Evelyn didn't remember closing her eyes, but when she opened them again she found herself in her old bedroom—exactly the same except for the dragonet under her arm. She lay back under the covers in the warmth, lethargically content, before she remembered the last night and sat up in a hurry, which turned out to be a mistake.

She clutched her head as the pain hit her, moaning softly. Her dragonet, disturbed from her slumber, raised her own head to sniff Evelyn's.

"Just a headache," Evelyn reassured her. "Used to have them all the time when I first started training, but I don't remember them being this bad. Hopefully I still have some mentibark tea somewhere."

Wincing from the sunlight that seemed determined to penetrate through the window glass, her curtains, and her closed eyelids, Evelyn stumbled into her kitchen-garden with her dragonet trailing behind her and rifled through the drawers.

"I know I have it somewhere," she muttered to herself. "No, that's a seed packet. Why are the spades mixed in with the forks? Ah, here it is!" She opened up a glass jar filled with tea packets and set a kettle boiling on the stove, coughing when the strong scent of the mentibark drifted through her nose.

She took a quick shower while the tea boiled. Quick, because her dragonet shied and refused to follow her under the water, even though she had been so ready to follow her anywhere else. But when she dressed and came out, she couldn't hear the kettle singing.

Curious, she stepped out of her bedroom where she'd changed only to find Marcy at the door with a mug of tea in her hand.

"All your mugs have dirt in them, Evelyn," she criticized, pushing her way into the room, shoving the mug into Evelyn's hands, and flinging herself into a chair. "I just cleaned all of them for you, or at least the ones I could find."

Evelyn took a sip of the tea. Mentibark normally tasted similar to lemons and mint, but Marcy had put generous dollops of honey in it. "Er . . . thank you . . ."

"And there's pile of dragon droppings in a flower pot in the kitchen." Marcy raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Don't tell me you're going to use them for fertilizer."

"What? Of course not!"

"Good. I don't think I'd ever visit you again if you did."

Before Evelyn could figure out an answer, there was a knock on the door, and Marcy's body stiffened.

"What? I told him not to come yet!" Evelyn heard her exclaim before she rushed to the door, reaching it before Evelyn had even blinked.

"I told you not to come yet!"

"Look, Marcy, this is important." It was Marvin. "Where's Evelyn?"

"I'm right here." Evelyn recovered herself and emerged from the room, interrupting them. "What's the problem?"

"Evelyn." Marvin sounded relieved but looked embarrassed. "There's something we need—"

"What she needs is sleep to get over that headache, but she isn't going to get that when you're here."

"Hey," Evelyn interceded, rubbing her temples. Marvin, who was about to retort, turned back to her, looking sheepish. Marcy, oblivious, rattled on.

"But no, it's not like you care whether or not she—"

"Marcy!" Evelyn interrupted her. She knew her friend meant well, but sometimes she could be a bit ridiculous.

"What?"

"My headache really isn't all that bad." This was close to an outright lie, but Marcy would've started berating Marvin again if she had said otherwise. "Besides, if I need to hear what he has to say, then a headache isn't going to matter."

Marcy pursed her lips, knowing she had lost. "Fine," she said finally. "But stay here at least. I'll leave you two alone." With that, she spun on her heel, left the suite and closed the door behind her, leaving both Evelyn and Marvin more than a little bit stunned.

"Well," Marvin spoke after a while. "Getting rid of her was easier than I though it would be."

Evelyn, who knew exactly why Marcy had been so keen to get the two of them alone, could do no more than blush.

"Come," she said, beckoning him into her bedroom and sitting down on her bed with a tired sigh. He took a prim seat by the windowsill.

"Is Seraphine doing better?" she asked after a marginally awkward silence. "Is that why you're here?"

"That's part of the reason, yes," he admitted, visibly relaxing a little bit. "But the rest of it is more . . . classified information."

"Is that what she told you last night?"

"Partly. She was trying to tell me that the malcoves hadn't been after her. They were trying to get past her."

Evelyn drew in a sharp breath. "Meaning that they knew where the bunker was?"

Marvin shook his head. "Not necessarily. Seraphine thinks they found the floor hatch by accident. No, we think they were specifically trying to follow you. Or at least your dragonet."

"But why?" Evelyn asked, choking on her tea. Her dragonet, alarmed by the coughing, crawled up from the foot of the bed to sniff her concernedly. "It's not possible that she could be . . . you know . . . a dark dragon anymore. She's no more use to them than any other sun-born dragonet." She said the last part fiercely.

"I know, I know," Marvin said hastily. "But whatever they want her for, we need to make sure she's protected. Aldebar is planning to propose to the Council that you, she, and another experiences rider and dragon take a 'vacation.'"

Evelyn let the information sink in. "I'm not sure if she can survive a long journey," she whispered, afraid of what she was saying. "I didn't really want to say this before, but she's too tiny."

