He grinned, still scratching. “Call me Forrest, please. And he does rather remind me of a certain calico.”
“I wonder if Bella would like a kitten. I always said that I wouldn’t have one, because a kitten becomes a cat. But she had to leave her cat behind…”
I had asked much of her, leaving everything at a moment’s notice. It hadn’t been for me – that had come later – but I had been the one who tore her from the loving arms of her family. No wonder she had some unexpressed hostility toward me.
I turned as I heard the sound of approaching footsteps… dragon talons, in their distinctive clicking resonance.
Changes
Bella walked toward me in dragon form. Bob loomed behind her, fully twice her size. I stood very still, and from the corner of my eye, saw Forrest Byrne similarly frozen. Could it have been this easy, after all? But then, it hadn’t been easy. I’d had a rough few days, and so had she.
“Bella?” I took a step forward.
She kept walking toward me, the big eyes enigmatic. She finally stopped with her nose about a foot from my face. Then she put her head on my shoulder, and I wrapped my arms around the scaled neck. Bob, behind her, nodded slightly, and then veered off behind a statue.
“It’s ok,” I told my silent wife. I wasn’t sure if she could speak in this form, but the trembling of the jeweled body told me what she was feeling.
“We’ll get out of here, and you’ll be back to yourself. And if we have to stay here for a while, we are at least together now.”
She pulled her head back and nodded. Then she looked to the side. I followed her gaze. “Your buddy wouldn’t leave you, you know that. Wherever you go, there he is. Just like me.”
She looked back at me, then gently pushed her nose into my chest.
I hugged her slender neck again. “You have no idea how glad I am…” I didn’t finish. There were others listening.
Byrne cleared his throat. “Does this mean we can go home now?”
I let go of Bella. “No, it does not. There are… extenuating circumstances.”
“What are you talking about?”
“May I go see them?” I ignored his confusion and talked to Bella. Alger hadn’t told him, but had told Lavendar. Interesting.
Bella turned and led the way back to her nest. For the second time I found myself scrambling over the lip and into the pile of soft things.
“I’m just as glad you didn’t go traditional and heap up loot.” I told her, reaching out to touch the nearest egg. It was warm, and taut with little dragonet growing inside. Bella curled herself around all of us - eggs and me. She nosed an egg and rolled it over. The baby wriggled, faintly visible through the leathery shell. “Don’t worry.” I told her. “All will be well in time. I’m not going anywhere until the babies have arrived.”
Bob spoke, and I startled. I hadn’t heard him coming. After the last few days, I was rather nervy.
“She said she has no idea when they will come.”
Bella nodded.
I shook my head. “We won’t leave until they do. It doesn’t matter how long until they arrive safely.”
Bella looked at me, then at Bob. She worked her throat, but I couldn’t hear anything. Then it occurred to me that the dragons were speaking, just at a range I couldn’t hear. I could feel the vibration of her body.
“She says that there is a place for you to stay, and that I don’t need to, nor do the others.”
I raised an interrogative eyebrow, and he bared his teeth. “I see no point in going so soon. Looks like an interesting place, and she needs to learn to share it.”
Bella hissed, agitated. Bob kept talking to me, while she pulled her far wing over her face. “The Library is her hoard. This is what has been happening, keeping Alger from most of it, she’s been unconsciously protecting it.”
She was embarrassed, that was why she was hiding her face. I put a hand on her shoulder. It felt odd, to have warm scales under my palm. “I thought dragons hoarded, well…”
“Gold? Some of us did. But not all, and each individual chose something. Bella, with no manifestation of dragon nature, I didn’t talk to you about this, I am sorry for that omission. We thought it was best you didn’t know. The Fae side was bad enough, for a woman we thought would live out her life in the human realms.”
She pulled her head out and I could feel and hear her this time, with a hiss and a snap in the statement.
“She says that this sucks, could I please go away right now, and tell grandmother to ask Alger about the scholar’s lodging.”
