Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor (6 page)

Either way, I had a very attentive student. I went back to teaching her words, occasionally doing a charcoal picture if it proved beyond my ability to explain.

She was trying for short sentences—which was just as likely confusing as not—when Garth showed up at our camp that evening. He held a long chain in his hand, wrapped around his forearm so tightly that I could only see it was made of some sort of black metal.

“Garth-friend!” Kaya greeted enthusiastically. She bounded over to him—yes, bounded, just like an energetic puppy—barely stopping before she bowled him over. “I have name! Kaya!”

Garth had to process that a second to make sense of it. “Your name is Kaya?”

“Kaya, Kaya,” she repeated, tail swishing in a happy rhythm.

“I’m glad you found a name you like,” he said to her. It didn’t take a genius to understand why he was holding back a laugh. In the fairytale, Kaya was a beautiful enchantress that could steal any man’s heart and charm anyone into doing what she wanted. The moral of the story, of course, was to never follow someone you didn’t really know.

That she had chosen
that
name was a bit ironic, but I wasn’t about to talk her out of it. She was happy, so I was happy.

“Yes, I know it’s funny. She likes it, though.”

“Like!” Kaya agreed.

“I have no room to comment,” Garth admitted easily, unwrapping the chain from around his hand. “After all, Night is short for ‘Nightmare.’”

I hadn’t known that; surprised by the admission, I laughed before I could bite it back. “After hearing all the stories, I can see why.”

He just shrugged; traces of laughter still on his face. “Well, I told Cora and Chatta about my idea, and this is what they concocted.”

In both hands, he held up a very long chain, letting it hang so that we could properly see it. It just grazed the ground, formed with thick, long links. At its point hung a long, tear-shaped disk that had my seal carved into it. I lifted the seal to get a better look at it. The flame with the elaborately curved H was very well done, and someone had put a spell onto it so that it shone white against the black metal, standing out in high contrast. “Nice. It looks very sharp.”

“When I told Chatta that Kaya is a deep red, she
insisted
that I had to make the chain and seal out of a black metal,” Garth explained, holding the chain up so that Kaya could get a better look at it. She kept inching closer, nostrils flaring as she sniffed at it. “As far as I know, there’s no such thing as
black
metal, but I know how to make steel black. I thought that steel would be a good choice, anyway. It’s more durable that way.”

“I think you’re both right on target. For a temporary measure, it looks great.” Maybe there was a way to make the harness incorporate the chain? I didn’t really want to take it off and put it in some drawer after the harness was made. Well, I guess I could figure that out later. “Kaya, this is yours.”

She tilted her head to look at me. “Kaya have?”

“Yup, yours. This,” I tapped the seal, “says you’re my friend.”

Oh boy, she liked that. Her eyes lit up. “Like!”

“Thought you would.”

“Kaya, if you lower your head a bit, we’ll put it on,” Garth directed.

“On?” Kaya knew the word, but in the way I’d explained it to her, it didn’t mean the same thing in this context.

I lifted a part of the chain. “It goes around your neck, like this.” Of course, with it wrapped around my shoulders, it was ridiculously huge, but she got the general idea.

“On, please,” she asked, lowering her head so that it was level with my shoulders.

Garth took one side, I the other, and we lifted it carefully over her horns and flared ridges to settle at the base of her neck. The chain didn’t quite hang right, though. Garth frowned slightly, adjusting it, but it was just too long. It dangled so that it hit her thighs when she moved.

“Hm. I think I estimated this wrong. Kaya, hold still and I’ll fix it.”

She froze, tilting her neck around so that she could watch him.

I had no idea what Garth did. All I know was he lifted the seal, focusing intently on the chains. The metal glowed and shifted under his direction, becoming shorter. When he let the seal drop again, it rested right in the center of her chest. “There, that’s better.”

A soft, rumbling purr rolled out of Kaya’s chest. “Pretty.”

Yes, definitely a girl. Figured she liked jewelry.

Kaya nudged her nose against Garth’s cheek. “Garth-friend nice. Give pretty.”

“I think you’re officially a favorite, Garth,” I drawled, fighting a smile as he blushed and tried to find his balance under her nudging.

