Veron didn't lower the crossbow. 'And how do I know you aren't working with the… other dragon.'
'You watched me kill his lovac,' Nestrix said. 'What more do you need? While we talk, that child is in danger.'
'Tell me where he's headed.'
Nestrix frowned. 'To a second lair, probably. He wants something from the boy's dam. The boy is a bargaining piece-he won't take him back to his mother until he has what he wants.'
'Where's his second lair?'
Nestrix shook her head. 'I don't know that. That's why we need to find him.'
'The antiquary's,' Tennora said. 'Anywhere else is out of the city.'
'That's true,' Nestrix said. 'The antiquary's is to hold his seed hoard, his treasure. This place is to recover- that ward of yours is weaker at this edge. He doesn't need anything else here-he probably made his moves from his main lair until now. That could be anywhere.'
'But he'd have to transform or teleport to get there,' Tennora finished. 'He can't walk down the street dragging the unwilling son of Nazra Mrays. He didn't teleport. And if he'd transformed… I think we'd have heard something, even down here.'
Veron shook his head and lowered the crossbow. 'But he knows you both know where his seed hoard is. He can't hide the boy there for long.'
'He doesn't have to. No food, no place for the boy to sleep, a plan for his body. He's clearly not planning to keep the boy more than a few days.'
'Hells,' Tennora said. 'The boy could be anywhere.'
'We'll find him,' Nestrix said.
'No, it's more than that,' Tennora said. 'He means to take hold of the dragonstaff.' She explained the purpose of the dragonward and dragonstaff, and the plan that Dareun seemed to be following.
Veron slid the crossbow back into its harness. 'Then we have a problem. He'll hide the boy, but he'll go to the mother to get the staff. If we stop him from getting the staff, we might not be able to find the boy. If we go after the boy, he may get the staff before we reach him.'
'And we don't know how to get out of here,' Tennora added. She looked over at Veron. 'Unless…?'
Verori shook his head. 'I'm lucky I found my way here. You don't want to know what I had to go through to find you.'
'Yes, well, I owe you a favor,' Tennora said.
Nestrix's eyes lit up. 'A favor.'
She sprinted over to the body of Ferremo Magli and started emptying his pockets and pouches. A palm-sized mirror, a waxy plug of scent, a small whetstone. 'Oh come on,' she muttered. 'Don't have used them up.'
'What in the Nine Hells are you looking for?' Tennora asked.
'Favor tokens,' she said. 'The taaldarax gives them to his lovacs to help them carry out his plans.' She pulled his coin purse out from under his belt and upended it. A shower of coins-gold, silver, and copper-rained out. 'Quickly! Find the coin that looks different!'
Tennora and Veron both dropped down beside her and started sifting through the coins. 'What do they do?' Tennora said.
'They connect to the taaldarax's location. If the lovac needs to return to his master's lair, the favor token will take him.'
Veron stopped and looked around. 'Aren't we in his lair?'
'Don't be foolish,' Nestrix said, still busily emptying pockets. 'It's disgusting down here. He's not a swamp dragon. His temporary lair is either the seed hoard or somewhere near to it. He would have made sure the lovac had a way to get back to it.'
Tennora was leaned close to the coins, running her fingers over the pieces, when she spotted it. The taaldarax' s favor was a gold coin a little bigger than a dragon piece and a little yellower. It was stamped with Draconic letters.
'Found it!' she cried plucking the coin from the pile. She handed it over to Nestrix. 'How does it work?'
Nestrix turned the coin over in her hand, with a soft, strange smile. She looked up at Tennora and Veron. 'Like this.'
She spread her hand and the piece fell to the ground with a resounding chime. But when Tennora looked down at the floor to spot the coin, she saw they were no longer standing on cold, slick stones, but on a polished wooden floor. Tennora looked down at her hands and leathers, and at the body of Ferremo Magli who had come along with them. 'That was-'
Nestrix held a finger to her lips and hissed.
They were standing in a small room with no windows. One door looked in on a bed with twisted sheets. The other had been thrown wide and led down a hallway. Nestrix slipped toward the second door, Tennora and Veron close behind.
Ahead of them a door slammed.
'He's here,' Nestrix growled.
The hallway ended in a curtain, which Nestrix tore aside. Beyond was the antiquary's shop, still full of false treasures, still silent as a tomb.
Nestrix inhaled deeply. 'He was here-not too long ago.'
'How can you be sure?' Veron asked.
She looked back over her shoulder at him, one eyebrow arched in disbelief. 'I'm a dragon,' she said. 'And he stinks like an alchemist's trash heap.' She sniffed the air again. 'He's not here anymore.'
'No one's here,' Veron said, waving a hand over the room. 'Let's go. He can't be too far.' He headed for the door, Nestrix following.
Something itched at the back of Tennora's mind as she looked around the room. Something had changed since she'd seen it last, but she couldn't put her finger on what. Instead, the sense skidded around in her thoughts, refusing to settle. After a moment, she started toward the door, still studying the room around her.
Just before the door, Nestrix stopped.
She sniffed the air, suddenly alert as a hound scenting its quarry. 'Stop,' she said. 'He's still here.'
'Dareun?' Tennora asked.
'No,' Nestrix said. 'The boy.' She sniffed again. 'Inks and sweets and soap.' She looked at Tennora, her eyes lambent. 'Fear.'
Veron cursed. 'Where? Are you sure?'
She gave him a withering look. 'Of course I'm sure.' She pushed past him into the maze of displays and cabinets, tasting the air.
Tennora followed her, watching as Nestrix tried to catch the scent of the boy again. When she turned back, her face was contorted with frustration.
'He is here,' she said. 'I can't… I can't find him.'
'So we start looking,' Tennora said. She turned toward the other half of the shop. Veron caught her by the arm.
'We should go after Dareun,' he said softly. 'We're chasing figments if we stay and rummage through this place.'
'She says she smells him.'
'And so what? There's still a very good chance she's plague mad.' He let go of her arm. 'That boy could be anywhere in this city. Or beyond.'
Tennora started to retort, but when her eyes fell on a cabinet pushed up against the wall, her mouth shut.
Three days earlier, she had stood in front of that cabinet and had been startled out of her wits when a slinger's bullet shattered the glass.
Tennora pushed past Veron and started toward it.
The cabinet had since been hung with ornate metal doors that did not match the thick wooden body, and fitted with a beastly, complicated-looking lock.
'Nestrix!' she called. 'Nestrix! This one! It's this one.'
Nestrix sprinted across the shop to Tennora's side and sniffed. Her eyes widened. She rapped on the
