The Dragon Caller

by Pauline M. Ross

  “I do,” he said slowly. “But you’ve never talked about it this way before. You always just said that you dreamt about a dragon.”

  “Well, who would believe it?” he said scornfully. “I hardly believed it myself.”

  “But you had no control over what happened?” Garrett said. “It seems like you were just a passenger while the dragon did what it wanted to do.”

  “Yes, and mostly they weren’t aware of me. The last few, though…” An anxious look crossed his face. “The last two or threewereaware of me, and the last one was angry, so angry it was belching flames. And I think it knew where I was, because it was headed for the island, searching. But I woke up before it got here. And therewas a dragon, Mikah said so.”

  “But tonight,” Garrett said, frowning, “the dragon was very much aware of you, you said.”

  “It wasinside me, in my head, and we could communicate and know things about each other—”

  “The names, yes. Gods, that must be… so weird! What did it feel like? I mean, Brialla said you were on all fours, and talking nonsense. What did it seem like to you?”

  He thought about that, head lowered, concentrating. When he raised his head, he said, “I was mostlyhim – the dragon. He was sitting on a rock above a cliff, and I was aware of that more than myself. He was crouching, sitting on his haunches at first, and then on all fours. I suppose I was doing that too, mimicking him. I was vaguely aware of myself, and I could hear Brialla screaming too, and see her, but mostly everything was dragon. He was a very powerful presence, hard to ignore.”

  “I can imagine,” Garrett said, but he couldn’t, not really. Being in the body of a dragon – in themind of a dragon – was entirely beyond his understanding.

  “It was very strange,” Ruell said softly. “Being two different creatures at once, myself and something very alien. We were talking – no, not talking, thinking to each other, somehow. Or maybe we really were talking, if Brialla thought I was speaking nonsense. Maybe that was some dragon-language. But I couldn’tdo anything, Garrett! I was trapped, like a fly caught in honey, unable to break away, until the dragon spread his wings to fly. Then I fell over and banged my head, and he was gone.”

  There was a long silence.

  “And the previous time?” Garrett said gently.

  Ruell raised beseeching eyes. “Must I?”

  “Best to have it all in the open.”

  He sighed. “It was Lalla, do you remember her?”

  “The mute girl, yes. She followed you everywhere for a while.”

  “She got me behind the milking barn one day, and… well, she made all the moves, truly, and at first it was fun, just kissing and stuff. But the same thing happened. She grabbed hold of me… you know,there, and the next thing there’s a dragon in my head. But she was a kindly old thing, just curious. She was flying, and… and nothing much happened. Lalla threw a pail of water over me, and the dragon vanished, and Lalla never came near me after that.” He raised a rueful eyebrow. “Not surprising really, if I was running around flapping my arms and trying to fly.”

  Garrett laughed. “That would look… odd.”

  “Aren’t you shocked?” Ruell said. He slid off the bed onto the floor, wrapping his arms around his long legs. With his chin resting on his knees, he looked suddenly very young and worried and unexpectedly vulnerable.

  Garrett had become used to the idea that his son was not a child any more. One with an unusual hobby, to be sure, but still a man grown and not in need of much fatherly advice, except an occasional listening ear. But now he saw the little boy he’d come back to find, still nestling inside the gangly exterior. And the unusual hobby was liable to get him into big trouble. Messing about with dragons was not something that usually ended well.

  But there was one possibility…

  “This dragon asked if you’re a dragon caller,” Garrett said. “What exactly is a dragon caller? I’ve heard bits and pieces, but I’ve never taken much notice before. Never expected to have much to do with them, frankly.”

  Leaning back again, Ruell said, “Actually, I’m not sure. They’re mentioned in one or two of my books, but only in passing, as if everyone knows what they are. One talks about breeding programs, and then says,‘Naturally, this should only be attempted with fully transitioned dragon callers.’Another one calls them‘gods of the skies’, as if they fly like dragons.”

