Saveen knelt down and pressed her eye to the gap between the wooden boards of the shed. Through the small opening, she caught glimpses of movement beyond. Motion and stillness, light and dark, impressions of what existed on the other side but nothing concrete. The scents she smelled were just as confusing. She couldn't even begin to separate them into anything she could understand.

This city— this chaotic, loud, extravagant, stinking, and blazing impossible city— loomed around her. It threatened to smother her with the sheer scope of its grandeur. The shed's rotting planks were a paltry barrier, unequal to the task of shielding a frightened dragon from the Spired City. From the menace. From the fear.

From the allure.

Saveen held her human body's hands over her heart and took deep breaths. She was torn. The world of mortals was dangerous; everything Trell taught her said so. And yet, she would be a liar if she said the City of Althandor hadn't captured her fascination.

She pulled away from the shed wall, the shadows playing outside, and the cries of the humans as they engaged in their unfathomable rituals. Saveen looked down at herself. Her body was wrong somehow, or so the blood runner had said. She tried to hold the polymorphy that suppressed her natural pigmentation, but it was proving too much for her to maintain. Her skin was blue. That was her. The form was merely a shape, but the color was where Saveen found a dragon. The other her— the her that the blood runner approved of— was a lie.

What could she possibly learn about the mortals as a lie?

Saveen decided that she could be herself for now. The blue returned. Pointless to be otherwise while she was kept in this rotten cage. She settled in to wait, which was nothing she hadn't done before. Nearly all her life had been spent waiting in the days before... Before so much.

Before Trell's lair was discovered by unexpected visitors. Before her adoptive father was bound to his Onyx Knight. Before the empress. Before her bond. Before pain, mortal cities, and blood runners.

Before Kimpo.

Tears welled in Saveen's eyes as she thought of the Huntress, Eldest of the red dragons. Kimpo was being tortured even now. The empress wouldn't forgive what she had done. She'd make Kimpo suffer, maybe kill her if her rage was great enough. Saveen prayed, to who or what she couldn't say. She prayed that Kimpo's true Ruby Knight would find her and deliver her from the agonies she endured.

My name is wrong, Saveen thought miserably. In the ancient songs of dragonkind that were older than even the Aeldenn Tones, saveen meant bastion. She was nothing like that. It was an ideal of blue dragons that she would never be able to match. How could she when she was so pathetically fragile?

A true Bastion would have been able to protect those she loved.

Ever since the empress commanded Saveen to first take a human form, Saveen found a semblance of comfort in this body. When taking a creature's shape, a dragon took on a bit of its manner. Something about the way this body reacted to Saveen's doubts and self-loathing, with shaking and tears, made her feel a measure of validation. If a human body could react so to how she felt, those feelings must be real.

Saveen allowed herself to cry. It was horrible, but it was far better than keeping those feelings sealed within an impenetrable hide. How strong the mortals must have been if they could shed their weakness through their tears.

The door burst open. The loud crack of wood slamming against wood made Saveen jump, her crying forgotten in the face of sudden panic.

"Bloody stones," a man's voice grumbled. "Where'd that gobshite stash it?" A tall human stepped inside the shed, his features indiscernible as he was silhouetted by the gaslight outside. "Ought find the wee ponce and 'ave Durl work 'is mug 'til 'is teeth break loose."

"Bury the bellyaching, Malkolm," someone scolded from behind the first man. "Reb said he was around level twenty when Od's boys found him. He'd have stuck it somewhere they wouldn't find it."

Malkolm looked over his shoulder. "The lad could 'ave said more plain where."

"Maybe," the second man said, "but when half of Fellowton is chasing your arse, you tend to lose your eye for detail. Give Reb a break."

"I'll give 'im two," Malkolm muttered. "One for each thumb."

Saveen held her breath. She didn't think that the burly human had spotted her, and she didn't dare to move a muscle. Whether it was his rough accent or the casual way he threatened violence, Malkolm gave the impression of a man whose attention she didn't want.

Whimpering fool, she berated herself. You're a dragon. Be something else. Something they won't think twice of finding here. Change, damn you!

The human body misted away. Another took its place.

Malkolm's eyes snapped towards Saveen, drawn by the motion of her polymorphy. The human cursed and took three hasty steps back. He stumbled out through the door and slammed it shut.

