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“You should have done,” Indaturan said. “But I wonder why he was after your research? He wouldn’t have been interested in the bond problem.”

“He might be, actually,” Alartyia said slowly. “If he’s realised why born dragons don’t have heart friends. He may not care about the bond but its nature might teach him something about achieving his own goals.

“That’s true,” Savira said quietly. “But would it have occurred to him? He’s not the cleverest of us, after all.”

“He’s clever enough to hold his Miriate for millenia,” Indaturan said. “Though perhaps not to realise that.” He hummed to himself. “But some of his Alrari might realise and nasty as he is, he does listen to them. At least he does when it relates to what he wants.”

“Let’s try and find out,” Alaryia said. “Right now we’re just guessing and that doesn’t help resolve the situation. For now we should adjourn this and let Matthias-idan and Sonia-ida check with the people they wish to raise Savira in her new life.”

“We should, shouldn’t we” Sonia said. “And check things haven’t fallen apart while we’re gone.”

“They won’t have,” Julie said confidently. “A message would have come if they had.”

“That’s true, Sonia,” Matthias said.

“We should still get back,” she said. “As long as that thing is in the sky I don’t want to be away too long.”

“That won’t be a problem much longer,” Darlrydan said. “I’m confident Anda’s device wiill work and I’m almost ready to deploy it. But he left a warning embedded in it. Xantaria will undoubtedly throw everything she can at us to stop it closing. She wants it open and is behind the void storm around it.”

“Void! He’s pushing it!” Alaryia said. “If Xantaria finds out…”

“Are you sure it’s not a trick,” Matthias asked. “He is her ally after all.”

“That would be dishonourable,” Ystelyan said. “And gold is honour. Xantaria might order him to try something like that and he’d try because of his vow to her but Anda is a terrible liar. We’d know.”

“Ah! That’s why you said he was pushing it,” Lydia said. “Because he’s pushing the edge of his oath to her and oathbreaking is dishonorable, if anything is.”

“”Not exactly,” Alaryia said. “I mean she’s got him between breaking his word and acting dishonorably in her service. If he wasn’t bound he’d break his word in a moment…” She trailed off with sigh.

“So what is worrying you?” Lydia asked.

“He’s oathbound and doesn’t have an obvious way out,” Ystelyan said. “But if she pushes him too far he’ll break his word anyway to avoid dishonour and for the kithreiri breaking a bound oath is usually fatal. I’d like to strangle whoever developed the technique.”

“Usually?” Matthias said.

“Usually,” Estara said. “The mirari can survive it in service of their colour. That’s where we come from.”

“Ah!” Lydia exclaimed. “That’s what you call breaking your bounds? I think you were worrying about him doing that before.”

“It is,” Alaryia said. “And we’re even more worried now.”

“Worried, why?” Sonia asked. “You don’t want him to become a dragon?”

“Not really,” Alaryia said. “Golds generally don’t make good dragons and there’s no reason to think Anda would be one of the rare exceptions. I like him too much to want to see him miserable.”

“Of course he’s already miserable given what Xantaria is doing,” Estara said. “You should talk to your mother-in-law, Al. She might be able to figure out an angle to unravel his oath.”

“I will,” she said. “Because this is a mess and that just maks me hate Xantaria more. I hope we can rescue him from her.”

“Me too,” Lydia said. “He was kind to me. I barely met him and I like him.”

“Yes, Anda has that effect on most people,” Ystelyan said.

“We’re getting distracted,” Sonia said. “We have to go to Waldhafen and talk to the Silvers.” She smiled at Savira’s curious head tilt. “They are there with their foster daughter while she’s being healed.”

 

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A/N: Thanks to Torvawk for agreeing to read through the edited version of Haventon book one. I’m still looking for a couple more volunteers to read through the edited manuscript and give me final feedback before I release it as a book. If you’d like to volunteer pop me a comment on this installment and I’ll send you the manuscript.

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