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The dragon was only beginning.

The wave retreated, gathered again. It tossed up a gift, two gifts. My satchel and my bow and quiver, forgotten in the fall.

I retrieved them weakly.

And then there was a stillness, a gathering stillness. Shivering, I breathed the Breath of Embers Glowing, wrapping my arms around the princess to share what little warmth I could conjure with her.

I had a sense of the dragon's essence coiling and coiling unto itself in the depths of the reflecting lake. Forming a ball—an enormous pearl—and descending slowly through the green waters, settling gently onto the lake's floor, coming to rest in the place from which it had been stolen by a younger Master Lo Feng.

HOME, the dragon thundered. I am here and awake and I am HOME!

The entire valley shuddered.

The shudder began in the lake, stirring its waters. It rippled up the cliff from which we had leapt. It rippled up the snow-covered flanks of White Jade Mountain, all the way to the peak.

The peak stirred, coming alive.

The dragon raised his immense head from its resting place. His coils unwound from the peak, sun-gilded snow turning to pearlescent scales. Mighty claws were extracted from the snow-covered rock. I stared in awe, too awestruck to feel the cold, to feel the ache of the jarring impact of the fall in my body. In my arms, Snow Tiger had gone utterly still with the same wonder.

"HOME!"

With a deafening, joyous cry, the dragon launched himself into the blue sky, his coils gleaming in the sunlight, casting a vast, moving shadow over the mountain below. And all at once, I was laughing and crying and babbling, because it was the most beautiful, glorious thing I had ever seen.

"Moirin, Moirin!" The princess was shouting at me, tears streaking her face. "Listen!"

I was bewildered. "To what?"

"Nothing!" Her tear-bright eyes shone. "The Divine Thunder! It's gone quiet!"

I gazed at the dragon spiraling overhead. "They can see him from the battlefield."

She laughed. "I imagine they can see him from Shuntian! Come, we've got to find a way out of here." I dragged myself to my feet. Snow Tiger rose, stumbling. She caught herself and swayed, the dragon's loss hitting her for the first time.

I put out one hand to steady her. "Are you all right, my lady? We very nearly drowned, not to mention the fall."

"Yes." She bowed her head a moment. "Just sore and aching, and… weak." She held out her hands, gazing at them. "I had forgotten what it was like to feel human. So very vulnerable, so very weak."

"I know," I said softly. "Perhaps… perhaps we might rest and wait for rescue. If my satchel is not soaked through, I may be able to kindle a fire."

Do not fear, the dragon said in my thoughts. I will come for you. Startled, I glanced skyward. High overhead, the dragon was heading for us like a gleaming arrow.

"You still hear him," Snow Tiger murmured.

"Aye, I do."

She gave a short, broken laugh. "A year ago, I could never have imagined it would hurt so much to be free of him."

"I know," I said again.

And then the dragon in all his glory descended, settling over the landscape as gently as an enormous cloud. The wonder of his presence drove away all sorrow, at least for the moment. His vast, whiskered head dipped to the princess.

"Noble Highness," the dragon said in a low rumble. "Granddaughter of Heaven. I beg your forgiveness for the pain I have caused you. I thank you for the gift of my freedom and your extraordinary valor. There are no words fit to praise your courage. If there were, I would speak them." One massive foreleg shifted forward, rotating to offer a cage of glistening claws. "Please allow me to carry you both to safety."

In silence, Snow Tiger raised one hand to the dragon's face, caressing the pearly scales. His body shifted again, almost imperceptibly, curling around her with great tenderness. She leaned her brow against the hinge of his jaw, letting herself relax against him. His opalescent eyes closed briefly.

What they had truly shared, no one could know.

Not even me.

"Thank you." Her back straightened. "Your generosity