Mikal Lahn, privateer, tradesman and loyal servant of the Elder Dragon Clan ran a hand though his thick blonde hair in frustration. He had wondered when he would finally manage to find that weasel Dargin, he'd just never expected the thieving bastard to come looking for *him*. Mikal nodded to his second in command and she slipped from the shadows of their table to get nearer the wildly gesturing Dargin. She would find out what the fool was babbling about.

Mikal took a long swallow from his wine glass, savoring the deep, smokey taste of the inn's finest. His sharp blue eyes searched the tables near Dargin, looking vainly for the missing Dragon assassin that Dargin had stolen from their caravan. Either the young man had escaped or Dargin had killed him with an overdose of the sleeping draught they had found in the Dragon's tent. Mikal doubted that the boy was still alive. Had the assassin survived the kidnapping, Dargin most likely would not have. Grandfather Dragon had said that the young assassin was one of the best, and Dargin's snivelling would have been no match for a trained Dragon, or even an *untrained* one.

Mikal chuckled at the thought. Dargin would wet himself if he knew he'd kidnapped a full Dragon assassin. Mikal took another sip of his wine, relishing the thought of being the man who got to tell him. Danai's emerald eyes caught his from her place at the bar and he nodded, giving her permission to act. They had been searching for their missing Brother for three long weeks and stumbling across Dargin was the first gift the Great Serpent had given them. Mikal hoped that the Serpent's gift was a pleasant one. He worried however, that perhaps the Serpent planned to grant him the patience he had begged for earlier by making him *practice* it. He took another deep swallow of his wine and offered a quick plea to Jeaznan, the Great Serpent's wife, for assistance.

Danai's silent presence at his elbow drew Mikal from his troubled thoughts. He turned ice cold eyes on the sweating, acquiescent form that trembled in Danai's firm grasp.

"Dargin," Mikal purred threateningly, "how pleasant to see you again." He motioned to the chair opposite him. "Please, join us for a drink so we can," he paused, delighting in the blanching of the other man's dark features, "reacquaint ourselves after such an unexpected separation."

Danai "helped" the small desert rat into the indicated chair and placed her own sleekly muscled form between Dargin and any chance of escape. Mikal smiled his approval at his mate and turned his full attention to the nervous man before him.

"Master Lahn," Dargin began, bestowing his most ingratiating, charra-stained smile to Mikal. "I am so pleased to have found you at last. I have been searching for days, hoping to find some trace of your caravan."

Mikal lifted his wineglass to hide the twitch of his lips. He had no doubt the old fool had been looking for the caravan. . . in order to travel away from it. Danai's dancing green eyes met his and he knew she shared his thoughts. His raised eyebrow silenced any mirth, and the stoic and intimidating warrior maid reappeared.

"And I have been searching for you. How the Great Serpent smiles on us to bring us together in such an out of the way a place as this."

Dargin's thin lips forced themselves into a troubled smile.

Mikal smiled and touched his work-roughened fingers to the twin serpent medalion at his neck. "The Great One must have known that we are in need of each other."

"How . . . how so, my lord?"

"Why, surely you must be looking for me to bring me word of the. . . precious cargo that was stolen from me so many weeks ago." He pinned the squirming man with a glare while his full lips pulled into a threatening mockery of a smile. "Surely, that is why you would be seeking me, since you obviously left the caravan in search of the soon-to-be-dead fool who took it."

The spineless bandit took the offered out, nodding enthusiastically. "Of course, my lord. I heard a noise near the horses and when I went to check them, I saw that a dark stranger was leaving on one horse with a bundle thrown over the saddle. I remembered how you said that you guarded a great treasure and felt sure that the stranger had stolen him.

"I had no time to alert the guards, for a cry would have warned the escaping figure, and to go and find a guard would have cost me the sight of them." Dark brown eyes searched Mikal's impassive face. Taking the blank expression as one of encouragment, Dargin continued to spin his tale. "I took my steed and followed the stranger for miles. He did not see me, my lord, for I was very careful, knowing how precious the treasure was. I followed as best I could until the stranger stopped." Dargin's eyes filled with false tears as he paused, searching the faces of his quiet companions.

"And where did the stranger stop, brave Dargin?" Mikal asked, his tone deceptively bland.

"Oh, Master Lahn," Dargin simpered, "he stopped at the Palace. I tried to save the boy, but the stranger was too strong. By the time I finally regained consciousness the boy had been sold to the Palace as a slave, and without proof that the boy had been stolen, the Page would not believe my story." Dargin's skeletal hands reached for Mikal's own. "So I left to find you, since surely you would be able to convince the Page that the boy was stolen. You must go to the Palace, Master Lahn, you simply must."

The Palace. Mikal's blue eyes sought out Danai's green and the two communicated silently a moment as Dargin's entreaties continued. With a brief nod Danai rose fluidly from the table to go prepare for their departure.

"Of course we shall go to the Palace, Dargin." He allowed himself a slight smirk at Dargin's startled expression. "And perhaps this Page may have news of the misguided fool who stole Grandfather Dragon's treasure in the first place."

Mikal rose, settling his cloak around him with more fuss than normal. His blue eyes sparkled as the information lodged in Dargin's tiny brain and the greedy trader realized the full extent of what he had done. He raised an impatient eyebrow, clearing his throat noisily. "Come, Dargin. The Palace is several days' ride. The sooner we start the sooner we arrive."

Dargin nodded silently, rising reluctantly from the concealing shadows.

It took all of Mikal's well honed self-restraint not to cackle as he realized his earlier prediction had been correct. He ushered the trembling and suspiciously damp Dargin from the inn while thanking Jeaznan for Her intervention. . . and Her dark humor.