believed that if they threw more dragons forward, the sooner they would gain the upper hand. Rodgardae was determined that the mere wing he was in charge of would not be one of the ones thrown into the crucible as a pointless sacrifice.

It had been a long, long day.

While his staff had prepared his study with a nice fire and a warm pot of honeyed tea on a table next to a comfortable chair, the most important element was missing: Mani.

Of course, he knew that he probably would not see Mani that night, but it still felt odd not to come home to him. Worse, the fact that he was not there clearly meant that he had not found Agadart, or indeed, had any news to share about her disappearance.

With a sigh, Rodgardae stripped out of his uniform straight into his pajamas, figuring there was no point in wearing casual clothes if he was just going to drink his tea and then head straight to bed. A headache was threatening to form, and he felt the magic of his flying form pressing against his skin, anxious to take to the skies and defend his home.

He was deep into his second cup of tea and considering spiking it with whiskey when Mani stepped through the door. Rodgardae’s first instinct was to rise with a smile, glad to have his mate back by his side, but the grim expression on Mani’s face made him falter as he stood up.

“What did you find?” Rodgardae asked, filled with trepidation.

“Not your worst fears, but it’s definitely not good news. I wanted to come and report it to you myself.”

Rodgardae took his hand and led him to the chair opposite his, the one more thickly upholstered and covered in opulent fabrics. Mani snorted at that lightly, but it was only a momentary reprieve from his serious demeanor. He sat down and accepted the cup of tea Rodgardae offered him.

“I’ll get to the important part first: she’s definitely been kidnapped. We assume she was taken alive, but past that, I have no information to provide.” Mani did not relax in the chair at all, sitting on the edge of it, his posture tight.

“What did you discover, then?”

“The medicines we assumed were the reason why she disappeared.” He sighed.

Rodgardae frowned. “All of them?”

“All of them. Untouched in the bag they were originally packed in.” Mani raised his hand to still Rodgardae’s questions. “We got to the station and I decided we would conduct a room-by-room search. The station master was incredibly helpful and pulled some older plans for the station, which — oh, I suppose you already know it used to be an autumn palace for Queen Esthae?”

Rodgardae nodded, because everyone in Watt knew that. “May she fly in peaceful skies eternal.”

“Right, right. The soldiers Captain Wildt assigned me got more soldiers and I had them conduct a thorough search. Here’s the hitch: I told them to literally leave no box unturned, and they didn’t. Everything got tossed over. Old trunks, closets, wardrobes, cabinets…if it had a door or a lid, they opened it. I’ll give them credit for following directions.”

Rodgardae read between the lines of what Mani was saying: they had been looking for a body stuffed into an out-of-the-way location.

“In one of the lower levels, there is a section that probably used to be a series of wine cellars and now serves as random storage rooms, occasionally offices. Dank and dreary, and the gas lights barely cut the mood. One of the soldiers found a room that was utterly trashed, like a dragon had been spinning around madly knocking everything over. An old filing cabinet was tipped on its side, but he dutifully checked the drawers and ta-da! The missing bag, with all the medicines in it.” He stared at his half-drank cup of tea angrily, got up, fetched the whiskey from the nearby cabinet and topped it off before sitting down again.

“We assume she hid it there on purpose,” Rodgardae surmised.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“We do. We also assume she fought like a demon when they came to drag her out. No blood, and we had a shifted dragon come sniff it out just in case. Whomever took her was careful there too; it mostly smelled of widdlegrass.”

“Ugh,” Rodgardae said instinctively, cringing.

“Right. The dragon — one of the Wattish dragons in your flight, sorry I cannot remember his name — took one sniff and scuttled out of there quick as you please. He at least confirmed there was no blood, while also confirming that whomever took her knew that someone, at some point, might come looking for her.”

“What the hell?” Rodgardae looked at him. “Who would want a random Kaaltendt dragon maid?”

Mani looked over at him. “Is she really so random, though?”

Of course she wasn’t, but they were far out of Kaaltendt and even further from Queen Theaedra’s court.

But Mani was shaking his head. “No, not Kaaltendt operatives. If they wanted her, they had plenty of chances to grab her on their own turf.” He paused, sipping his spiked tea, which Rodgardae was getting jealous of. He stood up and went to get the whiskey. He simply took the bottle and set it on the table between them after he filled his cup.