“Getting that impression,” he responded, chuckling. “I’m glad you like it, Kaya. When you and Krys get home, we’ll make you another pretty. Does that sound good?”

“More pretty?” she asked, sounding intrigued by this idea.

Uh-oh, this might start a bad trend. My sisters had taught me how to read the warning signs. “Garth, are you teaching my dragon to accessorize?”

He just winked at me. “Dragons are supposed to
like
treasure.”

“This is only funny to you because
you
don’t have to pay for it,” I shot back.

He laughed and didn’t deny it. “Well, I can’t stay long. Chatta wants me home in time for dinner. Are you fine on supplies?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” I assured him, still irritated that he’d put the notion of more jewelry into Kaya’s head. I knew better than to hope that she’d forget about it. She hadn’t forgotten anything yet. “I’d planned to be up here for about three weeks anyway, I should have enough food to get home.”

“Then I’ll see you later.” Garth gave Kaya’s neck a friendly pat. “See you at home, Kaya.”

She cocked her head, thinking about his words. I’d explained the idea of home to her, so she had to know roughly what he meant. “Home have pretty?”

There was an outrageous twinkle in Garth’s eyes when he answered. “That’s right.”

“Like home,” she purred.

It was official. I was in trouble. “Thanks a lot, Garth,” I grumbled.

Choking back a laugh, he gave me a sloppy salute and disappeared onto the earth path.

~*~

We developed a routine over the next two days. At night, I slept cuddled up next to her. I didn’t get much choice about that. If I tried to sleep with any distance between us, she’d sulk, wait until I was asleep, and then wrap herself around me anyway. During the day, we walked and I taught her words. She knew enough now to where I could use words to teach other words.

When we stopped for the evening, I tried to get her used to the idea of me sitting on her. I did this cautiously at first, because let’s face it, I’m not really a small man. I’m not particularly tall (Chahirans tend to be short compared to the rest of the world) but after years of smithing, I’d gained quite a bit of bulk. I didn’t for one minute believe that I’d break her with my body weight, but I could put strain on her without intending to. So I took this in easy steps. I’d lounge against her side, or straddle her leg, or perch on the base of her neck. Not once did she make any sign of pain or discomfort. So my puny human weight didn’t daunt her, eh? No surprise, she liked it when I did this. Maybe the transition to riding her would be easy.

Inevitably, we reached a town. Border towns were normally a rough sort of place. Every border town I’d ever seen was made with native stone, roughly hewn and packed to form small buildings. It wasn’t a place where you found much decoration as everything focused on utility. This one obviously thrived on capturing and taming dragoos. I saw several holding yards that held dragoos.

It was also inevitable that as soon as the occupants of that town saw Kaya, they started grabbing the first weapon at hand.

In a minute flat, before we were even near the edge of town, I had a full platoon of militia lined up in front of me with swords, spears, and a few axes at the ready.

Kaya had never seen weapons before. She didn’t know what they were and so stared at the militia in bewilderment. I was the one having panic attacks.

“Wait, wait, calm down!” I called to them, waving both hands in a stand down gesture. “She’s my dragon.”

“No one tames a dragon, boy,” one of the men, a gruff older sort with scraggly hair, said to me derisively.

Oh for the love of—I threw up a long, sinuous line of fire that coiled around my body. In the late afternoon light, with the shade of a scraggly forest throwing shadows around me, the red-gold fire stood out in sharp contrast. It made my spectators jump. However, they finally paused and really
looked
at me. Good, now that I had their attention…

“I am Haikrysen, a Fire Mage. Gentlemen, she is my familiar. There is nothing you need to worry about.”

A middle-aged man with twin swords gave me a slow look from head to toe. Aside from the fire curling around me, I
looked
like a mage. I had the long blond hair that most mages did, the blue eyes and fair skin of a Chahiran, and the seal of a Fire Mage was on the left breast pocket of my shirt. He started uncertainly, “Well, if you’re a mage…”

From behind me, there was a slight snapping sound. I jerked around and looked up. Kaya had her mouth open, snapping at my fire trail. “Kaya, stop eating the fire.”

