“How can you be so sure he sent those creatures before we reached Corice?” Rita asked.
“That’s simple deduction, Beautiful; if he had waited for further word before sending them, he would have known about Marlo at the very least, and possibly Saadia as well, and would have been prepared. His Felanxes would not have been caught by them, and we would most likely be dead.”
“You don’t have to say it in such a matter-of-fact way. We very well could have been killed,” she replied.
“That’s true enough,” he responded. “So Warrick must have sent those Felanxes right after I got away from his little Dream State. If he had waited for a few more days and somehow gotten more information, he would have been prepared for our new companions, too, which also tells me that Paul most likely hasn’t returned to Warrick’s camp. As it was, he only knew about the three dragons we brought from Palamore. He knows nothing yet about the wild dragons we are recruiting as allies.”
He paused before adding, “In fact, I’m willing to bet that he doesn’t think it is possible for us to get our new allies to work with us.”
“What makes you say that, Brother?” Will asked.
“Because the one thing I noticed about him that really stuck out was his arrogance. He tried to make the wild dragons work for him and failed: he can’t bring himself to admit that we may do something he can’t. In fact, his dragon, Hella, hasn’t been seen in the Dream state since she became angry at Geneva for demanding to know her name. Hella actually threatened Geneva then and was ejected for her disruptive behavior. I’d go so far as to wager that he has simply decided that he has gotten all of the information out of that avenue that he can and has given up on it entirely.”
“Well, all of this is certainly interesting,” Dorian said, “but I notice that the sun is beginning to shine on the horizon. Since I am up, I am going to have breakfast and then take Will to the libraries to begin reading about dragons and magic. I suggest that you all join me for the meal if you aren’t planning to return to bed.”
After breakfast, Dorian, Will, and Nat went to the libraries, while Delno and Rita headed off to talk with the refugee soldiers. Nathaniel wanted to get things in complete order in Larimar so he could start his journey to Horne, but he was also quite anxious to get into the king’s library and see the books about dragon lore he had never even heard of.
At the refugee camp the news was mixed.
Chapter 18
“I have just over six hundred ready to take their chances in Horne with you, Rider, myself among them, but as I had feared, most of the men are more willing to take their chances as refugees then face the beast-men of the south.”
“Still,” Delno replied, “over half a thousand men is a significant number. I take it most are seasoned veterans?”
“Aye, most of them have seen at least one campaign besides that fiasco out on the plain. However, we’ve still got a few farm boys with us. Most realize that this is their best shot at making a new life for themselves, but there are some who feel that they showed themselves so poorly outside these walls that they have to do this to make up for it.”
“Well, I don’t want men who aren’t fully willing to fight and prepared for a hard campaign. You did point out the dangers, I take it?”
“I had almost eight hundred initially. Then I went over the dangers again and told them that it wouldn’t be held against them if they stayed and gave them a few hours to think it over. Quite a few of them got cold feet and decided that being a refugee isn’t such a bad thing.”
“Good,” Delno replied. “I will make arrangements for you and all of the men who are going to get their weapons and supplies from the quartermasters and then give you letters to take to the man I am going to send you looking for in Horne. He is a commander in the Ondarian army and has need of more seasoned veterans. His name is Winston Eriksson: you will report to him when you get there. I will give you more information when you are ready to leave. If you need anything, send word to me at the palace.”
After making arrangements for the Bournese volunteers to get the equipment, he and Rita began walking to the palace. A commotion began on the wall and an alarm sounded.
“You had better get up here, Love,” Geneva said. “I believe that you are not only going to want to see this, but that your presence will be required.”
Delno looked at Rita who was already turning in the direction of the guard tower nearest the dragons. Apparently she had gotten a similar message from Fahwn. As they reached the stairs, he could sense Geneva’s growing anxiety and began running. He took the steps three at a time while Rita yelled for him to wait up for her.
When he reached the dragons and looked out over the plains as Geneva indicated, he was dumbstruck. There on the plain below were at least a dozen dragons, and there were easily that many more circling lazily overhead. He immediately recognized Sheila at the front of those on the ground.
“Sheila says that they wish to talk to you, but you are not to bring any humans along who are not already Riders.”
“This is what we’ve been trying to accomplish,” he said to Rita. “I have to go and talk with them; you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”
“If you think I’m going to sit up here on this wall while you face all of those dragons alone, you are crazier than I ever suspected.” Then she smiled and said, “You lead, Handsome, I’ll follow.”
He smiled and quickly kissed her before climbing onto Geneva’s neck. He didn’t take time to rig a saddle for two reasons. He didn’t want to offend the dragons by keeping them waiting, and, by not rigging a saddle, he hoped to show them that he was not aggressive.
He and Geneva landed quite near Sheila, and Rita and Fahwn landed just behind him. Sheila didn’t wait to exchange pleasantries. “I have brought thirty-one dragons, including myself, who are willing to aid your cause. We feel that you are right and this maniac in the south who seeks to control all dragon-kind has to be stopped. Seven of those I bring with me are of the same mind as my daughter and would like to find a bond-mate as soon as possible. Of the rest, seventeen are interested but not sure. The remainder, including me, wish to remain free of such an attachment at this time, though even we admit that the idea of such is intriguing.”
