“So I need a dragon.” She carefully buffed a patch of dull scales. “But now that I’ve gotten used to flying, and I’ve seen Ari and Kashet just being together—Kiron, I am just as eaten with dragon envy as any of those boys out there with their eggs in the hatching pen, and if I could spare the time to tend an egg, I would go looking for one myself! Mind, if this works, I hope my dragon has a slightly different personality. Kashet is more like a dog, and I think I would get along better with a dragon like Re-eth-ke, who is more like a cat.”

Kiron had to laugh at that. “Aket-ten said the same thing. My father used to tell my mother that women liked cats better than dogs, because they recognize that they are like cats themselves!”

Nofret laughed herself, making Avatre crane her neck around to look at her. “There’s some truth to that,” she admitted. “I don’t like slavish dependence. Do you think that I’m mad for wanting a dragon, too?”

“I don’t think anyone is mad for wanting a dragon.” They were just about finished with Avatre, and when Kiron stepped back, the scarlet dragon picked her way daintily to the center of her pit, then spread herself out luxuriantly over the top of the hot sand to bask.

“You’re frightening Ari, though,” he continued, picking up the cloths and oil flask. “It will be dangerous. Not as much for you as for Aket-ten, but Coresan won’t be drugged, and her reactions will be sharp. I honestly don’t know what her behavior is going to be like, or even if it will be consistent from day to day.”

Nofret spread her hands wide. “Shouldn’t we be able to learn that by watching her while we approach her?” she asked, reasonably. “I promise, if she looks as if she’s going to be dangerous, I’ll give up the idea. It’s going to take enough time as it is. But I do have my reasons, and a great many of them, and I think they’re all good ones.”

He looked at her soberly, wondering if she really understood what she was letting herself in for. How much the bond with her dragon would affect her.

Then he decided that it didn’t matter whether she understood now. When it happened, she would. And when it happened, well, she wouldn’t regret whatever sacrifices she had to make.

“She’s beautiful,” Nofret said, in tones of awe.

“She’s a bit scrawny still,” Aket-ten countered. “but she’s rounding out again.”