The case for Carmenna’s involvement had been heard as well. She’d tearfully admitted her guilt to the peacekeepers, drawing shock and disappointment from Weysh. But due to Noriago’s coercion, her sentence was not as severe. She was not imprisoned, but tasked with serving the community as a voluntary healer for the less fortunate.

“I know I can never atone for what I have done,” she told them when they saw her last at her hearing. “But I want you to know that I’ve solidified my focus of study, and I’m going to specialize in dragon physicry. Weysh, I will make it my life’s goal to bring back your sense of smell.”

It was only now, two weeks later, that things were beginning to die down. Yenni had settled into her role as acting professor of runelore and between studying for her own classes and teaching others, she was constantly tired, though she had a good bit of help from her teaching assistant and best friend, Diedre.

Still, exhaustion was not the word for what weighed her steps that evening. She was so tired she didn’t even trust herself to use speed runes to run home, afraid she would pass out. Luckily, her classroom was not as far away as the previous runelore classroom had been, but just a short walk from her residence at Riverbank Chambers. At last she flopped down on her bed, not caring that it was too soft, and settled in for a few hours of well-deserved sleep before her next class.

Her head had just touched her pillow when a familiar metallic creaking chased away the first tendrils of sleep. It took her half-drowsing brain a moment to realize it was her letter box.

Her letter box!

She darted up in bed, adrenaline fueling her to wakefulness. When she checked, there it was, a brown papua roll. Her family’s response to Weysh.

Yenni hesitated, biting her bottom lip. She wondered: What would they say? Would they welcome a dragon into their midst, even if he was only part Islander? Would they lambaste her for shacking up with a strange Creshen man? In fact, she no longer stayed at Weysh’s townhome since Noriago had been caught. She’d told him she needed to be close to the school for her professor’s duties, but in truth he could be quite a distraction. A wonderful distraction, yes, but a distraction.

She worried: would her parents demand she follow through on the marriage to Prince Natahi? Perhaps she should go back to bed and wait until she could read it with Weysh.

No, she was not a coward. She would read the letter now.

She opened it to reveal her family’s crest—a white field sphinx. The letter itself was quite short. She frowned as she read:

Daughter,