The next morning, after I’d eaten some left-over deer and the sun was only barely risen above the remaining trees, the youngest two interlopers arrived at the palace grounds.

  They first landed on the wall to await Mother’s invitation; whether out of politeness or apprehension, I couldn’t say, but they had every reason to be wary around Mother. When she brought them to the ruins of the palace, where I waited, they landed as far from me as possible without being in the trees, while Mother joined me by the rubble. Once on the ground they postured and spread themselves out, trying to take up as much space as they could without actually approaching me, but at an impatient rumble from Mother they settled down a bit. Not entirely; they were still young, proud dragons. I was pretty sure that they’d rather fight or flee than submit, even to Sower of Embers, Reaper of Flames. But they did stay next to each other, still enough for us to have a conversation, and that would have to do.

  The silver female was The Unquenchable Flame At The Heart Of The Mountain. The emerald male called himself As He Moves, So Do The Trees Quake. She was truly silver, her scales shining as though they’d been polished; he, on the other hand, wasn’t truly emerald. He didn’t have the same gemstone luster as Behold Her did. Emerald was certainly among the colors of his scales, but only because they seemed to cover every shade of green imaginable, from deep-night-in-a-pine-forest, almost black, to highlights that were almost neon. The exact shade of each scale shifted with his movements, as the angle I saw it from and how the light struck them changed, and I could imagine him moving through a dense forest as an indistinct green blur—almost impossible to focus on until he was right in front of you.

  They were both, I had to admit, rather beautiful. All dragons were magnificent, but these two were pleasant to look at in a way that Grace or Indomitable weren’t. It would be a shame if Mother decided to kill them.

  Sizewise, they were the smallest dragons I’d seen. That wasn’t counting Sandstorm or my long-dead siblings, but they weren’t adults. Nor did I count my memories of Night; it was hard to say how big he might have been. At a guess he’d probably been about the same size as Quake, if not a little smaller, but I’d been so tiny then that he’d seemed to fill the world.

  Mother would know better, but I wasn’t going to ask. At least not now.

  The silence between the four of us didn’t linger long before Unquenchable’s patience frayed. She chose Tekereteki from the start rather than embarrassing me with my lack of Draconic, which I took as a good sign. “Draka. We were invited, and we have come,” she said, her mate rumbling in the background. “Yet your mother, Sower of Embers, Reaper of Flame, would not say why you wish to meet with us. Do not waste our time with silence! Speak!”

  “I cannot imagine you are so busy as to justify insulting me with your impatience,” I snapped back. I wanted us to get along, even cooperate, but if I showed them any more weakness than what was already obvious from my age and injuries, I’d never get the kind of deal out of them that I wanted. “What do you do with your days but sit in my territory and hunt my game? Calm yourselves! Or are you unashamed to not have the self-control of a whelp less than a decade old?”

  Unquenchable bristled at that, growling as she drew herself up and rustled her wings, but Quake grumbled something in Draconic that might, if you listened to it right, have been soothing. At least it made his mate fold her wings again, though she kept her head high, nostrils flared with displeasure.

  Without acknowledging either my own question or whatever Quake had said to her, she said, “If you would, then, tell us why you have asked us here.”

  This was it. The point of no return. It didn’t matter what I’d told or offered Presence and Grace, or Indomitable and Sandstorm. These two were my rivals, even enemies. They had tried to contest my control of Mallin in a way that no one but Behold Her had. In a way, bargaining with them was as good as rewarding their aggression. It might encourage them to do worse in the future.

  I did it anyway.

  “I have a proposal for you,” I told them, and I was beyond proud that my voice was calm and steady. My mind was made up. All I had to do was to push on through. “The Unquenchable Flame At The Heart Of The Mountain. As He Moves, So Do The Trees Quake. You have come to my island desiring a part of it to call your own, to hunt and grow and live and raise your young. I may be willing to acquiesce.”

  That caught their attention beautifully.

  “You would cede part of your claimed territory without a fight?” Unquenchable asked, too quickly. Her demeanour was all over the place: haughty; surprised; suspicious; a little disappointed, for some reason. Above all, she was visibly eager.

  Unless it was all fake, she was a terrible negotiator.

  “Assuming you accept certain demands,” I replied. I felt more confident now, more like I might actually get everything I wanted without giving up too much.

  “Speak them!” she demanded. Again, there was that eagerness that suggested she might agree to anything as long as she got what she wanted. I had to consciously remind myself that she was a dragon, and that what might be acceptable to a human very well might not be to her or her mate.

  “There are two great cities in my territory,” I began. “Karakan on the middle of the eastern coast, which pays me tribute and which I favor in return; and Happar in the south. They are at war with each other, and if not for me, Karakan would likely have been conquered already.”

  I took a breath to continue, and Unquenchable asked, “And why should this be of interest to us?”

