The stone starts to move aside as Haley approaches the passageway's entrance, but she has to call out her wings to slow herself enough to keep from running into the figure that suddenly blocks her way.

The monkey's chittering laughter echoes down the passage, and he reaches out to snatch her arm. "Yo, found you! Guess that means I won our little game of hide-and-seek."

Haley stares. "Who are you?"

"Bananas B is my name and Guardianship is my game."

Something about this doesn't sit right with her, but she's not sure if that's just because she's been caught sneaking around. She tries without success to pull away. "I have a magical guardian."

"And I might do a little moonlighting on the side," the monkey acknowledges easily. He's still blocking her exit, and his grip hasn't loosened at all. "Payment ain't that great for the risk involved, if you catch my drift."

"So is this your side gig or your actual gig?"

Her question isn't acknowledged as he pulls her out of the passage and down the hall towards the stairs, leaving the stone to close off the hidden entrance behind them. Then again, maybe the direction is an answer in and of itself. There isn't another dragon in sight, and magical guardians aren't typically on the Isle of Draco without their magical guardee. Haley isn't even sure if they're ordinarily allowed unaccompanied.

More likely, he's less guardian at this point than he is guard, even if the post isn't an officially sanctioned one. He might not be dragging her in front of the Council itself, but he is most definitely taking her to someone who will report her for sneaking around where she isn't supposed to be—probably the dragon at the administration post.

Great.

She needs to talk to the Council, to convince them that doing anything like what they're considering to Jake without at least talking to him first is the wrong choice, but they're not going to listen to her if she's hauled in like an insolent child who's been caught disobeying her elders.

"What's it worth to you to not report me?" she tries when they're halfway down the stairs, and Bananas B stops and gives her a long look.

"Whatcha got?"

Haley has no idea if she has anything of value. None of the more delicate items from the shop would have been packed in her luggage; frankly, she doubts she has anything beyond what she'd left there at one point or another. Judging by the thick gold medallion Bananas B wears, he's probably expecting her to offer up a good sum of money or something of equal value, and she can't.

"Information," she whispers. It's the only answer she can give. It's all she has to give.

It's not invaluable. Fu deals in information all the time, using it as currency as much as he uses real money. His card games and gambling are as much for networking as entertainment. A favour granted here, a debt incurred there…. Haley might not know for certain, but she doubts the promise of learning a lucrative secret is something most magical guardians will forego. To be good at their job, building and maintaining a network is vital.

If anything, Bananas B's moonlighting on the side means he should be more interested in what she has to say than he might ordinarily be. If he's not currently deployed as a magical guardian—and she can't see how he is if he's here alone—then he's not privy to the sorts of things most guardians overhear. Surely it's more difficult to keep a network alive when you never have any information to trade with than when you know something others don't.

Of course, that assumes he hasn't picked up anything else while working here in the meantime, and she has no guarantee of that.

"Information or gossip? One's more valuable than the other, you know."

Haley hesitates. "Depends on what you want to know."

"If all you've got is the who's who of the magical world, I know more'n you already." There isn't any doubt in his tone. "Dragon secrets, on the other hand…."

"What? No! If you're a magical guardian, you already know everything you need to know."

"I already know everything that you know, you mean."

Chances are good that's true, but Haley isn't about to admit it. She thinks of her brother and says, "I know what they're discussing at the meeting."

Bananas B shakes his head. "You don't think I could find that out in two shakes if I didn't already know?"

"You wouldn't find out as much as I know," she counters. "Did you even know the Huntsclan had a dragon?"

It's not entirely a lie.

Jake might not be with the Huntsclan right now, and the Huntsclan might not know they'd had a dragon in their midst, but he had still been there.

Bananas B releases her and crosses his arms. "If we're talkin' Huntsclan, I want facts, not gossip."

"It's not gossip. I've seen their dragon."

"Says you."

"If my dragon master thought I was mistaken, do you think there would be a council meeting right now?"

"Not good enough, yo. If this is the best you have, you gotta agree to be compelled to be truthful first."

Haley's heard of such things. Fu had gotten on the wrong side of the potion equivalent once; its effects are more variable than the truth spell he favours, complicated in its casting though it is, and he'd had the misfortune of spilling his guts for longer than twenty minutes. She grimaces, not wanting to take the risk. She'll do it in front of the Council if she has to, just to back up G's word, but she hardly trusts someone she's just met.

And then she realizes she does know something that would be valuable.

Something that would be of value to the magical community as a whole, not just to the dragons or magical guardians or whoever else Bananas B might try to sell his information to—or whatever he does with it if it's not what she's been thinking.

What she knows is something that's not even related to Jake, meaning telling Bananas B won't risk endangering her brother in ways that she can't foresee.

