Anna did not know what to do. Was this half-man/half-dragon a threat? It must be so, or the Eye would not have revealed him to her. Yet, how could one young man, beast-man though he was, be a threat to an entire kingdom?

Then she saw that there were more like him, coming up behind him, crossing the river and climbing the mountain: a young woman with the body of a dragon and delicate wings sprouting from her shoulders; a boy, strong and muscular, his human form covered all over with scales; and little ones with claws for feet or hands, and scaly arms and tails, yet all with human eyes that gazed, unblinking, into hers.

The young man was quite close now, and Anna realized, with a start, that he could see her as clearly as she could see him. His face, especially the eyes, was familiar to her. She had the feeling she’d known him a long time.

Anna gripped the sides of the marble basin to keep herself from sinking down into a heap on the marble floor.

“Who are you?” she cried.

In his answer, though she did not understand it and did not, at first, believe it, Anna heard what would prove to be the destruction of the peaceful tranquillity of the people of Seth.

“We are your children.”

36

“OUR CASTLE AT RAMSGATE IS THE TARGET, FATHER.” MARCUS SPOKE in gasps, keeping his sentences short. He had broken ribs, which made the drawing of each breath an agonizing experience. “More to the point, the cannons. We have to ride back there at once.”

Prince Wilhelm’s physicians would have doused Marcus with poppy syrup to ease the pain, but he needed to be clear-headed, at least until he had convinced his father of the danger. He had already lost a night, for he had passed out from the pain when the physicians wrenched his dislocated shoulder into place. They’d given him the poppy syrup when he regained consciousness and refused to let him speak to anyone until he’d rested.

Even drugged, he’d spent a restless night, slipping into and out of strange dreams. In one, experienced just before waking, it seemed to him that a gigantic eye was staring down at him. He might have thought it a dragon’s eye and been afraid, but he felt the watcher’s awe and wonder, sorrow and dismay. When Marcus woke, he insisted on talking to his father, refusing to take any more physics or even let the leeches into his room until his command was obeyed.

“Those dragons could destroy the cannons with ease,” Edward remarked. “Why don’t the beasts attack the castle?”