Between the time when he began his speech to the moment he finished it, a strange thing happened. The trembling inside Alise stilled, and then hardened. In Sedric's outraged gaze she suddenly saw herself reflected as he saw her. Foolish and sheltered. Living out an imaginary adventure before fleeing home to her lifetime of no 'real commitments'. Ignorant of the real world in which he and Hest moved so competently.

And perhaps she was, but through no fault of her own. She had never been allowed to gather the experiences she needed to be competent and independent. Never been allowed. That was the thought that burned in her like molten iron and suddenly hardened into cold resolve. She was not going to be 'allowed' to do anything. Never again would she submit to being 'allowed' or 'not allowed'. She would follow her resolve if it killed her. For being killed by it would certainly be better than going home and dying of not being allowed to follow her dream.

So when he had asked her, so rhetorically, what she had been thinking, she replied literally. T was thinking that I would finally study the dragons, as Hest promised me I could. It was one of the conditions for me marrying him, you know. That I would be allowed to come here and study them. If he had kept his word, I would have been here years ago, and all of this would have been much simpler. But as he chose, over and over again, to ignore the terms of our bargain, here we are. And the only way that his promise to me will be fulfilled is if I follow the dragons upriver and study them as we go.' She ran out of breath and had to pause.

He was staring at her, his mouth open. She saw him take breath to speak and beat him to it. 'So. I have signed an agreement with the Traders' Council. We will be going upriver with the Tarman to see the dragons resettled. And we'll be leaving by this afternoon, so Captain Leftrin will need a list from you of what supplies must be picked up for us. I'll see to balancing accounts with him when we return to Trehaug. I'll be earning a wage aboard the vessel, of course, so I'll have money to settle with the captain. And of course I'll be speaking to him about changing the sleeping arrangements so that we can both be more comfortable during the journey.'

She tossed the last comment toward him as a peace offering, hoping he would focus on it and simply accept the rest. It didn't work.

'Alise, this is crazy! We aren't prepared—'

'Nor will we be, if you don't go to work promptly and make that list! That is, isn't it, the sort of duty that you perform for Hest? And isn't that what he instructed you to do for me, on this journey? So do it.'

And then she had stood up abruptly and walked away from him. Just like that. She had been shocked when he had actually done what she told him to do, and uneasy ever since. She'd avoided him successfully, not an easy feat on a ship. Leftrin had been surprisingly reasonable about changing quarters for them.

'I've already put my mind to that, and the materials are on their way. I don't mind giving up my bunk for a night or two, but much longer than that simply won't work. But you'll see. We can set up some temporary shelters on the deck. I've done it before for cattle, and it won't be much different for passengers. The Tarman was built to be versatile. Oh, don't look at me like that! You'll see, I'll make it comfortable enough for even Dapperlad there.' And with an outrageous grin, he'd tossed his head toward the sulking Sedric.

Leftrin had been as good as his word. She had not noticed the fittings set into the deck that allowed for walls to be raised. The chambers created were neither large nor elegant, being not much roomier than a large box stall, but they were private, and when hammocks were slung in them and her own luggage set in place, she found she could arrange her boxes to make a cosy little den for herself. She had a place to sit and write, and a lantern for her own use, though Leftrin warned her sternly to be eternally cautious with it. 'Spilled oil and flame aboard a ship is never a trivial thing,' he warned her. Her quarters shared a wall with Sedric's, and once the walls had been raised, he entered his room and shut the door immediately.

And there he had stayed until the ship had departed the wharf at Cassarick only to put in at the muddy banks of the dragon beach less than an hour later. Sedric looked much better now than he had earlier. Access to his wardrobe for fresh clothes, privacy, a nap and a solitary meal seemed to have restored his energy if not his charm. He had not said anything directly to Alise about her high-handed ways, but the edge to his tongue let her know that he had not forgiven her. She shook her head to herself and turned away from him. She'd deal with Sedric later. Right now, she wasn't going to let anything ruin her first glimpse of the young dragons.

'They're huge!' Sedric sounded daunted. 'You don't intend to go down there and walk among them!'

'Of course I do. Eventually' She didn't want to admit that she felt much safer looking at them from the Tarman's deck.

Down the beach, the golden dragon suddenly lifted his head. The small figure beside him stirred. The dragon looked toward them, flaring his nostrils and audibly blowing. He rolled to his feet and began to lumber toward them.

'Now what does he want?' Leftrin muttered uneasily. He watched the dragon approach the barge. The animal turned his head on his long neck, regarding Tarman curiously with shining black eyes. He came several steps closer, and then stretched out his head to snuff at the barge. Sedric stepped back from the railing. 'Alise,' he warned her, but the captain had not moved. She chose to stay where she was. A moment later, the dragon gently butted his head against the vessel's planked side. Tarman did not budge, but in an instant, both Swarge and Hennesey were at Leftrin's side. Big Eider hulked up behind them, staring balefully at the dragon. Grigsby, the ship's orange cat, joined them. He leaped to the railing and glared at the dragon, lashing his striped tail and muttering cat curses in his throat. 'There's no harm done,' Leftrin warned them softly. He set a restraining hand on the angry cat's back.

'Not yet,' Hennesey replied sourly.

'Is there danger?' Alise asked.

'I don't know,' Leftrin said. Then, as the dragon's girl-keeper caught up with the creature, he added quietly, 'I don't think so.'

Moments later, the immense creature was following the girl placidly down the beach, back to their sunning spot. Alise let her pent breath out in a sigh. 'Look how the sun reflects off him. His markings are so delicate. Such amazing creatures. Even flawed, they're incredibly beautiful. Of course, the queen at the end of the beach is the most glorious, but this is to be expected. The females of this species were always the most flamboyantly coloured. My studies suggest that they could be assertive, even arrogant perhaps, but given the level of their intelligence, such "arrogance" was perhaps the natural attitude that such a superior mind might take. Look at her. The sun soaks right into her and shines back out of her.'

The blue dragon and her tender were a good distance away, at least a hundred feet. Alise was sure her voice had not carried that far, and yet the blue female suddenly lifted her head from where she had been stretched out on the hard mud and regarded Alise with whirling copper eyes for a long moment. Then she said, quite clearly, 'Were you speaking of me, Bingtown woman?'