Kyros gave me a curious look. “My heart? Why would someone want my heart?” he asked, clearly puzzled.

I gulped. “Just answer the question, please.”

He kept looking at me for a moment, then nodded. “Well, I’m really not an expert in magic. I can use it naturally, and I know what my parents taught me, but I’m not a sorcerer. I don’t study magic itself.”

“You mean there are dragons who study magic?”

“Oh yeah, some dedicate their whole lives to it. Learn new and interesting ways to use it.” He paused. “Like I said, I don’t have a clear idea, but at a best guess? They would become all but immune to injuries and disease, and also ageing probably. Until the magic fades, at least.”

My voice was shaking as I asked the next question: “And how long would that power last?”

“No idea,” Kyros shrugged. “However, we dragons live fourteens of fourteens of years, and our magic keeps healing us until the very end.”

I just stared at my friend as I recalled the words I’d been told, the command I’d been given, all those weeks before, in the throne room at the Imperial Palace: find the dragon, slay it, and bring back its head and heart as proof of your deed.

I’d never been a scholar, but I’d been taught the Empire’s history as part of my training as a knight: dragons were mentioned as having laid waste to part of the country several times, only to be killed in retribution for putting the people of the Empire in danger, by an Imperial Knight or by someone who was immediately promoted to Imperial Knight as a reward. A few dragons had managed to escape, but not many: and each and every time one of them was slain, as is tradition, their head and, most importantly, heart had been brought to the Imperial Palace and presented to the Emperor.

I gulped again as I realised what exactly that meant. It was very likely that each and every time, the Emperor had used the intrinsic magic present in the dragon hearts to prolong his life, make himself impervious to injuries, and to continue oppressing the population all the while.

Truth be told, I’d never been the most loyal Knight: I cared about my honour, true, and I kept obeying the Emperor’s orders; but that was only because I thought there was nothing I could possibly have done to improve the lives and fortunes of the common people.

Well then. Now there was something I could do.

“Change of plans,” I said. “I’m taking you out of the country.”

Kyros tilted his head to the side, and looked at me. “What do you mean? We were supposed to part ways when we got to the village.”

I sat down on the ground, grabbed a few fallen leaves, and started cleaning the blood off my blade. “We’re not doing that any more,” I replied. “I…” I sighed. “Listen, I haven’t told you before, but the Emperor is… He’s not a good man.”

I paused. Is the Emperor even a man at this point? I thought. After all, he’s probably consumed so much magic, and the way he looks…

I shook my head. “He’s not a good person,” I continued. “He… Well, he uses his power to oppress people. To keep living his comfortable life, while those below him suffer.”

Kyros looked at me, without speaking, for a while. “Why are you following him, then?” he said finally.

“Because I couldn’t do anything about it. Because if I rebelled I would be killed, without gaining anything in return,” I replied. “And before you say anything, no: I am not proud of this. I was saving my own skin, without even trying to do something. Anything.”

The dragon’s gaze softened. “From the way you tell it, you didn’t really have a choice.”

I looked at him for a moment, and then smiled at him. “Thank you,” I said. “But now, I do have a choice. I think the Emperor has been using dragon magic – the magic in dragon hearts – to prolong his life; I don’t remember if I told you, but besides having been ordered to kill you, I’d been ordered to bring back your heart. As ‘proof.’”

Kyros blinked, and then his gaze turned pensive. “I… see,” he mused. “Yes, it would make sense.”

“So I’m not doing that,” I continued. “I’m not going to kill you, I’m not going to bring him your heart. And I’m going to prevent anyone from doing it if I can.” I finished cleaning my sword, stood up, and sheathed it. “That’s why I’m taking you out of the Empire. Out of his reach.”

The dragon seemed to hesitate. “But…” he said.

I looked at him. “But?” I asked.

“If you do this, you’ll be going against the Emperor’s direct order. Won’t that make you… an outlaw?”

“Guess it will,” I said. “Your point?”

“You don’t have to do this. We can just… part ways. I go off on my own, you go back to the Emperor, and say you’ve failed to kill me and I’ve escaped.”

I shook my head. “If I do that, the Emperor will just send someone else after you. Possibly several someone elses. I’m one of the Imperial Knights, if you’ll remember; the others are just as good as me. And before you say anything,” I said, raising my hand to stave off the objection I saw was coming, “yes, you can probably fight off one Knight. But several of them? At the same time? Without being able to take flight and flee? Your wing is still broken.” I shook my head again. “That’s why I’m coming with you. I’ll use my authority as a Knight to expedite our trip when possible… and help you fight if it comes to that.”

