Alanok watched as Maerite flopped onto the sofa in the richly furnished room Innat had set aside for the effort to recover the kidnapped enslaved Earthlings. She didn’t even glance at Alanok, even though he was the only other person in the room and was already on the same sofa. “Forty-seven.”

“That’s it?” Alanok shook his head. Unlike Maerite, his eyes were fixed on his companion. As far as he was concerned, she was simply being childish again by refusing to look at him. “I thought for sure there would be more. The records say the Inatha bought over two hundred and they’re a just farmers, they don’t sell slaves.”

Mae chuckled. “Shows what you know. They sell about half of the slaves they buy, because they buy in huge lots to keep the price down, then winnow for the ones they think are better. Even their dregs have some training, so they generally get a good price for them.” Her grin grew even wider. “Thing is, they’ve been having trouble for the past few months, a lot more troublesome slaves than usual. Slaves that aren’t used to working or who aren’t inclined to keep their heads down and do what they’re told, even when punished.”

Alanok shook his head. “You sound happy, but it’s not good news. Finding a group together is easier than one at a time. Did you at least find out where they were sold?”

Mae’s grin faded. “It’s good to see them brought down a peg.” When Alanok didn’t say anything, she sighed and turned towards him. “Yeah, I know where most of them went. The Inatha don’t really keep track of which new slaves are which that closely; they sort them into groups based on their debt and when they were acquired. So I can tell you where the slaves that were bought at the same time as the Earthlings were sold but not which ones are Earthlings. Unfortunately that means about four hundred will have to be investigated. I’d like to buy them all but I’m not sure we can afford it.”

“Four hundred?” Alanok frowned, then shook his head. “They’d have to be really cheap then work to pay their way. We can only afford so much per person, especially if Serenity is gone for as long as he says he might be. We’ll have to get only the right ones.”

“Ugh. Not helping people because of a cost benefit analysis.” Mae made a disgusted face, closing her eyes and showing her tongue.

Alanok sighed. However much he liked her, Mae just didn’t like to plan anything. “It takes time. You know that at least as well as I do. The fact that you’re a sucker for a story doesn’t change things. We know these people are unjustly enslaved; more than that, for once we have the money to free them without a long fight. Let’s concentrate on that and take care of them first.”

“A long fight we often lose,” Mae muttered. “We need a better way, and money isn’t it; most people can’t afford anything like this.”

Alanok agreed with her, but putting it like that didn’t accomplish anything. If he let Mae keep talking about it, she’d get worked up and he’d get depressed; it was better to change the topic. It was too bad that the only topic they could agree on these days was the Earthling slaves. “How is the resettlement going? The first groups should have been there for a couple weeks; is it working out?”

Mae grunted. “It’s better than it was. I don’t know what Innat told them, but at least most are cooperating now. A few of the runaways have even come back.”

Alanok chuckled and grinned. He did know what Innat had told the rescued Earthlings; he wasn’t sure why Mae hadn’t found out. Of course, he was there; that was probably the real reason. “It was the funniest thing; this big guy yelled at her for something like fifteen minutes, then she yelled back at him that she was trying to help and happened to mention Serenity’s name. He sort of froze, then started asking questions, nothing like the angry man he’d been just a moment before. Pretty sure it spread from there.”

Andarit bit into the peach. It was late in the season for them, but this one was perfectly ripe and juicy. It was a perfect end to a private family lunch. “Convince him to make an alliance? What do you mean?”

Her father took another bite of his own peach; Andarit knew they were her father’s favorite, so the fact that he was talking while he ate meant that he was more worried than he looked. “A dragon. Do you have any idea what that means, Andarit?”

Andarit licked up the juice that was running down her arm. Maybe this peach was a little too juicy. “He has wings and scales. So?”

Her father shook his head. “Dragons belong to legend. I never believed the legends until I felt his weight on the land; it listens to him. Serenity’s heavier than the King, much less me.”

Andarit knew her father was talking about something to do with his Duke Path, but she didn’t know what. She did know he’d say more if she waited.

“Weight is power, but it’s also authority. He’s only Tier Three; to have such weight, he must have great authority. A dragon is a creature of legend; I can see where that could be a weight on the world, especially when you add his position to it. He won’t help us take back Zenith; I’ve felt him out about it and he just ignores it.”

Kalo paused and Andarit took the opportunity to correct him. She’d spent a lot more time with Serenity than her father had. “I’m pretty sure he just doesn’t realize what you’re asking. He doesn’t seem to understand or care about subtext like that.”

Andarit’s father waved her comment off. “He won’t help, that’s all that matters. He has to get back to his wife before their son is born. It’s not hard to understand.”

Andarit frowned. She knew Serenity had mentioned that he didn’t know the gender of his child; why did her father assume it was going to be a boy?