She paused mid-snap. “Can’t eat?”

“You’re ruining my scary impression, sweetheart,” I told her.

She thought about that for a moment. “Eat fire later?”

“What
is
it with you and eating fire?” I asked her in exasperation, trying to ignore the laughter behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and found that some were laughing, and others were scratching their heads, as if they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing. Well, not the impression I was trying to give, but I guessed this worked too. “Gentlemen, I’m sure you can now agree that she’s not a man-eating, mindless beast.”

“Well, I’ll grant I ain’t seen that before,” the twin swords guy agreed with a slow smile. “Magus, where’d you catch her?”

If he thought he could make better money catching and taming dragons, he was in for a rude surprise.

“Other way around, Goodman. Other way around. She caught
me
.”

“Why don’t I buy you a drink,” he offered, smile widening, “and you tell me the
whooole
story.”

“After the week I’ve had,” I sighed, “I can use one. But make it some place with outside seating? She doesn’t let me out of her sight.”

“Drink?” Kaya asked, sounding interested.

“And some water for you too, dragoness,” the man promised her. “I’m Beck.”

I gave him a polite bow. “Thank you for the gift of your name, Beck.”

Kaya stretched out, coming just close enough to touch the tip of her nose to his chest. “Beck-friend.”

As I watched him bemusedly scratch her chin—which she loved, judging by the tail thumping—I realized that maybe her name was more accurate than I thought. She was certainly charming, if she could convince a hardened border man to buy her a drink.

~*~

Beck turned out to be a godsend. As it happened, he was the head of the town militia and the only policeman in the area. Once convinced that Kaya was harmless—which she did by drinking an entire trough of water and then rubbing up against him in thanks—he spread the word. All at once I was surrounded by people who wanted to meet my dragon. The novelty of petting a tame dragon was apparently too much to resist. Kaya lapped up the attention.

What was really helpful was that Beck introduced us to the right people to help. Hortin was the leather craftsman of the town and the one that everyone went to for dragoo harnesses and the like. I actually mistook him as the town drunk the first moment I laid eyes on him, just because of his ruddy complexion and stooped posture. It wasn’t until we were introduced that I saw the strength in his arms, the tough quality of his skin and the shrewdness in his dark eyes.

He took on making a harness and saddle for Kaya as an interesting challenge. In exchange for the gear, I worked a bit for him, burning names and designs into finished saddles that he had. It was much faster for me to do it than him, after all, and more accurate besides.

I didn’t have him do the typical bridle that dragoos wore. Instead, I sketched out the bridle that Night wore, something that went across the chest. Once I’d explained that the bar was made so that she could feel the pressure, indicating where I wanted to go, Hortin was intrigued. He started making that first, designing the rest of the gear to match it.

Kaya would come watch us, off and on, but what really captivated her attention was the holding pen of dragoos nearby. I kept telling her to leave them alone, as they were obviously terrified of her, but she couldn’t seem to ignore them. She kept inching closer and closer to the fence, making whining noises in the back of her throat. “Friend, no hurt, friend,” she told them over and over.

I finally left her to it. If she wanted to make friends with the dragoos, fine.

We did have a rough start to our stay there, though. Kaya filched sheep from two different farmer’s pens before I finally got it through her head that if it was surrounded by a fence, she could
not
eat it without someone’s permission. I had to recompense both farmers for their lost sheep, although fortunately they weren’t
too
upset. No doubt they’d use this story for a good laugh for many years to come.

Beyond frustrated with her, I finally took her out hunting into the wild area to the east of the town and
showed
her what was a good place to hunt. After that, the concept caught on, and I didn’t have anymore outraged farmers tracking me down at Hortin’s workshop. Satisfied that Kaya could be left more or less to her own devices, I went back to work.

Late on the third day of our stay in the town, Hortin and I were at work on our separate projects, when he said out of the blue, “Legend has it, many generations ago, that there were dragon riders.”

I nearly dropped the saddle I was working on. “I’ve never heard that.”

“Probably because the only dragon riders were either Fire Mages or Life Mages,” he answered, eyes still on the leather in his hands. “As I hear it, anything to do with magic was purged from Chahiran history.”