Palemon tried to remind himself that he was not looking at a dragon but at a man in dragon form. He finally gave up. He was looking at a weapon, a weapon that would soon be his to control.

‘Well?’ Palemon asked. ‘Is it wild? How will we know?’

Zara walked up to the bars and spoke softly. ‘We are going to gouge out Isobel’s eyes before shoving a spear into her belly.’

The dragon rushed the gate, snarling and roaring as it slammed into the bars, making the slender sorceress drop her staff and jump back. Crouching to pick it up, she smiled as she turned.

‘He is still in there. This is good, sire. Very good. We now know that when collared, they cannot shift from one shape to another. We also know that when collared, they don’t become wild. It is time.’

Zara walked to the wall, near the Aleuthean script, and lifted the closest of the copper chains. She hoisted it high, examining every link, checking the strange symbols at the connecting points. Nodding in satisfaction, she then returned to the gate.

‘Remember what we can do to your woman and the child she carries,’ she said to the creature inside the cage.

Without asking for help, she threw the bolt and hauled the gate open. Palemon admired her bravery as she stepped forward, narrowing the space between her and the dragon until she was five paces away, then three. Soon she was within range of its claws and then beside its head. Zara reached out and stroked the dragon’s face.

‘Never forget,’ she said to the black dragon, her voice so low that Palemon could only just hear her. ‘Never forget what we can do.’

The dragon remained subdued as she demonstrated her power over the creature, but it wasn’t true dominance, and the hatred was clear in the dragon’s huge, almond-shaped eyes, narrowed with anger, and in the rumbling breath stirring at the back of its throat.

Zara now lifted the copper chain and followed the contours of the black dragon’s face, reaching past the protuberances at the back of its head, and feeling behind the skull to reach for the collar.

Palemon decided to enter the cell, eager to witness what would happen next. ‘How do you know what to do?’

‘It appears to be simple enough.’ Zara demonstrated was she was doing, despite the creature’s jaws being close enough to bite through her slender waist in a single snap. ‘See?’ She held up the midpoint of the length of chain. ‘This hooks onto the collar. We are left with two chains fastened to the connection point, like reins.’

‘Let me,’ Palemon said.