I smile. MaybeIhave finally startledhim.
So I take a breath and tell him, “No one besides Tasa is aware, but I have also been making use of the scales you left behind to address the magical void left in Yora’s wake. If you don’t object, I would like to continue that effort, to strengthen the village against outside threats by removing their dependence on the priesthood.”
Another blink. “Why?”
Here it goes. I take a breath.
I’ve known I would need to convince him for months.
“Because Yora started something powerful here, but she didn’t finish it. I think we can build something here that matters.” I meet Zan’s gaze directly. “A sanctuary in truth for anyone who needs it, be they dragon or sage.”
His pupils contract. It’s the only reaction he makes, but in his otherwise preternatural stillness it’s enough.
Then Tasa bursts onto the scene. “Zan, you’re awake!” She hurtles toward him, and Zan startles back a step.
Ha. EvenIcouldn’t make him back up as easily as Tasa does without trying.
She has always been a force.
Now, she believes it.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Tasa says quickly. “Kovan says my null powers don’t affect your scales, but I guess that’s not the same as you—and anyway I should have asked first if you even like being hugged—”
“Hugged?” Zan echoes incredulously.
My shoulders shake with silent laughter.
Seeing this seems to make Zan even more aghast, because clearly I know that Tasa meant it.
She scowls at me. “Look, I’msorry, but I went to visit Noten and then he was at the house I built and the new baby’s arrived! And I maybe got a little into the snuggling mode—”
My laughter finally breaks free, clear and delighted.
My plan to rehabilitate Crystal Hollow has been working, slowly but surely. Tasa spends more and more time there without rushing home.
Because she’s able to touch people—figurativelyandliterally.
“Anyway.” Tasa huffs. “Zan, can we get you something to eat? We have fresh-baked bread.”
A thing she can assume now; that she has come to be able to rely on.
“I thought you couldn’t bake bread,” Zan says, sounding more baffled by the moment.
Tasa points at me. “Hedoes. You’ve never had bread this good, I promise.”
Zan looks at me again.
Probably the dragon didn’t expect much from me when he left me here.
After a long moment, his magic shimmers, and in place of a dragon is the same ethereally beautiful man who gave me the push to change my life.
“I didn’t expect you to stay,” Zan tells me.
To defend him, he means. “I know. But you should have been able to. So know now that I’m not going anywhere.”
“And after you’ve made this a sanctuary?” he challenges.
Idon’t blink. “Then I will still be here, doing the work to make sure it is in truth.”
