by Jada Fisher
Ukrah nodded. “Yeah, I have some writing work to do for Governess Dille as it is.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” He laughed and patted the top of her head. Ukrah pushed his hand away, sticking her tongue out at him, but he just caught it between his fingers, which made her jerk back and sputter. “In case you were curious, that was how I got the lord’s dog to stop nipping,” he teased before sauntering out the door.
Ukrah might have pouted, but it was a bit funny so instead she let herself have a chuckle before reaching for the work she had left on her nightstand. With any luck, she might get it done before he came back.
“Huh, I haven’t heard the manor so quiet in weeks. Are you still alive in there?”
Ukrah roused, not aware that she had even fallen asleep, and looked blearily to her door as Eist stepped in.
“Oh!” the woman said, clearly surprised to see her charge in bed. “This is an unusual sight.”
“I hurt my knee,” Ukrah groaned, looking out the window to see that the sun was beginning to set. Goodness, maybe she really had been pushing herself too hard. “Didn’t Crispin tell you?”
“Crispin? No, I haven’t seen him.”
That didn’t seem right, and she roused a bit more. There was a flutter as Tayir settled on her windowsill, and he sounded worried as he spoke.
I’ve been watching for him for a few hours. He hasn’t come back.
“At all?”
“No, why?”
Ukrah was confused for a moment before she realized that the God-Woman had thought that she was talking to her. Oh well, it worked either way.
“Crispin went out to get some willow bark. He should have been back by now.”
“Hmmm, that’s unusual. Maybe he just got distracted and decided to treat himself for a bit. I know he still has a bit of coin in his pocket, and he has been cooped up in here for quite a while.”
Ukrah’s stomach twisted and she tried to stand. Her knee hurt too much, however, and she sank to her sheets with a groan.
“You don’t think he… he…”
“That he what?” the God-Woman asked, coming closer and sitting on the edge of the bed.
“That he…left, do you?”
Eist’s eyes widened before a knowing smile crossed her face. It wasn’t a broad one, but there was a strange sort of comfort to the curl of her lips. “Oh, child. I understand. I won’t lie to you and say there’s no chance of that happening. After all, he’s a young man who’s basically been a slave his whole life and there’s a large world full of adventure, fun, and temptation out there. But I will say that that seems very unlikely. It seems that you saving his life has definitely bonded the boy to you. I’d say it would take some pretty serious acts of magic or gods to separate the two of you.”
“You think so?”
Eist nodded. “I do. And I’m a pretty excellent judge of character.” Something dark crossed behind her eyes and her smile faltered ever-so-slightly. “Well, most of the time.”
Ukrah wanted to ask what she meant, but the woman stood, her voice forcefully cheery. “Well, I don’t want you tumbling down the stairs, so I’ll send Cassinda up with some dinner for you. I’ve noticed the two of you seem to be on your way to friendship.”
Were they? It wasn’t something that Ukrah particularly noticed. Ever since that one night they had eavesdropped together, most of the time they spent in each other’s presence was studying silently. But she wasn’t about to argue, so she just nodded.
“Alright. I’ll go see what Mrs. Kaldonner is up to. She got a bit of a late start today because Fior insisted she scratch under his wings for a good long while. I think she has strong nails or something like that.”
“Uh-huh.” Strange to think that the savior of the whole world was babbling to her about a cook’s nails. But either way, Eist left and Ukrah tried to tell herself that Crispin had just been delayed and would be back soon. Probably before she and Cassinda could even finish their shared meal.
Yeah. She had nothing to worry about. Or at least that was what she told herself repeatedly.
Crispin did not come back before they finished their meal. He didn’t come back during the evening either. Even late into the night, when the sun had long since set and Mrs. Kaldonner was lighting the hall lanterns, there was no sign of him.
Unlike most nights, both Eist and Athar visited her before her sleep, assuring her that Crispin was probably just out having fun or visiting a friend in the governess’s castle. But their eyes spoke differently. They thought he had left her.
To be honest, she thought that too.
And it stung. It stung sharper than it had any right to, but if there were only that, she would have been able to endure it. The thing was, it wasn’t just abandonment churning in her belly.
No. There was worry there too. Fear. What if something had happened to him? What if he had fallen, gotten lost? Robbed even? Would she ever know? Would anyone know? What if he was laying in some alley, injured and unable to get to her?
Those thoughts in addition to her earlier sleep kept her up even later. She knew that she would be exhausted the next day, but she couldn’t ease her mind. Every moment that ticked by was another moment where more bitterness seeped in.
When she finally did manage to fall asleep, there was no relief.
It seemed like her eyes had just closed when a murky scene slowly swirled into being around her, like a painting swirling to life. She was…somewhere dark. Crowded. Indoors? She puzzled over it, her mind straining, but soon a thud drew her attention.
There, in the center of the dark room, was Crispin. He was on his knees and doubled over, his hair matted with blood and his breathing ragged. Suddenly, all of Ukrah’s worst fears rushed her, and she ran forward.
Only to move right through him.
She skittered to a stop on his other side, whirling to see another man materialize and punch the boy across the face. He let out a defeated sound, slumping to the ground. The man who had struck him grabbed his shirt, hauling him up and hissing something she couldn’t hear.
