The Bond (Book 2)

by Adolfo Garza Jr.

  Renata shook her head. Stop making imaginary problems for yourself! The boy had to be found first, and that might prove to be difficult. ‘Far to the north’ was beyond vague.

  Sure, Renata had Isandath’s hastily sketched map, showing how to get to the closest village north of The Scars. Beyond that, however, was unknown country. Still, she could stop at farms and communities and ask questions. The rumor of the boy and his dragon had spread all the way to Bataan-Mok, so picking up more details shouldn’t be too hard. That was her hope, at least.

  A misstep caused Xochi to flap her wings for balance.

  Of course, Renata would have to leave the little one hidden somewhere while she went into villages, but that shouldn’t be a problem. You sure you’re okay carrying the water?

  I am fine. I was not looking where I was going. Xochi raised her head a little taller and strode forward.

  Hey, did you do your flying exercises today?

  The little dragon stopped and looked at Renata. With the excitement of leaving, I forgot!

  Renata grabbed the canteens by the straps, removed them, and slung them over her shoulders. Their weight made her grunt. Off you go then. We can’t have you missing your flying exercises.

  But—

  Go on, we’ll keep going as you fly for your exercise.

  With a happy bark, Xochi sprang into the air, beating her wings and gaining altitude.

  Smiling, Renata watched the little dragon rise higher and higher into the sky. You’re beautiful! The happy surge she felt from her bond-mate was followed by a distant roar.

  Laughing, she adjusted the canteen straps and walked on.

  A shadow passed near her. A minute later, another shadow passed by. The next one passed over her. She eventually realized they were not hawks, or buzzards, or any kind of bird at all. Through the link, she felt mirth and mischief.

  With a grin, she looked up and saw her bond-mate gliding above. Having fun?

  The impression that Xochi was giggling was strong. Could dragons actually giggle? Perhaps a tickle-attack later would answer that question. Hiking up the straps on her shoulders, she continued north.

  As they plodded along, the still air made the day hotter. Heat shimmers were everywhere, making anything distant appear distorted. A glance at her shadow revealed that the sun was almost directly overhead. The worst part of the day would be upon them before long. They needed to find shelter.

  Sweetling, do you see any shaded spots ahead of us? I think we should take a break for a few hours, until it gets cooler.

  There are trees ahead.

  Though the mesquit’s tiny leaves wouldn’t provide any shelter from the sun, the branches would be a good scaffold for blankets. She just had to be careful to avoid spearing herself on the large thorns. They really, really hurt.

  These will do, love.

  She lifted a set of straps from sore shoulders and dropped two canteens to the ground. The remaining two hit the dirt next to the others. The satchel followed, then the backpack, and she sat on the ground.

  Xochi landed and padded over, lively eyes sparkling. Our adventure begins now.

  Massaging one shoulder and then the other as she looked at her bond-mate, she asked, Why now?

  I cannot see the caves anymore, not even from the sky. Everything we know is left behind.

  Renata turned her gaze south. Xochi was right. Her village, the home she’d been forced to leave, was far behind them. So, too, were the Corpus Order, Isandath, and even the caves. It was all back there.

  Excitement and a tiny bit of fear came through the amazing magical link. Renata smiled. Not everything, sweetling. We have each other.

  + + + + +

  A cool evening breeze blew past as they stood in the courtyard. Aeron glanced over at Willem, who was brushing down the other side of Anaya.

  Gentle swipes with the soft body brush were followed by a stroke with his hand. As he stood back to look over the area he’d just finished before moving on, he caught Aeron watching him. A smile lit up his face.

  Warmth flooded Aeron’s cheeks and he smiled back. His face grew warmer when he remembered that he’d cried in front of Willem.

  There is an itch on my left flank, just past the hip.

  “Sorry, dear-heart. I’ll get that itch.” He jumped to it, using the body brush around the area until he felt her relief through the link. “There. That was the spot, wasn’t it?”

  A happy rumble was her confirmation.