Marvin nodded uneasily. "Yes, she is unusually small, but I don't think it will mean very much. She's eaten everything that was given to her?"

"Erm . . ." Evelyn panicked for a moment. "Who was feeding her? I was asleep."

Marvin blinked in surprise. "Oh, I was. Well, that's settled then. If she's getting enough sunshine then she should be fine." Dragons got half their energy from tangible food, usually plants, and half from the sun. They could survive on just one of their food sources, but in order to be healthy, they had to have a sufficient amount of both.

"But I think that's the problem, isn't it? She wasn't born under the sun."

Marvin blinked in surprise a second time. "You know, you're probably right. I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to ask Aldebar about it; he'll know what to do."

Evelyn nodded in consent, but asked a question after Marvin had lapsed into thoughtful silence. "So . . . if they're really after us . . . where will I go?"

Marvin shifted uncomfortably, an action that did not go unnoticed by Evelyn. "We have a few ideas, but we're not really sure yet. We want to see what the Council thinks first."

"So that you can send me to a different place than what they agree on?"

Marvin smiled dimly. "You got it in one. We're not taking any chances this time around."

Evelyn stared at him quizzically. "So you know for sure that someone's leaking, or is it just precaution?"

"Aldebar and I are just careful. Oh, there are small hints here and there, but they may turn out to be coincidences. We have a list of possible traitors that we're keeping a close watch on, though."

Evelyn nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. "Who would be going with me, then?"

Marvin didn't stiffen this time, but his face became more guarded. "No idea. We're rather short of experienced riders at the moment, to say the least."

Evelyn remembered the empty dragon stalls and lack of the noises she remembered. "Is there something going on that nobody has told me about yet?" she questioned slowly, hoping he would give her a straight answer.

Marvin sighed, reaching his hands up to rub his temples. "There's another fight between Suhderlan and Fivelglyn. We have twenty-three riders down there at the moment."

"But that shouldn't be taking such a drain," Evelyn stated, confused. "It's never taken so much power before just to control a border skirmish." Throughout history, the quarrels between Suhderlan and Fivelglyn had become so common as to almost become part of a yearly routine.

"It's somewhat more than a border skirmish this time. More like an outright war."

Evelyn gaped in surprise. "But how? The last true war between them was over a hundred fifty years ago! What could possibly have set them off this time?"

We don't actually know," marvin replied, his face drawn. "It seemed to erupt overnight. No t even a hint of trouble beforehand. We've lost fourteen already," he added, sadly.

Evelyn's breath caught in her throat. "Dead, or—"

Marvin raised a finger. "One dead for sure. We found her body in the forests of Fivelglyn. There was no sign of her dragon. Then again, all of their bodies could've been hidden under our noses and we never would've found them. All those damn caves . . ."

Evelyn nodded sympathetically. The forests and hills of Fivelglyn by the Suhderlan border were riddle with tunnels used by thieves, smugglers and bandits, and occasionally government officials. Marvin rarely cursed, so when he did, Evelyn knew how upset he was about it.

"You were there?" she asked gently.

"I was," he replied, staring off into the distance. "Just for three months about a year ago, when it first started." He paused, his face an open mask of pain that made Evelyn want to hug him like she used to. His eyes suddenly refocused to find her staring at him, and she quickly averted her gaze, trying to pretend that she had been staring out the window. She had a feeling that it didn't work.

"You should get some sleep," he said finally, a wisp of humor in his voice. "Or Marcy will have my head."

Evelyn hurriedly suppressed a yawn, feeling like a child that would do anything to not go to bed. "I'm not tired," she protested, secretly wanting him to stay longer. "She can't decapitate you if I refuse to sleep."

Marvin chuckled. "She could find a reason to, I'm sure." He came to the bed and held up the covers, playing a servant with a Duonthian accent. "If'n it'm pleasem you'm marm." He mock-bowed and Evelyn obligingly slid under the covers after putting aside the empty tea mug, stifling another avalanche of yawns.

Marvin closed the curtains across the windows, making the room grow dark. Her dragonet's scales became an eerie silhouette at the foot of the bed. Marvin's facial expression was invisible.

Evelyn's eyelids drooped, almost of their own accord. Marcy had probably put a pill to help her sleep in the mug, the sneaky mischief. Just as she was drifting off, she heard Marvin say her name.

"Evelyn?"

She meant to say something, give a soft sigh of acknowledgement, but oblivion was so close now, and to stay awake for a single moment longer seemed a crime.

And that tiredness was most likely why, a few moments later, she thought she felt a whisper of a kiss placed gently upon her brow.

Most likely why, anyway.

Heya, I've had this chapter written for a while, as well as the next two, but since I typically write with pen and paper, it's taken me some time to get it typed up. I hope to have the next two (possibly three) parts up in two days time, just so you know.

FlythruFire