Bob shrugged, which did odd things to his wings. “I have no idea what that means. But I think I will leave you two alone.”
He retreated. She might be half his size, but still. She had put her head back down, and although her eyes were closed, I could see big tears spilling out. Dragons cried, it seemed.
“You can’t talk, I know. He can. Is it the magic?”
She shrugged, not opening her eyes.
“I’m glad you at least know me now. I’d hate to have become dragon chow.”
Bella slitted open her eyes and glared at me. Okay, she wasn’t in the mood for humor. I tried another tack. “I have the Charter.”
She nodded.
“You knew? It wasn’t the cushion, then.”
She dropped her chin slightly, then looked back up with a dragon smile. The lips are not very flexible, I noted, and it was more menacing than the humor I guessed she was going for.
“So,” I leaned back against her, the eggs cradled by my hip and her hindquarter. “The Library somehow alerted you to books being out of place?”
She nodded.
“Tagging and tracking of a magical nature. Can we remove the Charter, do you think?”
Awkwardly, she indicated herself with a foreclaw. She thought she could do it.
“I did snitch another book, but that was just to read. I was going to return it, I promise.”
She purred. The motion startled me. Beaker purred, I knew, but this was… higher pitched, in a smaller body. No less powerful, at least at this range.
“I am looking forward to going home. This is… not ideal for a reunion.”
She nodded and laid her head on her forepaws. I relaxed into her and closed my eyes as well. Sleep had been hard to come by, and I needed to catch up. As I drowsed off, I felt Bella shift, but I just couldn’t open my eyes. I was… so… comfortable…
I was awakened by her coming back to the nest. At some point while I was passed out, she’d left, and I was curled with my arm around the eggs, sleeping on my side. I fought to open my eyes.
“Somethin’s wrong.” I slurred at her. I couldn’t wake up, the fatigue was like a black tide sucking me under. “Ge’Alger.”
When they lifted me into a sitting position I could feel them handling me, like I was a long way off. I tried to open my eyes and could see Alger a long way off. Oddly, he had one hand on my shirtfront, holding me up. I tried to make sense of this paradox and failed.
“Don’feel good.” I told him, my voice echoing oddly in my own ears. “Wha?”
“Just a minute.” He said. He looked over his shoulder, the change in perspective doing very bad things to my inner ears. I gulped loudly. “Bob, can you ask Bella to use the Sight on him? If she can?”
Why hadn’t I thought of that? I wondered, feeling my head loll. Bella’s nose came close, her eyes closed. I closed my eyes, too.
The light was different when I opened my eyes. I was stretched out next to Bella, who seemed to be sleeping. I itched like hell. Writhing, I moved away from the eggs to keep from bumping them. I couldn’t seem to focus properly. Bella lifted her head in alarm.
“My back… itches.” I told her, frantically trying to reach it. I pulled at my buttons, wanting the shirt off so I could reach skin… I got the shirt half off and heard her gasp.
She shouted, “Alger! Grampa!”
Then she scratched my back with her forepaw, and I was starting to sigh wit
h relief when it hit me. “I heard you! How did…?”
Alger and Bob came into the room at a brisk walk, which was probably the equivalent of a run for them. Bob did a funny head-tilt thing and made a strange noise. Alger didn’t seem to notice the dragon had stopped.
“Bob said…”
“I can hear Bella!” I told him, excited.
Alger looked at me, looked at Bella, and finally, looked back at Bob. “What in hades?”
“Alger?” I rubbed my throat. It felt sore, like I’d strained my voice. Then I pulled at my shirt sleeves, having somehow gotten tangled in my half-off shirt. “What the hell?”
I was scaly. I rubbed my throat again. Felt like skin there. But my arms… It looked like I had vambraces of green scales. Finer than Bella’s, they were still indisputably dragon scales. I stood up, holding them out in front of me, panicked; “Whatthehellisgoingon?”
I didn’t fall out of the nest only because Bella had me by one stubby wing and kept me on my feet. I looked over my shoulder. “Bella?”
