The Bond (Book 2) (17 page)

Master Doronal raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Excellent suggestion. Cheddar, you may wish to take all this down, as well.”

When everyone left, Aeron let out a loud breath. “Thanks!”

Chuckling, Willem helped him slide the large doors closed on the inquiring gazes from outside.

“And I think I will need a drink. I have a feeling I’ll be talking a long time.”

Aeron was surprised to see Jessip and Liara in the room. He glanced at Master Doronal and Master Canneth, but they didn’t seem to care. With a mental shrug, he began describing their meeting with Nenet. A detailed recap would be best before addressing any questions.

That out of the way, he said, “Dragons have another way of speaking that I learned at House Yaot, a kind of group speech that reaches those nearby. I must have forgotten to mention it before. It can be adjusted somewhat to vary the distance it carries, but not by much.”

“
Oh.” Sharrah raised her brows. “I thought it was a spell you used to allow some of us to hear, because not everyone nearby could hear the conversation.”

Not all can hear dragon speech. It is one of the things that makes a candidate a candidate.

Aeron turned to the door. “Anaya says not everyone can hear dragons. Nor talk to them, I expect. She says that is another thing that makes someone a candidate.”

Sharrah nodded to herself and jotted down a note. She’d had the notebook open and ready when Aeron had walked in the office.

Liara tapped a finger on her chin. “If I remember right, everyone in this room could hear the dragons.”

All were looking around at each other, nodding.

“Your trip to House Yaot has yielded results after all.” Master Doronal stared off into space. “This is good news.” He looked at Aeron and smiled. “Very good news.”

“
I wonder if we could convince her to speak to other dragons at House Yaot,” Master Canneth said. “It sounds like she’s more than happy to bring all her children to us from now on, but I’d like to get as much genetic diversity in our dragons as possible. Having dragons from several family lines would be best.”

“
I can certainly speak to her about that soon,” Aeron said. “She would need to be careful, though. I’d hate for her to get exiled, too.”

“
From the way life sounds there,” Cheddar said, “that wouldn’t be a hardship, it’d be a blessing.”

“
Except we want her to speak to more dragons,” Willem noted.

“
Oh, right.” Cheddar nodded.

“
As far as examining her,” Aeron looked at Gregor, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

His expression fell.

“At least not quite yet. She’s very nervous right now. I think that as she gets used to me and Anaya dropping by, as we bring more people from this group to visit, she’ll eventually get comfortable enough with us where we can do it.”

“
I suppose you’re right.” Gregor crooked his mouth in a half-smile.

“
One thing we need to do immediately, however, is put guards at the sinkhole.” Aeron looked to the masters. “I’m sure a great number of people saw us fly off, and some will try to find out where we went.”

“
A good point.” Master Canneth looked to Master Doronal.

He nodded. “We’ll arrange for that right after we’re done here.” The magic master turned to Aeron. “Could you ask Anaya a question for me?”

“Sure.”

“
Ask her if Jessip and Liara are candidates.”

Liara took in a sharp breath.

Aeron must have heard that wrong. “If what?”

“
If Jessip and Liara are candidates. Now that we have a dragon who will assist us with eggs, I think it might be good to preselect a few more candidates in preparation.”

Aeron was confused and a little alarmed. More candidates? He looked at Willem. We have a candidate. Why do we need more right now? Can’t we wait until after Willem gets—

“Aeron?” Mater Doronal smiled.

“
Hmm?”

“
What did Anaya say?”

“
Right.” He turned to the door.
Anaya, did you hear Master Doronal’s question?

They both are good good candidates.

Really? Jessip is?

He is, now.

“She says they both are.”

Liara let out a little squeal, and Jessip grunted, a rare smile on his face.

“How about me, Anaya?” Cheddar looked at the doorway, half out of his chair.

Cheddar is a candidate.

“Anaya says you’re a candidate.”

He let out a whoop, his pony-tail bouncing as he fell back into the chair. “What about Sharrah?”

Sharrah is a good candidate.

Aeron nodded. “She is.”

Gregor raised a finger. “If I may ask, as well?”

He is a good candidate. All in the room are at least candidates.

Aeron felt numb. “Anaya says you are, too. Everyone of you are.”

Master Doronal sat back in his chair. “All of us?”

He nodded.

“
Well. That’s certainly unexpected.” He was quiet for a moment, then shook his head. “At any rate, I wonder if the preselected candidates, all of you, would be interested in joining dragonlinked training with Aeron and Willem. It’s additional work and chores that will be added to your current duties—lessons taken from Magic Craft on Duviday afternoons, and from Animal Craft on Therday afternoons. Would the rest of you be interested?”

All of them, save Sharrah, responded instantly in the affirmative. Her answer was slower in coming, but it was also a yes.

“Good,” Master Doronal said. “We have a limited number of instructors at the moment, so I think it best if we can get a large first group all together at the same point in training, rather than have to add more later. More that will be behind in the lessons.”

“
I’ve seen all of you here in the evenings before,” Master Canneth said, “so you probably already know that we do measurements of Anaya at that time, recording the figures in a log book. Part of your chores will be to begin assisting with that, to familiarize yourself with the process for when you have your own dragon to care for.”

“
My own dragon to care for.” Cheddar’s whisper sounded awed.

“
Those chores will begin this evening,” Master Canneth continued, “after dinner. You’ll all assist with Anaya’s measurements each night. Your Animal Craft training, as such, will begin next week, on Therday.”

