“I’m sorry,” I said contritely, relieved by the lecturing tone that had filled his voice. “That was thoughtless of me. The next time I escape, I’ll take you with me, OK?”

He thought for a moment. “Very well. But do not forget your promise.”

We returned to the others, only to be stopped by Savian.

“Wait a minute ... demigod?” Savian squeaked, and looked shocked. “Did she say you are the First Dragon? The First Dragon? The one my Maura says has been seen only a handful of times in the last six centuries?

“Who’s Maura?” I asked, not having a dragon player scorecard.

“My wife. She’s a red dragon, or she was before she went rogue. Would you like to see a picture of her?”

Before I could tell him no, he whipped out his phone, and started flipping through a gallery of pictures. “There she is on the beach. This one is when we went to Disneyland. And here’s Savian Jr. Maura says he looks like me, but I think he has her eyes. Maura’s convinced he’s going to be a wyvern someday. And here he is sitting up. Isn’t that brilliant of him? Only seven months old and he’s already sitting. Takes a superior sort of baby to sit up that early, let me tell you. I’ve got a photo somewhere of him dressed up for Mardi Gras. ...”

“I can’t believe you tied up Charity,” May said, shaking her head. “Bad form, Savian.”

“The only reason he took the bonds off was because the portal lady said they might kill me if I portaled with them on, and he didn’t want to lose some bounty that was offered for me.”

Drake made an odd choking cough, but studiously brushed off what remained of his shirt. May had gotten Gabriel into a pair of white cotton beachcomber pants, and a bright pink shirt dotted with lime green llamas.

I looked nobly martyred. “Goddess knows what would have happened if he hadn’t heeded her warning.”

“There’s something you should know about that bounty,” Ysolde said, giving her dragon a long look.

“Another time, perhaps,” Gabriel said quickly, and the other two wyverns made noises of agreement, while Avval just made a low rumbling sound deep in his chest. “What we should be doing is making sure Charity is all right, and then planning what to do next.”

“What you will do next is leave her alone.” Avval took my hand and gazed at them all with eyes that were now a rich brown color with touches of red and gold. “She is not a possession to be passed around, nor is she a danger to anyone.” The last was said quite pointedly to Savian.

“I relinquish my claim,” Savian said wisely, giving the First Dragon a bow. “I know when I’m bested. Maura will be delighted when I tell her that I met you. I don’t suppose we could do a quick selfie?”

The First Dragon stood as if made of stone while Savian leaned close and snapped a couple of pictures. Any other man would have edged out of the room quietly, but not my captor. He appeared to be oblivious to the waves of icy fury that rolled off Avval.

“So then everything is solved?” Ysolde asked, looking somewhat disappointed. “We found Charity, and Savian isn’t taking her to Dr. Kostich, so everything is fine, right?”

“Everything is far from fine,” I said, drooping a little from exhaustion.

“You are tired,” Avval told me. “You must have rest. Also, my body now requires rest.” He shot a little glare at Ysolde, who tried very hard to look innocent. “We will rest together, and then we will discuss what is to be done with this one who confined and abducted you.”

“My wife is a dragon,” Savian said, raising his hand. “My son could be a wyvern. You wouldn’t want to do anything to leave them without a husband and father, would you?”

“There are ways to keep you alive and still make you suffer,” the First Dragon said softly. “Leave now before I show you those ways.”

Savian blanched. “There’s ... uh ... there’s just one problem.”

“What is that?” Avval did not look like he wanted to keep talking to Savian. “Why are you still here? I have dismissed you.”

“It’s ...” He slid me an apologetic look. “It’s just that the Venediger keeps a pretty tight control on Paris.”

I leaned toward Ysolde. “What’s—”

“The Venediger runs the Otherworld side of Paris.”

“Ah. Thanks.”

Savian was explaining the same thing to the First Dragon. “Well, she runs most of Europe, really. And one of the things she does is monitor the portals.”

Avval was impatience personified, and gestured sharply. “You speak words that make no sense. Either say what you mean or leave.”

Savian looked faintly ill now. “It’s Charity. There are alarms attached to the portal. When Charity came through it, the Venediger would have been notified that a siren was in town, and by law, she would have to report it to the Committee.”

“Oh, great. So Dr. Kostich does know she’s here?” Ysolde leaned against Baltic. “Now we’re going to have to see him again, and he’ll call you fat, and I’ll have to practice magic at him, and you know that never ends well.”

“We will discuss your role in this later,” Avval said grimly to Savian. The latter slipped away with murmured apologies.

Avval turned to Baltic. “You have a domicile in this city?”

“No, but Drake does.”

Drake, looking put-upon, murmured something about it being his honor to welcome the First Dragon—and everyone else—to his Paris house.

“We will go there, and rest,” Avval announced, and gently pushed me toward the entrance.

“You know, by rights I should take off and not look back,” I commented, waiting at the outer room while the other dragons gathered up their various items. “Just run away and not look back.”

“Run away?” Avval looked suddenly interested. “You mean a chase?”

“No, I mean I’d run away from you. From all of you. That’s basically what I did earlier tonight. Oy.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I guess that was last night.”

“We will discuss that situation in more detail at a later time,” he replied with a long, completely unreadable look. “My stomach indicates it wants feeding again. I do not know how dragonkin get anything done with these constant demands by your body. My face itches, and I believe I will need to use the privy again soon. My bladder is almost as demanding as my belly.”