  “If you showed more patience than a whelp, I would have told you already,” I scolded her. “I wish Karakan to win, and ideally to subjugate Happar. But Happar is allied with the City of Rains, which I am sure you know of. We are speaking its language, after all. It is powerful, and wishes to make Karakan its vassal. Karakan also has allies, but they are craven and deceitful, and have yet to render any real aid. Thus, as I said, the war is going poorly. Here, then, is my offer.”

  Both young dragons had stopped moving around entirely at this point. Now they leaned in, listening carefully.

  “I wish to see the armies and navies of Happar and the City of Rains broken. I wish to see all humans on the island under the banner of Karakan. In exchange for your help in accomplishing this, and in making sure that Karakan’s hold on this island is never broken, I will…”

  Here my composure broke for a moment, but no dragon could have blamed me. They all knew how bitter the following words must be in my mouth when I forced them out. “I will give you a territory in the south-west of the island. From the center of the mountain range to the sea, beginning where the human settlements end and stretching north for a third of the length of the island. It is all untouched forests and mountains there, which have barely seen a human in half a millennium. The air is nearly as rich as here in the north, and Rifts are plentiful. There you would be able to live and raise your young in comfort and plenty, when I do not call for your aid.”

  I paused, but by the avaricious gleam in Unquenchable’s eyes and the satisfaction in Quake’s, I knew that I had them.

  “There are additional terms, relating to how you shall treat the humans of this island and any other dragons who may be allowed to settle here. But before we discuss those I need to know if the basic agreement is acceptable to you.”

  “We would be at your beck and call,” Unquenchable said, her suspicion taking the upper hand for a moment. I could see her searching for the trap; the hidden barb that proved that my offer was too good to be true. “Practically subservient!”

  “We would be allies, at peace and united in preventing the wrong humans from conquering this island,” I countered. “The City of Rains hates our kind above all else. They are powerful, and they have experience killing dragons. If they establish themselves here, we will know no lasting peace. I would require your help in breaking them, so that they can never again threaten what is mine. What could be ours, together, if you accept. I would direct you, yes, but only so that we may be most effective, and so that you do not attack the wrong humans.” After a pause I added, “I would bind myself by oath not to abuse you.”

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  They grumbled together for a short while after that. They seemed somewhat mollified, but not satisfied. “You wish to protect one faction of humans, so they may continue to pay you tribute,” Unquenchable said, trying a new tack. “And yet you offer us territory with no humans at all. No way to gather a flock, and no ready source of gold or silver. What does it matter to us which humans dwell here, if none of them benefit us?”

  “That is not my concern,” I said dismissively. “Humans may settle in your territory. If they do, how you deal with them is up to you, though I would treat them gently if you want them to stay and flourish. And the world is vast. I am sure you can gather treasure from abroad and bring it back home, where it will be safe.”

  The two mated had a short conversation after that—or perhaps an argument; they’d turned so I couldn’t see their faces, and all Draconic sounded like an argument to me. When Unquenchable’s attention returned to me, it was to ask, “And what of other dragons? You said others may settle here. Will they be under the same obligations?”

  “Peace between our kind, and the sovereignty of Karakan over the humans on this island. Those and a few others will be the terms for anyone who wishes to settle here permanently. That, and a pact of defense against interlopers. An attack on any of us, from without or within, shall be an attack on all of us, and dealt with harshly.”

  “Which benefits you above all else,” she observed sourly.

  “It is my island,” I declared with all the disdain and arrogance I could muster. “I need not part with any of it if I do not profit more by doing so than by keeping it to myself. Yes, it benefits me above all. Would you expect anything else?”

  Quickly, before his mate had a chance to voice whatever it was that twisted her face with such indignation, Quake spoke up. I’d heard him speak a little at the conclave, but this was the first time he spoke to me directly. “We would not,” he said. “But you must know that this is unusual, and that it is unpleasant to be beholden to anyone.”

  His tone was grave, though that might have been because he spoke much more carefully than Unquenchable did; I suspected he did not get much use for his Tekereteki, and that he had probably learned the language the hard way, rather than taking an Advancement.

  “I do know that,” I agreed. “Just as it is painful to give away what is mine, especially to those who came seeking to take it by force. If we are all to benefit here, we must all bear some unpleasantness. If I must suffer your presence on my island, then you can accept some minor annoyances in turn.”

  I was doing well not to show it, but it really was nerve wracking to speak to two adult dragons like this. But it was necessary; Mother had told me how to behave; what I’d understood was that negotiations between dragons were mostly about posturing. Showing weakness was practically a concession, and daring to show scorn and callous disregard for the wishes of your opponent was as good as an unassailable argument or a generous offer. So I forced myself to get into the mindset that their problems were just that: their problems, and not mine to solve. I had an offer to make, and it came with conditions. They could take it, or they could get the hell off my island. And the way I spoke to them sprung from that.

  The only reason they hadn’t killed me already was that I had Mother backing me. And if I insulted them too much, that might not matter. I didn’t know them, but they were close enough that they may well be able to unleash some breath attack that would kill or maim me before Mother could intervene. Depending on how good their self-control was, I may or may not have to Shift and hide behind Mother at a moment’s notice.

