She reached the slope of its brow, high and arched like an eagle’s, and continued forward, contemplating the ground. Breath steamed the air. It smelled more of ozone than of the sulfur she expected.

The gut dread stopped.

She stood beside the dragon’s eye. It was taller than she was, and not completely closed. A curve of hunter’s moonlight showed beneath the lid.

The eye opened.

It glistened, wet, immense, slit-pupiled like a cat’s. The dark beyond the pupil seemed sharp, as if there were facets inside.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” she said. Dragons did not eat people often, certainly not ones they’d agreed to carry.

The dragon watched her as they flew west.

She looked up, because down was too far and so was out, and back and to either side only confronted her with more dragon. The space between the stars comforted her, thick and rich as good chocolate. She’d spent too long in cities. Even the stars above a Craft-ruled metropolis could not match a country midnight. Her eyes adjusted, and the universe emerged. Meeker stars assembled into constellations for which she knew a hundred names, and at last the galactic bow curved above, milky and mottled with indistinct millions. “Nice night.”

—Yes.

Sound below sound composed the voice. She did not fall, nor did she yelp, though she almost did both. Even a Craftswoman could fake only so much composure set beside, well.

“I’m sorry if I disturbed you.”

—There was song before, and there will be song after.

“I see.”

—I play no role in cabin service. If you have trouble, please direct your concerns to the crew.

“I don’t,” she said. “Or at least I don’t have any trouble they can fix. I needed a walk. Were you singing?”

—Meditating.

“Dragons meditate?”

—You do not carry all your soul within yourself.

“I’d go mad. The more you have, the faster your mind spins. It comes apart. That’s what banks are for.”

—Imagine how it feels to have a hoard.

“Oh,” she said. “So you meditate to handle it?”

—Some lose themselves in riddle games or chess or weiqi. Some tell tales or explore. Some dream new worlds. I still the spinning.

“I could use some of that myself.”

—Yes.

“And you carry people from place to place.”

—Yes.

“Why?” After she spoke, she felt a stab of fear that drawing the dragon’s attention to the ludicrous fact of its employment might cause the creature to shrug free of chains, cabins, and gondola alike.

—Are you interested in the particulars of my case, or in general philosophy?

She did not know how to answer, so she said nothing.

—You wonder at power yoked to service. You wonder because you have come into power young and are learning that power comes through the acceptance of a bond. But if to have power is to be bound, then what is power?