He was wearing armor that was vaguely familiar to her. It was nothing like the complete and amazing sets she had seen the dragon riders in, but it was more than any peasant could hope to afford. She racked her mind, trying to recall where she knew those colors from, when he drew back his fist again.
“Stop!” Ukrah cried, rushing forward once more, arms raised to protect her friend.
Only to fall right out of bed.
She hit the floor and shock jolted through her, followed by a wave of pain from her swollen knee. She let out a single bark of surprise before her mind cleared and realization snapped to her.
Crispin hadn’t left her.
He had been taken.
8
All Sorts of Surprises
Ukrah pelted down the hall as quickly as she could considering how stiff and painful her knee was. She pressed through it, however, with a singular mantra running through her head.
Crispin was hurt. He needed her. She had to save him.
Just those three things, over and over and over again. She knew that any other person might dismiss the nightmare as just that, a nightmare, but she knew better. From the bottom of her feet to the top of her head, she knew without a doubt that someone was hurting her closest, and really only, friend.
He hadn’t abandoned her because of her neediness, or her foreignness, or even because of her strange power. He hadn’t been overtaken by wanderlust or greed or whatever it was young men got all preoccupied with in their transitions from children to men.
No, he was in danger.
She had to save him.
Ukrah burst into what she was fairly certain was the W’allenhauses’ bedroom, but she was surprised to see absolutely no one there. Just a large, large bed with a canopy and several rumpled blankets.
Strange sounds drew her to a slightly ajar door in the corner with a slow glow around it. She rushed forward, even though she was aware that she was b
eing more than a bit rude, but she didn’t have time for politeness. Ukrah gripped the door and opened it to reveal the God-Woman in her nightgown, kneeling on the floor over her chamber pot and throwing up for all she was worth.
“Lady W’allenhaus!” Ukrah exclaimed, uncertain what to do. Seeing the woman sick to her stomach and on the floor was possibly the last thing she had expected.
“What are you doing here?” the woman rasped when her stomach was done heaving.
“C-C-Crispin,” Ukrah sputtered, but she didn’t have time to get further before Athar rushed in, a pitcher of cool well water in his hands.
“Here, drink this,” he said, crouching beside her. “You haven’t been sick in a couple years. Do you think you ate something off?”
The woman shook her head, taking the water and chugging it down before looking to Ukrah with bloodshot eyes.
“What about Crispin?”
“I-I had a dream,” Ukrah said uncertainly. She felt like she had definitely violated their privacy, but she knew that every second wasted was a second more that Crispin was being hurt. “Someone took him. Was hurting him.”
The two shared a look, and Eist held out her hand. Her husband helped her to her feet, and she wiped her mouth. “Alright then. Given your history, I’m willing to bet that it’s a vision rather than a nightmare.”
Ukrah let out a breath of relief. They believed her. She had almost expected them to scold her for bursting in their room in the middle of the night. “We have to save him,” she said urgently, the only thing she could think of.
“Alright,” Athar said, his voice surprisingly calm considering that in a very short order his wife had gotten sick in their chamber room and their charge had basically broken into their sleeping quarters. “Then we’ll go find him. But do you have any idea where he might be? Did you see anything telling?”
Ukrah shook her head. “He was in a small room, dark, but that was all I could see. I… I don’t know where he is.”
“Yes, you do,” Eist said tiredly, crossing to the bed and sitting on the edge of it. “You just need to accept it.”
“I… I do not understand.”
Eist sighed, taking another long swig of water before looking at Ukrah frankly. “Look, you’ve been hiding from whatever brought you here since you got here. You treat the magic that clearly is fueling you like a foreign entity rather than another part of yourself. If you had a vision about Crispin, you know where he is. You just have to let yourself.”
Ukrah stared at her uncertainly. It was the closest she had ever gotten to a reprimand, and it made her stomach twist. The magic was a part of her? She already knew where Crispin was?
Athar looked from Ukrah to Eist. “Why don’t you and Ukrah go out on Fior to the west and I’ll go south with Estelle. Maybe grab Dille and her girls?”
“I can’t,” Eist said with an aggravated sigh. That certainly got both of their attention and they stared at her.
“Why not?” Athar asked, his tone a very practiced neutral.
“Because…” Ukrah tried her hardest not to stare, but she couldn’t really help it. It felt like they were balance on a pinhead, waiting for the end of her sentence. “Because I’m not supposed to fly right now.”
Athar let out a long breath, and Ukrah imagined that he’d had to deal with Eist’s stubbornness many, many times. If there was one thing the legends had all agreed on, it was that the woman was as relentless as they came. “Why can’t you fly, Eist?”
Ukrah didn’t know what she expected. The entire day had gone any way except what she would normally anticipate, for all she knew the woman could say that she was actually a ghost or had forgotten where up was.
But instead she just crossed her arms and looked more irritated than Ukrah had ever seen her before.
“Because I’m pregnant, Athar. I am with child. Are you happy now?”