“The fading of Zon, on the other hand, he seems interested in. I’m hoping that means he can do something about it.” Kalo looked tired but determined.

Now that Andarit thought about it, her father had looked tired ever since they arrived in Lowpeak. He tried to hide it, but he was always tired.

“Are you sure that’s not his interest in magic?” Andarit had sat through about seven too many rambling lectures on magic to think that Serenity was always interested in magic because it was useful. He seemed to simply enjoy it in a way that Andarit didn’t. “I think he considers it an interesting puzzle.”

Her father shrugged. “If it’ll get us help, I don’t care.” He broke off and coughed, then shook himself. “Oof. That was unexpected.”

Andarit looked around. Nothing seemed out of place and she couldn’t see what her father reacted to. “What was?”

“Your guard just left the dungeon. He’s definitely gone up a Tier; I’ve never felt quite so obvious a change in anyone. It must be because he was already so heavy.” Kalo stood up, set the peach pit on his table, then cleaned his hands in the small handbowl next to his place setting. “I’d better go check on him, but you should expect that we’ll leave in the morning.”

Serenity returned to his dhampir-heritage human disguise before exiting the dungeon. There were no obvious visible signs of his evolution, which was a significant relief after seeing how extensive they were on his chimera form.

He was checking his face in a mirror in the hallway, confirming that his disguise still held, when Duke Lowpeak walked up behind him. “I take it you’re leaving in the morning?”

Serenity spun around. He’d rather face Kalo than watch him in the mirror. “Yes, I’ve waited long enough.”

The Duke nodded and quirked a wry smile. “I still think it would be better to wait, but if you’re set on it…”

Serenity nodded. “I am.” He’d prepared for it as much as he could and he really thought he was ready.

The Duke nodded. “I’ll escort you to the edge of my lands; we can leave in the morning. If you do make it through, let us know. If you ever need anything, I owe you a lot.”

Serenity shook his head, but didn’t try to pretend he didn’t know what Kalo was talking about. He’d said it often enough. “You don’t owe me anything. All I did was bring Andarit with me; I was leaving anyway.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t owe you…”

The Duke kept insisting all the way through supper; Serenity eventually escaped to his room to avoid the insistence of the Duke.

Unfortunately, Kalo was harder to avoid the next day. He’d meant it when he said he would escort Serenity out of his lands; only Kalo and Serenity traveled in the flyer. Serenity had to be grateful for the small mercy that they had the flyer; it cut the travel time to about a third of what it would have been otherwise. They reached the river before evening and spent the night in the River Team’s spare rooms.

“Where are you going? Hop in.”

Serenity turned towards Kalo’s voice. Kalo sat in the flyer just outside the breakfast hall. “To Mornmot. Aren’t you heading back to your manor?”

Kalo chuckled. “The River isn’t the edge of my territory. Come on, hop in, I said I’d take you to the border.”

Once Serenity was in the flyer and they were underway, Kalo took advantage of his captive audience to try to push help on Serenity again. “Are you still sure you don’t want anyone else? I could come with you. That ought to make it safer and I can portal back to Lowpeak after we get to the city core.”

Taking a Duke into the territory of his enemies sounded like a terrible idea. “There’s no portal connection between Mornmot and Lowpeak. I checked.”

It would have been convenient if he could just portal to Mornmot then portal off planet, but that wasn’t an option. Zon wasn’t particularly unusual in that, at least; most planets had severely limited portal capabilities, far more limited than Earth’s. Serenity wasn’t certain why that was the case, but he assumed there was probably a reason that he just didn’t know.

“There used to be. It was disabled during the evacuation; I should be able to enable it.” Duke Lowpeak clearly didn’t want to take no for an answer.

Serenity sighed. That made his answer easy, at least. “Do you want to leave a portal open that leads from an enemy stronghold directly into your manor?”

Come to think of it, that might be a large part of why most planets had only partial portal systems with large gaps: security was considered more important than convenience. The only other reason Serenity could think of was cost, and he already knew that Earth’s portal network was currently running a profit despite the surprisingly large base cost to have portals available. Surely Earth wasn’t an exception there.

Kalo growled. “They can’t use a portal.”

“Are you willing to bet on that?” Serenity wasn’t. “I can sneak in alone. I’m not certain I can get you in as well; I certainly don’t want to count on you getting back out on your own.”

“I’m still a higher Tier than you are.” Kalo fell back on the last refuge of those without a good argument.

Serenity chuckled. He already knew what to say to win this argument. “As a ruler, definitely. Possibly even as a fighter. But you’ve seen my shapeshifting; do you have the same sort of disguise skills that I do?”

Kalo didn’t seem to have a good response to that. He’d seen Serenity look like a different person when he went out with Tirmanak Oathbinder, after all.