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svelte form that could have him mistaken for a member of Sebastian’s personal guard as well.
    Keeping his voice low and pitched for her ears he said, “We would ask that you don’t venture out of your place again Lady Weathervane.”
    “How did you know I was going to move?”
    “Training has made me apt at capturing movements of the body. Besides you were fidgeting.”
    Ciardis said nothing.
    “In any case it is important that the envoy is not angered.”
    He hesitated and then admitted honestly, “This was unexpected....unexpected and unwelcome. The females are the ones that fought on the battlefield, the warriors of the dragon race. They are known far and wide as bloodthirsty and insatiable.”
    “Well, this sucks,” she whispered back.
    He didn’t bother commenting. There was nothing to say. They were faced with a high-ranking Ambassador of the most fearsome gender of the dragon race. If she decided to kill them – they were dead.
    As he stepped back to his place she reached out to latch on his sleeve, “Thank you. For the explanation I mean.”
    He bowed slightly, “You are welcome.”
    Ciardis inhaled deeply and sought to calm herself. She couldn’t imagine how Sebastian felt, standing right beneath her jaws. It probably didn’t help that he was also staring up into a closed mouth that was larger than his whole body. When the Ambassador opened her mouth and she saw the serrated teeth as long as her whole body, the sensation of being a rabbit staring in fear into the mouth of a ravenous wolf was hard to ignore.
    Turning its head away from the humans, it chuffed once more. This time a big black ball of gook shot out, straight into the ocean. It looked digusting as it passed over their heads and smelled even worse.
    Ciardis had the urge to run her fingers through her hair just to be sure that none of the liquid had lodged in her curls. It would be her rotten luck if it did.
    Is it sick? she wondered.
    “I am not sick,” proclaimed a booming voice in her head.
    The rest of the sailing party hadn’t heard Ciardis’s query, but they had certainly heard the directed response. And they knew it was directed at her. If censure could be palpable, the vibe she was getting from the surrounding retinue was like a heavy blanket of displeasure weighing down on her.
    So I’m not supposed to think now? Delightful.
    “Ambassador Sedaris,” said Sebastian smoothly, “You flew three hundred miles to our empire. Let us pay our respects and welcome you properly.”
    The female’s head titled to the side until a bright amber eye stared directly at Sebastian.
    “Yessss,” its mind spoke, a hint of a slither in its voice.
    “I confess, Ambassador, we have wondered at your reasons for asking for a meeting to be held on the ocean.”
    “Neutral territory.”
    “Come again?”
    The dragon lowered its head until it was level with the ship, “I did not misspeak.”
    “Indeed,” Sebastian said with a cautious glance at the commander to his left. What was this dragon up to? The ship was much too small to maneuver. The honor guard of pike men and soldiers he’d brought along were just that: an honor guard. They were tightly packed in for a display; they weren’t meant to fight. And they certainly weren’t meant to battle a dragon with the advantage of unlimited skies at a push of its wings and the ability to breathe fire down upon their ship.
    “My sisters have sent me here for one reason and one reason alone,” she proclaimed. “We have received grievances against your empire.”
    “Grievances?”
    “ Kith ,” she hissed, “ Kith who have come to us with tales of death and magic devoid of life.”
    “Ambassador, I— we— have heard no such tales. The Algardis Empire has maintained peace with the kith peoples for centuries.”
    “Our grievance is not about peace. It is about the dead—the living dead. Souls trapped in this life while their bodies have gone to the next.”
    She raised her wings and lifted