"And when you were chosen, you were given this sword?"

"Chosen-"

"Look, Maggaron-if the Arkon is right, she's going to arrive here one more time. Only one. I have no idea why he thinks there should be nine of her, but I'm willing to trust him-we have that much history."

"And you and I do not."

"I'm also willing to trust him because I don't have any choice." She hesitated and then added, "We don't have a lot of female Dragons in the Empire. By not a lot, I mean none that I've personally encountered. My instincts are saying that none is pretty close to what the rest of the Dragon Court expected to encounter, and finding one as a corpse-seven times-is not making any of them any happier.

"But the Arkon is old, he's a Dragon, and even the Emperor respects his advice and his opinion. I'm going to trust him; there's a ninth Bellusdeo coming. She might already be here; we might already be too late. You can hide behind secrets all you want, but when you were controlled by the Shadows, don't you think they learned what you know? They had your name."

Maggaron bowed his head.

"If I don't know what I need to know, if I don't understand what's going on, there's a chance I'll screw up. There's a good chance I've already screwed up," she added. "But I only get one more chance."

"You have my name," he said.

She flinched. "...Yes."

"Could you not do as others have done, and use that name against me?"

"...Yes."

"It would preserve what little self-respect I have, Chosen."

Kaylin folded her arms across her chest; Severn came to stand beside her. "Can we just skip the part where we torture each other horribly and pretend we've already done it?"

His eyes widened slightly. They were green. This confirmed her suspicion that green was the Norannir version of surprise.

"I don't have a lot of self-respect myself. What I've got, I cling to," she continued. "And forcing the information out of you that way would destroy some of it."

"Why, then, did you take my name?"

"You already know the answer."

Green faded slowly into brown, a color that she seldom saw in the Norannir. "Yes, Chosen. I do. Bellusdeo spoke to you today. But in some fashion that you will not understand, Bellusdeo also chose you."

"I had these marks-"

"Ah, no. You are Chosen for reasons that not even the Dragons can understand. I meant the sword, of course."

She looked at its hilt dubiously.

"If the sword did not desire it, Chosen, you could not have lifted it. Believe that it was tried during my...captivity."

"It was a gigantic greatsword made of Shadow, Maggaron!"

"Yes. It was. Because I was its wielder. It is part of me." He looked down; Kaylin had never been so aware of the differences in their height. Somehow, the news she had feared would break him completely had given him strength instead. "Did Mejrah explain what purpose the Ascendants served?"

"More or less."

"She also explained that only a handful were chosen?"

"And the rest were returned to their homes and their families and eventually became Elders, yes."

"Did she tell you that the Ascendants became immortal?"

"Not in so many words, no. But she implied that Bellusdeo had promised to transform or change the children of the Norannir so that they might know a life as long as a Dragon's-which is effectively forever."

He nodded. His eyes had shaded from their unusual brown to a more familiar Norannir blue. "What she did not-what she could not-tell you was how that was achieved. Tell me, do you think the Norannir have true names?"

Kaylin shook her head. "They're mortal."

"Yet you now hold mine. Have you not wondered how it is that I have a name?"

"Well, yes, if you put it that way."

"I was given a part of Bellusdeo's name."

Kaylin stared at him for a long moment. "I want to say that's impossible."

Tara, who hadn't interrupted until this moment said, "It is impossible."

"Lady," Maggaron said, inclining his head to Tara. After a pause, he actually got down on one knee. Kaylin suspected this was less a gesture of supplication than a gesture of respect; it was hard to look down from that differential in height while still maintaining awe. "It is not impossible. I am proof of that."

But Tara shook her head. Turning to Kaylin, she said, "I would like to examine the sword more carefully."

Kaylin visibly wilted, but nodded. "You're going to have to help me resheathe it, though." She caught the hilt and pulled it clear of the sheath; it came out so easily she stumbled backward slightly. Severn caught her. Kaylin handed the sword to Tara, or tried; Tara took a step back as the runes on the flat of the blade began to glow. They were a shade between purple and blue.

Tara's eyes lost their whites as she concentrated. Eyes now obsidian, she said, "Maggaron, after Bellusdeo gave you this sword, did you see her again?"

He was silent.

Kaylin, however, asked a slightly different question. "Did Bellusdeo give you this sword?"

"It was left for me," he replied.

"Tara? What do you see?"

"It's not what I see, Kaylin. What do you see? Look carefully."

"I see a sword with engravings on it."

"You don't recognize the runes?"

Kaylin shook her head. "Do you see them?"

"No."

"...What?"

"No. They're fluid to my eye; they have a shape and a line that I should recognize, but I cannot comprehend them visually. I suspect that under the right circ.u.mstances, you might."

"What do you mean?"

"Give the Ascendant the sword," was the soft reply.

Maggaron was still on one knee, but his respectful posture gave way to something that reminded Kaylin of subtle cowering. Given he didn't change position at all, this was mildly impressive. "I must decline," he told Tara.

"I don't think she was asking your permission."

