Sorcha's Heart (4 page)

“
Land!”

He didn’t wait for agreement, but shot above her and used his mass to force her to ground. She plummeted the last few feet and absorbed the impact with quivering joints. Caedyrn managed to land close beside rather than on top of her, but the distinction didn’t matter. Sorcha’s lust ripped open the mind-link and lashed Caedyrn with the full force of her desire.

The black dragon turned his head and observed her through partially closed eyes. He stroked her back with the tip of his wing, a soothing hum issuing from his throat. After a quiet moment he crooned, “Breathe easy, little wizard. There will be time for that when you’ve adjusted to your new form. Dragon mating is strenuous and not for the faint of heart.”

Shame won its battle and flooded her soul with disgust. She’d always detested spilling her emotions, and this had been a torrential flood. Elspeth would be appalled. Her mother had given up so much to bring her into the world. She’d refused to give her up, as wizards who had children were expected to do, had suffered ostracism and stigma to raise her in the craft. Elspeth had held her own desires in constant check to allow her daughter to reach for her destiny. She had never thrown herself at any male.

And yet, I exist,
said a small voice from a deeply recessed corner of Sorcha’s mind.
I exist, though no one has ever admitted to having known my father. Not even Mother.

This unexpected thought quenched her shame like the bull’s blood had slaked her fiery thirst. She couldn’t undo the embarrassing emotional lapse, but her wounded pride would heal. She concentrated on drawing deep, cleansing breaths until the red haze retreated.

This new body’s reaction startled her. As quickly as the lust had consumed her, it fled, leaving a bone-deep weariness in its wake. Her eyes closed, lower lids rising hesitantly.

Caedyrn’s voice resonated through her mind with quiet conviction. “Rest, my Sorcha. When you awake, we’ll journey to the ice aerie.”

Chapter Three

The Ice Aerie

The ice aerie housed all the dragons that remained on earth. Sorcha cowered in Caedyrn’s shadow as they wandered the maze of caves and rough-cut passageways. Dragons of every shape and size gazed at her with curious, bold-eyed stares. From hatchlings to grizzled elders, the inhabitants of the aerie pushed against the barrier of her mind.

“
It is your choice, or course,” Caedyrn said as one daring hatchling brushed a wingtip against the pearly pink scales of Sorcha’s hide, “but their curiosity will abate faster if you open your mind and let them know your essence.”

“
They’ll overrun my mind,” she complained. “I won’t be able to protect myself.”

He nudged her neck with his snout. “Dragons know their boundaries. There are rules of etiquette for such things, rules ancient before the eldest among us was hatched. You will not be harmed.”

They continued their shuffling pace toward the center of the community, and Sorcha felt a great horde of bodies crowd the passageway behind them. No going back, no going forward without a guide in this maze. The Heart of Fire felt cool where its chain banded her neck, reminding her of what she had already dared. Raising her head, Sorcha gathered her courage and opened the floodgates to the flight of dragons...

...and was swept away on the swell of their excited greeting.

“
What an odd color,” exclaimed one.

“
Where did you find her?” asked another.

“
I’ve never seen her like,” growled an honored elder, “and I’ve watched every dragonet hatch.”

Sorcha discovered that she could read the speaker’s age, color, sex and character in their
communications. She gasped under the weight of knowledge that crashed into her consciousness with each new comment. Just as she thought she must drown in detail, the torrent eddied away as the dragons withdrew to give her time to assimilate.

She listened from a quiet pool as the flight turned their questions on Caedyrn. He answered calmly, if nonspecifically, until a majestic voice stated what could not be denied.

“
Her essence is human, Caedyrn,” the awesome voice proclaimed. “Tell me what you have done.”

“
He didn’t do it, Sire,” Sorcha said. “I did.”

Her dragon-sense informed her that the gigantic, red-brown male at the center of the aerie was the monarch, the rex of the flight. The oldest and wisest of dragon-kind.

The Rex turned his attention on her, and she felt like a butterfly pinned to one of her mother’s displays; every nuance of her personality lay bared to his gaze. Then his focus broadened, softened, and he said, “Tell us of your adventures, little wizard.”

She told the flight everything that had happened since she discovered the runes and followed them to the Heart of Fire. She faltered over her attraction to Caedyrn, but even that was confessed to the Rex and the community as a whole. The dragons listened with patience and consideration. Not a single hatchling interrupted with a stray thought.

“
And what have you learned?” asked the Rex. “You alone, among the inhabitants of this earth, have seen the conflict from both sides. What have you learned?”

“
Well, I’ve learned that things are not as simple as either side thinks they are,” she said. “Dragons are certainly not the unreasoning monsters that human children are taught to fear, but neither are most humans callous butchers.”

The aerie thrummed with agitated exhalations, but the Rex willed his dragons to silence. He nodded his great head at Sorcha. “Continue.”