  “Don’t slack off, Aeron.” Grinning, Willem got back to work. “Just as with horses, we have to check her over every day or so to be sure there aren’t any problems with her hide, or from parasites. She’s a big girl and can’t see every part of herself. Plus, brushing keeps her hide healthy and happy, and it feels good too, doesn’t it Anaya?” He patted her side.

  Another pleased rumble came from her. You chose well.

  Aeron couldn’t help but smile. He had chosen well. Or, more accurately, he’d finally realized how he’d felt and how Willem had felt. He was so happy that they were together now. A warm feeling welled up within his chest. Maybe that’s why he hadn’t minded crying like a babe in front of Willem. And even more amazingly, he’d felt a lot better afterward.

  “That brush won’t do her any good with you just standing there.” Jessip stood behind the fence, mouth crooked in a half smile.

  Willem’s head popped out from behind Anaya, and he raised a hand in welcome. “Hey, Jessip.”

  Aeron chuckled and resumed grooming Anaya. “I know Jessip, I know. I was just thinking about stuff for a second.”

  He glanced at the older boy. “At dinner the other night, Sharrah mentioned that you liked horses. Animal Craft must be the perfect place for you, then.”

  Jessip leaned on the fence. “Horses are pretty amazing, yeah. But dragons are more so. I’ve been talking with Master Canneth about specializing in dragons.”

  Aeron looked at Jessip. Specializing in dragons?

  It could be said that you are a dragon specialist.

  Well, Aeron temporized, as much of a specialist as exists, I guess. Though I am more of a dragon-angering specialist, it would seem. He continued brushing Anaya, thinking about how terribly he’d handled the trip to House Yaot.

  I am to blame for those events as well. But I am sure we will think of another way to find more dragons.

  “He’s been pleasant enough,” Jessip continued, “but it seems like he doesn’t want to follow up on it, which is a shame. Dragons are very interesting, and we have one right here. Seems a waste to not have someone specialize in them.”

  “Hi, Jessip.”

  “Hello, Liara.”

  Aeron turned and saw the dark-haired girl standing next to Jessip at the fence. He raised a hand and smiled. “Hi, Liara.”

  Liara smiled, but her eyes seemed sad. “Hello, Aeron.”

  Willem appeared from around Anaya and stood next to Aeron. “All done on my side.” He turned and waved. “Hey, Liara.”

  “Hey.”

  “Haven’t seen you in a while,” Aeron said, gently scrubbing at Anaya’s hide. “You used to drop by all the time.” Done with that spot, he stood, stretching, and looked over at her.

  “I–I’ve been busy, is all.” She glanced briefly at Willem. “But I couldn’t stay away. Anaya’s just too pretty.”

  “You two do seem to hang about here all the time,” Aeron said. He glanced at Jessip. “Would you both like to get hands on with Anaya? The grooming is almost done, but you can take a few swipes with the brush, if you want.”

  Jessip was over the fence in an instant. Liara, laughing at his eagerness, used the gate.

  Willem chuckled at Jessip. “I guess you’re interested?” He handed the red-haired young man the body brush he’d used earlier.

  Watching the sure, gentle handiwork, Aeron said, “It looks like you’ve done this before.”

  Jessip nodded. “Aye. Groomed horses all the time.”

  “Here.” Aeron handed Liara
his brush. “Just do like you see Jessip doing there. It’s not too difficult.”

  Liara stared at him a moment, smiling. “Thanks.” She moved beside Jessip, and with a quick grin at Aeron, started brushing.

  “I’ll grab a spare and we can all finish it up.” Aeron headed to the stable.

  After several minutes, Aeron had found a few dandy brushes, and even a curry brush. He wondered a moment why there would be a curry brush—Anaya had no hair—before resuming his search.

  The hunt did not go well. There didn’t seem to be another body brush anywhere in the stable or even in his study. He stood in the middle of the room, hands on his hips.

  I can’t choose the right spells in the heat of combat, I can’t convince dragons to let us help them, and now I can’t even find a gods-damned brush?

  He sighed. Well this, at least, was something he could easily remedy. A quick stop by the Animal Craft Hall would take care of it.

  “Thanks for letting me use your brush.”