The dragon nodded, and smiled at me. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, smiling back. “Gather your things. Put everything back into your pack.” I gestured at the dead outlaws, lying on the forest floor. “I’ll go through their belongings, see if there’s anything we can use.”

Kyros nodded again, and moved back to where we’d set our packs down on the forest floor; meanwhile, I moved swiftly, searching the bodies, looking for anything useful. A couple of them had some food and water flasks in pouches tied around their waists, but besides that, they only had weapons and ammunition, which I gathered into a pile; I picked up the bandit leader’s blade, turning it this way and then to get a better look, and frowned slightly.

“I’m done,” Kyros said, walking up beside me. “Is there something particular about this sword? You seemed to recognise it while you were fighting with that guy.”

I nodded as I straightened up. “You see, the ochaidei is a foreign style of sword,” I explained. “It comes from a country to the south of here, near the ocean. It’s a very good sword for duelling, because most people don’t know how to defend against it, or against the fighting style you use while wielding it.” Kyros nodded, and I continued, “But, on the other hand, it takes much more skill to use the ochaidei than a normal sword. You have to train rigorously, and be very careful with it. Otherwise, you risk losing a finger or two. This guy,” I nudged the bandit leader’s body with my foot, “clearly hadn’t done the required training.”

“He did mention he took it off someone, didn’t he?” Kyros asked, to which I nodded. “Are you going to take it with you?”

“No,” I shook my head. “One of the other Imperial Knights uses this style of blade regularly, and I’ve tried it a few times, while training and in mock duels, but I never liked it. Besides, I haven’t practised nearly enough with it to use it safely in an actual fight. We’re leaving it.” I dropped the sword on the ground, but bent over to pick up another, which I’d judged earlier to be the best of the lot. “This is for you,” I said, handing it to Kyros.

He blinked in surprise. “What? For me?” he asked.

“Of course. Remember what I said about attracting attention? It means it’s probably best to avoid any shapechange, unless it’s an absolute emergency, which in turns means you need to learn to fight when you’re like this; hence the sword.” I smiled. “I’ll give you a few lessons, don’t worry.”

The dragon grinned at me. “I’ll take you at your word,” he said, and – with some help from me – he fastened the sword to his waist.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle,” I said, grinning back.

“No, don’t be gentle, actually,” he replied, shaking his head. “Be as rough as you want. I can take it. I promise I won’t complain how hard it is, or how long you’re making me train.”

I laughed. “I doubt that, you always complain, you brat. Come on, let’s pack up my stuff and get going.”

-----

I looked down at the village, partially hidden by trees and vegetation: about thirty buildings altogether, scattered along a road which ran across a small valley nestled between the mountains. It was mid-afternoon, and there were several people milling around inside town: straining my eyes, I could just about make out a few vegetable gardens, along with a couple proper fields around the town, covering what flat ground there was in the dale, and a few fences clearly meant as animal pens. I nodded.

“Alright, here we are at last,” I said. “Ziegental. Our destination.”

Kyros, standing beside me, narrowed his eyes critically. “Doesn’t look like much. Are you sure this is the right place?”

“I’m sure,” I replied. “Even if I didn’t know how to read a map, it’s the only inhabited place for miles around–”

“Besides the outlaws’ camp in the woods.”

“–it’s the only known inhabited place for miles around, so unless I’ve completely misjudged both the direction we were heading towards and how much ground we were covering every day, there’s no doubt. This is Ziegental.”

“Huh,” he mused. “I was expecting something more.”

I shrugged. “It’s a village, not even an actual town: I will be surprised if it has a mayor instead of a council. But still, this is our best chance to find a couple of horses: with those, we’ll make much better time, and we should be at the border in a week or so.”

Kyros nodded. “Alright, guess we should go hunting then.”

I turned to look at him. “Hunting? Hunting for what?”

“Deer, elk, whatever is in these woods, I don’t know,” he replied.

“And why would we do that?”

“So we have something to trade for the horses,” he said. “Unless you think what’s in our pack is worth enough?”

I shook my head. “There’s no need for that,” I answered. “I was given a generous allowance from the Empire’s treasury when I set out for my quest, and I’m quite sure I still have more than enough money for two horses, and weeks of supplies besides.”

