After breakfast, Jonah gave Iris a tour of the tower, with Char trailing behind them. The building was just that: a tower. The spiral staircase wound through the center, from the entrance at the bottom to Jonah's study at the top, with the occasional door on the outside of the stairs to mark a room. It was nowhere near as luxurious as Elera's home, or even Char's hideout behind the waterfall. The old stone walls were undecorated, furnishings were minimal, and one rather important room seemed to be missing.

"Um...what about the bathroom?" Iris asked hesitantly.

Jonah laughed and patted her on the head. "That is where you thank the fairies." He snapped his fingers, and the golden lights whizzed around a corner as if they had nothing better to do than answer to his summoning. "Fix Char's room up for the lady. She'll be staying for a while."

The fairies zipped away, and Iris looked from Jonah to Char. "Do you two just go in the forest or something?"

"I don't know what Char does," Jonah replied, shrugging. "He doesn't usually stay for long. I have my own facilities in my room, courtesy of the fairies."

"Why do they do everything for you?" Iris asked curiously.

"I think they just get bored. And I don't stick them in bottles for experiments. They appreciate that bit."

"I'm sure they do," Iris replied thoughtfully. "Do you just stay in this tower all the time, then?"

"For the most part. Not much to interest me outside of here."

"But you used to enjoy being outside so much. Oh, which reminds me." She gave him a big hug. "Thanks for saving my life."

"Uh...when did I do that?" Jonah asked, his pale blue eyes wide with surprise.

"When you taught me how to build a fire, and which plants were safe to eat and which were poisonous. After the dragons attacked Little Rest, I was stuck in the wilderness for a couple of days before Char found me."

"I wondered how you managed," Char commented.

"Although I forgot most of the stuff about the plants, so I ended up just eating mushrooms for two days," Iris added.

"You remembered that from when you were five?" Jonah asked incredulously.

"It really meant a lot to me when you took me out on those camping trips," Iris replied, smiling shyly.

Jonah stroked her hair affectionately. "Same little Iris. I really hated leaving you, and I meant to come back and visit, but then I found out about the amulet..."

"It's okay," Iris reassured him. "I know why."

"Hey, Char, you still haven't told me why you brought her here. Aren't there mages among the dragons who can shield her?"

"You know human mages are a touchy subject among dragons," Char replied.

Jonah winced. "Yeah, and the war probably doesn't help that perception much, either."

"No. I wasn't planning on bringing her anywhere near the other dragons, but things got out of hand when the battle started, and I lost track of her for a couple of days. When I found her, Rath was with me, so I had to bring her back home. She ended up a prisoner of war, and they transferred her to the magic school's dungeons because of that amulet."

"Why didn't you keep it hidden?" Jonah asked her.

"It wasn't her fault," Char intervened. "She had to use it to keep from freezing solid during the flight, so everybody saw it when we landed. The barriers weren't strong enough, anyway. She broke through a couple of times on her own."

"Iris!" Jonah scolded.

"Well, I couldn't just let Srot die," she said guiltily, dropping her gaze to the floor.

Jonah sighed. "No, of course you couldn't. And I don't know any dragon mages, but I'm guessing they would've recognized that amulet and at the very least wanted to study it - and you."

"She was unconscious when they took her to their dungeons, and she didn't really wake up until I got her out of there two days later. Is there any way of telling if they did something to her during that time?" Char asked.

"I can run a few tests, but I doubt they would have. The subject usually has to be awake for experiments to show anything." He sighed again. "You've had a rough time recently, haven't you, Iris?"

She shrugged dismissively, but her smile had vanished from her face. "Jonah...the king's mage said he killed Father John and the orphans."

Jonah frowned. "I wouldn't put it past him, but I also wouldn't believe him. He's a master of trickery and deception. And Father John's pretty resourceful, so if there was a way for him to at least save the orphans, he would have done it."

"I warned him about the attack, Iris," Char said quietly. She looked up at him quickly, her brown eyes wide with surprise. "I wanted to give him a chance to get you all out of there before the battle, but he wouldn't go. He promised to make sure you and Kayla were at the river at the right time."

"He...knew?" she asked.

Char nodded. "That's why he gave you the amulet."

"And why he..." She trailed off, putting her hand over her mouth as her last conversation with him came back to mind. He had been acting a bit strange, but she didn't think much of it at the time. Now, looking back, it seemed like he was saying goodbye.

"Ah, Char, why'd you have to make her cry?" Jonah asked, putting his arm around her shoulder. "Look, Iris, don't count him out yet. Father John isn't your average meek and mild priest. I won't believe he's dead until I see some proof."

She nodded, sniffling and blinking back tears. She wanted to believe that. It wasn't true, and she knew it, but she wanted desperately to believe it.

"You know, I think we can wait until tomorrow for the magic lesson. I'd like to do a bit of studying first, anyway. How about you check out your new room and take it easy?"

She nodded again. The magic lesson probably shouldn't wait, but she didn't feel up to doing much of anything right now. This morning had been too much of an emotional roller coaster.

"She's all yours, Char," Jonah said, removing his arm from her shoulders. "Try to keep in mind that she's basically my kid sister, okay?"

