“You"re Queen Mother now, and Mistress of Dragons,” Almere said. “Enough to keep you busy, Ericaania. Can you stop harping on the heirs? Maybe Tevron—” She stopped and smiled because she had a secret.
“Nonsense.” Ericaania snapped off her white gloves and inspected her nails. She lifted a cup of wine to her lips. “Tevron"s married to that common maid, and she"s too old to have babies. I have a dragon for Tevron, my wedding gift to them, a fierce beast from the front lines who was first to deliver the boiling oil to the Picts and Trolls, other than my stout Lockjaw, that is. The King gets to name him.”
“Why not Tevron?”
“I"m sending him with my love to Malcoom"s son, and he needs a name that the soldiers, crude as they are, haven"t given him.”
“What do the soldiers call this beast?”
“Y
