The evening air tasted like woodsmoke and roasting chestnuts.
I moved through the streets with the easy confidence of someone who belonged there. Eight months of sneaking out had transformed the lower city from a labyrinth into a second home. I knew which cobblestones were loose, which alleys dead-ended, which rooftops connected to which. My feet found the familiar path without conscious thought, leaving my mind free to wander.
Azurene dozed against my chest, warm beneath my commoner's cloak. She'd grown enough that hiding her was getting harder; her coils wrapped around my torso now instead of just my shoulders, and her tail tended to slip free of the fabric if I wasn't careful. But the evening crowd paid little attention to a boy hurrying through the dimming streets, and those who did glance my way saw only a flash of white scales before I rounded the next corner.
Chestnuts, Azurene murmured drowsily. The old man with the crow.
We'll stop on the way back. Cas likes them with honey.
A pulse of contentment through the bond. My dragon had developed a deep fondness for our rooftop nights; the warmth of the brazier, the company of Raikiri, the peace of a world that didn't expect anything from us. The palace was duty and performance. The streets were freedom and truth.
I turned down the alley that led to the abandoned building, already imagining Cas's face when I told her about Aldric's latest lecture on territorial governance. She had a way of turning my frustrations into jokes, of finding the absurd in the things that weighed on me. Your brother sounds like he swallowed a textbook, she'd say. Does he talk like that all the time, or just when he's trying to put you to sleep?
The alley was quieter than usual.
I noticed it without really noticing; the way you register a change in temperature before consciously thinking cold. The normal sounds were missing. No distant arguments from the tenements. No children playing in the side streets. No merchants calling final offers as the shops closed for the night.
Azurene stirred against my chest. Not quite alert, but no longer dozing.
Something, she said.
Probably nothing.
But I slowed anyway. The lesson Cas had drilled into me during those first weeks surfaced: When the streets go quiet, something's hunting.
I stopped at the mouth of the next alley. Looked left, right. Nothing moved. The buildings rose on either side like canyon walls, their upper windows dark, their lower doors shut tight. The sky above was purpling toward night.
We should go back, Azurene said, more awake now. Her scales had started to ripple; the subtle color-shift she did when she sensed danger.
I'm almost there. Another two blocks.
Vale.
Ok, fine.
I paused my steps to turn back.
They came from everywhere at once.
The first one dropped from a fire escape; a rangy teenager with a rat Anima on his shoulder. He hit the ground between me and the alley's exit, blocking retreat. Two more emerged from a doorway to my left, a boy and a girl, both older than me, both with the hard eyes of kids who'd learned young that the world didn't owe them anything. A fourth appeared behind them, holding a length of pipe.
And from the shadows at the alley's far end, Goff stepped into view.
He'd grown since I'd glimpsed him that first night, nearly a year ago. Taller, broader, with the kind of wiry strength that came from surviving on the streets. His Anima; a lean, scarred wolfdog; padded beside him, lips curled back from yellow teeth.
"Evening, rich boy."
My heart slammed against my ribs. I took a step back. Felt another body behind me. A fifth one I hadn't seen, blocking the only way out.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure you don't." Goff's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Nice cloak, though. Real common-cloth, that. Must've cost more than my family eats in a month."
Azurene.
I'm here. She was fully alert now, her body coiling tighter beneath my cloak. There are six of them. And their Anima.
Can we fight?
I don't know.
"Here's how this works." Goff stopped a few feet away. His wolfdog circled to his left, hackles raised. "You're going to come with us, quiet-like. No fuss. Your people are going to pay a lot of money to get you back. And everyone goes home happy."
"I'm not who you think I am."
"No?" He tilted his head. "Blue-white hair. Silver eyes. Dragon Anima. Takes real stupid or real arrogant to walk the streets looking like that." His smile sharpened. "Which one are you, little prince?"
The word hit me like a fist. Prince. They knew. Somehow, they knew.
"Goff." The girl to my left spoke; dark-haired, maybe sixteen, with a hawk Anima perched on her shoulder. "Stop playing with him. We need to move."
"Right, right." Goff waved a hand. "Grab him."
They moved.
I didn't think. I threw open my cloak and Azurene launched herself at the nearest attacker; the rat-Anima boy blocking the alley's exit. She wasn't large, not yet, but she was a dragon. Her jaws closed on the rat before it could squeak, and the boy screamed and dropped, clutching his shoulder where the bond-pain hit him.
I ran for the gap.
Someone tackled me from behind.
We hit the cobblestones hard. My chin cracked against the stone; stars exploded across my vision. Hands grabbed my arms, my legs. I thrashed, kicked, felt my foot connect with something soft. Someone cursed.
Azurene!
Trying...
A yelp of pain through the bond. Not mine. Hers. I felt it like a knife between my ribs; someone had hurt her, someone had hit her, and the rage that flooded through me was unlike anything I'd ever felt.
"Hold the dragon down!"
"I'm trying; the thing keeps..."
I twisted, managed to free one arm. Swung wildly. Connected with a jaw. The grip on my other arm loosened and I scrambled to my feet, lunging toward where I could feel Azurene struggling.
Something crashed into the side of my head.
The world went white. Then black. Then grey, swimming, tilting. I was on the ground again. My face was wet. Blood, probably. Hands dragged me upright.
Through the ringing in my ears, I heard Goff's voice: "Stop fighting, you idiot. You're making this harder than it has to be."
Azurene. The bond was there but muffled, like screaming through water. Azurene, answer me.
A flicker. Faint. Here. They... they have me. I can't.
"Bring the cage."
Someone produced a metal box barely large enough to hold a cat. They were going to stuff my dragon into a cage. Separate us. The thought sent ice through my veins.
"No." My voice came out broken. "Don't. Don't, please..."
"Should've thought about that before you came slumming." Goff crouched in front of me. His wolfdog pressed close, its growl a low vibration I felt in my chest. "You people think you can come down here, play at being normal, and nothing happens? That we just smile and bow like good little commoners?"
"I wasn't... I never..."
"Save it." He stood. "Cage the dragon. Let's move."
Azurene fought. I felt every second of it through the bond; her desperation, her fury, her terror as they forced her into that metal box and slammed the lid shut. The moment it closed, something in my chest tore. The bond didn't break but it stretched, strained, became a thin screaming thread where there had been a river.
I screamed. Couldn't help it. The sound ripped out of me and kept going, raw and wordless, until someone's fist connected with my stomach and drove the air from my lungs.
"Shut him up."
They hit me again. And again. Professional, almost. Not trying to kill. Just trying to break. My nose cracked. My ribs howled. Blood filled my mouth and I swallowed it because I couldn't breathe to spit.
Azurene. Azurene. Azurene.
Nothing. The bond was there but distant. Like reaching for something through thick glass.
They dragged me deeper into the alley. Through a door I hadn't noticed. Into a building that smelled like rot and old smoke. Someone threw me against a wall and I slid down it, unable to stand, unable to think beyond the agony of the stretched bond and the pain in my body.
Goff's face swam into view. "Comfortable? Good. We're going to have a nice long chat about exactly how much your daddy loves you."
Time became strange.