“This is a princess? Not at all what I was expecting. You’re nothing more than a painted savage. Is that bird shit on your face supposed to be beautiful?”

It was a man’s voice, and not one she recognized, though something about how he spoke was familiar. Yenni tried to sit up, but her wrists and ankles were tied. She tried to pull on her runes, but her groggy body refused to obey. Ach’e simply stirred lazily under her skin. She groaned against her cloth gag. The man grabbed her by the braids, and something sharp scraped her scalp painfully. He turned her to look at him, and primal fear rose up in her. His pupils were slits, black horns jutted from his forehead, and bat-like wings drooped from his back.

“Still, when one marries a princess, no matter how loose the definition, I suppose he must become a prince.”

His face contorted angrily, and Yenni knew why people feared dragons in half-change. With his sharp teeth barred and snakelike eyes burning with hate, he looked positively demonic.

“NO!” he bellowed at her, and Yenni flinched. She heard another muffled scream. “Not. Him.” Yenni’s pulse rushed in her ears. What was he talking about? What was going on? The dragon studied her dispassionately. “I wouldn’t struggle too much if I were you. This bridge is fairly old. It’s a miracle it’s held until now. Besides, there’s nowhere for you to go.”

With that he spread his wings and took off, rattling the bridge just as he’d warned her not to do. She strained against the sleepiness holding her like a weighted net, and at last sat up, though her head lolled to one side. She sat suspended on a bridge between two of the giant, forested pillars that jutted from the dark gorge below. By the light of the open moon she could see that jagged slabs of rock took up the entirety of the gap below, a massive stone forest. What was this place?

Someone was making muffled sounds at her. Ahead, on the far side of the bridge, a figure with long, dark hair was tied up and gagged like she was. Was that Carmenna? The last thing she remembered was walking through the city with her to some Creshen pubs and . . .

. . . and Carmenna had used that sleep incantation on her, the same one Diedre used on the thugs.

Realization dawned like a red sun, the outrage of it burning away her lethargy. Yenni dragged on her strength runes, which lit up under the sleeves of her school uniform, and strained against her wrist bonds. When the pain of rope digging into her flesh made her eyes water she drew on pain ward as well, until the ropes burst at last.