Dragon did not let her down, but instead took her on a slow walking tour, right across the center of the plateau. It was wonderfully empty and quiet, except for Dragon’s claws crunching on something under the water. With each passing second Yenni felt the knots within her loosen, and the anxiousness of the past week fade. Here, enclosed in the mountains, with the sun glowing gold above and below, and the rosy clouds seeming to go off into infinity, Yenni could easily pretend this was all there ever was and ever would be. Her, Dragon, and heaven.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she stroked Dragon’s neck, then she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around it as best she could in a hug. “Thank you,” she said again.

The noise he made was soft and rumbling, with a smug contentedness that made Yenni laugh. His swaying steps soothed her and the heat of his scales warmed her, making her feel something similar to drunkenness, reckless and unguarded. After a while she looked down at their reflection. Her cheek was pressed against his neck as she leaned casually across his back. She smiled sleepily at herself. It both looked right and felt right.

“It has been hard,” Yenni found herself murmuring to him. “Cresh is nothing like I could have predicted. I’m used to being good at things, considered competent, but here I am not. I keep making mistakes, terrible mistakes.”

Dragon made a low groan that ended in a hissing sigh, and Yenni imagined he was trying to comfort her, telling her Everyone makes mistakes.

“Perhaps,” she said, stroking his neck. “But I’m making mistakes I cannot afford to. I need to be here, Dragon. My father is ailing, and I came here to find a way to help him. It’s all up to me to save him.”

Dragon grunted. That’s too much pressure.

Yenni ran her hand lazily across the scales of his spine. “Would you not do the same?”

Dragon didn’t answer, and after a time Yenni must have dozed, because the next thing she knew Dragon was jostling her slightly, wiggling his great bulk. He let out a soft screech, again beckoning. Look.

The mirrored plane before them had turned from burnished gold to a diamond-dusted sky, a thousand stars surrounding them, reflected in the water. “Incredible,” she breathed. It was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and the sight of it, the majesty, calmed the restless anxiety within her, dissolving it like a house made of sand before the ocean.

“I want to thank you, Dragon—Weh-sheh. Face to face. Please let me down and change,” she said. But Dragon snuffled and shook his head.

“Why not?” Yenni asked, confused. He let out a low growl that sounded to Yenni not angry, but concerned.

“Is there something wrong with the water? Will it harm me in some way?”

He growled again and dipped his head.