“Now… we will… live,” Reyn panted. Selden lay like a stunned rabbit.

Reyn became aware of the thundering of footsteps and the excited susurrus of hushed conversation. He lifted his gaze. A veritable tide of people was flooding onto the piers. Many were begrimed with the mud of long digging. All looked weary despite the amazement on their faces. Some few gripped excavating tools as if they were weapons. All halted at the end of the dock. The incredulous shouts rose to a confused roar as folk gawked and pointed at Tintaglia. Reyn glimpsed his mother elbowing her way through the crowd. When she reached the front row of awed onlookers, she alone stepped free of the crowd and advanced cautiously toward the dragon. Then she saw him, and lost all interest in the towering beast.

“Reyn?” she asked incredulously. “Reyn!” Her voice broke on his name. “And you are alive? Praise Sa!” She ran to him and knelt by him.

He reached up to grip her hand. “She lives,” he said. “I was right. The dragon is alive.”

Before she could speak, a long wail interrupted them. Reyn saw Keffria break free of the clustered onlookers and race along the wharf to Selden. She knelt by him, and then gathered her boy up in her arms. “Oh, thank Sa, he lives. But what of Malta? Where is Malta, where is my daughter?”

Reyn spoke the difficult words. “I did not find her. I fear she perished in the city.”

Like a rising wind, the cry rose from Keffria’s throat until it was a piercing scream of denial. “No, no, no!” she wailed. Selden paled in her grip. The features of the tough little boy who had been Reyn’s companion during their ordeal suddenly quivered into a child’s face again. He added his sobs to her wailing.

“Mama, Mama, don’t cry, don’t cry!” He tugged at her but could not gain her attention.

“The one you call Malta isn’t dead,” the dragon interrupted sharply. “Stop this caterwauling and cease your emotional wallowing.”

“Not dead?” Reyn exclaimed.

His words were echoed by Selden. He seized his wailing mother and shook her. “Mama, listen, didn’t you hear what the dragon said? She said Malta is not dead. Stop crying, Malta isn’t dead.” He turned a shining gaze on Tintaglia. “You can trust the dragon. When she carried me, I could feel her wisdom right through my skin!”

Behind them on the docks, a rising chorus of talk drowned out Selden’s words. Some folk were exclaiming in wonder. “She spoke!”

“The dragon spoke!”

“Did you hear that?” Some nodded in surprised agreement, while others demanded to know what their friends meant. “I heard nothing.”

“It snorted, that was all.”

Tintaglia’s silver eyes grayed with disgust. “Their minds are too small even to speak to mine. Humans!” She limbered her long neck. “Stand clear, Reyn Khuprus. I am done with you and your kind now. My bond is fulfilled.”

“No! Wait!” Reyn jerked free of his mother’s clutch on his arm. Boldly he gripped the clawed tip of Tintaglia’s gleaming wing. “You cannot go yet. You said Malta still lives. But where is she? How do you know she lives? Is she safe?”

Tintaglia twitched her wing tip effortlessly free of him. “We were linked for a time, as well you know, Reyn Khuprus. Therefore, I retain some small awareness of her. As to where she is, I know not, save that she floats on water. On the river, I surmise, from the fear she feels. She is hungry and thirsty, but not otherwise injured that I can tell.”

Reyn fell to his knees before the dragon. “Take me to her. I beg you. I will be forever in your debt if you will but do this one thing for me.”

Amusement flickered over the dragon’s face. He knew it in the swift swirling of her eye colors, and the small flaring of her nostrils. “I have no need of your service, human. And your company bores me. Farewell.” She lifted her wings and began to open them. “Stand clear of me, if you would not be knocked down.”

Instead, Reyn sprang toward her. Her sleekly scaled body afforded no purchase to his scrabbling hands. He flung himself at her foreleg and wrapped his arms around it as if he were a child clinging to his mother. But his words were full offeree and fury. “You cannot go, Tintaglia Dragon! Not and leave Malta to die. You know she did as much to free you as I did. She opened herself to the memories of the city. She discovered the secret catches that would open the great wall. But for her seeking you out, I would not have come into the city amidst the quakes. You would be buried even now! You cannot turn your back on such a debt! You cannot.”