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Faith picked up Savira’s egg and stared at it. “That is quite astounding.” She closed her eyes and concentrated. “Ahh, I see, so you use your energy to form not only your new infant form but the nutriment as well?”

Darlryan nodded. “That’s why it’s so hard for the kedri. They aren’t strong enough to form their own yolk, as it were, so their mirari or idri have to do it for them.”

“I see,” Faith said. “And incubation varies with strength as well, doesn’t it? How long will she be in there for?”

“It does,” he said. “And Sav isn’t the strongest ida by a long way, so I’d imagine several weeks at least. Quite possibly two or three months. Can I have a look at her bond with Lady Kaliss? I want to see if I can tell if it’s starting to heal.”

Faith handed over the egg without complaint and he frowned at it. “Well their bond is certainly doing something, I can feel Sav reaching along it for Kaliss and Kaliss reaching for her. It’s too soon to say if it will work but as a first sign it’s hopeful.”

“It is.” Estara reached over and touched the egg. “There’s definite signs of their essence weaving into the bond and strengthening it already. I suspect there’ll be some improvement even if it doesn’t completely work.”

“Probably,“ he agreed. “I just hope however much it heals is enough to satisfy Sav. And I wish there was some way to help.”

“The only help we can give it is to keep monitoring it and not let Kaliss out of stasis until improvement stops or the egg hatches, which ever is sooner,” Estara said. “Take another look tomorrow. You promised Savira you’d make notes for her anyway.”

“I know,” he said. “And I will.” He handed the egg back to Faith “Look after my niece, please, Faith-alra.”

“Of course I will,” she said. “She has done horrible things but I get the feeling that she could have been a wonderful person but for the pain she was in. We’ll try and fix that.”

“Before she slipped into descent, she was,” Estara said. “It was a very long time ago but she used to expend a lot of effort on diplomacy and trying to improve draconic-speaker relations.”

“I never heard of that,” Sonia said.

“It was a couple of millenia ago,” Darlryan said. “The Speakers have forgotten her efforts by now, but she did a lot of good and only experimented with permission until her frustration and pain overwhelmed her. I should have knocked some sense into her straight away. Her mother would be so mad at me.”

“Your sister?” Sonia said. “I gather Xantaria killed her and that’s why you hate her?”

“Oh I already hated her for what she did to Key,” he said. “It’s why I want to rip her heart out. Sanisa was Keylaria’s second and took the red miriate when Key vanished during the exodus. Xantaria wanted it but knew she couldn’t get the support she needed to mount a challenge, so she killed San by treachery and removed all the rest of the red idri the same way so she was the only choice. She only missed Gerian because he was a child and someone hid him. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was behind the state his heart friend was in.” He frowned quietly. “And she’ll surely come after Andrew-idan as well.”

Estara narrowed her eyes. “That is a good point. I’ll mention it to Al and I think we’ll get Takilya to tell Gerian, though he probably suspects.”

Sonia paled and put an arm around Andrew’s shoulders. “What should we look out for. Illness? She likes using treachery, right?”

“Yes,” he said. “And ambushes. She’s probably hoping he’ll be killed in the ongoing conflict but she’ll strike at him directly if she sees the chance.”

“Well, let’s make sure she doesn’t see one then.” Andrew somehow managed to keep his voice level even though his mouth had gone dry and Naria was clutching at his hand in a way that told him she was as frightened as he was.

“That’s the idea,” Estara said. “You need a guard.” She looked at Darlryan. “What about your son? He seemed to like him.”

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