“We welcome the aid that is offered,” Delno said. “We will begin immediately to look for suitable Riders for those seven who wish to bond with humans now. As for the rest, we are about to have nearly six hundred men camping for several days on this field: I would suggest that those who wish to avoid human contact for the time being stay well away from that camp.”
“Very well, Delno Okonan, we will pull back. When will we be leaving for Horne?” Sheila was, as usual, very direct. In a way Delno found it quite refreshing after dealing with high-ranking military and politicians.
“I have business in Orlean soon, and that will take me several days to sort out. Once that business is taken care of, we will then travel directly to Horne from there, I hope. I will begin to instruct the Riders under my command on how to coordinate with your non-bonded dragons, and we will turn this into a cohesive, cooperative force on the way. Tell me; are you in command of these dragons?”
“They look to me for guidance, but they are free to do as they will. We don’t see command as you do.”
“That is good enough. I will therefore go through you if I need your dragons to do something, and you can go directly through me if you need something from the Riders. That way we won’t have any confusion once we actually engage the enemy. You and I will be co-commanders, if that meets with your approval.”
Sheila thought about it for a several moments and then began looking around at the assembled dragons. Delno surmised that she was talking it over with them.
“I have discussed your proposal with the others, and they agree we need clear lines of command if we are to do battle. Since both your Bond-mate and I are lineage holders, and you are the owner of a Dragon Blade, we are the logical leaders, so the other dragons agree with y
ou.”
“I hope to keep the dragons out of the fight as much as possible. We have lost enough of your kind to this war already. If it is possible to force Warrick’s followers to surrender without bloodshed, I would like to do that. Warrick, I’m afraid, will never see reason, but I don’t want non-bonded dragons to have to deal with him and his Bond-mate; they are too powerful for a single person to take alone. Hopefully, we will only have to fight against your ancient enemies the Roracks, and the Riders on the other side will see the futility of following a madman.”
“We shall see, Delno Okonan. Your concern for our welfare is heartening, but I fear that there will be great loss on both sides of this war. What dealings we have had with these people show that they are not willing to compromise.”
“I am afraid that you are right, Sheila, but I do hope that isn’t the case. Now I must go and begin keeping my part of our bargain: you have assembled seven who wish to bond; I must find them some partners.”
Delno and Rita mounted their dragons and returned to the city. Delno saw the one person he most wanted to talk to standing on the wall watching all of the dragons.
“Nassari,” he called as he dismounted, “I need your help.”
“Of course, Del, what can I do for you?”
“There are seven dragons in that group who wish to bond with humans. You should know where to look for likely candidates.”
“Me? What do I know about finding candidates for bonding with a dragon? I am a politician, not some school master.”
Delno shook his head and said, “Nassari, you know this city and its inhabitants better than anyone I know. Use you sources to find likely young men and women, and they don’t have to be that young. In fact, I would prefer they not be children at this point. These are mature dragons, not hatchlings; adults would be best. Bring any likely candidates before Geneva and Fahwn for their scrutiny. If they approve, then we can present the men and women to their potential partners.”
Nassari stood there staring at him with his mouth hanging open.
“Really, Nassari, this isn’t so hard. Start with anyone who has any connection with the royal lines; they are most likely to be suitable to the process. For seven dragons, we only need a dozen or so candidates.”
“I suppose that I should begin with the men and women I grew up with and know to have some royal blood . . .” He trailed off as he walked away. Delno knew that now that Nassari saw it as an interesting puzzle, he would get the job done. Everything to Nassari was just working out the puzzle. That was the real reason he liked being a politician so much; he could work the puzzle all he wanted, and it continually shifted, making it constantly new to him. It was more a game than a vocation to Nassari, a game he got paid to do.
Chapter 19
The next morning as Delno made final preparations with the Bournese volunteers before starting them on their way, Geneva told him that Nassari was looking for him. He quickly finished his business with the soldiers and joined Geneva on the field. Before he could mount, however, he saw Nassari approaching him, followed by seven young men and two young women.
“I’ve found you nine candidates,” Nassari said by way of greeting. “Fahwn has examined them all and said they have magic about them. It’s the best I could do on such short notice.”
Delno looked the candidates over for a moment and noticed that most of them looked more frightened than excited. “You didn’t coerce them in any way, did you?” he asked Nassari softly. “Some of them look terrified.”
“Delno, I wouldn’t do such a thing,” he said indignantly. “Besides, Geneva told me last night that if they weren’t willing, it wouldn’t work, so coercion was out of the question. They seemed fine when we were discussing the idea of bonding back inside the city walls, but now that they have gotten a close up view of a dragon or two,” he bowed to Geneva, “they are just having some doubts.”
Delno thought for a moment and then said to the group, “You can all come closer. Geneva won’t harm any of you so long as you are no threat to me or her.”
