Meghan's Dragon

by E. M. Foner

  “I would have thought you’d stop performing The Traitor if that was an issue.”

  “The difference is, the good guys actually win in this one.”

  Chapter 80

  “What’s with you today?” Bryan asked Meghan on his return to the campsite following an exhausting session with Rowan.

  “Nothing,” Meghan said, giving him a false smile. “I’ve got my new lines down, and I think I’ve figured out what the final clue for our quest means.”

  “Don’t try to fool me, I’m not that dense,” he said, stepping closer and examining her small face. “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” she replied. “I just don’t like making a fuss is all.”

  “A fuss about what?”

  “Nothing.”

  “A fuss about what,” he repeated, this time without speaking out loud.

  “Hey, we said no mind-talking unless it was important,” Meghan protested. She tried to back away and found herself up against the tent.

  “It’s something important to you, I can tell that much,” he insisted, reaching under her chin and tilting her head up so he could look into her eyes. “Come on, you know you’re going to tell me.”

  “I am not,” she flared, but it was hard not to laugh at Bryan’s clumsy attempt to provide emotional support. He looked just like an intelligent dog that had been Hadrixia’s companion for many years.

  “Those magicians back on Dark Earth I told you about used to do mind-reading acts,” he continued, trying to make his gaze hypnotic. Then he went back to speaking without words. “I bet you can’t stop yourself from thinking about whatever it is.”

  Too late Meghan reached up to remove her pendant. She had already said to herself, “Don’t think about your birthday,” and the thought had been shared.

  “Oh, is that all?” Bryan said, releasing her. “I was worried it was something serious. My birthday was a couple weeks ago, I think. I lost track with your screwy calendar. Hey, wait a second. I got you something.”

  As Bryan ran off towards the wagons, Meghan tried to keep herself from getting excited about the prospect of a present. After all, he had probably made it up on the spot and would return with a cold chicken that he would devour himself when she declined. The girl went into the tent and began practicing the untying spell for the final hiding place of the quest. She was genuinely surprised when Bryan returned with a bundle wrapped up in a thin blanket.

  “Happy Birthday. Nobody seems to have wrapping paper in this world.”

  Meghan took the parcel with low expectations and unfolded the blanket. When she saw what he had brought her, she actually choked up and couldn’t stop the tears from coming out.

  “You don’t like it?” Bryan asked in concern. “When I went back to the shop to buy it, I thought you wanted the blue one with the long sleeves, but the woman insisted that it was this dress.”

  “She was right,” Meghan said, looking up through glistening eyes. “Thank you. How could you afford it after changing all of our money into gold?”

  “I saved all of our tips from the festival and went on the last day when everything was on sale. Aren’t you going to try it on?”

  “I’m not going to risk damaging my new dress by squirming into it on my hands and knees in the tent.” She went outside, held the dress up in front of her body, and stood as tall as she could. “How do I look?”

  “Like dessert,” Bryan rumbled in a low voice that she felt in her toes. “Close your eyes.”

  “Stay over there,” she warned him.

  “I will, just close them.”

  Meghan closed one eye first, and then cautiously lowered the other lid, squinting at him through the lashes until the light was finally shut out. She began preparing an outraged response should Bryan step forward and embrace her, but an image of a young woman holding a dress in front of herself slowly began forming in her mind.

  “Is that me?”

  “What kind of question is that?” Bryan replied in irritation. “Do you really think there’s another girl out here who happens to look just like you and is holding up the same dress?”

  “Don’t be so literal, I was just asking.” She gazed at herself through Bryan’s eyes, marveling at her own appearance, which somehow looked much more like a woman than the girl she was used to seeing in her copper hand-mirror. Then she noticed her expression and frowned, but her lips in the mental image remained puckered for a kiss. She got as far as a weak, “No fair,” before his arms encircled her and he practically crushed her mouth with his own.

  Chapter 81

  “Water that’s white, falls at its right, from the first bite, take what you might.”

  “If I never hear another bad riddle it will be too soon,” Bryan complained.

  “Rhymes help people to remember lines,” Meghan explained. “Some of the classic plays are all in verse. I was going to suggest you try one of those parts.”

  “What difference does it make? I could play any part now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have you to be my memory,” Bryan said. “You can learn my parts and prompt me through our pendants.”

  “What?”

  “Sure, that’s how lots of people who are too busy to learn their lines work on Dark Earth, especially political leaders, through they use gadgets for prompting rather than magic.” He moved over beside her and brushed the hair back from the side of her face. “So, you want to fool around?”

  “I do not want to fool around,” Meghan asserted, though it was hard not to giggle. “I also do not want to learn your lines for you because you’re too lazy to learn them yourself. What I want is to solve this riddle so we can find the final piece of the puzzle and turn you into a dragon, assuming you still have the potential.”

  Bryan ignored her protest and tried nuzzling her neck, and this time she did giggle, but she also moved away.

  “At least help with the riddle first.”

  “What’s so complicated about that? We need to find a waterfall, look on its right—no, its left, since the water falls on the right, and then you do your magic thing.”

