by Devin Hanson
On the final approach to Ava’s cave, there were no less than fifteen enormous males sunning themselves on ledges or flying about the nearby mountains. There was something awesome about seeing so many dragons after seeing only one at a time your whole life. Jules’s grip on his waist slowly tightened to a painful degree as she took in the sheer number of them.
“Andrew,” she called over the rushing wind of Ava’s passage, “these dragons are all here to guard Ava’s eggs?”
“Dragons give birth so rarely that the males fight amongst themselves to be given the honor of guarding the nest site.”
“And it’s safe?”
Andrew twisted around to get a look at Jules’s face. She had a determined look of nonchalance, but he could see the white-knuckled fear lurking beneath. “Relatively. They won’t attack us, if that’s what you mean. They know me, and Ava has given them strict instructions to leave the both of us alone.”
The truth of the matter was a little more complicated. Communicating with males wasn’t direct or clear. They understood no words, but with a sufficiently focused mental concept, ideas could be conveyed. Whether they truly understood to leave Jules alone was questionable, and a dragon spotting her by the cave entrance might strike without thought. Andrew had a pair of cloaks stashed in his bag and planned to take the first opportunity to prep them for camouflage. If the males never saw them, no mistakes could be made.
Ava’s nest was in a natural cave that had formed around a spring at the head of the valley. Ava had made adjustments to what nature had created and expanded upon it. After a flight of nearly five hours, Ava touched down at the mouth of the cave and walked in.
Despite her size, the cave entrance was nearly wide enough to fully spread her wings in. A laughing brook ran through the cave, back into the gloom where it narrowed down to a crack in the bedrock. Ava’s additions were obvious immediately. To one side of the natural cave, the dragon had torn out an enormous cavern. In the furthest corner, red light glowed from the kossarigan, the red-hot boulders carved with runes to prevent them from melting from their own heat.
Creating the kossarigan had been Andrew’s first act as a Dragon Speaker and they allowed Ava to leave the cave under the protective aegis of the males. Without the boulders, Ava would have had to spend every trace of vitae she had accumulated to keep the eggs hot while they incubated. Dragons birthed very rarely, and it was even more rare for a clutch of eggs to hatch without the mother dragon killing herself in the process.
Once inside the cave, Ava paused just long enough for Andrew and Jules to dismount before rushing over to her clutch and nuzzling them, checking to make sure nothing had befallen them during her absence.
“She’s like this every time,” Andrew explained to Jules as he stretched his back and legs, trying to work some of the stiffness from his muscles after the long ride. “Eventually she remembers the harness and takes a break long enough for me to take it and the saddle off.”
Jules watched Ava burbling to herself as she adjusted one of the kossarigan. The boulders were placed around the eggs, melting a pool of bubbling magma that kept the eggs at the right temperature. “I would like to see them up close. The eggs, I mean.”
Andrew shook his head. “Maybe tomorrow. She is a bit touchy after she just comes back.”
“Even with you?”
“Even with me. Come on, let me show you around. The eggs aren’t going anywhere.”
Reluctantly, Jules let Andrew drag her away. “I had Ava carve a nook out for me over here where I wouldn’t get trampled.”
The nook was ten feet wide by twenty deep, with a tall roof deeply scored by Ava’s claws narrowing down to just tall enough for Andrew to walk without bumping his head. Over his time staying with Ava, Andrew had knocked together a rough table and a set of low chairs. A log bed frame contained a canvas sack stuffed with bracken fronds for a mattress. A miniature kossarigan on a low ledge provided warmth and light.
“It’s… homey,” Jules said doubtfully. “You have two chairs?”
“I always hoped you would come with me one day. And to be quite honest, I get horribly bored out here after a few days. Making furniture is a great way to pass the time.”
“How did you make this?” Jules asked, bending down to examine one of the chairs.
“It took me ages to work out how,” Andrew admitted. “Ava gave me one of her large back scales to act as a saw and scraper.”