She had her mouth clamped on my wing. It wasn’t my pixie wing, it looked like a batwing, only green, and not nearly as large as it ought to be. I felt dizzy.
Alger spoke, “You had better sit down.”
I nodded, and Bella let go. Her mouth free, she started to talk. “You are being catalogued. I think.”
“What? That doesn’t even make sense.” I stared at my scales.
“It’s the Library,” she said. “You’ve been here long enough it has adjusted to your presence, and when I accepted you,” she shrugged. “It did too. The eggs had both our DNA, or signature, I’m not sure which, and so the Library is classifying you as both. This place is flooded in so much magic, it can, and is, manipulating you on the cellular level. But thank goodness, I can talk to you again.”
“Yes, and that’s a good thing. But I’m not even a little dragon.”
Bob laughed. “No, you aren’t. Alger…” His voice changed in timbre, and I could somehow see the magic in what he was doing. Oh…
“Alger, he’s not talking human, it’s dragon. Like Bella. He’s all right. No harm done, I don’t think.”
“I’m okay.” I did the thing with my voice, and both Alger and Bob looked at me. I guessed I’d done it right. “Pissed, but not hurt. This place is really starting to get to me.”
Bella flowed out of the nest and reared up. She seemed to glow, suddenly, and I felt as much as heard her voice ring out. The tone was like striking a bell, it reverberated.
“Hear me. I am the Librarian, and you are to cease interference with any of my party. These two…” she indicated Alger and me with sweeps of her forepaw and wings, “Are my trusted assistants, and are to have full access.”
Hatchlings
She stopped speaking, and the reverberations took a full minute to die away. In the silence, after, I felt more alert, like a pressure had been taken off me. I glanced at my arms. No, still scaly.
“Are you…?” I asked Alger. He pushed up his sleeve, revealing a thickly hairy arm. Gray mostly, but no scales. He sighed. I couldn’t tell if it was relief, or disappointment.
Bella dropped back down. “The original Librarians were dragons. When Alger gave me the library, as a safeguard…” She shot a look at him. He looked sheepish.
“As a what?” I asked.
“You remember you told me he always gets his price?” She asked.
“Wait, I can hear you now.” He interjected.
“Of course, the Library is translating now. You’re in, fully. You might not like it, though.” She warned him. “Lom, his price for the magic instruction was for someone besides him to have a copy of the Library and keep it safe. He knew someone was trying to get in, and his own access was illicit. He didn’t know… I didn’t know, until we found her, that the intruder was Lavendar. And none of us knew about my dragon blood, which triggered the Library to awaken and pull me in as Librarian.”
“So much coincidence.” I said, trying to wrap my head around it. She shook her head, her eyes flashing multicolored light reflections.
“Not a coincidence at all. How many copies of the access code had you secreted, Alger?”
“A few.” He sounded grumpy. “I had been completely unsuccessful, though, until you came along. And then I couldn’t figure out why you, and no-one else, had been able to open it.”
“Because I’m part dragon. Not, as you thought originally, royalty. Really.” She sounded revolted, and I chuckled. Bella’s egalitarian streak was still alive and well.
“So… why is he going to regret it?”
She tilted her head and stared at Alger. “Because the Library asks two things of its Librarians. An avatar, and more data.”
“Huh?” That sounded more like the human internet than ancient dragonish library.
“That’s why the nest. Why Alger kept losing ground, and struggling with an unseen foe when he visited here. I’ve had a part of my subconscious sectioned off as the Librarian, and living here. Alone, confused, and doing what dragons do best in all the stories.” She shrugged again. “Making a hoard. Only I hoard information. So that was the avatar, and now both of you… sorry, Lom. Both of you will share in that duty.”
“And more data?” Alger asked. He sounded rather more interested than put off by it.
“The Library has been largely cut off for some time. You fed it a little, but it’s hungry.”
“It wants more books.” I filled in.
“Yes.”
“Will we be able to leave?” I looked at the eggs. I didn’t want them to grow up here, as dragons.