  I tensed and prepared to do just that when Unquenchable’s face turned stormy with anger, but again it was Quake who replied, and his mate was almost suspiciously quick to back off. It made me wonder if they’d planned this; she would posture and threaten, while he would speak, trying to force me to back down. Maybe even giving me an out where we all pretended that it was his words that swayed me, and not her implicit threats.

  If I hadn’t had a dragon far more powerful than them backing me, it might even have worked.

  “You freely admit that your subject city does not control this entire island,” he said, his posture barely threatening at all. “The humans of the south make war on your subjects. You have not destroyed them, so we must assume that you cannot. What true claim do you have to the south, then? Cede to us your claim to the lands held by these enemies of your subjects, and we shall handle them for you!”

  I couldn’t deny that I’d been tempted to do just that. If I offered them the southern end of Mallin to bend to their will, I would win either way, at least in the short term. They’d succeed, and Happar wouldn’t be a concern, or they’d fail, and I’d be rid of them. But it would be a short-term victory. If they subjugated Happar on their own, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t try to use the Happarans to push into my own territory. And with the treasury of Happar swelling their hoards they may just grow strong enough that in a not too distant future Mother wouldn’t be able to defend me from them both.

  No, I needed their strength, but I couldn’t make it too easy for them to grow too strong. Giving them a city was out of the question. Besides, Happar as a city might be my enemy, but I wasn’t going to unleash two dragons on the thousands upon thousands of people whose only crime was to be born south of the Divide.

  Of course, I wasn’t going to lay out my reasons for them. Even offering a reason for denying them unprompted would make me look uncertain of my position. A strong dragon didn’t need to give their reasons, and while I’d done so for smaller questions, something like this demanded a more forceful reply.

  “You think me weak, or stupid,” I growled back. “Those lands are mine. That the humans there are being difficult makes no difference. Take what you have been offered, or do not. Blood has been spilled. The conclave is broken, and with it the peace. If you choose to decline my offer you have until the sun sets to remove yourselves from my island, or you will be removed.”

  I didn’t need to see Mother to feel her displeasure press down on me, but I was sure that it wasn’t directed at me. If she objected to what I’d said, she would have told me so. So I fought down the terrible apprehension that began to gnaw at me, and focused on enjoying the way that the two dragons across the waste abandoned their aggressive postures. They didn’t submit—that simply wouldn’t happen without bloodshed—but Unquenchable suddenly wasn’t so threatening, and Quake began to fidget, his claws raking the dust nervously.

  They conferred in low Draconic for what couldn’t have been more than a minute before Unquenchable told me, “We accept, in principle.” She didn’t appear at all pleased, but since they chose to stay the offer clearly wasn’t worse than what they could stomach.

  “Good,” I replied. On the inside I allowed myself to relax, just a little. That was, I hoped, the worst of it. “Then let us discuss the details of how we dragons are to live in peace on this island, and how humans are to be treated. Make yourselves comfortable. I expect this might take a while.”

  It did, indeed, take a while. We had to take breaks. I drew a map on the ground, then had to bring up Mak to check that it was at least somewhat accurate, since I drew it from fairly vague memory; I was surprised by how unobjectionable Unquenchable and Quake found that. But then, they had no idea about the history and relationship between Mak and me. To them, I supposed, she was just a human servant, a part of my flock that I had, for whatever reason, decided to bring here. She did what I asked of her, was perfectly respectful to every dragon there, and returned to the cellars when dismissed. The two young dragons barely looked at her.

  On the map I showed them where we were, where Karakan and Happar were, and the borders of those cities’ recognized territories. Then I showed where I’d accept for Unquenchable and Quake to set themselves up. There was more grumbling about the size of the area, which was thousands of square miles; they repeated the suggestion that I should just let them have part of Happar, at least the part that wrapped around the southern end of the island. I remarked on how long the shadows were getting, then again invited them to accept what they’d been offered, or to fuck off before the sun set.

  They chose to accept.

  They grumbled about the ground rules, too, but again, they accepted them. No aggression between dragons on this island would be tolerated. If anyone broke that rule, the others would fall on them without mercy until they were dead or driven from the island, their territory and everything in it forfeit. And there would be no ravaging or pillaging of human lands or settlements to force tribute. They didn’t like that either, but when challenged to take it or leave it, they chose to take it.

  By the time the sun set, they had each sworn on their hoards to abide by the rules I’d set out, and to not seek to expand their territory without good reason and recompense. We’d still need to visit that territory to work out which mountain peaks and valleys, and which rivers, would mark the exact borders. That could wait. For now, I had my first official neighbors.

  I hated it. It felt deeply wrong. But as part of the deal they were both now enemies of both Tekeretek and Happar, and of Behold Her, and that was simply delicious.

  I’d just have to hope that those oaths were worth the air it took to speak them.

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