  “Maybe they do… or did,” Garrett said, dredging his memory for odd scraps of knowledge that might have lodged there inadvertently. “I really don’t know much about it, except that Mesanthia had dragons once, and their empire was built with their power. Later, they lost the dragons, somehow, but they still had the empire. Which doesn’t make much sense.”

  “Most of my dragon books came from Mesanthia,” Ruell said. “That’s where they seem to know most about them.” His face broke into a hopeful smile. “Maybe we should go to Mesanthia?”

  The‘we’ warmed Garrett’s heart, but still, the idea made him laugh. “It’s halfway round the world! Took me moons to cover that distance, and even by fast ship it’s a moon or more.”

  Ruell’s face fell. “Then what am I to do? I have to find out what’s the matter with me.”

  “Look, I know some people there, so I’ll write to them and see what they suggest. In the meantime, we have to talk to your mother about this.”

  “Do you think she’ll let me go there?” Ruell said eagerly, hope written all over his face.

  “To Mesanthia?” Garrett hated to puncture the boy’s optimism. “Maybe she will, maybe she won’t. Let’s wait and see, eh?” But it didn’t seem very likely.

  5: Of Dragon Sex (Ruell)

  Ruell’s hopes were dashed almost before the words were out of his mouth.

  “Go to Mesanthia? What nonsense! As if I’d let you go tramping off for half a year to a strange city like that. Don’t be so silly, Ruell.”

  “It’s quicker by ship,” he said, aware of the pleading note in his voice, but quite unable to moderate it.

  “Oh, I’m supposed to give you a ship, am I? And all the crew, I suppose, so you can go gallivanting about at my expense. You do have the most ridiculous ideas sometimes, Ruell. I don’t understand how your mind jumps about.”

  A gentle hand on Ruell’s arm, and Garrett said, “Let’s explain the reasons, first, Ruell. Tella can’t possibly see the point of it without knowing all the facts.”

  Ruell nodded, realising miserably that he’d been too precipitate. He should have left it to Garrett, but he’d been so excited at the possibility, he just couldn’t wait.

  “Oh, by all means let’s have all thefacts,” Kestimar said. “Ha! Would either of you know a fact if it spat in your face?”

  They were sitting on the terrace that opened from the dining room, Ruell and his mother, Kestimar and Garrett, eating their noon fruit. Because of the peculiar layout of the palace, they were high above the ground, looking out over the waving stems of head-high grass and scattered moonrose stems that had once been a garden, towards the crumbling outer wall. Beyond that, the wild meadows, scattered with tiny flowers, their heads shivering in the wind. On the headland, a wooden watchtower was manned by patrolling guards.

  “Do you want some more summer berries, Kestimar?” Garrett said, in a genial voice.

  Kestimar snarled. “I’d like to stuff them up your ass, so far up they’d come out of your mouth.” He clenched an impotent fist.

  “That sounds uncomfortable,” Garrett said, with undimmed cheerfulness. “Some apple juice?”

  Now that he knew something of the history between the two, Ruell could see that Garrett was deliberately needling Kestimar. “Stop it, Garrett!” he said sharply.

  The other three turned to him in surprise. Garrett laughed, and raised his hands in mock surrender. “You’re quite right. My apologies, Commander Kestimar.”

  Kestimar snarled, but Ruell’s mother smiled at him. “There, now, that’s better. A little politeness goes a long way. Garrett
, tell me of these facts. No, not you, Ruell. You may add your opinion later.”

  So Ruell sat quietly while Garrett talked, and he had to admit it was deftly done. There was no hiding that he had been in the women’s house, but Garrett glossed over the details and talked mostly of dragons and mental communication and dreams, and it wasn’t as embarrassing as he’d expected. His mother displayed neither shock nor condemnation, and even Kestimar was silent for once, his eyes straying to Ruell as he listened but with no contempt in his expression. Far from contempt, there was something in his eyes that chilled Ruell to the bone – respect, yes, but calculation, too, and perhaps excitement.

  When the tale was told, all four of them sat in thoughtful silence. Below the terrace could be heard the ever-present rasping sound of brooms sweeping leaves, and away on the hillside, distant voices working at the vegetable garden, for nothing useful grew within the palace grounds, only moonroses, a few stubby trees and a brittle, cutting kind of grass.

