by Audrey Faye
Rondos didn’t burn very easily, and Kis had aimed his fire really well. Lily opened her mouth to say so when she felt an odd squeezing motion in her head. ::I’m not old enough to need puny elves to fight my battles for me, missy.::
Lily didn’t say a word as an old dragon and old warrior went back to glaring at each other. She somehow wasn’t surprised when it was Irin who blinked first.
Chapter 13
Lily stared at her dragon, who was sitting with her tail in the water, calmly facing down Karis and Afran and making a very clear pronouncement. One that wasn’t going over well at all.
Oceana had apparently learned a different lesson in the nursery rondo than the intended one. She’d learned that sometimes rebellion worked, and that old dragons who put their feet down were very hard to move.
Lily sighed and shook her head at Karis. “She’s not changing her mind.”
Karis gave the small blue-green dragon a wry look. “No more fire lessons unless they involve Kis and a bath?”
Even those were just barely acceptable terms. Lily winced. This was not a case where it was fun to be the messenger.
Karis frowned and trailed her fingers in the water of the warm pool. Lotus had heated it this morning. Oceana had issued edicts there too. Afran wasn’t allowed to blow fire at her pool.
Lily held her silence. Their teacher was thinking, and that was hopefully a good thing. Irin would be yelling by now, but Karis was calmer, even if she was every bit as tough.
Karis raised her eyebrows and looked sternly at Oceana. “For now, Kis will be in charge of your fire lessons. You will also have lessons with Afran in dragon lore and history.” She glanced at Lily. “Your kin will stay with you and translate.”
Lily reached for another slice of bread and tried not to groan. Dragon lore and history were interesting enough the first time through, but she could probably recite them in her sleep by now. “I could do some of that with her. We don’t need Afran for all of it.”
::It is not for elves to teach the history of dragonkind::
Afran sounded almost annoyed. It was Karis who had Lily’s attention, though. Their teacher was staring at Oceana, bemused and trying not to laugh.
Lily hastily stuck her fingers back in the water—and then slapped her other hand, bread and all, over her mouth as she caught the tail end of her dragon’s reply. The one with a crystal-clear picture of Afran talking and Oceana lying on a rock, sound asleep, complete with a rumbling snore. A single giggle snuck out around the bread. Lily shook her head at her cheeky dragon. Afran would not be amused.
“He isn’t,” Karis said dryly. “But apparently, Oceana’s skill extends to talking to other dragon kin. Or perhaps beyond that.” She motioned to Kellen, who had brought down breakfast and stood hiding in the shadows, trying to offer moral support while staying out of the way of annoyed dragons. “Here, see if she can speak to you.”
Kellen’s eyes lit up. She moved to the water’s edge and dipped her fingers in. “Hello, pretty girl. What would you like for breakfast?”
Lily could feel that her dragon didn’t understand, so she repeated the words. Karis nodded, as if her suspicions had just been confirmed.
Oceana tilted her head and sent back a very clear picture of berry pastries. Kellen grinned and jumped up. “I brought some of those.”
Lily grinned as her friend jumped to feed her dragon. She wasn’t going to be one of those kin who didn’t like to share, especially when it made Kellen so happy. Instead, Lily kept a careful eye on the silent conversation passing between Afran and his kin.
Karis finally looked her way, eyes interested. “So Oceana can likely communicate with anyone who is in water—but we can’t all communicate with her.”
Lily nodded slowly. “Only dragons. And me.”
“Well, for now, we’re only certain of you and Kis.”
Right. Because all the other dragons hated water. Then Lily remembered. “And Fendellen. Oceana could understand her, at least some, even without water.”
Karis glanced at Afran and nodded. “She comes into her powers early. Dragon queens can speak mind-to-mind with anyone, but Fendellen is stronger than most queens already.”
Lily made a face. The Dragon Star should have picked Fendellen instead of a dragon who apparently only wanted to send impertinent thoughts to everyone and ignore their replies.
