Mari leaned her head against my shoulder, taking in and releasing a deep breath as I’d suggested. “Except rebuilding the city.”
“Except that.” And that would be quite the task. A lot of damage had been done.
“Ah, Krys?” Captain Lang leaned just inside the doorway, a wry smile on his face.
A little self-conscious at being caught in a close embrace with Mari in public, I cleared my throat and took a step back. “Yes, Captain?”
“Can you come outside and talk to Kaya? We don’t really want her eating what’s left of the buildings.”
Mari choked on a laugh. “Hot crunch again, huh?”
I rolled my eyes to the heavens, praying for patience. Some days, I just didn’t know what to do with her. “I’ll deal with her.”
“My thanks.” About to retreat back outside, he paused long enough to say kindly, “And congratulations to you both.”
Blinking, I watched him go. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seemed surprised to see us together. Had we really been that obvious…? No, not going to ask.
Mari patted me on the arm, already turning for the door. “I think I’ll get back to work.”
I let out a sigh. “And I’ll go deal with a dragon.”
Epilogue
Now where had Kaya gotten to? She normally disappeared at this hour of the morning to go hunt for breakfast, leaving me to watch over the kids, but she rarely took this long to come back.
In about fifteen minutes I needed to leave for the smithy, which meant I didn’t have the luxury of waiting for Kaya to come back before I fixed breakfast for myself. Curse the luck. Cooking always woke somebody up. Well, maybe if I did something really simple, I might get by with it.
I put on a kettle for tea with slow motions, doing everything in my power to avoid making clinking or scraping noises. Then I cut two slices of bread for toast, all the while keeping a weather eye on the far nest and the four little darlings still fast asleep.
Phew, so far, so good.
Last winter, Kaya and I had gone up to dragon territory in the far north of Libendorf with the mission to talk some dragons into coming back down and working with the firefighters in Sol. It had not gone well. They were interested in me, and with Kaya translating, asked me many questions about Fire Mages. But not one wanted to come back down.
It had been more or less the answer I expected, but I’d still hoped for better. Disheartened, I left after four days and flown back home to Mellor. What I didn’t know at the time was that winter was mating season for dragons. (Something that Cora had known full well and didn’t warn me about!) While we were up there, Kaya had a little fun one night and came home pregnant. Come spring, we had four little dragons, all of them born hale and hearty. We had three girls and a boy in this batch, all of them criminally cute. (Which they knew and took advantage of.)
Because my familiar was a young mother, we were both officially put on maternity leave with the city until her children were weaned enough to fly and hunt for themselves. That would take another month, perhaps two, according to Kaya. Until then, I worked at the smithy in the mornings and spent the afternoons with my new bride. Well, as much as I could with the four darlings demanding my attention.
The sole boy of the group raised his head blearily and blinked open crystal blue eyes. When he didn’t immediately see his mother, he let out a small squawk of protest.
Worried he’d wake up his sisters, I quickly dropped the bread in my hands and went to him, scooping him up in my arms. Reassured, he put his head on my shoulder, wrapped his tail around my other arm, and went right back to sleep. I looked at him in resignation. Now how in the world was I supposed to finish cooking breakfast without having at least one free arm?
Someone chose that moment, of course, to softly tap on the door. Frowning, I turned and went to answer it. Whoever stood beyond the portal had a very large and familiar heat signature. With a little juggling, I managed to toggle the door latch open and then shove it further back with one foot.
Garth stood there with a smile on his face, taking me in from head to toe. “How’s it going, Papa Krys?”
I glared at him, thinking murderous thoughts. “Don’t start with me, Garth.”
“Hmmm. Judging from your expression, I caught you before you’ve had your morning tea.”
“Now how am I supposed to drink tea in this situation?”
“Good point.” Stepping inside, he shut the door behind him and waved me to a chair. “Sit, sit. I’ll get your tea.”
Fine, if he was fixing me breakfast, he was almost forgiven for his early morning arrival. And his snickering at the situation. “What are you doing here?”
“Ah, that. I came to get your help, actually,” he answered as he went to the stove and went about fixing my tea. He poured himself a mug while he was at it. “Our new batch of students have heard all about your dragon familiar and quite a few of them are interested in going up and seeing if they can’t get one of their own. As I understand it, the dragons there weren’t against having dragonriders, right? They just didn’t want to work for the firefighters.” He glanced up at me for confirmation, which I gave. “But the only person that’s walked into dragon territory in living memory is you. I figured it would be best if you came and gave a guest lecture on the do’s and don’ts of dragons.”
Actually not a bad idea. I’d been toying around with writing an instruction manual for the same reason. Right now, I was the leading authority on dragons and the books we had on them were…well…not always accurate. As he sat in front of me, I maneuvered an arm free enough to scoop up my mug.
“Chapter one will cover not going into dragon territory during the mating season with your own dragon in tow.”
