The venom stung even him. Li touched his arm. ‘I will, Belli. One day, I promise. We have to show Tsen T'Varr our need for one another. He'll be our next sea lord, I think, and when that's decided we can talk to him. Properly. About all the things we've talked about among ourselves. Alchemists to come to our world, enchanters to go to yours.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘I promise. We will do this.’ Then she let go and made a face and shook her head. ‘Mind you, your Holiness is not helpful in that regard. She is. . inappropriate. She has slaves to wait on her, the best, trained to serve a sea lord's son. They could expertly guide her in proper dress and demeanour and yet she behaves as. .’ Li paused as if looking for the right word and not finding it, then huffed in exasperation. ‘She's indecent, Master Alchemist. Are all your women this way?’
Bellepheros laughed, thinking of Zafir in the golden egg beneath the glasship, the first moment they'd had alone to share their secrets. She'd been protecting him, making it seem as though she was the one at fault, but surely there could have been other ways. She could have put a knife to him for a start — wouldn't that have worked just as well? ‘All of them? No. Those born to ride on the backs of dragons, though? Yes, perhaps they are, men and women both. Indecent and arrogant.’ He shrugged. ‘They don't care what you think of them, Li. Why would they when they're dragon-riders?’ He sighed and looked at the floor. ‘And are all Taiytakei so. . so. .’
‘Squeamish?’ Li cocked her head. ‘You can say it. I don't mind. And no, not all of us. In the lesser quarters of Xican and one or two other places your dragon-queen might fit in perfectly well. But most of us were brought up properly, thank you!’ She stared at him, eyes strong and defiant and daring him to mock her for it. Bellepheros took her hands.
‘And you're all the better for it, Li. But see the world for a moment from other eyes. For me, and in my shoes I think you would be the same, this slavery isn't so bad. I continue to do as I've always done. The place is different, the time, the circumstances, the materials around me, the people, the words, but the task is the same. The nature of my bondage hasn't changed, merely the clothes that it wears. I'm a slave to my dragons and always have been, far more than I will ever be a slave to you or to Baros Tsen. And you, Li, you enchanters, all of you would understand this. You would forge your magics of silver and glass and gold for Zafir and make little complaint of it in time, I fancy. But for her. . she's a dragon-queen and she cannot serve any will but her own. Look at the dragons. Look at Diamond Eye! That is what would be her master before any of us, and she cannot allow it, nor could any rider, and so they learn never to bend, never to flex. In their own minds they must be free. They must be their own mistress or master, for how else can they be mistress or master to their monsters? Sometimes they snap and break — I've seen a good few — but Zafir will not bow to anyone, ever, and she must show that in every deed and every thought, and if Tsen finds another rider then I'm afraid you'll find that one to be much the same, for the dragons have a different name for any who are otherwise. They call them prey. Do you see? Zafir doesn't wilfully set herself against your traditions or your people. She sets herself against the will of a dragon. She's been raised from childhood to do this. For her every breath is an act of defiance and she has no more choice in that than you or I. It's the way the best dragon-riders are made.’ He gazed at the armour lying on Chay-Liang's benches. ‘How does it work, armour made of glass? Doesn't it shatter?’
‘If struck hard enough, which is why the soldiers you see carry ashgars, those spiked clubs you keep staring at. But this is to be worn on the back of a dragon and so I haven't designed it for swords and arrows but for fire and lightning. For a black-powder cannon there's little I can do.’ She stopped abruptly. ‘I've heard that she's been taking men to her bed of late. Taiytakei men, not slaves. Is that true?’
Bellepheros closed his eyes and took a long breath. ‘No, Li, and why would you ask?’
Li gave a helpless shrug. ‘Prurient fascination, I suppose. So the rumours are not true? How can you be sure?’
‘There are reasons why I would know if she had, and she has not.’ Another deep breath. ‘There was. .’ But no, say it as it was, and if Li didn't like it, it was hardly his fault. ‘Some soldiers forced themselves on her. Black-cloaks. It was a while back. Afterwards she came to me to make sure there wouldn't be a child. So I would know, Li. I would know. She's not what you think.’ He looked away, aware of a nagging inside him. Think, alchemist! Think! What did you just tell Li about the nature of dragon-riders, how willing they are or are not to bend. .?
But I saw how hurt Zafir was! Bruised and battered. How can I even think she had a choice? He turned away from Li, ashamed of himself. ‘They said the same about the queens of my home too, Shezira and Aliphera when they grew powerful and ruled with no king beside them. Perhaps a dragon-queen is easier to accept if you call her a whore? Perhaps an enchantress too, if she grew too strong and wilful and called herself better that you? No, Li. That's simply the unkind lies of jealous men.’ So I trust her then, do I?
She has the Hatchling Disease. Who would touch her?
But they don't know that and they don't know the signs.
‘Belli? You look ill. Have you been forgetting to sleep again?’
Bellepheros forced a smile. ‘A touch of indigestion. Sometimes I still have to convince my ageing stomach of the merits of your food, fine as it tastes to my tongue.’ He grasped for anything else. ‘You said fire and lightning. Fire I understand. Lightning?’ There can't be more. She'd come to me for Dawn Torpor. She would. And so I would know!
For a long time Li stayed silent, watching him. Then she turned and stroked the dragon armour. ‘Would you like to wear it? I made it for the dragon slave so it won't be a good fit but you'll have some sense of its design at least.’
‘You're more her size.’
‘I am not!’ But when he cocked his eyes and glared at her, she shook her head and snorted and wrinkled her nose at him. ‘Well turn your back for a moment while I take off my robe then.’ Bellepheros dutifully turned his back as Li began to put the armour on. Because she wanted to, really, and they both knew it.
‘Lightning, Li? Why lightning if not for war?’
‘It's just the way we do things.’ He heard a rustle of clothes and some muttering as Li put on the dragon-scale leg wrappings first, then the soft leather undercoat. ‘You can turn round now.’ When Bellepheros looked back, Li was struggling into a pair of boots, elegant and thin, dragon-scale covered in gold. Zafir would like them. On top of the leggings, overlapping the boots, came moulded glass plates covered in woven patterns of silver and gold to cover the shins and thighs, turned to face out from the dragon. Overlapping at the knee. Strange-looking, like the segmented armour of an insect.
‘But why protect her from lightning when that's how you defend yourselves? What if you need to stop her? Your wands and your cannon wouldn't. .’ Oh yes. He began to see.
‘Belli!’ Li wagged a finger at him. ‘Yes, she is being dressed for war but I told you: it will come to nothing. Tsen won't allow it, and even if he did, the Watcher would stop him.’
Bellepheros shrugged ‘Then I'll imagine that lightning storms are more common in these parts than they are in my home realm.’ He couldn't see her face now. The next part of the armour was a long coat of dragon-scale. Hatchling skin was soft, the best for making armour and also the rarest, for the duty of every eyrie master was to see that as many hatchlings as possible survived. It always made him laugh when some king or queen started banging that old drum again. Survive? As if they needed any help with that! The ones that died were the ones that chose to die. The ones that knew what Bellepheros and his alchemists did to them and refused to suffer it. Ah Li, still a few secrets I haven't told you. .