"Eh?" the second man grunted. "You look like you saw a ghost, boyo."

"Bloody stones!" Malkolm shouted. "Some nutter's keeping a rumbling fangblade in there!"

"Sod off."

"By my mum's blessed grave. Was dark, but I saw it. Fangs long as my arm. Paws bigger than my head. Mum served House Vantalan at Ellwyn's Pass, so I know a fangblade when I see one."

Saveen looked down. Her paws seemed what they should be. They certainly weren't any bigger than a man's head. During her first flights with Trell in the lands around their lair, she'd often see creatures such as this living alongside the mortals. More often than not, they bedded down together, mount and rider. Was Althandor really so different from her old home? She should ask the blood runner when he returned."

"Fangblade? You're off your nut." There was the sound of a brief scuffle from outside.

"Leave off! What ye grabbing for?"

"Checking your arm for spots."

"You think I'm 'itting the bruise dust?"

"First time for everything, boyo. Let me get a look at this fangblade."

"Don't be daft, Cardin. Beast'll take your 'ead soon as blink."

The door was pushed slowly open.

Saveen panicked. If the mortals of this kingdom didn't like the big cats like they did near her old home, she needed to be something different. There weren't many different forms at her disposal; Trell often said the few forms she crafted were unconvincing. With discovery imminent and the door opening, she became something else out of desperate reflex.

Flames, not blue, she berated herself at the last moment and altered her natural pigment.

"Winds take me." The second man had come inside, cautious despite his confident words. He was young, much as the blood runner, but dressed in different clothing. They seemed similar to what Garret wore. A hat with a wide brim was on his head, but he quickly doffed it and held it to his chest. He looked over his shoulder and spoke in a disapproving growl. "You been drinking, Malkolm? There's no fangblade here. It's a blustering girl."

"Bloody..." The first man stormed up behind the other and gaped. His eyes fell on Saveen, kneeling and cowering. "Swear it was sommat else. Near shat my smallclothes."

"By the smell of you, you ought have clenched up quicker. Give me a light." He looked at Saveen and took a slow step closer. His voice went soft and almost gentle. "Winds. Are you alright, love?"

"You know how much these spells cost?" Malkolm grumbled. He poured something from a vial onto his palm. The liquid began to shine in his cupped hand, bathing the shed's interior in a harsh glow.

Malkolm was older than his friend, if Saveen was any judge of such things. His hair was black and so were his narrow eyes. If he were older and half as wide at the shoulder, he might have looked like Garret. There was a thin mustache on his lip. It was oiled and curled. A strange, cylindrical hat was on his head, and he wore a circle of glass over his right eye socket.

The other took another step towards Saveen. She flinched away from him.

"Easy," he said while holding his palms up. Slowly, he lowered himself down to one knee in front of her, his eyes never leaving her face. He set his hat on the ground between them. "We won't hurt you. I'm Cardin, and the lout back there is Malkolm. What are you doing here?"

Saveen worked her jaw, but her voice had run off and didn't seem to be coming back. She watched Cardin's hands, expecting them to make a grab for her at any moment.

Cardin looked different from his friend. The tousled hair beneath his hat was a light brown, nearly blond. His skin was tanned dark, which was something she'd never seen before, but it was his eyes that frightened her the most. They were green.

Just like the empress.

At last, her voice returned. "Aleesh."

Cardin froze in place, and his eyes went wide with shock. He cast a furtive look over his shoulder at Malkolm before turning back to her. "Not so," he whispered. "Winds, who are you to know what an... what one of them looks like?"

"Please leave," Saveen whimpered. "My master will be back any moment."

There was a change in Cardin's green eyes. It wasn't much different from how Trell's would turn dangerous if Saveen said the wrong thing or asked about her mother. She shrank away from Cardin and his dangerous eyes.

"Master," he said in what was almost a snarl. "Winds take me. I've half a mind to wait around for the bastard and give him a piece of my mind."

"Let's go," Malkolm warned. "She must be one of Od's, and he's ticked at us as is."

"Od peddles bruise dust to the slummers and what nobles come looking for a wild night," Cardin shot back. "Even he's not stupid enough for this. The king doesn't send the guard after slavers. He sends assassins."

