“Through Grald’s bungling, Brayard learned about the smuggling of male babies out of Seth. He suspected the existence of a city such as Dragonkeep, although I do not think he ever found it. He told me what he knew and insisted that I bring up the matter before the Parliament. If I would not, he said that he would. That could not be allowed to happen. The revelation that we had been breeding humans to use dragon-magic would have caused an uproar among all dragonkind.”

The dragons muttered, their colors black and tinged with fire.

“Hear me out!” Anora demanded, and she waited until they settled down. “He would have brought our plans to ruin. For the sake of the many, he had to be sacrificed. And so he was. No one was ever supposed to find out. Grald killed Brayard and made the murder look like an accident—as if the dragon had lost way his way in a storm and crashed into a mountain.

“All would have been well, but that Brayard’s son, Braun, was the inquisitive sort. He did not believe that his father could have been so reckless. Prior to his death, Brayard assured me that he had not spoken to anyone regarding his suspicions. I now know that he must have mentioned at least some of what he suspected to his son. How much, I’m not sure, but at least enough to cause Braun to fly to Seth, with some scheme of trying to warn the humans about what was happening.

“The women of Seth, skilled in the use of dragon-magic, very nearly killed Braun. He managed to escape, and he returned and told his tale to anyone who would listen. He wanted to stir up trouble, believing that the truth about the murder of his father would then float to the surface. You know what happened. Draconas was sent to try to ‘deal’ with Maristara. He was to take a human male—a king of his people—to Seth to meet the Mistress of Dragons and persuade her to leave Seth.

“From that point on, nothing went right. Grald lost his nerve and sent out his magic-wielding monks to destroy Draconas. These lunatics did far more harm to us than they did to Draconas, for they alerted him to the fact that humans had been given dragon-magic. Maristara did not abandon the worn-out human body as swiftly as she should have, with the lamentable result that two humans as well as Draconas stumbled upon Maristara’s secret of body switching.