Afran rumbled and looked at the blue-green dragon currently nose-deep in a fruit pastry. ::Perhaps Fendellen should teach the next fire lessons.::
Karis raised an eyebrow. “It’s a thought. She did teach Lotus how to fly.”
Lily grimaced. Fendellen had done the final flying lesson, but Sapphire and Lotus had done a lot of work before that. Hard, dusty, bruising work. “I’ll take Oceana to see Kis today.”
Karis chuckled. “I’ll warn Irin.”
Kellen and Lily cringed together.
::I’ll warn Irin.:: Afran sounded amused this time. ::He was not pleased about fire in his nursery, but he will allow the lessons.::
Lily tilted her head at him, hearing an odd note in the dragon’s words.
It was Karis who provided the answer. “He’s pleased that his dragon has found a reason to wake up in the mornings.” She smiled over at Kellen. “Kis just sent for a second bowl of breakfast stew.”
That was a very big deal—for Kis, who often didn’t eat enough to keep his moods pleasant, and for Kellen, who had cooked the stew.
Lily set down her half-eaten bread and got up. Time to tell a small dragon that she might have won part of this battle, but she wasn’t going to win the war. If facing their biggest fear was what she and Oceana had to do, she needed to make sure one cheeky dragon did the work. It was time to go make their skin itch.
Chapter 14
Lily took a running leap and pulled her knees up to her chest, landing in a ball and spraying water everywhere. She laughed as Alonia splatted into the warm pool right beside her. Then they both cleared out of the way, because Sapphire and Kellen were already leaping.
The antics of elves finally free from lessons and chores and fire training. Lily looked around long enough to spy her dragon sitting on her sunning rock and eyeing all of them with astonishment. Lily had played in the pool with Oceana before, but apparently four wet elves were a shock.
Alonia came up behind her. “Maybe she doesn’t like being splashed.”
Lily snorted. When it came to splashing, her dragon gave as good as she got. She flicked a light spray Oceana’s way. “Come and play, silly creature.”
The vague impression she got before a blue-green streak launched off the rock was one of absolute glee. Lily didn’t bother warning her friends. Elves weren’t like dragons, especially her closest friends. None of them were fragile around water. Not since they’d built the pool, anyway. She ducked under the water, looking for her dragon, and heard Alonia’s surprised screech.
She surfaced just in time to see Kellen fall over laughing. Alonia picked Oceana up and glared at her, nose to nose. “Not funny.”
“It totally was.” Sapphire cackled and tipped herself sideways, splashing everyone in the pool. “You looked like one of those fish statues in your cousin’s garden.”
“Oh, sure.” Alonia sounded more amused than annoyed. “Just wait until she tries to squirt water into your mouth.”
Sapphire wasn’t done laughing. “I guess next time you’ll close yours instead of leaving it flapping in the wind.”
“I was trying to breathe,” Alonia said, angling Oceana in Sapphire’s direction. Lily grinned as her dragon happily cooperated and thunked her tail down on the surface of the water.
Kellen ducked under the spray, giggling. “No fair using a dragon as a weapon.”
Lily snorted as Oceana’s tail struck again. “She’s my dragon. She should get to be my weapon.”
“Finders, keepers.” Alonia winked at Oceana, tossed her high in the air, and got out of the way. Which wasn’t necessary. Blue-green wings unfurled and one small
dragon pushed herself skyward—and then turned around and folded her wings, plummeting back toward the pool like a dropped boulder.
Alonia gasped, which was a bad move, because it meant her mouth was open when Oceana hit the water. Lily managed to keep hers closed and dove under, picking up her feet so she could ride the wave of her dragon’s cannonball.
When she surfaced, the water level in the pool was a lot lower. Lily felt the much-colder water of the river behind her seeping in through the rock wall. She glared at her dragon, mostly in jest. “Keep that up and we’ll have to go find a dragon to heat up the water again.”
Oceana chittered happily and sent a picture of Kis.
Lily rolled her eyes. “If any of the rest of us woke him up as much as you do, we’d be turned into elf stew. He’s not about to leave his nice, comfortable bed just because you splashed too much water out of the pool.”