The dragon tilted his head to the side and looked at me in curiosity. “Mo-nee? What’s that?”

I hesitated; wait, hold on a second. “You… don’t know what money is?”

“Nope, no clue,” he replied, shaking his head.

I blinked, then reached down and grabbed my purse; I opened it, pulled out a few coins, and showed them to Kyros. “This is money,” I explained. “You give this to someone in exchange for goods or services.”

“Huh. Interesting. And where do you get this… money?” he asked.

“You get it from someone else, again in exchange for goods or services rendered.”

He looked up at me again, his eyes doubting, then bent over, moving his head very close to the hand I was holding the coins in; he looked at the money critically, and then gave it a deep sniff – I was almost expecting him to pick one up and lick it, but he didn’t.

“What’s this good for?”

“Like I told you,” I said. “It’s given to someone in exchange–”

“No,” he interrupted me. “What’s it good for? Do you eat it?”

I blinked again. “No, don’t be ridiculous, you can’t eat money.”

“What then? Do you build things with it? Does it have healing properties? Can it be used for magic?”

“No, nothing like that. It’s just… bits of metal. They don’t do anything special at all.”

“What’s the point, then?” the dragon huffed. “Someone gives you, say, two horses, and several weeks’ worth of supplies… and you give them useless pieces of metal in return? I don’t get it.”

I looked down at the coins in my hand, and gazed at them for a long while. “You know, when you put it like that, I don’t get it either,” I finally said.

It doesn’t have any intrinsic value, does it? I thought. It exists to facilitate trade when bartering is impractical, but the Eternal Emperor has entire vaults filled with this stuff at the royal palace. What is the meaning in locking money up like that?

“In any case,” I continued. “It doesn’t matter if we– I mean, you don’t understand why someone would accept money as payment; what matters is that they will accept it. I’m confident they will.”

“And if they don’t?” Kyros asked; I gave him a capital-L look, and he held up his hand. “I trust you, Adrian, and I believe you’re telling the truth about these metal pebbles. But for the sake of the argument: if they don’t? Or if they ask for more money than you have?”

He had a point. “Well then, if they don’t…” I sighed. “If they don’t, I’ll just have to use my authority as an Imperial Knight and requisition two horses.”

“I do not know what that word means.”

“‘Requisition’ means ‘take,’” I clarified. “I can just order them to give me the horses, or even take them by force, if I say I need them because of official Imperial business.”

He looked at me sceptically. “Isn’t that stealing? Wouldn’t that make you an outlaw?”

“It wouldn’t,” I said, “since I’m a Knight and they’re… Well, they’re just peasants. The law is on my side: they would be outlaws if they refused to give me what I ask for.”

“Sounds like this system is ripe for abuse,” he commented.

“It is,” I conceded. “And there are some people who do abuse it. But there’s nothing that can be done about it; it is what it is.”

Kyros held my gaze for a moment, then shook his head. “You know, the more I hear about how human society works, the less I like it.”

“I’ve been living in human society all my life, and in some respects, I agree with you,” I said. “But we’ve wasted enough time: we still have about a mile to go, and I want to sleep in a warm bed tonight if I can. After having a bath.” I lifted my arm, and gave my armpit a sniff and grimaced. “You should have a bath, too, by the way. We both stink.”

My friend nodded solemnly. “Then a bath we shall have.”

“Good,” I nodded back. “And I think I’ll have a shave, too, if I can find a barber in town.”

I ran a hand over my hairy cheek and grimaced: gods, did I hate having a beard – it made me feel terrible, dirty and unclean. But it couldn’t be helped, could it? After all, men naturally grow hair on their faces: I honestly envied women, since they didn’t have to bother shaving, and still looked very good.

I sighed, and shook my head to clear it: no. There was no need to start worrying about something that couldn’t be changed; besides, we had places to be.

I was about to start towards the village, when a thought came to mind: I looked Kyros up and down, and then tilted my head to the side critically.

“What? What is it?” he asked.

“I honestly hadn’t thought about it before, but you stand out like a sore thumb actually,” I said. “I mean…”

I reached up, and touched my ears; after a moment, Kyros’ eyes widened, and he nodded, reaching up to touch his own pointed ears. “Yes, you’re right. I hadn’t considered it, but now I see your point.” He paused. “Ha. Point. Get it?”