"And anyone what's willing to risk that is out of our league," Malkolm argued in a harsh whisper. "Leave 'er and let's go."

"Sod off, Malkolm. I mean it this time."

With a grunt of displeasure, Malkolm relented. He traced his eyes over Saveen, lingering on her chest. The way he looked at her made her feel soiled somehow.

"I'm not leaving you here," Cardin said while removing his coat.

Saveen shook her head and fended Cardin's attempt to drape the coat around her shoulders. "No! He told me to wait for him right here."

"This bastard tells you to sit around in the nip, and you wait like a pet?"

Saveen hated that word, the one both Garret and the empress used for her. She shoved Cardin away from her and sent him skidding all the way to the door. "I said stay away!" she shouted.

"Bloody stones," Malkolm exclaimed. "Girl's stronger than she looks."

Cardin was getting back on his feet. "Calm down, love. You have a notion of what this master of yours has planned for you?"

"He's saving me," Saveen snapped.

"Sure, and I live in the palace. He's making you a slave, a blustering plaything he can sell off to bastards as sick as he is."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Saveen said. "Go away!"

"I've eyes. I've the sense spirits gave an earthworm. You telling me you trust this master of yours? That he's not just leading you somewhere he can sell what he hasn't already taken?"

We're going to his tower, Saveen thought. Where the other blood runners are. He... wouldn't do that.

Or maybe he would. He was supposed to be her Sapphire Knight, but he talked as if he hated the very idea of it. And, he suddenly agreed to keep her with him when she could tell he wanted nothing less. Blood runners could steal the ether from someone. Trell said so. That was why the empress wanted to talk to him in the first place. Was he taking her to his tower just to turn her over to the blood runners and be rid of her?

She didn't want to believe that. She wanted to trust the blood runner, but he was yet to show a single speck of evidence that she could trust him. Even Kimpo had only asked for his help because there weren't any other options.

Maybe I do have other options, Saveen reasoned. She met Cardin's gaze. "You... will help me?"

Cardin let out a long breath. "Aye, love. I'll take you somewhere safe, well away from this dung pile."

"Out of Althandor?"

He hesitated. "Out of the city, maybe. I could put you on a train back to where..."

"Altier Nashal," Saveen interrupted. "Ecclesia. My... older sister... said I need to find her knight there."

"Knight?" Cardin scratched his head then bent to pick up his hat. He dusted it off before putting it back on. "Ecclesia, eh. Train only goes as far south as Drildan anymore, what with some nasty business going on that way. You might take a boat down the river once you get that far, then hire a carriage to take you the rest of the way. It's a long road, though, and they're saying the south isn't safe to travel."

"I have to," Saveen said. She wouldn't be dissuaded.

Cardin looked to Malkolm, who rolled his eyes. "I can see what I can swing you," Cardin said after turning back. He picked up his coat and held it out for her. "At the least, I can find you something to wear and a bite to eat. Ecclesia's cold as the queen's bridal bed, I hear."

More than the clothes or the offer of help, it was the possibility of food that made Saveen's mind up for her. She'd only eaten a few rats in the past three days. She took Cardin's coat and slipped her arms through the sleeves. "I'll go with you."

Cardin sighed in relief while Malkolm muttered about how they'd never find what they'd been searching for now. Offering Saveen his hand, Cardin helped her to her feet.

"Let's head up the tower. You'll be safe there. Err... as soon as you... Here, allow me, love." He removed the coat from her shoulders, spun it the other way around, then put it back on her. His cheeks were turning a shade of dark red while he fastened the two columns of buttons. "Where do you come from where they put coats on the wrong way round?"

"Nowhere," Saveen replied quietly. "Nowhere at all."

He finished with the buttons then transferred his hat from his head to hers. A soft chuckle came out of him as she adjusted it with a dubious expression. "As you say. You have a name, love?"

"Saveen." Unexpectedly, she found her heart glowing when Cardin called her love. It put her at ease to hear a gentle word, spoken kindly.

"That's a pretty one. Matches who owns it." Cardin's grin faltered, and his cheeks got redder. He took her by the elbow and coaxed her towards the door. "I mean to say, it suits you."

For a moment, Saveen could almost believe it.