“Very well.” Ven did not like being “bid” to do anything, but he was ravenously hungry—he had been too distracted by his inner turmoil to eat anything beneath the mountain—and he was exhausted, not so much physically as mentally He had a lot to think over before meeting with his father.

As for slaying Grald, his death might not be necessary. That was one of the things Ven had to think over. He was intrigued by the new way of viewing himself offered to him by his siblings. He had seen himself reflected only in the eyes of humans, and that was like looking into water stirred by the wind, so that his reflection was always distorted and warped. He’d seen himself in the eyes of Bellona, who had been ashamed of him and loathed him. He’d seen himself in the eyes of Evelina, who’d seen a freak, a beast. His siblings had lifted up before him a mirror of pure crystal, without flaw, touched by no emotion, and he’d seen himself honored, revered, a miracle of creation that combined the best parts of two separate entities to create a new kind of person, someone who was not unnatural, but had his or her own place in the world.

That this miracle came at the cost of a human’s life was regrettable, but then, as Sorrow had said, many human children walking the earth this very day had come into the world at the mother’s expense.

So perhaps I don’t need to take revenge against the dragon. Perhaps, instead, I should thank and honor him.

Ven went to his supper and ate with a good appetite. Then he lay down on his bed, not to sleep, but to consider all the questions he would ask his father, the dragon.

Grald sniffed about the vast hall in the Abbey. Once he was certain by both sight and smell that he was alone, he walked over to a portion of the wall that was solid stone to the eyes of humans, empty air to his dragon eyes. The illusion concealed a tomb made of granite with a heavy granite lid that now rested on the floor.