The group still seemed to hesitate. “Come, come, dragons are just really big people. They are intelligent and have feelings just like you do.”
Finally, one girl who looked to be about fifteen stepped forward toward the dragon. Geneva started to smile, but then thought it might frighten more than reassure them and kept her face placid. The girl looked like she wanted to reach out and touch Geneva but was still timid.
“You may touch me,” Geneva said. “I like having someone scratch over the small scales around my ear openings.”
The girl smiled and obliged the dragon. “I am Nadia,” she said.
“I am Geneva, Partner of Delno. The dragons you are here to meet would call the two of us Bond-mates.”
Seeing that Nadia was in no danger, the other candidates became braver and approached close enough to touch Geneva. Geneva reveled in the attention as she was scratched and petted nearly to her heart’s content.
Delno let them get used to the idea of being around Geneva for about a quarter of an hour before he suggested that they move on to the dragons who were willing to bond. He then had Geneva call the first of the seven dragons to them. The dragon, a green the color of dark malachite named Pina, landed near and began walking toward the candidates. She went unerringly to Nadia and put her head right against the girl’s stomach.
While the observers saw nothing special except Nadia’s exclamation of surprise and a little pain, Nadia experienced a bright but brief flash of light and few seconds of disorientation.
Nadia and Pina both spoke to each other at the same instant. “You are the most beautiful creature in all the world,” Nadia exclaimed, while Pina said, “I had not dared hope that being bonded would be this wonderful.”
Nadia nearly lunged at Pina and threw her arms as far around her Bond-mate’s neck as she could in a fiercely wonderful hug. Again the two spoke simultaneously, though this time they only spoke to each other, “I am so glad that I was chosen to come here today,” Nadia said, while Pina said, “I have never felt this whole: we are complete.”
Then, with Nadia rubbing her stomach gingerly, she and Pina moved off away from the group to get to know each other.
“No flying until you have had a bit of instruction, young lady,” Delno called after her. To Nassari he said, “I thought you were going to bring adults: that girl doesn’t look any older than fifteen.”
“Actually, she’s twenty-three, and the older of the two young women. The other is nineteen,” Nassari responded. “I did the best I could on such short notice, Del. All of the candidates are over seventeen, old enough to make up their own minds about leaving home. There were some younger ones, but their parents had trepidations. I thought it best to get these adult dragons settled, and perhaps we can present the youngsters to Saadia’s hatchlings.”
“You did well, Nassari,” Delno relented, “considering how little time I gave you to accomplish the task. I had just hoped for more mature candidates. I need Riders who are ready and willing to fight when I go to Horne.”
As the next Dragon glided in for a landing, one of the candidates, a young man, said “That looked like she got hurt. We were told we wouldn’t be hurt.”
“The dragon mark that is placed on the Rider by the magic that passes between the two Bond-mates causes some discomfort for a couple of days. It’s like spilling a bit of hot tea on yourself. It passes quickly.” Delno was a bit annoyed at the youngsters tone: he felt the man was being overly sensitive.
As the dragon, a blue named Terra, landed, the candidates stood ready. It took several moments, during which Terra sniffed all the candidates thoroughly; finally, she made her selection.
She turned to a young man named Raymond and nearly butted him with her snout. Terra had moved so quickly that he at first thought that she was attacking him. Raymond was startled but stood his ground as he experienced a bright flash and felt a burning sensation on the right side of his abdomen. Then he heard a voi
ce inside of his head, “I am so sorry; I was taking so long I thought that I wouldn’t be able to bond. When the magic came over me I wanted to be sure I got the right person. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” The dragon’s mental tone was full of concern for him.
“No, you just startled me a bit,” Raymond replied. “I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this way. Come to think of it, I don’t know exactly what I was expecting.”
The two laughed together and then they also moved off to get acquainted.
The process continued. Gem landed and bonded with Therese, Cinda bonded with Bard, and then Lena with Gill. Then Wanda landed and looked at the remaining candidates. She seemed a bit confused. Nassari thought it was because the candidates had spread out, so he moved closer to get them into a tighter group. While he was herding them together, Wanda snaked her head around and touched him on the left deltoid.
Nassari felt the burning sensation of the magic and then experienced the light as if he had just come out of a darkened building into the noon sun. He felt a bit disoriented and a voice inside his head said, “I am so glad to have found you. I am Wanda.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Nassari said, “I wasn’t supposed to be a candidate.”
“We are bonded,” Wanda replied. “If that is not acceptable, we are going to have a big problem.”
Nassari couldn’t explain why, but he knew that this bond felt right. He had never in his life felt so much for another creature of any kind. He knew that no matter how much trouble this bond might cause, it would be worth it to be the Bond-mate of such a wonderful being, someone he didn’t have to prove anything to; someone who loved and cared for him simply for who he was and not what he could do for her.
“Well,” he said, “if anyone has a problem with us being bonded, they will have to just get over it. I am Nassari, Wanda, and I believe that I have been waiting for you to come to me my whole life.”
“Then it is good that I have arrived,” she replied.
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