  “What about the ‘first bite’ line?”

  “That reminds me, I’m hungry,” Bryan said, turning around to crawl out of the tent. “Do you want anything?”

  “You want me to memorize your part, and you can’t sit still long enough to help solve a riddle?”

  “I’d do it for you.”

  “No, you would not do it for me. You wouldn’t even do it for yourself, which is why you’re asking me in the first place.”

  “You know what I mean. Anyway, we’ll see it when we get there. All of these clues have turned out to be obvious, which only makes sense since whoever wrote them wanted us to find the stuff.”

  “Wait, I’ll come with you. Maybe they have some of that apple crumble left over from dinner.”

  When she scrambled out of the tent after him, Bryan lifted her to her feet and stole a kiss. Meghan waited longer than usual before pushing him away. She didn’t even protest when he pulled her against his side as they slowly walked to the kitchen wagon, even though his scabbard kept digging into her ribs.

  Chapter 82

  The rain fell in slanting sheets on either side of King’s Road, and the players trudged forward through the mud. Storm Bringer was able to extend his protection as far as he could see ahead, so the worst of the water had drained off the road before the draft horses and heavy wagons passed over.

  To the vast amusement of the players, Bryan tried to dry the road with gouts of fire, creating a wall of steam that reminded him of his dishwashing days. Other than the occasional boot sucked off in the mud, the magically fixed travel clothing and footwear worn by the troupe remained clean and dry.

  “Why isn’t the road paved with stones?” Bryan complained, kicking derisively at a puddle. “The Romans were building good roads two thousand years ago.”

  “The who?” Laitz asked.

  “The—I forgot. Don’t the
y have stone roads in Old Land?”

  “They do, actually, at least between the major cities. Most of them are turnpikes, though, so it’s not cheap to get around.”

  “Don’t forget the dragon roads,” Isabella admonished him, looking back over her shoulder from where she was walking in front of the wagon train with her husband.

  “You’d like those,” Laitz said, laughing at the memory. “Some of the dragons create roads by flying in a straight line and blasting the same ground over and over again with fire until it becomes molten. The locals all form a fire brigade to throw buckets of sand or pea stone on top before it cools. Otherwise, the surface is so slippery that it’s impossible to stand on when it’s wet.”

  “Why would the dragons help build roads?”

  “Most of the powerful dragons are on retainer with one kingdom or another. In addition to protection from other dragons, they help out with things like construction projects, fighting forest fires, rescuing lost princesses. The funny thing about dragon hoards is that the bigger they get, the more the dragon has to add to see a difference.”

  “So it’s a lot of work to be a dragon,” Bryan commented.

  “Were you considering it as a career?” Rowan asked without bothering to turn around.

  “It’s Meghan who’s always pushing me,” the young man replied without thinking. Then he realized what he had implied. “I mean, she’s ambitious for me.”

  “Young women are like that,” Isabella said, shaking off Rowan and dropping back a step to walk next to Bryan. “The two of you look different the last few days, like you’ve finally settled into the marriage.”

  “I think it took her a while to get used to me.” He paused and looked at his wedding ring. “I guess we really are married now.”

  “It took a while for my own marriage to sink in as well,” Isabella said sympathetically. “Do you know the story?”

  Rowan groaned and began to walk faster. Storm Bringer and Laitz joined him.

  Isabella laughed out loud and turned to Bryan with a twinkle in her eye. “I just wanted to have a private word and the marriage story works every time.”

  “Am I in trouble?”

  “No. You really are the strangest young man I have ever met. I just wanted to make sure that you knew about Meghan’s birthday. She asked the twins not to tell anybody, but we don’t have secrets from each other. I worried Meghan might try to hide it from you as well. Some girls are funny that way.”

  “Oh, sure,” Bryan said with relief. “I gave her a dress and it worked out better than I could have imagined. She never even put it on.”

  “I see,” Isabella said, struggling to keep a straight face.

  “The funny thing is I always thought she was cute playing Elstan, but I guess she hated it.”

  “What gave you that idea?” Rowan’s wife asked dryly.

  “For one thing, she kept on saying that she really hated it,” Bryan answered innocently. “But I didn’t know what she was actually thinking until, uh, recently.”

  “Where is Meghan?”

  “She’s back with Nesta and Juliana learning our lines. I mean, her lines.”

  “I think I know what you mean.”

  Chapter 83

  “You want me to fight with my feet tied together? I’ll fall flat on my face.”

  “You do that anyway,” Rowan said, throwing Bryan the leather cord. “Just tie an end around each ankle and leave about a half a sword length in slack.”

  “Why are so many of the guys here watching today?” Bryan grumbled suspiciously, as he followed the older man’s instructions. “Hey, is this another trick like the wagon-pushing thing?”

  “You run around too much when you fight,” Rowan explained for the third time. “I tell you that every day, but after the first few exchanges you forget, and then it’s back to going in circles.”

  “I have lots of energy,” Bryan retorted, moving experimentally from side to side. He had a hard time keeping his balance when the cord jerked his foot to a stop. “You have to give me a chance to get used to this first.”