There was a moment where no one said anything, the both of them staring at her like she had just started speaking in tongues. But then Athar let out a shout and caught her up in a gentle hug. “Are you certain!?” he asked, practically bellowing with happiness.
“Yes. I didn’t want to tell you until I was certain. I’m just beyond three moons, as far as we know.”
“We?”
“Well, I have been going to see the healers, you know. I’m stubborn, but I’m not that stubborn.”
“I can’t believe it!” the man said, practically shaking with excitement, which certainly was a sight to behold. “I’m going to be a f-f-father!”
“That really is wonderful,” Ukrah said cautiously. “But Crispin?”
“Ukrah, you go get dressed. You too, Athar. Meet me down at the entryway as soon as you’re both decent.”
Ukrah nodded, her heart jumping at the thought that they were moving toward saving Crispin, and she rushed off toward her room.
She chose one of her training outfits instead of the two dresses she had. Besides, she still usually needed Cassinda’s help to get into that sort of fare.
She dressed faster than she ever had before, sprinting down to the entryway to see Eist standing there in her night dress and a pair of breeches with soft-skin shoes on her feet.
“Of course, you got here first,” she said. “Come on, Athar will catch up with us. He knows where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?” Ukrah asked, hurrying along after the woman. It felt like her mind was still trying to catch up with itself, and it wasn’t until they were well across the yard that she realized that Tayir wasn’t with her.
Right, he had taken to sleeping on the roof, or at least that was what he told her. He wouldn’t be awake for several hours, and she certainly had no desire to climb onto the roof and get him.
That was fine. He would probably just be a crank anyway. While he constantly complained about Ukrah wasting her time studying to be a dragon rider instead of ‘nurturing the power within herself,’ he certainly liked always having water and easy access to food.
But all her thoughts about what she should do with the strange talking bird that translated for her fell when she realized exactly where she was.
They were standing in front of what she recognized as the house that the dragons had come out of that fateful day when she first met them.
“Fior! Estelle!” Eist called out.
There was no response for several moments, then an almost comical yawn. Footsteps sounded behind them, and Athar joined them just as two shapes stepped out from under the large tapestry that Ukrah guessed was the dragons’ version of an entrance.
By that point, the duo was familiar to her and she recognized both Fior and Estelle as they trundled over. Well, trundled wasn’t the right word for Fior, who was prancing forward happily and nuzzled up to Eist the moment he was close enough.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s my boy. You haven’t been sleeping up on the balcony much, I was starting to think you were too cool for me with all of your new dragon friends.”
He let out a trill, and Ukrah was almost certain that he understood every word of the God-Woman. She was no expert herself, but supposedly dragons were only supposed to know a handful of phrases and their rider’s intent. But the brindled beast in front of her definitely seemed to comprehend everything she meant.
“Listen, I know I haven’t taken you flying in a while, but it’s going to be a lot longer before we can do any of that. What I need you do to is take Ukrah here and help her find her friend. You can do that for me, right? Go easy on her and all of that?”
The dragon’s beautiful, crystalline eyes flitted from her to Eist, as if he was deciding. There were a couple of breaths of uncertainty, but then he wuffled in a way that seemed like he was asking her how she could ever doubt him.
“That’s my boy,” Eist said, clapping her hands to either side of his wide head and bending it down for her to kiss. “I remember when once you were smaller than me. It seems like forever ago now, doesn’t it?” They shared a happy sound, and suddenly Ukrah understood w
hy Eist wanted her to be a dragon rider so intensely.
Ukrah had been living with the woman for almost three months, and she rarely saw her interact with anyone outside of her small tribe from the war. Even though she was friendly enough, there was always a closed-off air to her, like she had built fortress walls around herself and only certain people were ever allowed a peek inside. But with her dragon… Well, it was like she was fully open. Trusting and happy. Although Eist obviously had that with her husband, and maybe even Dille, it had to be comforting to know that she had her dragon no matter what.
What a comfort indeed.
Ukrah wouldn’t mind feeling like that. Like she would always have a soulmate to confide in and lean on. Another half. Maybe the dragon rider thing was something she could be invested in too, instead of just doing it because it was what she thought Eist wanted.
“Before you get on, let me armor you up. And I’m not letting you go out with just a staff, so you’re going to have your very first experience with a pike. Don’t worry, it was my first real weapon too so I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“Eist…” Athar said warningly. But the woman was already heading into the building the dragons had exited from. Ukrah followed her, expecting just a wide, barnlike room, but what she was greeted by was entirely different.
Sure, the building was large and lofty, just like one would expect from a place that was supposed to hold dragons. But there was also a deep drop in one half of it, disappearing into a rocky tunnel that was wide enough for even Estelle to get through comfortably.
To one side was a fairly lush garden surrounded by piles of hay, while to the other stood several chests, and both an armor and a weapons rack!
And not even racks for humans, but rather at least four different sets of armor made specifically for the dragons. They were huge, beautiful pieces, even those that were damaged by battle, and they stole her breath away.
“Now, we’re going for covert, so Fior’s going to stay as he is, but I think you could use some chest pads and maybe some bracers. Definitely something for your thighs.” She crossed over to the chests and started hauling things out, putting some to the side then tossing others back at Ukrah.