Jules choked out a surprised laugh, horrified and amused that someone would use a priceless dragon scale as a hand saw. “You didn’t.”
“It’s over there in the corner,” Andrew pointed. The scale was nearly a foot long, with the long, curved serrated edge clotted with pine sap and wood shavings.
Ava trumpeted, drawing their attention as she curled up around her eggs. Clouds of sparks rose about her feet and she settled down, her head facing the opening of the cave. Her eyes closed and she heaved a sigh of happy contentment.
“Okay.” Jules said. “Now what?”
Andrew, Jules thought, had a unique way of showing a girl a good time. A five-hour dragon flight across land uninhabited by humans for thousands of years, a living space barely on par with a peasant’s cottage, and an afternoon hunting for their dinner might not be the most romantic getaway, but it was certainly unique.
After cautioning Jules to stay out of sight, Andrew had taken their cloaks out into the forest and stained the fabric with plant juices and local dirt. The hood of her cloak smelled like heather and pine needles, a not entirely unpleasant scent. Camouflaged against the eyes of the vigilant male dragons crowding the valley, they slipped out of the cave and hiked downhill following the stream.
From the safety of the trees, Jules looked up at the dragons sunning themselves around the valley and imagined what would happen if an airship, or even a fleet of airships, tried to attack Ava’s den. It would be a complete massacre. Years ago, a single male dragon had destroyed a fleet of airships armed and prepared to fight a dragon. All the airships in Salia could not assault this valley.
“Look up there on that ledge,” Andrew called to her, pointing. “It’s Durokosso.”
Jules picked out the indicated dragon, matching Andrew’s description to the enormous creature lying in the sun. The dragon was easily ten to fifteen percent larger than any of the other dragons in the valley.
“He’s enormous,” Jules said.
“It’s a good sign for Durokosso to be here. It means he recognized the value of the Dragon Speaker to dragonkind. Many males will follow him. Or would if there were any more ledges in this valley.”
“Explain to me again what we’re doing here?” Jules asked. “There wasn’t time in Andronath, but now I’d like to know. And why the rush to leave the city and then just… go to sleep?”
“When Benettikossi tried to trick Durokosso into attacking Ava, it was the latest episode of an age-old rivalry. I intervened and revealed that Ava was once again speaking with humans. The dragons fear and hate the Incantors, and therefore all alchemists.” Andrew shrugged. “And Ava’s not sleeping. She’s probably coordinating with the other dragons. They scatter far and wide, from one end of the continent to the other. Even for a dragon, it takes days to make the flight. When Ava first left her eggs, she didn’t know where I was. If she’d had to help us kill an Incantor in Ardhal, it would have taken her much longer to return.”
“That’s why the head in the box,” Jules said.
“A show of good faith, that modern alchemists do not suffer Incantors to live.”
“So why are we here?” Jules repeated, bringing the conversation back full circle.
“There is going to be a meeting of dragons. I will be formally introduced to the dragons and will present Bircham’s head. That’s about as far as Ava has told me.”
“How many dragons are going to be there?”
“As far as I know, Jules,” Andrew said with a tight smile, “all of them.”
Jules fell silent after that
, concentrating on her footing and keeping an eye open for game. Once they reached the valley floor, they spread out, keeping within shouting distance. In half an hour, Jules had seen and killed with alchemy a pair of rabbits and Andrew had killed a large duck startled from the stream. They cleaned their catch in the running water and returned to the cave as it was growing dark.
Ava eyed them as they entered but didn’t budge from her position coiled around her eggs, only blinking once at Andrew’s greeting.
“She’s still talking with the kossi,” Andrew explained as they prepared their catch for cooking. “Many do not believe I am a Speaker at all.”
“How do we cook these without a fire? I would think Benettikossi would have spread the word after your description of her.”