"Chosen-" he swallowed "-I cannot-I am not worthy."

"You don't have to keep it-"

He laughed. It was brief, and it was very, very bitter. "You can wield the sword but you cannot understand it; you will always be outside it, if you can say that so easily. If she had not been trapped because of me, I would never, ever have surrendered her. Do you not understand? I gave her into your keeping and she allowed it-so that she might be free of my entrapment."

She started to speak; stopped herself because the words would have been unkind. He was afraid to take the sword because he wanted it so badly, and Kaylin could understand that. "If you don't want to, I won't force it," she told him quietly. "But Tara thinks it'll tell us-me-something I need to know. Will you try?"

He swallowed. She saw his Adam's apple bob up and down. He didn't trust himself to speak, but he did nod, and he held out both of his hands. They were shaking. Kaylin handed him the sword.

The minute he touched it, it began to change shape, widening and elongating until it looked like a long sword. But way bigger. The runes were clear, bright-and a very steely blue. Kaylin's eyes widened.

"Kaylin?"

Maggaron rose, the sword's blade cradled in his open palms. He was shaking slightly, and Kaylin knew he wouldn't touch the hilt. "Chosen, you must hold the sword, and you must listen."

"Or you could tell me what it's saying."

He shook his head, his lips curved in a smile that held both pain and a joy so intense it might as well have been pain, it seemed almost unbearable. "I cannot tell you all that it is saying. But...it is safe, in this Tower. If we leave, I-I cannot guarantee safety." He closed his eyes and whispered a single word. Kaylin heard it as Bellusdeo.

She would have given him privacy if she'd thought they had the time. She gave him a few minutes of silence instead. When she spoke, she put on her Hawk's voice and tried to distance herself from what she saw. "The sword-it's part of her, isn't it?"

He nodded.

"That's why the Dragons disappeared." It wasn't a question. "They weren't killed, as the Elders think-they sacrificed themselves."

"It was the only way. She said it was the only way. We're mortal," he added. "We can be killed. We can be transformed-but not easily. But we cannot be unmade and we cannot be rewritten."

Death, in Kaylin's mind, was pretty d.a.m.n unmade; she didn't point this out. Instead, she stared at the runes on the sword's flat. "They changed," she finally said, speaking to both Tara and Maggaron. "They changed when you took the sword." Her eyes widened.

"How did they change?" Tara asked sharply.

"They became his name."

Tara fell silent. At length she said, "I must speak with the Arkon."

Kaylin nodded.

"I would like you to accompany me."

Kaylin cringed. "I'm not finished here, yet."

Tara said to Maggaron, "The sword agreed to allow Kaylin to wield it-or at least lift it-because Kaylin had your name. But it is still part of you, Ascendant, and in a way I don't understand. I believe it is safe to leave the sword with you for the moment, but I will ask you to accompany us, as well. I do not wish you to be far from me while you wield it."

Maggaron nodded. He looked both pained and happy, and it was a striking combination. "Chosen-"

"Hold her," Kaylin told him. "While you can. Tell me if she says anything you think I need to hear."

Severn caught up with her in the halls, because Tara and Maggaron walked ahead, side by side. Maggaron didn't sheathe the sword, but then again, he had no sheath for it. She wondered what he did with the sword when he needed to eat. If he needed to eat.

"Tara doesn't look happy," Severn said.

"I think she's confused. I just wish her confusion didn't lead to the Arkon today." Severn nodded.

"Do you think Nightshade knew?"

"No. I'm not entirely certain the Arkon does, either. But the circ.u.mstances were-are-strange enough to warrant close inspection. What do you think is happening?"

"I'm not sure." She hesitated because she always did when she wasn't certain. It was a failing she struggled to overcome, and it was helped by the fact that she'd been wrong before when she was certain, and she'd survived that. "His name-the name that the Shadows have-isn't his. He wasn't born with it. He came to it by choice and that choice wasn't entirely his. It's not like mine," she added, aware that she hadn't been born with one, either. "I took mine from the Lake, and I don't think that would have been possible if I hadn't been marked already." She lifted her arms, the marks still visible.

"What I don't understand at all is how. It's not, I'd swear it's not, the Dragon's true name. It might be some part of it, but how the h.e.l.ls does that happen? Names are names-they're alive in some fashion. I don't think you can lop off a part of one-it'd be like me chopping off an arm and giving it to you, and expecting you to be able to attach and use it."

He was silent as they walked, but it was a thoughtful silence. It demanded thought on her part, and she gave it.

"In the High Court?"

He nodded.

"The High Lord."

"Yes."

"I don't think it's the same thing."

"No? His name wasn't complete."

I don't think, she continued, shutting her mouth and opening her thoughts, that we're supposed to be discussing this here. Tara can probably hear us.

She can probably hear us anyway. I think it necessary if we're to understand what's happening.

It was true.

Tell me why you think it's not the same.

His name wasn't complete. He had a name, but-it wasn't complete...

Until you completed it.