“
As for Magic Craft,” Master Doronal said, “you all know that it is dangerous unless treated with respect. You will need to be diligent in your studies, and you should come to me, or Millinith, once she returns, with any and all questions. Your lessons with me will begin next week, on Duviday.”

“
And that’s all for now,” Master Canneth said. “If you’ll excuse us, Master Doronal and I need to visit the barracks to make arrangements for guards at the sinkhole.”

Dinner was lively that evening, everyone chatting excitedly about being preselected for dragonlinked. Aeron, on the other hand, didn’t feel like chatting.

“Some of us will have a leg up with Animal Craft, right Sharrah?” Jessip turned to her.

She nodded. “I suppose. Though, we learned this afternoon that dragons have differences, some major, from other animals.”

“Dragons aren’t animals,” Aeron murmured. “They’re people, just like us.”

“
We’re animals, too,” Sharrah said. “Technically. But I take your point. They
are
people.”

“
It’s the Magic Craft studies that worry me.” Liara’s lips twisted in a frown.

“
Me, too.” Jessip poked at his food with a fork.

“
Well,” Willem remarked, “once you get dragons, they’ll help with that. Anaya helps you with spells, right Aeron?”

Aeron looked at Willem.

I hoped you’d be next, he thought. I wanted you to be next. But with all these others . . .

“
Aeron?”

“
Yeah, she helps me.”

+ + + + +

I wonder what he is doing, right now.

Renata looked up. It was difficult to locate her bond-mate in the night sky, especially with the gentle sway of the horse’s gait, but that was the point of traveling at these hours. Even knowing what to look for, all she got was a brief glimpse of the dragon, a fast-moving dark outline against a large patch of stars.
What who’s doing?

The dragon boy.  Do you think he is having as much fun as we are?

She smiled. Xochi always looked at things in the best light possible.
I do. How could anyone with a bond-mate not have fun?

I cannot wait to meet him.

Renata wondered how long that would take. Yesterday, questions at the village had revealed no new information about the boy. Going in had been dangerous, too. Though across the desert from Bataan-Mok, the Order still had influence there. A few minutes had been required to convince Xochi to remain hidden outside the village while she went in.

Even though it was easily double the size of where she was from, walking along its streets and seeing everyone’s daily routine made her surprisingly homesick. Even after all these years, half a life, she missed the simple times from her village. She’d had friends there and a family. It had been home.

Her casual inquiries at the market failed to reveal anything new about the rumor. There were plenty of food staples available, however, and she would return once she acquired a horse. What kind of price she got on the mount would affect what she could afford to buy.

Luckily, she was able to haggle the farrier at the livery down to a decent price on a good, steady mare. Afterward, she picked up flour, sugar, salt, and a little pepper—that one was expensive! She also purchased some potatoes, carrots, onions and dry beans. All were packed away in sacks hanging off Muffin’s saddle.

The mare was remarkably calm when Xochi gamboled out of the ravine to greet them. Muffin merely raised her head a bit as the little dragon scampered about. Renata lead Muffin back to the gully, to the camp. The tiny terror, who stood half as tall as Muffin’s legs, didn’t seem to bother the horse. Would she continue to feel that way once the dragon was full-grown?

Xochi eagerly padded along with them, running and leaping occasionally to keep up.
Is this a horse? You said you were going to buy one.

It is, sweetling. Try not to scare it.

It does not feel scared, just
 . . . calm.

Good. Let’s try to keep her calm. I don’t want to be thrown from Muffin and hurt myself in the fall.

Muffin?

That’s her name, the horse.

A spike of mirth shot through and Xochi emitted a series of clipped chirps, giggling.
What a funny name! I like it.

That village was now a day behind them and the rocky waste half a day more. They were fortunate that the desert narrowed here, on its eastern end. Crossing further west in the Whispering Sands, the deepest and most arid part of it, would not have been possible for them.

Renata would miss the dry, dusty region. As difficult as life could be at times, there was a kind of beauty and serenity to everything. And, too, it was what she knew.

She glanced at a group of trees they were passing. One of them was close enough that its branches reached over the hard-packed trail. Like its fellows, the monstrous thing was at least twenty feet tall, and it was doubtful her arms would reach around any one of their massive trunks. The towering giants in these lands made those from home look like nothing more than overgrown shrubs.

There were more and more of these clusters of trees now. In fact, several loomed nearby in the darkness. Were they what were called forests?

Once I get bigger, do you suppose you would be able to ride on me like you do Muffin?

Renata grunted.
I hadn’t thought about that. Perhaps. The dragon boy rumor does say he rides his dragon, after all. And If I do, we can sell Muffin.
She searched the sky for her bond-mate, but even with Hemet nearly half-full, she failed to spy the rust-colored dragon.
We won’t try for a while, though. You’ve still got some growing to do.

I am going to fly a little longer each night to get stronger.

You do that, love.

She checked the constellations. Good. The rough road was still heading north. The next village, a town they’d called it, was several days’ ride along this trail, which was perfect. She wanted to keep going north as much as possible while seeking information about the rumor.

Flicking the reins, she got Muffin to a trot. Though not yet used to riding again, several muscles were complaining, Renata wanted to make up some of the time she’d spent in the village. Trotting Muffin for a bit, with walks between to rest, should let them keep to a decent pace.