“I’ve carved a cooking stone down by the stream. Come on, I’ll show you. Ava suspects Benettikossi won’t be there,” Andrew shook his head. “I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. She’s crazy, Jules. Completely cracked in the head.”
Jules shivered at the thought. Dragons were enormous and powerful, and terrifying even when sane. A crazy dragon would act unpredictably, making her doubly frightening.
Andrew’s cooking area was typically male in construction. It was a slab of granite that had cracked with a flat surface, carved with runnels for carrying away excess liquids and engraved with runes that kept the surface griddle-hot. There were no niceties about it. It was well designed with forethought, but it was entirely utilitarian.
Jules used her short sword to cut the meat into strips of even thickness so they would cook at the same rate and busied herself with preparing the meal. Andrew produced a surprising array of herbs to flavor the meat and even a collection of tubers.
“My father taught me how to find food in the woods,” he explained. “On long trade routes, fresh herbs and root vegetables went a long way toward making the meals enjoyable.”
Cooking everything didn’t take long and they brought their meal in wooden trenchers to the cave opening to eat and look at the stars.
“I’m glad you brought me,” Jules said after a while. The stream running out of the cave mouth made a pleasant noise. Crickets and birdcalls filled the night, falling silent every time one of the dragons gave a booming cough. It was peaceful, after a fashion.
“Me too.”
Jules set her trencher aside and lay back on the sun-warm rock, tucking her cloak about herself. The stars overhead were blotted out momentarily by a passing dragon going out to hunt in the night. Maeis was in the sky, casting red light over the valley. “When is the last time you took an evening off for yourself?”
Andrew shrugged and lay down beside her. “I don’t remember. Months ago.”
“I understand why you want to come out here with Ava now. It’s nice to get away.”
“It’s nicer with you here.”
Jules smiled. “That’s not what I meant. I mean it’s nice to not have to be the Speaker for a while and just be Andrew.”
Andrew was silent for a long time, staring up at the stars. “For a while,” he finally said, “I thought I’d never forget what had happened in Nas Shahr. Every decision I made, every person I talked to, I was constantly wondering if it would lead to the destruction of Andronath too.”
He trailed off, but seemed like he was still thinking things through, so Jules said nothing, just waited and watched Maeis inch its way higher into the sky.
“Iria tells me that it was a small price to pay for the freedom of her people. She’s not wrong. Life in Nas Shahr would have been awful with an Incantor on the throne. And, of course, the dragons would not have let that happen. The entire city of Khar Bora would have been slaughtered. If even one Incantor had escaped or remained alive within the ruins of the palace, the dragons would have acted to wipe them out for good. I know I did the right thing. The only thing, really. But that doesn’t help me sleep at night.
“And then fighting in the Academy, I had to focus so hard just so I didn’t freeze up in fear. I don’t ever want to be like that again, Jules. I don’t want to do things I can’t live with later, even if they’re the right things to do.”
“I know, Andrew.” She didn’t say anything more. Nothing else needed to be said.
The rock was starting to grow cool under her back and muscles pleasantly sore after the day’s exertions reminded her of their presence. She shifted, and felt a pressure against her hip.
“Oh. I almost forgot.”
“Hm?”
“Merin came by after your meeting and gave me something for you. Professor Milkin had it in his effects and had willed it to you.” She dug into her pouch and came up with a dragon tooth. “Here, it’s a tooth from one of the eastern wyrms. Ice dragons. The vitae is nearly spent, but it has runes you’ve never seen before.”
Andrew sat up and accepted the tooth. It was as long as his hand, from his wrist to the tip of his middle finger. The base was thick, a bit larger than a circle made with his thumb and forefinger and tapered down to a point. The very tip had broken sometime in the past, leaving a jagged splinter behind. From root to splintered tip, the tooth was covered in the striations and whorls of runes. Even in the dim light of Maeis, he could see there were many runes he already knew, but also ones he didn’t recognize at all.