“Go on.”

“Her husband was Baron Stewardt, who was executed for treason a year ago. He was a spy for the Rhezvan Empire.”

Rodgardae had to sit in silence for a moment digesting that. It answered so many questions that Mani had hedged around when explaining her situation. “A serious court scandal,” indeed. He sighed. “What on earth would they want with his widow? The one who turned him in to begin with?” Rodgardae shook his head. “Even if it was just revenge, it would be easier to get a sniper’s sights on her. This whole complicated plot is too convoluted for that.”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing. The only thing I can think of is that somehow, someway, she has knowledge they want from her. Maybe something she doesn’t even realize might be important to them. Perhaps something her husband told her at some point?” He sighed heavily. “Honestly I have no idea. Grasping at straws.” He finished off his cup but did not refill it. “Anyway, the search continues, but we’ve moved out past the train station to surrounding alleyways and bolt-holes. The whole city is crammed with people, though, so if her body was dumped anywhere near there, I’m certain someone would have stumbled over her by now.”

“You believe they grabbed her and took her out of the city? To where?” He paused, thinking. “A ship. So they went to the coast where presumably a small cutter or similar would be waiting…I don’t know, Mani, that’s a hell of a lot of work for someone who is just not important anymore, no matter who she might have been once.”

“It’s that or they mistook her for someone else? That’s the going theory among the soldiers, who are all Wattish and not impressed with dragon maids as a rule. Although one mentioned that maybe she is someone else, like a high-ranking member of your brother the prince’s court.”

“Don’t be absurd.” Rodgardae snorted disdainfully. “As if anyone at court would be caught dead pretending to be a dragon maid.”

Mani waved a hand at him as if that explained everything. Perhaps it did.

“What is your next step, then? After having reported to me?” He smiled, but it was rueful. Mani would not be staying, and Rodgardae would not be leaving. They did not spend many nights apart anymore, but this was important. Rodgardae’s stomach roiled with the thought of Agadart being injured, although he chose not to explore the reasons behind that too much.

Mani didn’t respond right away, instead tapping the empty cup in his hand with his fingers. “It’s all so odd, Ro. The mysterious ensign, the fact the medicines were not even searched for, that they took her out of the station and likely out of the city entirely.”

He was holding back on something. “And?”

Mani sat up straight again. “I do not mean to be callous, because I am fond of her, as are you. But why do we care so much? Why do I feel like an important piece of myself is missing? Why are you vibrating with the strength of holding yourself back from shifting and flying out the window to find her?”

Rodgardae realized, as soon as Mani said it, that indeed he was clutching at his self-control, and he had not even realized. But he shook his head again. “She’s not a dragon, Mani.”

“No. No, she’s not. But…and I am breaking confidence here, but I feel the situation warrants it: she’s dragonkin.”

The news was not surprising at first, since everyone Rodgardae had ever grown up with was dragonkin, but then he realized that Mani was talking about a Kaaltendt noble family. Dragons were a rare and precious commodity there, but not respected outside of the queen’s court. A necessity and little more, they were not treated kindly by the society that had once turned on them.

Mani nodded as he saw realization dawn. “Her paternal uncle, apparently. He did not want to serve in the military’s dragon corps and, even as the eldest, could not inherit the family title and lands, so ran away to the Westlands. A bit of a shameful episode, to hear her tell it. Mind you I don’t think her mysterious uncle is involved in this, but I feel like there is something to that story we might be missing. Something that might be playing into this whole matter.”

Rodgardae considered that. “How many dragons are assigned to help you right now?”

Mani paused, thinking. “I have twelve soldiers assigned to me at this point, and two of them are dragons.”

“Get Wildt to provide you with at least five more dragons, and have them shift to their flying form. If dragons are involved in this, they will be better able to sniff it out.”

Mani stood up, and Rodgardae followed. “Yes, Your Grace,” he said formally, but ended with a slight smirk that Rodgardae kissed off his face. It was less romantic than it was soothing and calming for both of them, and would be the last kiss they would share for a while…possibly days if the search took Mani out to the coast.