I groaned. “Seriously, you need to learn better jokes. In any case, I think I have some cloth in my pack; bandages, at least. Let’s see if we can hide those things somehow.”

-----

“This is remarkably uncomfortable,” Kyros said as we emerged from the woods onto the dirt road that led to Ziegental – the sixth time he’d said so. (Yes, I was keeping count.) “It feels like it’s going to fall off my head at any moment.”

“Then stop fidgeting,” I said, and checked the turban we’d fashioned out of bandages yet again: despite my friend’s protestations, it was firmly wrapped around his hair and, critically, the tips of his ears, and held in place with two pins. “Stop moving your head so much.”

“Are you sure it’s fine?” he asked. “I don’t look ridiculous, do I?”

I grinned. “Since when do you care how you look?” I replied. “But to answer your question, you don’t look ridiculous, you look very good. You’re quite handsome, even.”

“You think I’m handsome?” he said; he put his hand to his chin, tilted his head to the side, and flashed me a roguish grin which left me at a loss of words for a few moments – how could someone who wasn’t even human look so incredibly attractive? And charming, too.

I shook my head, and swatted at him. “Yes, Kyros, you’re handsome. But stop grinning, or they’ll see your teeth.”

He frowned, his smile vanishing, and nodded. “I see your point.” He paused. “Get it? Because my teeth–”

“Kyros.”

“Alright, alright,” he laughed. “I’ll try to keep a straight face and my fangs hidden.”

“Good,” I nodded. “Let’s go.”

Walking steadily, doing my best to be inconspicuous and avoid attracting attention, I walked up the road to the village, Kyros right on my heels; as we passed the first few houses, some people looked up from their work at us, then looked back down almost immediately. Yes, good: we apparently weren’t attracting much attention, we were just a pair of weary travellers passing through.

“There’s probably an inn somewhere around here,” I told Kyros. “That’s a building where people can buy food and lodgings, and often wash up. Let’s see if we can find it; then tomorrow, we’ll find someone to sell us what we need.”

Kyros nodded, and kept following me as we made our way through town. The inn was easy to spot: there was a sign identifying it on the door, after all. I pushed the door open, and we went in.

“Good evening, sir,” I said politely, as I approached the man who I assumed was the innkeeper – he had all the hallmarks of one: he was protecting his clothes with an apron, not to mention the fact that he was standing behind a counter, rubbing at a ceramic mug with a dirty cloth. “My friend and I are just passing through town; we would like lodgings for the night, please.”

The innkeeper looked me up and down, then shook his head. “Sorry, friend, can’t help you there. I can let you two sleep in the stables for free if you want, but we have no rooms available, not with all the Knights staying here.” He grimaced. “They’re not even paying, something about ‘requisitioning the rooms for official business.’ Whatever does requisition mean anyway?”

“‘Requisition’ means ‘take,’ but in an official capacity,” Kyros said. “Using authority.”

“Right,” the innkeeper nodded, and spat down to the floor. “Knights are nothing but trouble, if you ask me.” He looked at me. “You okay there, buddy?”

I realised I’d been staring at him, and shook myself. “Yes, I’m alright,” I said. “You said something about knights?”

“Yes, they arrived here five days ago, and–”

“Sir Adrian?”

I jumped when I heard that voice, and slowly turned around: Edmund, my squire Edmund, was standing just inside the door, looking at me, wide-eyed.

“…Edmund?”

“Sir Adrian!” he exclaimed, and rushed forward to embrace me. “Sir Adrian, you’re alive! Oh, thank the gods! I was afraid the dragon had killed you! Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, stepping back. “I’m really sorry, Sir Adrian, I… I guess I kinda forgot I’m still your squire. That was too forward of me.”

“Edmund?” I repeated, but he ignored me.

“Oh, just wait until my father sees you! I just know he’ll be elated!” he said.

“Your father?”

“Yes!” he nodded enthusiastically. “Come on, I’ll bring you to him, he should be back from his patrol just about now.”

He turned around and strode through the door and, after exchanging a look with Kyros, the two of us followed him outside.

We’d barely set foot outside the inn when Edmund said, “There he comes! Father!” He started jumping up and down, and waving at two approaching men. “Father! Look who it is!”

The two men didn’t speak, but waved in return, and the face of one of them lit up with a wide smile as they stepped up to us.

“Adrian! It’s good to see you, my friend,” he said.

I just stared at him.

“Robert?” I asked, bewildered. “What in the seven hells are you doing here?”