“He might.” Alonia laughed. “He likes Oceana. He only tolerates the rest of us.”
There was a lot of truth to that. Lily felt another cold finger of water reach her from the river, and dove under. There was more than one way to stay warm. Time to teach her friends the fine art of finding a dragon tail in the water.
By the time they pulled themselves out onto the sunning rocks, dripping wet and cold and having swallowed half the pool, the sun had worked its way much farther down in the sky, and Lily was as happy as she’d been in a long time. She ran a finger over her dragon’s very content, very droopy spikes. She swallowed, trying hard not to be sad at what would come next.
“What’s wrong?” Alonia frowned a little as she wrung the water out of her hair.
Nothing she wanted to share and spoil the best afternoon in forever. Lily kept her fingers in the water and her other hand on Oceana’s spikes. “It’s nothing.”
Sapphire snorted and hit her in the back of the head with the old cloth she was using to dry off.
Lily sighed. “Oceana feels so real right now. She’s all big and bright and strong in our kin bond.” She paused, not wanting to speak of the hard thing that had been weighing like a boulder in her chest since the first moment she’d felt her dragon. “She doesn’t usually feel like that.”
More like a shadow. Or a dragon ghost.
“It’s because we played with her.” Kellen’s voice was quiet, but she sounded unusually certain. “Oceana isn’t a baby, but she never really got to be one. She was alone all that time. She didn’t get to be silly with her friends, and I think she needs that. We learn by having fun together. Irin plays with the baby dragons too, even if he won’t admit it.”
Lily had seen that often enough. “Even Kis does. He pretends he’s thumping his tail in his sleep so they can chase it.”
Kellen nodded vigorously. “Exactly. If you make things too hard for a baby dragon, they quit. Or they fall asleep.”
That described Oceana exactly. “So we need to help her bond to us and to the dragons by playing together?” It made a lot of sense—until Lily tried to imagine Afran playing a game of tag.
“I think you’re right,” Sapphire said quietly. “You have to tell Karis. Or Irin.”
Kellen shook her head.
Lily swallowed hard. “Then I will, because if you’re right, trying to teach Oceana to be brave around fire is exactly the wrong lesson. She might quit or turn into a ghost or nap all day.” Things Oceana knew how to do really well, because being alone for a hundred years or more would have been the hardest of hard.
Alonia nodded slowly. “Like Kis.”
Lily stared. It was exactly like Kis. When he tried to sleep all day, they took turns going to sing to him and bringing his favorite foods and asking him to tell stories. Not playing, but making sure he had lots of reasons to keep opening his eyes.
A throat cleared behind them. “What’s like Kis?”
Lily scrambled to her feet, staring at Karis and Irin.
Karis looked at Sapphire. “Lotus told Afran you wanted to see us.”
“I told Lotus to send the message.” Sapphire glared back at Lily’s dirty look. “You’re marked by the Dragon Star, just like I am. That means what Kellen said is important. If we’re trying to teach Oceana the wrong lessons, they need to know.”
Lily swallowed hard. She didn’t like that explanation at all, but she couldn’t say it was wrong.
“Sounds like an interesting discussion.” Irin took a seat on a rock and cast Lily a calm glance. “Tell us how you think Oceana needs to be taught.”
Lily’s throat felt like she was swimming underwater and desperate for air. “I think Kellen should explain it.” She looked over at her friend and tried to put as much apology and pride as she could into her eyes. “It’s her idea, and I think she’s right, and she can explain it the best.”
Kellen just squeaked.
Irin picked up a small stick and twirled it between his fingers. “I’m not surprised. Kellen has more sense than any three other elves I know.”
Kellen’s squeak this time was a lot more surprised.
Irin raised an eyebrow at her. “If you have something to say, missy, we’re both smart enough to listen.”
“It’s mostly about Karis.” Kellen was almost whispering. She gulped and looked at Karis. “And Afran.”
Karis’s lips twitched. “Speak, youngling. Neither Afran nor I are so fragile that we can’t handle a few critical words.”