"I'll do that," Char replied, taking Iris by the hand. They were climbing the stairs up the tower and almost to her room already. Jonah took off ahead of them, and Char stopped on the landing, opening the iron latch and leading her inside.

"Oh, wow," she gasped.

The stones and the wall sconces were the same, but everything else was different. A new, circular dark green rug covered the middle of the floor, the uniform color broken up by thin golden threads that joined at the edges to form golden tassels. A rich oak four-poster bed frame reached almost to the ceiling, a sheer dark green canopy covering the top and draping down past the mattress, tied back at each post to reveal the leafy green and gold blanket and pillows. The bureau, too, was now a dark, rich oak, and her pile of clothes had vanished from the top, undoubtedly put away in the drawers. A plush, forest green sofa standing on oaken clawed feet decorated the wall under the window, framed by heavy green drapes with gold embroidery. An elaborate dressing screen depicting a woodland scene across its panels hid a claw-footed bathtub, washstand, chamber pot, and towels in one corner of the room.

"The fairies really do like you," Char commented.

"This is beautiful," Iris breathed, wide-eyed with wonder. Char's gentle hand on the small of her back guided her to the sofa. "Why these colors, I wonder?"

"I think I know," Char replied, sitting down and pulling her down beside him. "The green," he said, pinching her skirt between his fingers, "the brown," he said, tucking her hair behind her ear, "and the gold," he finished, placing a light kiss on the side of her eye.

"My eyes are brown," she corrected him shyly.

"With flecks of gold." He kissed her lips this time, cupping her far cheek in his hand, and she felt a fluttering in her stomach. "I thought you'd like Jonah, but I didn't realize you knew each other," he murmured, coaxing her to rest her head on his shoulder.

"He said I reminded him of his little sister. She died at the same time as his parents," Iris replied, content to snuggle into Char's side.

"He never told me he was an orphan."

"A lot of them don't. They move on, get jobs, get married, and they put it all behind them."

Char's fingers were combing through her hair. She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation. He sighed. "I don't like leaving you, Iris."

"Is the storm clearing up?"

"Looks like it."

Iris felt an aching in her heart. They hadn't known each other that long. This romance was all so new. It shouldn't be hard to tell him to go. But she didn't want him leaving, either, and she didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything.

"Be careful, Iris."

"What do you mean?" she asked, looking up at him curiously.

"You were a little girl the last time Jonah saw you. He was a teenager, I'm guessing. But now he's a grown man, and you're a beautiful young woman."

She smiled. "Are you jealous?"

Char shrugged, but his green eyes were intense.

"Well, you don't have anything to worry about. He told you himself that he sees me as his little sister."

"He says that now, and that's how it was fourteen years ago, but you're not his sister, Iris. Things change."

"This doesn't. Besides, if anybody should be jealous, it's me. As soon as you get back home, you'll be swarmed with pretty girls begging you to dance with them," she teased.

He smirked. "That's assuming I'll ever be allowed out of the barracks again."

Iris' smile faltered. "How are you going to explain it? Being gone so long?"

"Simple." He leaned in and kissed her again. "Rina's a wild girl." His hand settled on the far side of her waist as he shifted closer, slipping his tongue past her lips, cradling the back of her head with his other hand as his kiss deepened.

"Char," she gasped, but his lips were already on hers again, stealing her breath and drawing a moan from her throat.

"Iris," he breathed. His kisses were dizzying, asking a question that she answered by wrapping her arms around his neck and giving herself over to his affection. She didn't even know she was on her back on the sofa until he pulled back, panting for breath, his smoldering green eyes hovering above hers. "I'll be back as soon as I can," he promised, dropping a kiss on the tip of her nose. "And when this is all over, I'm bringing you home with me." Another kiss on her forehead. "Wait for me, Iris."

"I'll wait," she said, captivated by his eyes.

He grinned and placed a chaste kiss on her lips, and then he was gone, his warmth and his weight removed from her body. She sat up and called after him as he opened the door.

"Fly safely, Char."

He smirked. "I'll be fine."

The door closed behind him. Iris fell back on the sofa, closing her eyes and putting her hands on her cheeks, feeling their heat. When had she stopped being terrified of him and started loving him? Because that's what this had to be, this relentless throbbing in her chest, this need to see him again. She sat up and peered through the window, watching the snowflakes drifting slowly past the glass to the blanket of white down below. There was a clearing around the tower, a smooth layer of white separating the stone structure from the dark brown trunks and green leaves capped with snow. She waited, and a man in black appeared down below, his booted feet leaving tracks in the snow, his black hair ruffled by a sudden burst of wind, and then he was gone, and a massive black dragon leaped into the air, the downstroke of its wings bending the trees and scattering the snow, the upstroke sucking the flakes up into a flurry around him as he rose higher. A single sharp green eye met hers through the window, and then the reptilian head turned away, and she watched the ridge of hard black scales trailing from the top of his skull to the tip of his tail climb up and away, carried by the strong beats of muscular wings as wide across as he was long. She watched until he disappeared into the gray sky.