“Yes, I think so.” She looked at the eggs, too. “Lom, this is so… so strange. I feel like a monster, and they ought to be inside me.”
She was close to tears. I slid off the rim and went to hug her neck. “You aren’t a monster. We will go home, and they will grow up to be little pixie-fairy-dragon things. Proper children, noise with dirt on them. Don’t worry so.”
Bella sniffled. Bob put his head in the room. “Okay to come back? Lavendar would like…”
“Oh, yes.” Bella shook her head, tears flying away. “I’m coming.”
I hadn’t even noticed the big dragon leave. That must have happened while I was freaking out over my scales. I checked. Still there.
“So, why not you?” I asked Alger.
“I’m not a dragon’s mate,” he told me, his lips quirking up.
“I am defined by my wife. Not a bad thing, really.”
“They do say you are what you…”
Bella’s abrupt return put a stop to our repartee. She was moving quickly, and looked agitated. “Lavendar is ill.” She told me, and I translated for Alger.
“I was afraid of this. She had some difficulty while we were traveling, but didn’t want me to talk about it.” He looked worried. “Lom, you know that time travels at a different pace in each plane, yes?”
“You told me once it is a river, with currents and undertow. Magic is like the rocks in the water, affecting the flow of time.”
Bella nodded. “I was reading a book about that. Alger recommended it.”
I told him. He fidgeted with his staff, then leaned on it. “Lavendar had been here, in a place steeped with magic, for quite some time. The, we had to pass through Underhill, briefly, and spent a week traveling Above. It was… difficult on her body as the time caught her in an eddy, so to speak.”
“She’s aged a decade, at least.” Bella sighed. “This is my fault.”
“No, no… Fae are not immortal, and you did not ask her to do anything. This was her own decision.” I rubbed her shoulder.
“She died once.” Bella’s voice was more mournful than I’d ever heard it. The dragon speech did odd things to intonation.
“Would it help to get her back to Underhill, to Melcar?” I asked Alger. The little wood elf was the best healer I knew, blending magic and human technical skills.
He shrugged. “Perhaps. Or it may accelerate it. Here at the
fount of magic, she may heal on her own.”
Bella paced. I jumped over her tail as it arced past my legs. My dear wife was not used to having a tail, I thought. “I don’t want to be stuck here, Lom. The babies… they might not come for months. There was an army at the gates of Court when we left and I know…” She brandished her wing, the equivalent of waving an arm. In dragon form, it sent a stack of books sliding across the floor. “I know that the three of us are hardly pivotal to the defenses, but Lom.”
She came back to stand in front of me, her big eyes shining with unshed tears. “I need to be there, I took on a job and part of it is being…” She ran out of words. I knew what she meant, though, I was feeling it, too. Our place was on the battlefield. Or, in her case, being a shining beacon for the men to rally round.
I looked over her head at Alger as she rested her chin on my shoulder. “Have you any ideas for getting us back?”
He scratched his beard. “Lom, there is so much I do not know. Perhaps… But no. I will not cause any harm to come to her, or the babies.”
Bella whipped her head around. “What is it?”
This, he understood, without needing words. She was toothy and in his face. He backed up a step.
“It is possible, that if you were to, ah, bundle the eggs next to your skin and then pass through…” He shrugged. “But I am afraid of what would happen on the other side if it did not work.”
“I will ask Grandpa. He will know if dragon eggs can survive Underhill, or Above.”
“He is with Lavendar?”
She nodded.
“Where is Byrne?” I asked, suddenly aware of the elderly fairy’s absence.
“I left him with Beaker.” Alger looked thoughtful. “He was talking about finding a book to read, I suppose I ought to check on him.”
Bella shook her head. “Tell him Byrne hasn’t touched a book, at least not to take it from its room. He’d know, if that happened.”
“That’s interesting.” I contemplated knowing everything that went on in this vast place. I was just as happy there weren’t more people running around loose in it. I passed the information on to Alger.
Dragon Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 3) Page 17