Garth, not fazed by my acerbic tone, just chuckled. “But you got such cute little dragonlings from it.”
“You as a friend should have at least warned me!” I growled softly, to avoid waking the baby in my arms.
“And miss all the fun? Never!” He grinned outright, not in the least remorseful.
Grumbling, I managed to lift the mug just enough with one hand to sip from it. Doing so craned my neck almost out of alignment though. Where was a straw when I needed one?
“You know, you could have just called me by mirror and asked that. Why are you really here?”
“Ah, that.” He tried to look innocent but didn’t quite pull it off. “Well, we’re starting to outgrow Strae Academy. This last year’s students taxed us quite a bit.”
“Already?” I asked in surprise. That place had been built to house over three thousand students.
“We’re the only magical academy for an entire country,” he reminded me, sipping at his tea. “Hain has at least a dozen and they sometimes don’t have enough room for all the students either.”
Fine, he made a good point. “So someone’s volunteering you to create a second academy?”
“Vonlorisen is making noises about it, yes. I don’t think it’s such a bad idea—I even have a good idea of who would make the perfect headmaster of it—but it’s where he wants to put it that’s the problem.”
I’d been with Garth when he first went to Vonlorisen and bargained with the king on where to build Strae Academy. So I knew very well the problem without having it spelled out for me.
“He wants it in Alvacon, doesn’t he?”
Garth let out a long groan. “I keep telling him that magic and politics don’t mix well, but he insists on having at least one academy in the capitol.”
“Your argument might go over better if there weren’t two academies in Del’Hain,” I pointed out, half-sympathetic.
“Yes, but it’s a different matter in Hain. They have a magical council that keeps things in check. Chahir doesn’t have anything like that.”
I made a silent bet with myself right there that Garth would eventually be talked into creating one. And he’d probably be the main chair on it, too. But I could leave that argument for another day. “So, in other words, you�
��re hiding here from Vonlorisen so you can avoid another argument.”
He sighed mournfully. “It sounds so childish when you put it that way. I came up to procure a special guest lecturer. Maybe take in the sights a little.”
“Well, you’ve succeeded in the first part, but I think that while you’re up here, you can pay your dues.” He looked at me in confusion, not following. Or at least, he didn’t follow right up until the point that I leaned over the table and dumped a sleeping dragon into his arms. Swearing, he almost knocked over the mug and dropped the baby, but with a son of his own, he had a father’s reflexes that prevented a disaster. He caught his balance in the nick of time.
Baby dragons could sleep through just about anything providing they had a secure set of arms and nice body heat to snuggle into. The one in Garth’s arms let out a little hiccup sigh before rolling snuggly into his new body pillow and going right back into a deep sleep. Garth looked down and then up at me in protest, “You’re not suggesting you’re going to leave me to babysit all morning, are you?”
I didn’t respond, just scooped up my mug of cooling tea and my (un)toasted bread. “I’ll be back around lunch. Tell Kaya I went to work, will you?”
“Now, wait a minute Krys, I don’t know anything about dragons! Especially not miniature ones.”
“Nonsense, you have an infant son. There’s not any real difference. The one in your arms just spits fire now and again, that’s all.” I hummed as I stepped out the door, ignoring Garth’s wail of protest. If he kept doing that, he’d wake up the other three, and then he’d really be in a situation.
Regardless, it would be him who’d have to deal with it. I had four hours of baby-free time on my hands. I smiled up at the sky, enjoying the slight briskness of the wind as it glided over my face.
This might not turn out to be a bad morning after all.
About the Author
Nearly twenty-eight years ago, in the hills of Tennessee, a nice, unsuspecting young couple had their first child. Their home has since then been slowly turned into a library as their daughter consistently brought books home over the years.
No one was surprised when she grew up, went to college, and got her Bachelor's in English. Despite the fact that she has a degree, and looks like a mature young woman, she's never grown out of her love for dragons, fairies and other fantastical creatures.
Her website can be found here: http://www.honorraconteur.com or if you wish to speak directly with the author, visit her forum at: http://z13.invisionfree.com/adventmage/
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One: The Scaly Stalker
Chapter Two: Words
Chapter Three: Friends
Chapter Four: Training
Chapter Five: Mellor
Chapter Six: Moving In
Chapter Seven: Jobs
Chapter Eight: Contracts
Chapter Nine: Amendments
Chapter Ten: A Bad Day
Chapter Eleven: Water Problems
Chapter Twelve: Sculpting Landscapes
Chapter Thirteen: Plan C
Chapter Fourteen: Emergency
Chapter Fifteen: Mhazzaekul Forest
Chapter Sixteen: Investigation
Chapter Seventeen: Marble
Chapter Eighteen: Instincts and Information
Chapter Nineteen: Arson Investigations
Chapter Twenty: Results
Chapter Twenty-one: Trickett
Chapter Twenty-two: Bridges and Promises
Chapter Twenty-three: To Be a Mage
Epilogue
Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor Page 27