Kiron sighed and opened his eyes again. “It is hard to imagine what is going to come of all this,” he said, quietly. “With lives being upended. Those used to being served having to fend for themselves.”

“Well, Lord Ya-tiren will not need to be worried about that,” Gan pointed out. “He has brought enough people with him to ensure that his inner household will not be cooking their own food and washing their own linen—”

“Ah, and he did bring something else with him that you lot should be grateful for,” Kaleth replied slyly. “Females. Young women. Two thirds of his household is female, most are young, none are children, and half are unmarried.”

“And we are no longer in the army, to be subject to soldiers’ rules, and Gan cannot possibly monopolize all of them,” added Kiron. “So you may pursue young women to your hearts’ content. Or at least, as I am your wingleader, I should say that you may pursue them in the time you are not spending in hunting and caring for your dragon!”

Even as he said that, he wondered how much time he would be able to get with Aket-ten, now that her family was here and she was no longer needing to hide from the Magi. Surely she would want to spend most of her own free time with them.

Why was it that nothing in his life could ever be simple?

“Gan!” said Kalen instantly. “If you cause all of them to become enchanted with your handsome face, I will be very put out!”

Kiron glanced over at Kalen to see if he was joking, but couldn’t make out anything but a shadow among the shadows.

“By At-thera’s horns, aye, leave some for the rest of us!” exclaimed Pe-atep.

“He does have competition, you know,” Oset-re reminded them.

“Perhaps we ought to prevent him from venturing anywhere near until we have our chance,” Kalen suggested, in a tone that sounded as if he was entirely serious.

Surely not.

Quite taken aback, Gan evidently decided to put a gracious face on the matter. “I,” he announced, with a dignity that bordered on the ponderous, “have no intention of frittering my time away in pursuit of women. Or at least, no more than one or two women. We have a new home to create! That temple that was uncovered—it is to be our winter quarters, and what had been workshops are to become our dragon pens, and that will take much work. As you yourselves pointed out, we have no one to do it but ourselves. There is too much to do to waste our precious time on such nonsense.”

“Ehu!” cried Huras in mock alarm. “He’s demon possessed!”

“Or else the Magi stole him and left a changeling!” Kalen said with a shudder. “For surely that is not Gan!”