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marginalized when they had first come to Brighton's Gate, but she had been a completely different person then. She had come to Great Valley as a girl, innocent and naive, but now she identified herself as much dragon-kind as human.
    “I’m going to get supplies,” Zollin said as they turned onto the fire scorched cobblestones that made up Brighton’s Gate’s main avenue. “See if you can find Quinn.”
    Brianna nodded and turned onto a smaller path that led away from the town’s larger stone buildings and toward the sounds of construction. There were hammers pounding nails and saws cutting wood, but there was also laughter and voices full of hope. Brianna passed several young women returning from washing near the river, and she could smell baking as she wandered between the small homes.
    She spotted a group of men working on the rooftop of a newly built home and guessed that Quinn would be there or nearby. Brianna was making her way toward the builders when an older woman stepped into her path. The woman was large with hunching shoulders and a bulging midsection covered with a large gown that looked more like the sail of ship than a dress. The path was narrow and the woman did nothing to make enough room for Brianna to pass by.
    “Excuse me,” Brianna said, hoping to move past the woman.
    “You’re not welcome here,” the woman said.
    Brianna stepped back. Her association with the pride of dragons was not widely accepted in the village. Few, if any, of the townspeople had seen her flying with the pride, but the rumors were rampant. And while Zollin was able to build trust by healing people, Brianna had mostly stayed away from the village that had been destroyed by a dragon.
    “I’m just trying to find Quinn,” Brianna said.
    “He ain’t here,” the woman snarled. “And we don’t need you here either.”
    “I’ll be on my way then.”
    Brianna turned but there were two women behind her. They were both large, both unattractive. She knew their type, having been bullied as a child by women just like the ones blocking her path. What they lacked in beauty they made up for in brute strength and cruelty.
    “Maybe we should make it clear just how unwanted you are,” the large woman in front of Brianna said.
    The first blow came from behind Brianna, and she was expecting it. She could have killed the women, conjuring flames that would have engulfed their fat bodies and sent them screaming from the alley. She could have turned the ground into molten rock and slipped into the earth, using her incredible power over fire to swim through solid rock. But she didn’t want to hurt anyone, and she didn’t want to add any more rumors about her powers to the village. If they saw her disappear into the ground they would surely think she was a devil of some kind.
    Brianna ducked, letting the first punch fly harmlessly over her head, and then she sprang upward. She could have jumped over the women, but instead she landed on the first woman’s shoulders, pausing just long enough for the move to register on the women’s faces, then jumped again, twisting in mid air and landing lightly on a nearby rooftop. Another flip sent her to the far side of the building where she was hidden from sight by the roof’s peak. She dashed away, staying low and looking for a place where she might drop back to the ground without being seen.
    There was shouting in the alleyway, but the large women couldn’t run fast enough to catch Brianna, and it only took a moment before the women were out of breath. They gave up the chase easily enough and Brianna took the opportunity to drop down between two houses unseen and continued on her way as if nothing had happened.
    She walked quickly to where a group of men were looking up at a building’s roof, trying to decide if they had missed anything. She saw Mansel, who was larger than most of the other men. She walked quietly up beside him and waited.
    “You look like you’ve been up to no good,” he