  “Behind you!” shouted one of the boys who came to watch the fun. Bryan tried to spin around, got his legs tangled up, and sprawled on the ground.

  “None of that, now,” Rowan admonished the watchers. He offered his hand to help the embarrassed young man to his feet. “You need to take smaller steps, find a rhythm to your movement. Haven’t you ever danced?”

  “Sure I’ve danced, just not very well.”

  “Show me.”

  “Without music?”

  Chester launched into a popular ballad from one of the plays and all of the other men and boys watching joined in. Bryan began bobbing his head to the chorus and alternated lifting each foot off the ground, throwing in some shoulder rolls for good measure. Rowan stared in disbelief.

  “How did you ever get Meghan to marry you?” he demanded as the ballad was replaced by general laughter. “Does that really pass as dancing where you grew up?”

  “I’m better than some,” Bryan said defensively. “At least I try.”

  “Cord,” Rowan called, without looking at anybody in particular, and a short leather strap came flying through the air at him. The giant caught it, bent over, and tied his ankles together with about the same amount of slack that Bryan had allowed himself. “Again,” he instructed Chester.

  The men restarted the ballad, and Rowan began to move about with a glide-step-step, glide-step-step. He held one arm around an invisible partner, the other extended to hold her hand, and he moved about with a grace that was all the more surprising in a man his size. Then he drew his sword and glide-step-stepped towards his opponent.

  Bryan reflexively set his feet to draw his sword, but the cord was too short for his normal stance, and he went to one knee, extending his sword at a crazy angle in an attempt to maintain his balance.

  Rather than delivering a blow with the flat of his sword as a corrective measure, Rowan moved blindingly fast, sheathing his own blade and grabbing his opponent’s extended wrist. As Bryan struggled back to his feet, Rowan grabbed him around the waist and pulled him close.

  “Glide, step-step. Glide, step-step,” he instructed. Some of the men watching laughed so hard that they fell on the ground, and even Chester, the consummate professional, was unable to sing and smile at the same time. “Glide, step-step. You’re getting it. Glide, step-step.”

  Bryan felt like an idiot, and he kept tripping up at the limits of the ankle tether or stepping on Rowan’s toes. His instructor continued with the relentless chant, which was taken up by the observers as they recovered their breath.

  “Glide, step-step. Glide, step-step.” The men and the boys paired off, some of them approaching each other with formal bows, and then they crowded into the practice area, all of them showing appreciably more talent for dancing than Bryan.

  “Imagine if the king could see us now,” Hardol called to Rowan as he glided past with Jomar, the two men moving like they had formerly been employed as dance instructors.

  “Maybe he can,” Rowan replied, casting his eyes up to indicate a large raptor circling high overhead.

  “If I was the king and I was watching, I’d be scared,” Bryan muttered, wincing as he lost the rhythm and the cord brought his ankle to an abrupt stop. “Glide, step-step.”

  Chapter 84

  “What a beautiful castle!” Meghan exclaimed.

  “They say that the White Duke’s family was in the construction business back in Old Land,” Bethany replied. “There’s a fancy water park behind the castle, with fountains and a waterfall.”

  “Told you so,” Bryan said, ducking away as the girl attempted to thump his shoulder with the side of her fist. “So we’re all friends in this place?”

  “Rowan lived here for years and the duke treats him like family,” Bethany affirmed. “They also have a permanent stage in the courtyard so we don’t have to set up. It’s wonderful for putting on performances where there’s a wall, and the
y even built a fake balcony, since so many of the classics have a scene with one.”

  “Will I be in the balcony for the entire second act?” Meghan asked in dismay. “I thought my character was supposed to be held captive in a tower.”

  “No, the men will build a bit of round wall on the stage, just enough to give the impression of a tower. Children have very good imaginations, and they all know the story in any case.”

  “How come we only do plays that everybody already knows?” Bryan asked.

  “That’s the mark of a good story, when everybody knows it,” Faye said, coming up to the three young people and returning Davie to his mother. “He just woke up, but he’s already hungry.”

  “What about new plays?” Bryan demanded, as Bethany dropped back to nurse her baby.

  “We practice them over the winter, and then we try them out during the summer,” Faye explained. “We only do proven crowd-pleasers at festivals. Some of the audience will only see one play a year, so it’s not fair to experiment on them. The people who come to the mountains during the summer may attend two plays a day.”

  “Playing the lead for The Good Harvest actually makes me a little nervous,” Meghan admitted to Faye. “I mean, I was on the stage a lot as Elstan, but that was mainly running around and looking scared. Half of the time I’ll be out there alone speaking directly to the audience in this part, though I’m supposed to look like I’m talking to myself.”

  “You’ll be fine,” Faye assured her. “I’m still amazed that a girl your age could heal a crushed foot without keeling over from the sight of it. You’re a lot tougher than you look.”

  “I guess I didn’t realize until that moment that Hadrixia had trained me as a healer. I thought she just wanted an assistant, but I look back on it now and it’s clear that she never needed my help.”

  “Hadrixia?” Faye asked, her face turning pale. “You studied with Hadrixia?”