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offer before I could, but instead of looking excited by the prospect, Nia looks…afraid. Maybe even horrified, though I can’t imagine why.
    She glances over her shoulders into the darkness. The rocks jut upward at harsh angles, deeply shadowed by the meager light of the moon and stars, an unnatural landscape that might well hide equally unnatural enemies. “I don’t want to endanger you.”
    “Endanger?” I repeat when she falls silent.
    Regret fills her lovely face. “I have been searching for other dragons for many long years. I grew desperate and followed the only trail I could find. In exchange for information, I…” Nia shakes her head. “It wasn’t even good information.”
    Her words are cryptic, but knowing what we know of the dragon world and its enemies, I can read between the lines. We know from the spies’ video footage that she was working for Eudora, who has been trying for decades to destroy all dragons. “Are you afraid of Eudora?” I ask.
    “Eudora?” Nia repeats the name as if it’s new to her. “Is that the white witch? Who lives in the ice castle in the mountains?”
    My brother explains, “Eudora created the yagi, the dragon hunters.”
    “The mamluki?” Nia clarifies. “It means mercenary in Swahili.”
    “Mamluki,” I repeat, nodding. Her name for them fits them quite well. “Yes, Eudora created the mamluki to destroy dragons.”
    “The mamluki have been hunting me for many years,” Nia explains. “I followed them to this place and found the white witch. I thought—” she shakes her head regretfully again. “I hoped to find other dragons. I have been seeking them my whole life. The white witch claims to know of more dragons. She promised me information, but has given me little.”
    Ram nods solemnly. “Did she tell you there might be dragons in China?”
    “In China, and on an island near Fiji. But she won’t give me specific information, and she has baited the mamluki with my scent.”
    “Baited?” I’m immediately concerned. The yagi, or mamluki, or whatever you want to call them, were bred for the purpose of hunting and killing dragons. They’re soulless creatures, part cockroach, part mercenary soldier. They killed my grandmother. They’re dangerous enough without specifically targeting someone.
    “The mamluki use scent to track their prey,” Nia explains. “The white witch controls them by scent, which is why they don’t attack her. I am safe from them as long as I continue to work for her, but if I try to escape, she will send them after me. It has happened before. I only survived because I returned to her. It would be a danger to your family to meet me. Indeed, it is a danger to you, talking to me now. I should return to my cave.”
    “But we just met—” I protest.
    Ram cuts in. “We can help you. We can protect you from the mamluki. We know how to fight them.”
    Nia looks at him with hesitant hope. She wants to believe him, but she knows too well the merciless enemies who hunt her. “If I return to my cave now, she may not realize I have met with you. I can meet with you again, in secret. She doesn’t need to know. I have some freedom as long as I don’t stray far.”
    Before Nia has even finished her sentence, a massive boom rocks the air all around us. The three of us duck instinctively, and both Ram and I throw our arms over Nia’s shoulders. I peek behind us in time to see the sky lit up with orange and purple, and a billow of smoke not unlike an atomic mushroom cloud.
    It came from the direction of the lake. And Nia’s cave.

 
    CHAPTER THREE
     
    I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep this secret from Eudora. But that concern is dwarfed by the violence of the explosion behind us. Our family was near the lake and the cave, somewhere. Are they okay?
    “What was that?” Nia asks as we cautiously rise to standing again.
    “I hope that was Ed, destroying the source of the water yagi.” Ram’s expression is grim. He glances at