  “I have never heard of anything like this,” Tella said eventually. “Kestimar, what do you make of it?”

  Kestimar laughed, his face lit up with delight, and it was so rare to see him respond that way that Ruell shivered involuntarily.

  “What do I make of it?” Kestimar said. “Why, that this seemingly unpromising boy of yours might be a dragon caller, and you know what that means?”

  “No, tell me!” she said, leaning forward eagerly.

  “Why, only that before too long you might be an empress, not just a queen. The power of the great empire was all because of the dragon callers. They’re gone now, and the empire with them. We may have the world’s only dragon caller in our hands. Think of the possibilities.”

  Her eyes gleamed. “Oh, I am, I am!”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Garrett said. “Whatever Ruell might be in the future, he’s not a dragon caller yet, and may never be unless we find out more about how this works.”

  “That is true,” Tella said. “Kestimar, what do you suggest?”

  “It’s interesting,” he said. “I don’t quite see the connection with sex. So being with a woman sets off this thing, whatever it is.” He turned to Ruell. “What about when you see to yourself?”

  Ruell blushed crimson. He tried to speak, but no words emerged.

  Garrett uttered an exclamation of annoyance. “I should have thought of that myself. Good question. Is it any kind of sex, or just with a woman?”

  Ruell was too embarrassed to say a word.

  Tella laughed. “Oh, Ruell, I’m so sorry! But we have to ask, you know. Just nod if you can manage it yourself.”

  He shook his head.

  Tella said, “Oh!” in surprise, but the two men said, “Ah,” as if something had been explained.

  “I get—” Ruell began, his voice high and wavering. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I get a sort of rushing noise in my head, and I feel… far away. Like in the dreams. Not myself. It’s hard to explain.”

  “Far away?” Kestimar said sharply. “As if you’re somewhere else?”

  Ruell nodded. “But not anywhere in particular. It’s like floating… as if my mind is floating. I’m aware of something out there, but…” He tailed off helplessly.

  “Curious,” Kestimar said. “And it distracts you? So you never actually finish off?”

  Ruell squirmed under such brutally direct questions, but nodded and then shook his head.

  “You poor boy,” Tella said softly. “So you’ve never experienced the full delights of sex.”

