The others scoffed and knocked him around playfully and mussed his hair, but no one made a move to go. The boy with the dragon-magic had quit talking to himself and was staring at Draca with narrowed eyes.

“I think you’re all afraid,” said Draconas loftily. “I dare you to come to the palace with me.”

The boys looked uncertainly at each other.

“Double-dare,” said Draconas, upping the stakes.

“I’ll go,” said the boy with the dragon-magic. He had an eager look on his thin and blood-smeared face and he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.

“Good for you!” said Draconas. She held out her hand to him and pretended not to notice when he recoiled and backed away from her. “You and I’ll go. The rest are too scared.”

There was no question for the others now. Their honor had been challenged.

“We’ll just go look at the palace,” said the eldest, clarifying the rules.

“Of course,” said Draconas scornfully. “You don’t think I mean to go inside, do you? Who’s the leader?” Her gaze went to the eldest and she smiled sweetly. “I guess you must be.”

“I am,” he affirmed, flattered.

“Then you lead the way.” Draconas flashed a glance around at the others. “We’ll follow, won’t we, boys?”

All agreed, though with mixed levels of enthusiasm. The eldest boy, his head held high, started off down the alley. The rest fell in behind. Draconas was slightly disconcerted to find the boy with the dragon-magic dogging his footsteps, his mad gaze fixed on Draca with rapt attention.

Some males with dragon-magic had the ability to see through Draconas’s illusion, see the dragon that he was, not the little girl he was pretending to be. He wondered uneasily if this boy was seeing Draca or the dragon . . .

The children wended their way through streets that twisted and turned, rambled into alleys, wandered uphill and down, and meandered around buildings that were all jumbled together in seemingly senseless order, judging by human standards. Grald had laid out the city and Draconas saw the dragon’s instinctive need to surround and defend himself with mazes and labyrinths in every twist and turn. Draconas’s dragon-brain being accustomed to mazes, he was able to keep track of the route they were taking. He now had a pretty good notion of where the dragon must have located his “palace”—somewhere near the mountain where Grald would have his lair.

The gray stone walls of the Abbey rose up in front of them. Beyond the Abbey was a broad expanse of meadow land where sheep and cattle grazed. The eldest said that they should avoid the Abbey “because that’s where the Blessed hang out.” The boy with dragon-magic nodded his head emphatically at this.

“The Dragon’s Son lives there,” he said, his voice low and reverent. He repeated this several times.