The dragon-woman turned away and moved through the ballroom, thinking hard. She’d been studying Thisbe. Trying to detect if she was lying to her. She knew the girl had lied to her once before—she’d pretended that the ancestor broth had no effect on her. But since the time in the tower when Dev had revealed the truth, the Revinir had been ruminating over it. And she’d concluded that the reason she’d believed Thisbe so easily, so errantly, was because the girl gave the answer she’d been hoping for. She hadn’t wanted the ancestor broth to affect Thisbe, because it hadn’t affected her. And that was why she’d been so easily swayed that time. But was the girl at it again? She oozed confidence. Is that how someone would act after being stuck in a dilapidated palace for a month, guarded by dragons?

The Revinir narrowed her eyes at Thisbe. The girl looked healthy enough, though a bit ragged. But she didn’t seem to have a clue where she’d been staying all this time. Or… was she lying about that? Questions pounded her. What had made her come here? “Why haven’t your people come after you?”

“I told them not to come,” said Thisbe. “In the note I sent after you snatched us up.”

“Why would you do that? Weren’t you afraid of me?” The dragon-woman seemed offended.

Thisbe lifted her chin. “Maybe I’d already been thinking about joining you. You’ve asked me enough times, you know. You think it hasn’t been on my mind?”

“You said the opposite back then,” the Revinir accused.

“Because Fifer was there. What else could I say?”

They both fell silent as the Revinir contemplated Thisbe’s story. It was plausible. But was it true? She still wasn’t sure. Finally the Revinir went back to the balcony. “What’s your one condition?” she asked.

“That you leave the seven islands alone.”

The Revinir snorted out over the railing. Fire rained down on yard crews below, but she didn’t care. “Of course,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Why wouldn’t you want that?” She chuckled long and low. “Oh, my dear girl. There’s no way I’m interested in granting that.”

“Then I’ll be leaving.” Thisbe turned abruptly and started toward the doors.

“Stop!” shouted the Revinir.

“You need this more than I do,” said Thisbe over her shoulder. She didn’t stop.

“Halt!” the dragon-woman shouted. “I’m not finished with you.”

Thisbe kept going. “Don’t call your guards, or I’ll never join you in this endeavor. It’s time you treat me like a partner instead of a slave. Where’s my room?”

“What?”

“My room. I’m going to let you think about this for the rest of the day. I’m tired from traveling all night on your stinky dragon.”