  “Oh, but I have.” He laughed, then blushed again. “Just once. But only as a dragon.”

  ~~~~~

  Garrett didn’t stop laughing for an hour, at least. “Did you see their faces?” he said, over and over. “Priceless! Quite priceless! And then wanting all the juicy details. I thought they’d never let you go.”

  “I didn’t noticeyou asking me to stop, either,” Ruell snapped, although he was too amused himself to be angry.

  “Of course not!” Garrett said, still laughing. “It was too good to miss. Kestimar was practically drooling, did you see?”

  “I wouldn’t have thought Mother would be so interested,” Ruell said. “That sort of thing – it’s more man talk, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe, but your mother’s a hot-blooded woman, Ruell. That’s why—” He grunted, and waved an arm airily. “Well, never mind that. Men love to talk about women, it’s true, but in my experience nine tenths of it is nothing but empty boasts.”

  “Really?” Ruell said. For some reason, this insight into male habits pleased him greatly. “So when the guards talk about this stuff, it’s not all true?”

  “Hmm.” Garrett looked sideways at him. “Don’t go repeating that, will you? I mean, if you’re in a tavern with a bunch of ale-soaked guards, I wouldn’t advise you to start up with the‘Garrett says you’re all boasting’line. Not likely to end well. For youor me.”

  Ruell laughed. “I’ll try to remember that. Besides, I can top all their stories, can’t I?‘When I had dragon sex…’ That would shut them up. And if they didn’t believe me, I’d just call up a dragon to teach them better manners.” He grinned, and then, because his mood was too effervescent to be contained, he laughed out loud.

  Garrett shot him a sideways look. “There’s nothing like dazzling your own mother with your sexual exploits for giving a man confidence,” he murmured.

  They were in the sitting room, while Tella and Kestimar both rested for an hour or two, Kestimar on his bed, with a view over the Straits of Dri’allar and the salt tang of the ocean in his nostrils, and Tella bathing in her private pool in the palace grounds. Garrett was supposedly writing a letter, but he hadn’t made much progress, probably too distracted by Ruell’s dragon sex to concentrate. Ruell was touching each of his dragon eggs in turn, feeling for the little burst of magic inside each one, all except for the last, odd one, that Garrett had given him, which wasn’t a proper egg at all. The eggs were like his books, few in number and seldom added to, but every once in a while a trader would come by and offer one in exchange for a good deal, and once a rich merchant had given Tella three of them in hopes of enticing her to marry. She’d refused the offer, but kept the eggs anyway.

  Garrett threw down his pen, and leaned back in his chair, stretching.

  “Finished?” Ruell said, knowing that he hadn’t.

  “Can’t find the right words,” Garrett said, a euphemism for his struggle to read and write.

  “Want a hand?”

  “Thank you, that would be kind to an old man not used to writing much. But later. Tell me about these eggs. What are you doing when you touch them like that?”

  Ruell grinned at him. “All these years you’ve known about the eggs, but you’ve never taken any interest before.”

  “I never knew you’d had sex with a dragon before,” Garrett said, straight-faced. “That changes everything, you know.”

  Ruell laughed out loud. “You’re an idiot sometimes. Here, hold this one. Tell me what you feel.”

  He picked up an egg and tossed it at Garrett, who yelped in surprise and jumped aside. The egg landed with a heavy thump on a rug and rolled under a small table.

  “Hey, careful there!” Garrett said, as he scrabbled under the table to retrieve the egg.

  “It’s all right, nothing can hurt it, apart from dragon fire.”

  “I wasn’t talking about the egg. My toes are very squishable, and I’ll thank you to remember that.”

  “Sorry,” Ruell said, still grinning. “What can you feel in the egg?”

  Garrett held it in both hands, his face serious as he concentrated. “There’s definitely magic in it.”

  “You can tell that?”

  “Mmm. I get a sort of tingle. But beyond that, nothing. What does it say to you?”

  “Nothing at the moment, since she’s asleep. But when she’s awake, sometimes she talks to me.” Garrett stared at him, transfixed. “Now, don’t look at me like
that. You know I have an affinity with dragons, and these are dragons too.”

  Garrett swallowed, eyebrows raised. “What does she say to you?” he managed eventually.

  “Oh, nothing much. She just likes to hear my voice, I think. Sometimes she gives me little images – of beaches or cliffs or caves. Other dragons, once or twice. Most of the eggs don’t talk, but they’re happy to be here.”

  “You can tell that?”

  “Oh yes. One of them – this one here, he’s a male, red with black wingtips, very handsome – he’s angry. I don’t know why, he hasn’t told me, but when he’s awake he’s just full of rage. I wouldn’t want to be around when he hatches! But this one here is sweet, always happy to be near me. He sings, you know. It’s very soothing.”

  “Gods, Ruell, you scare me half to death sometimes,” Garrett said.

  Ruell just laughed. “Rubbish! Nothing scares you. But what about this egg, the one you brought me. I can’t get any sense of the dragon inside, and you said it was a monster, do you remember?”

  “I remember,” Garrett said, but his voice was so low that Ruell had to strain to hear him.

  “What does that mean?”

  Garrett took a deep, ragged breath, fighting some strong emotion.

  Ruell reached out a hand to him. “Sorry. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. I didn’t mean to pry. Let’s get your letter written, shall we? Who are you writing to?” He sat down at the desk and dipped the pen in the ink pot.

  “The First Protector of Mesanthia.”

  Ruell set the pen down carefully, then spun round with a smile on his face. “Really?”

  “Really. I need to ask someone there about dragon callers and he’s the one I know best.”

  “You know the First Protector? Personally?”

  “I do. He’s a nice man, a swordsman like me. We got along really well. He took me to a tournament one night, and you wouldn’t believe the skills on display there. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He had a faraway look on his face, lost in memory.