"Dragon eggs?" Lyan blinked. "We barely have chickens."
"Exactly." Wilhelmina's smile was all blade, no polish. "They'll waste weeks chasing it. Meanwhile, their purse strings tighten and their men stay home guarding empty nests."
"Why dragon eggs?" Alice asked, incredulous but curious.
A giggle preceded Josephine, Belle, and Alina squeezing together into a single doorway like conspiring siblings. Josephine popped an exaggerated curtsey. "Because a lie should sparkle," she said. "Goblins and grain tithes bore nobles. Ancient reptiles get them frothing."
Belle twirled a copper cage in her fingers; inside sat a plump pigeon with faintly glowing runes across its feathers. "We enchanted a flock of gossip birds," she announced proudly. "They'll perch on city balconies and coo hints about the eggs, complete with scandal—apparently Baron Roston wants to hatch one for a pet." She winked. "Let envy do the rest."