  Aeron jumped. Liara could be very quiet, apparently. She stood in the door to the den. “You startled me,” he said. “I didn’t even hear—” She had an intense look in her eyes that stopped the words in his throat.

  She walked over to his desk, placed something on it, then turned around to face him. “There was another reason I came by all the time, you know.” She looked from one of his eyes to the other.

  “R–Really?”

  She nodded. “I like you, Aeron. A great deal. But Willem won your heart, and that’s fine. We can’t . . . we can’t control who we fall in love with. But before I let him have you forever, before I try to forget you, there is one thing I need.”

  Aeron? You seem . . . scared.

  I—

  Liara was not only quiet, she was quick. Two swift steps brought her next to him where she raised up on her toes.

  Warm breath. Soft lips. A barely heard sigh. And lavender.

  Aeron blinked.

  With a sad smile, Liara caressed his cheek and then was gone.

  He touched his lips.

  What in Yrdra’s deepest hells?

  Still in a daze, Aeron turned to head back outside. Willem stood in the door.

  “Jessip left for dinner,” he said. “I noticed Liara left through the study door. Did she find you, give you the brush?”

  Aeron looked back at his desk. The body brush lay on it.

  “You okay?”

  Aeron turned to him. “I–I’m hungry. Let’s get dinner.”

  The walk to the Dining Hall was silent, as was the wait in line to get their food. He and Willem then joined the others at one of the long tables. Jessip was seated to his left and Willem sat to his right. Sharrah was seated across the table from Willem, with Cheddar to her right, across from Aeron.

  Liara was opposite Jessip. Thankfully, she didn’t talk much to Aeron or look his direction very often. She spent most of the time talking with Jessip and with Cheddar. Which was more than fine, as far as Aeron was concerned. His thoughts were occupied.

  Should he tell Willem about the kiss? He didn’t want to keep anything from his boyfriend, but telling him might not be a good idea. Willem once mentioned that he had worried Aeron might like Liara. What would his reaction be when he heard that they had kissed?

  Well, Liara had kissed him. He’d just stood there, stunned, the whole time.

  “What is this?” Willem was looking at him with mock surprise. “Am I going to finish dinner before you? Are you feeling okay? Got a fever?”

  Despite the seriousness of his thoughts, Aeron laughed. He was usually the first one done eating. What could he say? Food was golden.

  A quick glance at Liara revealed that she was watching him. There was no anger in her expression or jealousy.

  She turned to Jessip. “Really? Me too. I love chocolate cookies. I do wish chocolate items were offered more than once or twice a month.”

  Maybe she is going to move on, Aeron thought.

  If so, there was no point in saying anything. “I just had something on my mind,” he said, turning back to Willem. “But I’m done thinking about it.”

  Aeron dug into dinner with gusto.

  The sun was low as they left the Dining Hall. Ruddy beams broke across the sky, lancing out from a bank of thin clouds in the west. Street lamps had already been rotated so that their glow would light up the walks and cobbled roads around the Caer.

  Only Sharrah and Cheddar accompanied them back to the Dragon Stable. Jessip and Liara had gone back to their rooms, Jessip at the Housing Hall, and Liara at the girls’ dorms.

  Aeron frowned. The Bath Hall, located between the boys’ and girls’ dorms, was used by most everyone in the Caer. What if he ran across Liara on the way there or back? Perhaps he should start using the bathing facilities in the Magic Craft Hall again. The trip would be longer, but at least he wouldn’t run into Liara. After their encounter, he wasn’t sure how to act around her.

  Gregor was at the Dragon Stable when they arrived. “Evening, folks.”

  “Hey, Gregor.” Aeron had been put off by him at first—another potential dragonlinked competing against Willem— but he was so likeable, you couldn’t be suspicious or angry with him for long. And he was genuinely interested in dragons, which was a big plus in Aeron’s tally-book.

  “We’re just about to start,” Sharrah said.

  “Great!” A big grin split Gregor’s face.

  Aeron walked in the stable while the others waited outside. Ready for measuring, dear-heart?

  She responded with a chirp.

