The dragon lowered its head.
Then it bowed.
The baby dragon ran beneath its chest. Around the adult dragon's neck hung a medallion bearing the same sun-and-wing symbol carved into a pendant Tomas had worn since infancy.
The dragon spoke through an ancient mind-bond that filled every person in the dungeon with the same words: "The lost bridge has returned our child."
Tomas was not a nameless prisoner. His mother had been Ambassador Elara, the human woman who negotiated peace with the northern dragons. The king murdered her when she refused to help him steal dragon eggs and hid her infant son beneath the keep. He told the kingdom dragons burned the peace delegation, then used the lie to justify twenty years of war.