Bellepheros sat up gasping, panting, the cry of alarm still building in his throat. It was starlight-dark. There was no carriage, no knife, no masked men, but it still took him a moment to remember where he was.
Two long, slow, deep breaths. Dreaming again. The same nightmare that came back now and then. Once he'd caught his breath he chided himself for being surprised that it had come back tonight, after what the evening had brought.
In the far corner of the room a tiny candle burned on a stone slab. It was a slow-burner, something that would make a little flame all through the night. He stumbled out of bed and fumbled for his desk until he found the lamp he kept on it and lit it from the candle. There were no windows down here under the eyrie, but he knew from the glow of the white stone walls that outside the desert horizon would be a deep blue, not quite black. Dawn was an hour away.
He went to the desk and sat down. On another morning he might have tried to go back to sleep but not today. That bottle that Shezira's knight-marshal had given him was still there. He made a little mark on the underside of the desk. Another day. Two hundred and forty-five since the Taiytakei had taken him now, give or take a couple. He was an alchemist and nothing if not meticulous about such things.
A gentle knocking disturbed his despair and his door creaked open. ‘Belli? Should I leave you alone?’
Yes. But that wouldn't do. ‘No, no, come in. We have a great deal of work before us so we might as well get on with it.’ Li. She was his watcher, his jailer, his assistant, but above and beyond all else she was his friend, and by the light of the Great Flame he needed her for that now. A few short hours and their whole world had been turned on its head. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. ‘Eggs. You were supposed to bring me eggs! Not this!’
‘I have enumerated the dragon kin,’ she said and pushed her glass lenses up her nose. ‘There are fifty-seven hatchlings and the large one. Also I've made qaffeh.’ She put a hot metal pot on the desk in front of him. The bitter smell made him smile. It was a Taiytakei drink and the likes of Prince Jehal and others who lived in the seaport of Furymouth spoke of it with awe. Bellepheros had never tried it until Li had all but forced it on him. She lived on the stuff. He couldn't think of a single time when she hadn't had a fresh hot pot of it to hand.
‘Remember to keep away from the little ones,’ he said absently. The Taiytakei made a sticky sweet spongy bread which they dipped in their qaffeh and he'd acquired so much of a taste for it that even the thought was making his mouth water. ‘They're easily young enough to still carry the Hatchling Disease.’
‘They're dry. No residues of their birthing products remain.’
‘So they may seem but they need to be washed, Li. By the Scales. Did they all feed?’ No, wait, they did all of this yesterday didn't they? When the dragons suddenly popped out of the sky and filled the eyrie to its rim. Flame! There was nothing he could do for so many! Twenty-six Scales he'd prepared, far more than he'd thought would be necessary, and suddenly he needed five times that number. No. They'd started a feed and he'd run from one to the other, shouting and yelling at the Taiytakei and at all the slaves to keep away and stay underground and. . and what? He pressed a hand to his forehead. He didn't remember coming back to his bed.
‘They were all washed and they were all fed, Belli.’
‘The adult? You're sure the adult fed? And drank?’
‘Yes.’ Liang bowed. ‘I saw to every one.’
He could have held her hand and cried. She was better at this than him, she truly was, and if he'd had it in his power he would have turned her into a true alchemist so there could be two of them and the burden of the dragons wouldn't be his alone and never mind everything else. But of course he couldn't, because there was no essence of the Silver King for her to drink and weld into her own blood.
‘Waiting for this?’ With a flourish she presented a loaf of Bolo bread and tore it in half. ‘Shall we break our night fast?’
He was shaking so much he didn't trust himself to answer but he took the bread and dipped it and let its sweetness melt over his tongue while he tried to push some order into his thoughts. If the dragons had eaten then they had his potions inside them. They'd be dulled for a while. It was the adult that mattered the most. If a hatchling woke they might still use the adult to hunt it down. If the adult woke and broke free then no force in the world would stop it.
‘The moon sorcerers.’ Li paused to wipe her lenses. ‘I think I never quite believed that The Watcher and our sea lord had actually met them. I certainly didn't think they ever left their island.’
Lists in his head. Checking them off one by one. He'd made a lot of potion over the weeks and months since they'd brought him the dragon blood he needed. As much as his own blood would allow. Enough for today but enough for how long after? He didn't know. Not for ever, not as the dragons grew. There would have to be a cull. Better to do it sooner rather than later then. But how to explain? He could lay it out to Li step by logical step. Yes, and she'd see he was right. But Tsen? And the sorcerer-assassin who watched over them? He wouldn't.
‘And you told me what a dragon would be and I had an idea in my mind, but. . by Xibaiya, Belli, it's as big as a glasship!’
Did he have poison? Yes of course. Enough? No. What else did he need then? He screwed up his face. Lists. He'd have to write it all down. What needed to be done. Each step, one after the other. O Flame, don't make me have to do this in secret! I can't, I simply can't!
‘Belli?’
And soon. Sort out what needed to be done. All of it while Tsen was away. Before his sorcerer spy came back from wherever he was. However long he had. Let it all be done without their say, one way or the other, that was best. Argue about it after the fact. But so much, so much, and it all had to be done today! As soon as he could!
‘Belli!’
Liang. If there was sense to it, she'd see it, she would. One thing they had in common, the way they thought. It bound them closer than their differences pushed them apart. Help me, Li! You have to help me with this. Please!
‘Bellepheros!’
He jumped, his thoughts knocked sideways. She still called him that sometimes when he wasn't paying attention or when she was angry with him. ‘What? What is it, Li?’
She pushed another chunk of bread his way and nodded earnestly. ‘Qaffeh makes everything better.’ He smiled as she put her hand on his. ‘Chaos has come, Belli, but we shall make order. There's much to be done and some of it will be hard, but we shall prevail. You will show me what and why and I will stand beside those of your decisions that are right to my eye. You know this, Grand Master Alchemist Bellepheros, keeper of our sea lord's dragons. Tsen is in Xican and will take days to get back here, if he comes here directly at all. The Watcher has gone to tell him that his dragons have come and even he can't travel such a way and back again in a day, and even when he does return, he'll not interfere. You'll do what you must, and I'll be beside you. So it's not so bad.’
Yes it is! Bellepheros took a deep breath. He let it out slowly and forced away the lists and the whirl of all the things that needed to be done. Maybe she was right. Maybe there was time if he was organised enough. And efficient. And didn't forget anything, and had everything he needed to hand. . A lot to do, though. A lot to do. .