The only thing that had been in Hurog’s heart was the bones of a dragon, and I’d taken care of that when I used the bones to heal the sick earth.

“I’ve heard that one,” said Jade Eyes.

“When I asked the Hurogmeten—the real Hurogmeten, this one’s father—about it, he laughed and said there was nothing in Hurog to attract a dragon. I’ve since come to believe he was right—but there’s a grain of truth in some old folklore. Some years ago during the renovations of the castle here at Estian, my stone mason, rest his soul, came across a curious thing. He brought it to my attention shortly before he died.”

Broken I might be, but I found myself wondering why Jakoven felt it necessary to remind Jade Eyes that he could kill anyone he chose.

Maybe,I thought, in sympathy with Oreg’s formerly suicidal tendencies for the first time,maybe Jakoven would choose to kill me. I didn’t believe it, really, just hoped for it.

I heard the rustle of cloth. Jade Eyes gasped, and a cold fog of dark magic crawled through my skin, dirtying me inside and out.

“I keep it here in this special bag, so that no one would ever be curious about it—as you must have noticed, it was difficult for you to find even after I directed you to it. Do you recognize it?”

“No, sire,” said Jade Eyes, fear or excitement tightening his voice. “It’s very old—and powerful.”

“How about you, boy?”

A hand appeared in my field of view holding a bronze staff head. Mages liked to top their staves with elaborate metal sculptures, usually just expensive toys encrusted with gems and glass beads. This wasn’t even impressive, just a crude rendering of a dragon holding a small gem in its open mouth. With a body length of distance no one would have even noticed the dull, cloudy gem the size of a pea, much less that it hovered between the dragon’s jaws without touching the metal anywhere. Without being mageborn, no one would have noticed the black power spilling from the gem. I could almost see the wave of misery that flowed out to cover me like thick syrup.

I knew what it was, though not how it survived. Anyone who’d ever listened to the tale of the Empire’s Fall would have recognized it. Jade Eyes must not have a taste for music or old tales.

“Tell him what it is, Ward, if you know.” I didn’t have to see Jakoven’s face to hear the smile in his voice.