“I’m glad you’re all here with me,” I said after a moment. “I wouldn’t want to be here by myself.”

And what I didn’t say: it was hard enough, knowing exactly how many days I had left as a human. I didn’t want to spend a single one of them without the people I loved most.

“I think you would do all right if you had to be here alone.” She bumped against me. “You’ve been managing your anxiety a lot better recently.”

“It’s because you’re here.” I said it teasingly, but it was true. Having my best friends helped more than I could tell her.

“You make me blush.”

“And noorestones, I think. Their fire burns those buzzy feelings away, at least for a little while.” I frowned at the floor. “It would have been nice if I’d had this years ago.”

“It was inconsiderate of them to wait so long to be this helpful.” Ilina pulled herself straight and clicked for the dragons. “When do we speak with Empress Apolla?” She held up a hand as Crystal flapped over, spraying water everywhere. “There was a schedule in my room, but it only had tours of the palace and meals with strangers. How long do they think we’re going to be here?”

“My schedule says this evening, before I join her for dinner.” I looked toward the other rooms. “Surely everyone is going.”

Ilina shook her head. “I don’t think the rest of us are invited.”

“Maybe I can ask Alusha—”

“No.” Ilina brushed water off Crystal. “I think we should follow our schedules. Be the best guests we possibly can. We want them to have every reason to help us, right? So let’s be agreeable and easy. If we need to fight something, we want to be in a strong position to argue.”

“You think that’s better than showing spine first thing? We don’t want them to push us around.”

She tapped her chin. “Hristo and Gerel would say to insist, but I think we want to be diplomatic. Chenda would agree.”

I nodded.

“Talk to the empress tonight. The rest of us will go to the events scheduled.” She nodded toward one of the ten thousand decorative tables in the parlor, covered with dragon figurines. “Clearly, they like dragons around here, and so do we. Between all of us, we should be able to learn about any legends regarding the first dragon. That’s our priority, right?”

Was it? Getting the bones felt like a priority, but I had to be practical, too. Ships and safe harbor could save so many people—and we knew that. There was no doubt.

The dragon bones . . .

“I think you should take a noorestone with you tonight, though. Just in case.”

I nodded, although Nine would no doubt have told her superiors about my control over the noorestones. I just hoped that the empress’s guards didn’t view a small crystal as a weapon.

“LaLa isn’t invited to dinner,” I said. “If you can believe it.”