“
If both species are to survive,” she said, concentrating on the Rex, “then we must communicate. I realize, now, that human speech is a...” she hesitated, searching for the proper word, “challenge. I didn’t understand these things before my transformation. Humans think dragons are unconcerned, unwilling to compromise. Some humans think you are little more than unintelligent beasts.”

A barrage of indignant comments erupted from the flight at this affront to dragon wisdom, and Sorcha thanked the gods and goddesses that dragons couldn’t blush as she picked out isolated grumblings about the many failings of the human race. She pulled back from the link, deciding she’d said enough for one day, and observed until the mutterings died away.

“
Your thoughts are quiet, young wizard, yet I believe you have more to share.”

A trace of a dare colored the Rex’s tone. She cast Caedyrn a sidelong glance, looked around at the rest of the dragons crowded around them, and decided she might as well finish what she’d started.

“
Well, there is the matter of humanity’s flocks and herds.”

Immediately, the angry comments began again, but this time the Rex quelled his flight. “Enough,” he growled. “We will hear what the Heart of Fire has sent this human to tell us.” Mention of the legendary stone, which now dangled from Sorcha’s neck, silenced the
dragons, and placed their focus firmly back on her. She thought of her mother’s battle to convince King Leofric not to antagonize the dragons, and considered her phrasing carefully.

“
Dragon depredation has brought many villages to the edge of starvation. Yet humanity’s wanton destruction of habitat cost dragons their natural prey. These issues divide us, yet I’m sure they can be solved with time and diplomacy.”

“
And who will be our diplomats?” asked the Rex. “Who will go among the humans to plead our cause? How are we to communicate with creatures who think us monsters and whose speech is painful to our ears?”

The mind-link went silent, and so did the aerie. Not a thought sang through the flight’s group mind; not a sound thrummed through the ice cave’s hollow core.

Sorcha held her breath, and then expelled a fiery blip as she declared her conviction to the flight. “I will go, Sire. Perhaps the Heart of Fire transformed me for this purpose.”

Again the flight clamored for the Rex’s attention.

“
You cannot trust her, Sire. She’s a human at heart!”

“
No. She knows nothing of our kind.”

“
And if I accompany her?” Caedyrn boomed into the link. “The Heart of Fire called me to witness her transformation. I will guard her when she returns to the humans. They will be hard pressed to recognize her now.”

The Rex closed his eyes and breathed a benediction into the flight’s mind. “Peace, my friends. We have no need to make such a weighty decision now. Sorcha has much to learn about being a dragon, and we must learn from her alien thoughts.”

He turned his fiery eyes on Sorcha and spoke directly to her, though he eschewed a private link. “You are in no danger from us, little wizard. I guarantee your safety.” He swept his head around to view his flight, “and we are in no danger from one untrained dragon, though she be a wizard in human form. It is my judgment that we live together in peace while Sorcha learns our ways. An envoy to the humans will wait until the flight is satisfied as to the character of the messengers.”

With that, the tight focus of the flight collapsed and Sorcha endured chaos as a mob of exuberant voices exploded in her skull.

*~*~*

Caedyrn helped Sorcha settle into her lair. He insisted she be allowed a private space among the un-bonded females.

“
She’s still adjusting to our communication strand. Remember, in her species each member is isolated within his or her own mind. She requires a little space.”

The other young females thought this very odd, but agreed to give Sorcha the necessary privacy. Her first night in the lair, she regretted this decision.

Bereft of Caedyrn’s companionship, she slipped into melancholy and mourned for Elspeth and her friends. What must they think? She’d never been gone so long before. After her argument with her mother, Sorcha had simply slipped away to retrieve the Heart of Fire without telling anyone where she’d gone. Elspeth must be out of her mind with worry.

Carefully, Sorcha tried to draw on the magic she’d practiced since childhood. She sought the familiar pool of strength, but couldn’t push past the inexplicable barrier. In desperation, she touched the link with Caedyrn instead.

“
What is it, my Sorcha,” he said.

The feel of his voice in her mind soothed her agitation. “It’s nothing,” she replied. “I wanted to tell my mother I’m safe, but I can’t seem to reach my magic.”

“
I asked the elders about that” he said. “It seems you cannot draw upon your human magic in this form, little wizard. I’m sorry. I wish humans could connect as we do; then you could ease your pain, and your mother’s as well.”

“
Thank you, Caedyrn. Sleep well.” Sorcha closed the link and withdrew to her private space, but it was long before she slept.

Chapter Four

Preparation

Bright and early the next morning, a prolonged susurrus of slithering near the entrance of her lair awakened Sorcha. She tried to rub the sleep from her eyes before she remembered her hands were now clawed feet. Everything felt wrong. She’d slept crooked, and unaccustomed muscles ached in strange places. Before settling in tonight, she’d make sure to ask someone to demonstrate a comfortable sleeping position.

How did a dragon begin her day? There’d be no tooth brushing without hands, no working tangles from non-existent long hair, no washing of face or selection of apparel. Bereft and bewildered, she realized that one aspect of her morning routine remained; dragon or human, she still needed to relieve herself first thing in the morning.