Tyrez provided both food and water as she worked, but there wasn’t much more he could do. He wished he’d stopped to talk to Dani before coming here. He wanted to know if she’d ever seen that ocean realm when she was with Rindek. Now he’d have to wait until a guard relieved him for the evening shift.
Even though he was half watching the clock, it surprised him when his cohort arrived.
“You’re early,” he commented.
The guard shrugged. His scales were almost as deep a blue as Taran’s. “Has she made any progress?”
“Not—”
A sound from the captive Dragon stopped him cold. It was part growl, part hiss, and all denial.
Tyrez rose, and the two Legion warriors approached the Reader, just as she blinked and broke contact.
“Think I finally have something,” she said. “I’ve been searching for Dragons he took captive. From what I’ve seen, all his slaves are special requests—someone looking for something specific. Species, sex, age. They are paying a helluva lot for them, too.”
Tyrez nodded. They’d suspected as much, based on the women they’d freed.
The Reader rubbed her temple. “The slaver doesn’t get many requests for Dragons. At a guess, controlling them as slaves would be—difficult.” Her gaze raced over the warriors’ huge frames. “But about forty years ago, a request came through for a pregnant Dragona. He remembers it because it was so unusual—the client was specific. Pregnant,” she hesitated, her mouth straightening, “and a Seer.”
Tyrez’s heart accelerated. It was her, it had to be. Ash’s mother.
His hopes were dashed when the Reader continued. “But he couldn’t fulfill the contract. He was beaten to it by another Dragon slave boss.” She swallowed. “I have the name for you.” She ripped the page from her pad of paper and handed it to him.
A name. He needed much more.
She interpreted his expression. “I’ll keep digging. I should be able to get more. Maybe a location.”
Tyrez forced himself to nod. “It’s something, thank you. Keep trying. It’s important.”
“Always is.” Her lips twitched, and she took a long drink from the water he’d brought her. Then she turned to face the captive, and her brows drew down.
“I have this,” the guard assured. “If she gets anything more, I’ll let you know.”
Tyrez’s fingers dented the paper. “I’m going to take this name to Jacques,” he said. “Maybe he can fill in the gaps.”
The guard eyed him with an odd expression, and Tyrez sighed. Aranta hadn’t been subtle about her displeasure. By now, the entire palace was likely buzzing with his perceived failure.
Tyrez left before the blue Dragon could ask him anything. He had enough to worry about without trying to explain something he was having trouble wrapping his own head around.
* * *
Laden with flowers, Sirki pushed open the door to the apartment, and Dani, arms similarly encumbered, followed her in.
There were small containers on the counter for dainty blooms, but nothing that would hold these monsters.
“I’ll get a bigger vase,” Sirki handed her armload to Dani and sped off down the hall. Moments later, there came rummaging noises from a closet.
The huge flowers blocked her vision. So her first warning that the Dragon had arrived was a thunderclap of air against wing. The second was the resulting gust that fluttered the soft petals.
Dani twisted to drop them on the counter, and turned as Tyrez strode toward her, already half human. He’d left his wings curled above him, though. She interpreted that as a sign he wasn’t planning to stay.
It gave her an eyeful of morphing body parts, some of which were rather more compelling than decorous. He paused near the counter, folding his reduced wings around his shoulders. As she wrenched her gaze upward, one corner of his mouth did its customary twitch upward.
Then his eyes dropped to the flowers. “You’ve seen Mother’s gardens?”
Dani remembered to breathe. It wasn’t fair. Seven-foot gorgeous Dragon warriors provided an extreme challenge to her “no testicles” resolution.
“Yes,” she managed. “They were—spectacular.”