  Anaya followed him out to the courtyard. Stopping in the light of the street lamp, installed months ago during the conversion to the Dragon Stable, she assumed the first measuring position. At one time, measuring had seemed to be exciting to her. But now, several months later, it was probably just another routine task for her to complete.

  Aeron shook his head and smiled. He never would have imagined that anything having to do with dragons could ever be called routine. And yet, here they were.

  Cheddar and Willem stretched the measure-tape across Anaya, and Sharrah wrote down the measurements they called out. Gregor watched them as they worked and looked over Sharrah’s shoulder as she wrote. Every now and then he’d ask her a quiet question, which she answered. The whole process, which used to take almost a half hour, was now completed in less than fifteen minutes.

  At first, it was Aeron and Willem who did the measuring, but Cheddar had asked, begged really, some time ago, and he’d been helping Willem do so since then.

  “She’s still growing,” Sharrah remarked, jotting down Anaya’s weight. She closed the notebook and reset the weight sliders to the left. “Though at a slower pace. Still, she’s got a bit to go before she’s got her full growth and her full weight.”

  Anaya stepped off the platform and nudged Aeron with her nose. He gave her a quick hug and followed it with a couple of loving pats on the neck. “At least what we assume is adult weight.”

  “True,” Willem said. “All we have are estimates from remote observation.”

  “Well, we’ll have exact numbers from one dragon soon enough.” Cheddar smiled at Anaya.

  “It’s hard to believe that she can get any bigger.” Gregor stared at the tawny dragon.

  “Ah, excellent.” Master Doronal appeared at the south end of the stable. Walking between the investigation office and the new expansion under construction, he said, “I’d hoped to find you all here. Lord Baronel, Master Canneth and myself are of the opinion that we should start working out the training regimen for dragonlinked so it can be included in the employee manual.”

  “Golden!” Cheddar looked very excited. When everyone looked at him, he said, “What? This is progress! We’re not just talking about things anymore, we’re doing them.”

  Sharrah smiled. “Oh, right, like nothing else had been going on.” She glanced at all the buildings under construction around them.

  Aeron laughed. “He’s right, though. T
his is an exciting step.”

  Master Doronal chuckled. “Yes, I suppose it is, isn’t it?” He motioned them inside. “Let’s retire to the investigation office.”

  Once they were all seated, Master Doronal said, “One of the requirements for a business to be approved is to submit the rules and regulations of the company prior to the approval meeting. These documents generally include employee training procedures, job descriptions, penalties and disciplinary actions, rewards and bonuses, that kind of thing. There are other documents that are needed, to be sure, but our interest at the moment is employee training.”

  Master Doronal leaned back in his chair. “Many positions are already well-defined, requiring only minor adjustments based on what a particular company does, or on how the position differs in that company. Our company, however, has an entirely new position: dragonlinked. We need to define that job from the ground up. We’ve decided that it will be easiest to do so as we work on the training regimen, which will consist of lessons adopted from both Magic Craft and Animal Craft.”

  “What kind of lessons?” Aeron asked.

  “Due to the nature of what dragonlinked do, the need to fight nahual, defend themselves, and of course, to open gateways, all dragonlinked will train in sorcery as if they were a Magic Craft accepted. However, as we discovered, dragonlinked need practical training more than theory. So, after passing a test similar to the Magic Craft apprentice test, a candidate’s sorcery training will diverge from standard Magic Craft studies and will focus instead on teaching proper use of dragonlinked spells.”

  “Which spells are those?”

  “You’re going to help us learn that, Aeron.” Master Doronal smiled. “You already have, to a certain extent. But as you learn more, as you fight more nahual, we’ll adjust training based on what we discover.”

  Aeron’s heart beat faster and his stomach sank. They were going to base training on him? He’d already failed getting more dragons. This additional responsibility wasn’t something he was sure he wanted.

  Master Doronal spread his hands. “At least to start. As we get more dragonlinked, you’ll all be contributing knowledge about what it is to be dragonlinked. And speaking of which . . .” He placed his satchel on the table and started digging through it. “Here it is.” He pulled out a thin leather-bound book and handed it to Willem. “You will begin training immediately.”