The words are out of Haley's mouth before she can contemplate the consequences. "No, forget that."

"Suit yourself," Bananas B says, reaching for her wrist. She isn't fast enough to escape his grip even though she'd pulled back.

"Wait," she says as he tries to tug her down the steps. "What about information on Huntsgirl?"

The look she gets tells her he thinks she's stalling.

"You know what that ranking means in the Huntsclan," Haley continues, "and I have something on the Huntsgirl from the NYC branch."

"Her fighting style and favourite weapons are well documented, yo," Bananas B points out. "That one's out a lot. What've you got, confirmation of her mark's location? I'd need photographs."

"I've got something better." She leans in closer and adds, "Something good enough that I'm not even willing to say it here where it might be overheard." She's pretty sure the stone is spelled to keep their words from carrying—it would explain why her dragon ears didn't help her in the passageway, though the magic is working in her favour now since it means the dragon downstairs should have no reason to come to investigate—but she doesn't know if there are other hidden passages.

He looks unimpressed. "You'd be willing to talk about the Huntsclan's supposed dragon right here but not Huntsgirl?"

"Stuff about the dragon might come out. The value of that information is in who gets it first." She remembers that much from Fu's lessons. "What I have on Huntsgirl isn't something even the Dragon Council knows."

In hindsight, it should be. She should have described Huntsgirl's appearance in detail to Gramps and Fu. She should have insisted that Fu teach her how to brew the potion that will help her learn how to shapeshift so she could show them.

She wants to pretend it was a mere oversight. She'd been so happy to get home, and she'd been so worried trying to figure out the dragon's—her brother's predicament—that it hadn't seemed that important at the time. She'd been looking harder for the dragon than she had for Huntsgirl, and once her family had found out that Huntsgirl had seen her face, they'd been more concerned about trying to control the damage from that than anything else.

Nothing has come from Huntsgirl's knowledge, as far as Haley knows, but she isn't sure if that's because of the measures Fu and Gramps have taken or because Huntsgirl never reported it.

Or because the Huntsclan hasn't yet acted on it.

Just because they know what Haley looks like, it doesn't mean they've found her.

Not until Jake did, anyway.

That's not what has stayed Haley's tongue, though.

What kept her from speaking of it before is Huntsgirl's trust—trust Haley hadn't earned and which she is now bargaining to break, for her own sake as much as for Jake's.

"So sing like a bird if you really know a note," Bananas B says, "and I'll tell you if it's enough."

"It's enough."

"Still need a sample before I agree. If it ain't worth more than I'm getting for turning you in, why should I? You'd say anything to wriggle outta this."

Haley frowns. "With that argument, you could claim I'm making it up even if I do tell you."

"Which is why a little potion to test the potency of your info needs to be part of the deal. The more details you give, the easier it is for me to figure out if it's actually true or just what you think is true. One's info, one's gossip, and the price ain't the same, yo. I've got a reputation to uphold."

He has a reputation to uphold. So does Huntsgirl. So does Jake, as 99. So does she, as the American Dragon.

What if this isn't the right choice?

"No potions." She doesn't want to be bespelled, either, which leaves her with— "You'll have to take my word as the American Dragon."

He tilts his head and gives her a considering look. "You putting anything behind that word of yours?"

She shouldn't, not without knowing for sure where the information is going. She'd figured that he worked for the dragon posted downstairs, but what if he's employed by someone on the Council? If they find out what she knows from him and not G—

"S'pose not," he says, and this time his pull is stronger, supplemented by his own magic. It's enough to have her stumbling forward and scrambling not to trip down the stairs after him. She's not entirely successful, but his hold is enough to keep her from falling on her face.

"Please, if we just go somewhere private—"

She's cut off by a bark of his laughter, but he doesn't stop pulling her down. If she's not mistaken, there's only one more turn before the ground floor is in sight. She's running out of time, and they both know it. "Yo, you really think this is my first kick at the can? If you don't wanna face the music, you've gotta give me something concrete, now."

"I—"

They're too exposed. She shouldn't say this when they're so exposed. If she's wrong about the stone, if it's merely the Council Chamber itself that's spelled—

"Well? What's it gonna be?"

They've come round the final bend, and she can see where the stairs flatten into the smooth stone of the vast entryway.

Whether or not the dragon on this level could hear her before, she has little doubt they'll be able to hear her now if they're listening. A whisper from this distance won't go unheard by dragon ears, but if she's lucky, if they hadn't sent Bananas B to investigate and he merely came to find her on his own, then there's a chance—

She might be able to—

Haley plants her feet and yanks Bananas B towards her, cupping her free hand around her mouth as she bends to his ear and hisses, "I know Huntsgirl's face."