"Welcome," Lord Jierdan gestured to the couches in the center. "You have come as I wanted. Have a seat, if you please."

Lidia narrowed her eyes. "If it's all the same to you, I don't plan on making myself comfortable."

"Not even a 'm'lord' for my trouble, then?" He chuckled, then lit a long-stemmed pipe with a flash of fire at his fingertips. "Well, I suppose that can be forgiven, as I am in no fit state to receive guests."

He turned from his pipe to the Company. "Lidia, you look awfully dour for someone wishing to take my coin."

"You hired me to hunt monsters," she said. "I found them, but not where I expected."

"Oh?" A slow smile appeared on his ruddy face. "And where is that?"

She folded her arms. "In the Coronet, of all places. No mortal being can muster the kind of evil I sensed in you, not even if they ended every tenday of their lives with murder. Yours comes from wallowing in pride, greed, and cruelty-for centuries." She raised her voice. "Where's the dragon, Lord Jierdan?"

"Perhaps, if you have divined my nature, you ought to show proper deference," he said. He breathed out a plume of smoke, then drew himself up to his full height, a head taller than even Minsc. "Nonetheless, allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Firkraag, the terror of these hills, the fire in this mountain, the Great Dragon of the Cloud Peaks. I could go on, but you'd have to use your limited imagination. From time to time, I take this shape to walk among you humans without incident, or to deal with paperwork too important for my servants and too small for my talons. A pity you cannot now appreciate my true form. I do so hate being caught unawares, as Gorion could tell you."

He gave a meaningful pause, which Lidia refused to fill.

"Yes, I know of him," he continued. "Gorion raised you, and he was as much your father as anyone. My spies and followers are subtle when I wish it."

Lidia briefly wondered how much trouble her stepfather had caused back in his adventuring days. "That's why you've harassed me? Over something Gorion did?"

"He and his Harper friends crossed my path long ago and dealt me a humiliating blow. He is beyond my revenge, being dead as he is, so I settled for the next best thing. I can torment his spirit by destroying you. Wherever he is, he is seething."

"He counted powerful beings among his friends," Lidia said, shrugging. "I always figured one of his enemies would come for me someday. But you went too far for such an old debt. All will see you as you are, cursing your name every time they whisper it."

Then Firkraag laughed, a long, cruel sound that reverberated from the stone walls and seemed far too large for his already oversized body. "You assume that anyone will believe you. I barely had to lift a finger to ruin you; in truth, I grow bored with you already. You are not nearly as interesting as your lineage might suggest."

"Your lineage? What does that have to do with it?" Anomen said under his breath. "Do you even know it yourself?"

Lidia remained still, not letting anything flit across her face. She said to Firkraag: "I don't care what your 'interest' in me is, but I won't leave without Garren's daughter."

"Oh, very well. The brat was but a byproduct of my scrutiny of you anyway. I had finished taunting her father some years ago." Firkraag clapped his hands twice, then shouted, "Conster!"

The door with the carving of the dark-robed lady swung open. A haggard-looking mage in dirty robes brought forward Iltha. The girl's hands were bound with thick ropes, and patches of dirt covered her face, limbs, and clothes, but she seemed to be unhurt.

She struggled against her captor, then yelled, "Don't throw yourself at him! Please!" Immediately, the mage's dirty, leather-gloved hand went over her mouth.

Firkraag turned to Lidia again, sporting an amused half-grin filled with jagged yellow teeth. "Well, paladin, if you wish to make a confrontation inevitable, you will never have such an easy time of it. A disadvantage of this form, I'm afraid. But if you strike me, Conster will kill her."

As if on cue, the mage's other hand retrieved a dagger in an instant, then pressed the blade against Iltha's throat.

"You could fight my servant for the girl, and then return one day and attempt to battle me." Firkraag strode forward, and everyone's hands strayed to their weapons. "But when you find me, I will be as I truly am. And you will die, your body turning to ash before you can finish shouting your challenge."

"I, for one, would rather leave this place with my hide," Yoshimo said. "But if you wish to oppose him, Lidia, I shall do my best."

Minsc's massive hand wrapped around his sword's hilt, and with the other, carefully put Boo into a small pouch at his waist. "We must rescue the nice man's child and be off! Unless...unless you have some plan?"

Firkraag was another powerful person who thought the world lay at their feet, Lidia thought. It was a rare day when one came face-to-face with something as unambiguously evil as this. And her job was to confront and overcome it, no matter the odds. Perhaps Garren would understand.

Iltha struggled again under Conster's grip. She tried to shout something, but her voice was muffled.

Lidia bit her lip. She recalled something she'd said to Iltha, a promise she'd made: "I will be worthy of your hopes."

She said to Firkraag, "Iltha's leaving with me. I imagine this is the closest thing you know to charity."

"Oh, do not think Conster will be an easy target. I test my subjects thusly all the time, and they know that failure is death." Firkraag moved to the door on the opposite side of the room and opened it. "Farewell, Gorion's Ward. You know where I lie in wait if you wish to meet again.'

"We will." Lidia's voice was low and filled with venom. "You have no idea what you did to me."

"I don't?" He seemed genuinely bemused for a moment, pausing in the doorway. "I know my scrutiny of you gave me good sport, for a time. And in return, you have an explanation, a promise of absolution, a chance to get what you came for, and your life. If your cause is mere sentiment, I bear you no ill will." He turned to her one more time. "And in any case, I am more interested in your conflict with Irenicus than with me. Take your time. Enjoy life. You will have much to face."

He turned away and closed the door, revealing the carving of Tiamat. One last time, Lidia heard his laugh inside her mind, and then his voice: "You still think you have your little secret, do you?"