“Sorry,” the She-dragon in human form muttered, her focus locked on the Eastland dragons, which was probably why she’d walked into him. She was dressed in worn clothes and boots, a longbow slung over her shoulder along with a quiver of arrows. She was tall and lean; her black-and-dark red hair was in a loose, rather messy braid that nearly reached her feet.

She stopped and looked directly at the Eastland dragons.

“What are you all doing here?” she called out.

“We’ve come to see the Empress,” one of the dragons volunteered. “We have a very important mess—”

She waved her hand at the group and turned from them, effectively dismissing them in mid-request. She looked next at Aidan.

“And who are you?”

“I’m Aidan the Divine.”

“A Southlander. Does the Empress know you’re here?”

“Well—”

She rolled her eyes and started walking. “Just come on. Don’t dawdle!”

Aidan began to follow. He had no idea who this female was but she seemed to be in charge. Maybe she was. Maybe she was the Empress despite the fact that she seemed way too young. But the Empress was a very powerful shamaness, with abilities similar to Rhiannon’s. Maybe she had a way of staying young.

Aidan shook his head. Now he was overthinking and coming to ridiculous conclusions like Brannie.

“Wait!” the Eastland dragon called out. “We must speak to the—”

“Shut up!” the female snarled back.

She led Aidan and the others behind several extremely large gold statues of big cats and into a marble hallway.

“Keep up!” she ordered.

Aidan followed her down several long hallways until they reached a wooden door. Soldiers in elaborate gold armor stood outside and they immediately jumped to attention when they saw her. One opened his mouth to say something but she held up a finger and snapped, “Quiet!”

She pushed the door open and motioned Aidan and the others in.

“Move! Hustle!”

Aidan, Uther, and Caswyn quickly walked in as ordered. But the Riders strolled in a little more slowly, taking their sweet-ass-Rider time.

“Do you not understand the word move?” the She-dragon asked.

“We understand,” Kachka replied, “we just ignore.”

“Barbarians,” she muttered before slamming the door and walking across the small room—small compared to the rest of the palace anyway—to another door, which she opened.

She gestured with a crook of her finger. “Come on.” She walked in.

Aidan again followed her, but stopped as soon as he stepped into the room. There were five more Eastland dragons in the room. Two males and three females. But it was the one wearing a gold dress and intricate gold nail guards on the pinky and ring fingers of both hands and sitting in a plain wood chair who simply had to be the Empress.