“It’s not criticism, exactly.” Kellen’s words came out as a whoosh. “We all have things we do really well, but sometimes we can get stuck in them.”
Karis nodded solemnly. “That sounds like a wise observation.”
Kellen’s voice steadied a little. “I’m small and feisty and I’m really good at being patient, but sometimes I can be patient for too long and not speak up when something’s wrong.” She took a deep breath. “You and Afran are really wise and good at figuring out what lessons we need to learn, but you stick to those ideas for a long time. Which helps us to learn hard things, but—” She broke off, twisting her fingers in her tunic.
Karis reached out and tipped up her chin. “But sometimes we stick to ideas that might be wrong. You think we might be doing that this time.”
Kellen looked almost ready to cry. “Maybe.”
An enormous dragon nose moved in and whiffed air on Kellen’s cheek. ::To speak such words to those you respect takes enormous courage, youngling.::
Lily swallowed, really grateful for her friend’s brave words and that Karis and Afran had been able to hear them.
Kellen sat down abruptly, clearly realizing what she had just done.
Karis laughed. “Oh no, my small and feisty student. You don’t get out of this that easily. You’ve told us we’re holding too tightly to the wrong ideas. Now you need to tell us the idea you’ve kept quiet about, perhaps for too long.”
Kellen’s cheeks flushed even more pink. “I don’t have much of one. Just that we need to play, exactly like we did today.”
Lily had a quick mental vision of a bunch of dragons splashing around in her pool like half-grown elves and laughed. That surely wouldn’t work.
And then she felt the wave of need smash into her. Oceana, picking up her silly idea through the water that connected them both. Seeing the dragons in the water. Wanting. Desperately, frantically yearning for that to be real.
Oh, no. Lily reached for her dragon, arms out, heart cracking. “It can’t happen. The dragons are too scared of the water.” She was already cursing herself for what had been a light joke in her head. “We’ll find a way for you to play together, but it can’t be that.”
“I’m not so sure.” Irin’s gruff voice sounded surprised—astonished, even. And more than a little alarmed. “I have a dragon in my head who doesn’t agree with you.”
Lily just stared at him.
Karis found her words first. “You think we should ask the dragons to go swimming?”
Irin swayed a little, looking totally poleaxed. “I don’t. But the old man does.”
&nbs
p; Kis. Lily hissed in a breath. It would never work. Ever. “He’s the only one who can even put his tail in.”
“I know.” Irin nodded, and his back straightened. “Kis says this will be hard, but that Kellen is correct. We were asking hard of the wrong dragons.”
Karis was looking at Irin like he’d grown soup greens out his ears. “We can’t ask the dragons to go swimming.”
Irin’s lips turned up in a faint smile. “We won’t have to.” Eyes flashing with pride, he turned his head toward the village. “He will.”
Lily stared—and then a great dragon bugle rang out into the night, bouncing off her ears and all the way up to the sky.
Karis sucked in a single shocked breath. “A challenge? Is he mad?”
Lily felt her stomach drop into her feet. She knew what that was, even though she’d never heard one. A formal dragon call to arms. A cry that had not rung for more than ten generations. And one that no self-respecting dragon would be able to ignore.
Kis had just called all of dragonkind into battle.
Interlude
Lovissa woke, shuddering and cold and taking far longer than a warrior should to realize that the elf-infested water had not touched her scales.
A dream. A true one, a vision of the time that would come in some forsaken land where dragons and elves shared the bond of kin.
She shook the visceral disgust off her skin. She had seen the dreams for an entire winter, and the prophecy was clear. One day, not all dragons would feel as she felt.
Amusement filtered through the less-pleasant feelings. At least the dragons to come still retained the proper attitude toward water. She puffed out air slowly into a morning not yet warmed by the sun. The old yellow warrior had been a frequent visitor in her dreams, and he had earned her respect. His injuries, scarred and grievous, would have made him a hero in her time.
But even old heroes could take wrong steps. Damaged warriors, seeking the glory of battle one more time.