Jake looked at her.
He looked at Ankerita who was looking at the women with an expression that was doing something between shocked and calculating.
He looked back at the kneeling women.
"I need," Jake said carefully, "someone to explain. Because I have had an extremely long day and my brain is not currently equipped for mystery."
The woman's tears fell, but she smiled. It was a complicated smile. Relief and grief mixed together in a way that made Jake's chest hurt to look at.
"We are the Dragon Maidens of Clan Raikarndel," she said.
"And we have come to bring you home."
Jake's head was spinning harder than when the cauldron had drained him.
"House Raikarndel," he repeated slowly, because saying the words out loud might help them make sense.
They didn't. "Dragon Maidens… my mother."