“Oh!” he whispered. “Thank you.” He closed his fist around the tooth and bowed his head. “I miss Milkin.”
“Me too.”
Andrew woke early the next morning. Sunlight shone directly down the cave opening, making the whole cavern light up. Jules stirred next to him making the bracken stuffing the mattress crackle and he smiled. He brushed a lock of hair off her face and she cracked one eye open.
“What are you smiling at?” she asked drowsily.
“Good morning.”
“Is it?” Jules sat up and squinted at the light. “Ugh. I feel sick.”
She staggered out of the bed and made her way down to the stream. Andrew watched her worriedly until she came back, patting her face dry with the hem of her shirt.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine. It’s already passed, whatever it was. Maybe some delayed altitude sickness or something. Any news from Ava?”
Andrew glanced over to where Ava was still curled about her eggs. “Nothing. She hasn’t moved since we arrived.”
“I feel like going for a walk. You going to stay in bed all day or come with me?”
Andrew got up and followed her to the entrance of the cave after taking a moment to freshen up in the stream. The sun had risen high enough that it wasn’t glaring directly into their eyes anymore and they picked their way down into the valley, talking of small things and laughing.
Breakfast came in the form of berries picked from a bush that left their hands and lips sticky with sweet juice. After a bracing dip in a deep pool, Andrew spread his cloak out on the bank and sat down with Milkin’s tooth in his hands. The tooth felt cool to the touch, the runes covering its surface giving it a rough texture to his hands.
“What am I looking at here, Jules?” he asked. The runes stood out in the morning light and he could pick them out easily enough, but he still lacked the step from rune to spoken runeword. Without knowing what to call each rune, and what they did, they were useless. He might be able to puzzle them out eventually, but it would take a tremendous amount of time and a great deal of luck.
Jules wrung her hair out before settling next to him on the cloak. She had her own cloak spread about her shoulders, a precaution against the dragons in the valley. “This one here, Aq, is the rune for water. When combined with air, Ir, you get ice.” She sketched it out in the sand and frost sprung up around the runeword until she broke it apart.
Andrew turned his attention to the tooth and found the runes Jules had described. Working with the tooth was very different from studying one of Ava’s scales. Ava was a very dark red and the runes on her scales were difficult to see at times. On the tooth, it was all a pale ivory that darkened to a dee
p yellow around the root. The runes stood out clear as ink on paper.
He traced the runes in the sand as Jules had done and after a half hour of trying and failing to get the runes right, managed to get the same ice crystals that Jules had.
“Took you long enough,” Jules said, shielding her eyes from the sun as she inspected his rune.
“Oh come on, most alchemists would have taken all week without help. Besides, the runes on the tooth are all wrong.”
“They are?”
“Yeah. The runes on Ava’s scales have width to the curves in places, but these runes have depth instead.”
Jules rolled to her knees, the boredom gone from her face. “Let me see.”
Andrew handed her the tooth and she held it up to the light, turning it slowly to examine the runes from different angles and with different angles of light. After a minute of inspection, she said, “No. These look normal to me.”
“No, look.” Andrew pulled the small scale from around his neck and held it up to the light as Jules had done. He found an isolated Ig rune and tilted the scale this way and that until he got the sun shining directly into the groove of the rune. “Yeah, it’s like I said, I… huh.”
His brow furrowed in concentration as he followed the familiar curves of the Ig rune. This time, he searched for the minute variances in depth, nearly impossible to pick out on Ava’s dark scale. They were there, though, and by tilting the scale around, he got the sun to shine directly into the groove, making the variances visible.
“How did I not see these before?” he muttered, concentrating on the scale. It didn’t take him long to add the new minutae to his mental structure of the Ig rune. Of all the runes, he knew Ig best. He had spent countless hours staring at the rune on one scale or another. It was a little annoying that he had never seen the depth changes in the rune before, but now it felt right in a way was new to him. The rune just seemed to fit.