cheats, and that made one wonder why one trusted anybody at all. Things that made one want to snuff the candle out.
'You're a dragon,' Tennora said, slowly. 'But you turned into a woman when you encountered spellplague.'
Clytemorrenestrix rolled her eyes. 'Yes. Didn't I say that?'
'Yes,' Tennora said. Mad. Mad as the wizard under the mountain, she thought. 'I wanted to make certain I heard you correctly.' She glanced over the woman's flawless skin. 'You don't have a spellscar.'
The woman's face contorted in a scowl. 'My whole body is a spellscar. At any rate I don't see how it matters. You do not need to know these things to bring me to Aundra Blacklock.'
'I never said-'
Mardin interrupted with two plates of roast squab in rustic rosemary gravy. 'Here you are, my dear, and one for your new friend.' He looked expectantly at Tennora.
Tennora took a deep breath to ward off her rising anxiety. The woman couldn't be a dragon-that was impossible. Either she was toying with Tennora or she was mad. There was no other sensible explanation.
But what of the moment of fear that rushed up inside Tennora when she met the woman's eyes? What of the smell of lightning?
What of the fact that Tennora felt certain in the hollow of her heart that Clytemorrenestrix was telling the truth?
'This is…' Tennora frowned. Even if she could say the woman's name right, Mardin might know what it meant, and then what? 'May I call you Nestrix?' 'If you must,' Clytemorrenestrix said.
'A pleasure to make your acquaintance, dear lady.' Mardin took up one of her hands to kiss it, but Nestrix pulled away with a look of disgust. Mardin shifted awkwardly and looked to Tennora for an explanation.
'She…' Tennora started. Then shrugged. 'She's had a long day.'
Mardin raised an eyebrow, but did not press the matter. 'Well, enjoy your meals,' he said, and returned to his post behind the counter. He glanced back at Tennora, as if he knew she wasn't saying everything. As if he thought she should have.
The blue eyes met Tennora's again. 'It's better not to tell him,' Nestrix said. 'Adventurers are excitable. Even if they aren't adventuring.'
'How did you know he was an adventurer?'
Nestrix shrugged-a jerky, self-conscious gesture, as if she'd learned it from watching someone else and was still testing it out. 'They have a look.'
She's so uncomfortable in her skin, Tennora thought, pulling apart her squab. She shook her head-plenty of people looked awkward and none of them were dragons. She herself felt uncomfortable in her own skin more often than she cared to admit. She was being fanciful, just as Aunt Aowena always said.
'If you'd take your head out of the clouds for a change,' she'd said over highsunfeast, 'you'd see the world of opportunities you already have!' Then she'd gone on to name-as some of those opportunities-the Marchenors' son and the nephew of one of Eckhart's hunting friends.
'Will you take me to Blacklock or not?' Nestrix said.
Tennora passed her mug from one hand to the other. 'Why do you want to talk to her?'
'That isn't your business.'
'Look,' Tennora said, 'Aundra isn't an easy person to get to. If you want my help, you're going to have to give me a good reason.'
Nestrix narrowed her eyes at Tennora. 'I could kill you if you don't.'
'I'm not afraid of you,' Tennora said, though it was half a lie. Dragon or not, the woman still had a dangerous look to her.
The smell of summer storms rose again and vanished. A chill ran up Tennora's spine. Nestrix turned away, glaring at the fireplace.
'I have heard she's found a way to reverse the affects of the Spellplague,' Nestrix said. 'That she can repair the Weave in very limited locations. If she can do that, I will never have to worry about you not fearing me again.' She turned back to Tennora. 'You can't understand what it's like to look in the mirror and not recognize yourself, time and time again for over a century.'
'I don't think it's that strange to…' Tennora trailed off as what Nestrix had said settled into place in her mental timeline. Over a century. Her eyes widened. 'Shar pass us over… You mean… the Spellplague? The Year of Blue Fire?'
'Of course,' Nestrix said, picking at a leg of squab. 'What did you think I meant?'
'A… a pocket.' Tennora shrugged. 'Little bits of spell storm that pop up now and again.' She studied the woman across from her. 'You can't be a hundred years old.'
Nestrix scowled. 'Of course not. I'm five hundred and sixty-eight. And what little trace of spellplague could do this?' She gestured at her body as if it were scaled and slimy and not well muscled and pleasantly curvy. 'I am plaguechanged, make no mistake.'
'But you're not dead,' Tennora said. 'You should be dead. No human lives that long. Not anymore. In stories maybe-'
'I haven't the faintest idea how this works,' Nestrix said, sounding irritated. 'I may look like one of you, but I kept certain skills. My proper lifespan appears to be one of them.'
'And the fear.' Tennora leaned in closer. 'What else?'
Nestrix smiled and Tennora found herself expecting serrated teeth-but they were even and flat. 'If you help me, perhaps I'll show you. What do you say, thief?'
Tennora frowned. 'I'm no thief.'
'No? Thieves have a look too.' Nestrix leaned across the table and sniffed audibly. 'Ah, no-a wizard. With guano under her nails, cobwebs in her pockets, and ink on her fingertips.' She leaned back.
'I'm not a wizard either,' Tennora said.
'Then what are you?'
'Nothing. 'It seems no mastery burns within me,'' she said glumly.
Nestrix grinned. 'Even I know those are Ahghairon's words. Don't quote your texts and tell me you're no wizard.'
'I am a wizard as you are a dragon,' Tennora said. 'I was, and now I'm not.' 'Perhaps you should try your hand at being a thief,' Nestrix said. 'You have the look.'
The tirade Aunt Aowena would unleash if that ever happened-punctuated, of course, by her fainting and Uncle Eckhart's blustering curses-was enough to give Tennora a prescient headache. She rubbed her temple.
Nestrix was watching her expectantly.
'I'm not opposed to helping you,' Tennora said as diplomatically as she could manage, 'but I have to say… I don't think Aundra's going to give you what you ask for.'
'Of course she will. She has to.'
'It's just… I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but what sort of dragon were you?'
Nestrix looked as if Tennora had slapped her. 'You can't tell? What sort of wizard are you?'
'I already told you, I'm not a wizard-'
'Well, you were,' Nestrix said, crossing her arms. 'You should be able to tell. Or is that why you aren't anymore? You're too stupid?'
Tennora felt her cheeks flush. 'I have a stlarning good idea. And even if I didn't, I'm betting I'd be guessing some colors that Aundra's not going to be interested in giving her charity to.'
Nestrix's hand slapped down on Tennora's, and fear rushed toward her again. But it broke on Tennora's anger, and she felt it wash over her and away. She pulled back from Nestrix. 'I am not stupid,' she said. 'And neither is Aundra.'
Nestrix narrowed her eyes. 'Your Aundra Blacklock knows nothing about me. If she won't help, then fine-I'll look elsewhere. But there's little fairness in assuming because my cousins are nasty to you, that I will be as well. I just want my life back.' She fell silent for a moment, then added, 'And for your information, anyone I've killed deserved it. Or do you allow strangers to wander through your home, taking your things and poking you with sticks?'
'No,' Tennora said, 'but I don't kill them if they do.' 'That's your weakness.'
