Tears of War (21 page)

Mckale felt a hesitation in the dragon’s sending.
“You sense something.What?”
He glanced at his bondmate again.

“I don’t know. Something makes her tired, but I don’t know what it is, only that it isn’t illness.”

Mckale rubbed the tension in the back of his neck with his free hand. He watched her face, reading the exhaustion in it as easily as he could feel it. She needed to rest for a while. A good rest could do wonders.

Maleena looked up at him and shook her head. “You shouldn’t worry so much. I said I wasn’t ill and I would know as easily as Nydara would.”

He smiled slightly; of course she would overhear his conversation with her dragon. “You are tired, more so than usual.”

“It has been a long ride. I’m not used to it.”

“You didn’t tire like this when we traveled from your home after we first met. You were less used to it then. It worries me.”

She yawned again. “I know. I sense your worry and read it in your mind. I just need to sleep in a bed I think. I don’t sleep well on the hard ground.”

He refrained from mentioning that she slept like the dead every night, barely stirring once she laid her head down.

The last rays of the sun sank below the mountains, drawing the dark purple of deep dusk across the sky behind it. The cold sharpened and the wind drove it through his cloak. Mckale enjoyed the crisp refreshing feel, but Maleena drew her cloak tighter around herself. Raised in this weather it didn’t feel cold to Mckale. He felt the beginning of spring in the chill. But Maleena was more sensitive to it. Perhaps a combination of the cold and weeks on the hard ground really were the cause of her exhaustion.

An hour later, as full dark settled over the world, they rode in among the first houses set well apart from each other. Light spilled out of unshuttered windows into front gardens. The familiar smells of evening meals being served filled the air. They passed occasional open windows from which quiet conversation filtered through.

A wash of pleasure flowed through Mckale as they approached the house he’d grown up in. Built solid and added on to several times, it was a large house with a wide porch. With his bond-enhanced sight, he saw the familiar lines of its two-story roof and the lines of the barn behind it that housed the horses, chickens, and the small herd of goats.

His family’s property, set near the edge of town, stretched over several acres. Another street or two in, the houses got closer together as the gardens became smaller.

They stopped in the front garden and Mckale dismounted, looping his reins around the cross post out front. Maleena slid off her mare and sighed with relief, stifling another yawn. She carefully tied the small horse to the same cross bar. Together, they walked up the steps to the well-maintained house. Mckale knocked on the heavy wooden door. From inside the house, a dog barked and whined. He could have just walked in, but somehow, the past couple of years separated him from this place in a way he hadn’t noticed until this moment. This was his birthplace, his childhood home, but it wasn’t home anymore. Home was Galdrilene and the lair he shared with Maleena and their dragons. These people were his family, but the other riders had become even more so.

The small square flap set in the door opened and his younger sister’s face peeked through. “Who…?”

He smiled. She had grown up while he was gone. “Hello, Sonja.”

“Oh, by the Fates!” The little square slammed shut and the door swung open. She threw herself into his arms. “Mckale!”

He hugged her back as fiercely. At eighteen, she stood nearly as tall as him now. He released her and she stepped back. “You’ve grown, Sonja.”

A white shaggy dog with a black mask had followed Sonja out of the door and jumped on Mckale with something between a yip and whine. Mckale ruffled the dog’s fur and rubbed behind its ears.

The young woman smiled and twirled around, her long, dark hair flowing around her. “Grandme says I’m as tall as Mumma was.”

He smiled through a twinge of sadness. “I think you are, although it has been so long the memories fade.” He sensed Maleena hanging back, allowing him this moment with his sister. Under that, he felt her nervousness. She still wasn’t good at meeting new people.

He turned slightly and slid his arm around her, drawing her up beside him. “I would like to introduce you to Maleena.”

Sonja’s eyes widened. She glanced at his arm resting comfortably around Maleena’s shoulders and he could almost see the gears turning in his sister’s mind. Sonja had always been quick of mind and he knew she picked up immediately that Maleena was more than a traveling companion.

His sister gazed at the much shorter woman for a moment. What was going through her mind? He hoped it was welcoming because Maleena would pick up on everything in Sonja’s head. His sister had always had an open mind.

“Welcome, Maleena,” Sonja said, a smile blooming on her face. “It seems Mckale’s travels have taken him among beautiful women.” She glanced at Mckale. “Beautiful enough to catch his attention when no woman in Calladar was ever good enough. There will be several girls at the Spring Dance that will first celebrate over the news you are back and then weep with jealousy when they hear you are attached.”

Mckale only smiled and reached down to rub the dog’s head again. “And this is our dog, Mola. She was barely out of puppyhood when I left. I guess dogs have good memories.”

Maleena knelt down and reached out with her hand. Mckale sensed her reaching out to the dog mentally as well and watched Mola’s instant acceptance of her without surprise. Sonja’s eyes widened though. “Wow, Mola never befriends someone that quickly. She must really like you.”

“Sonja!” a deep voice shouted from within the house. “Who is at the door? If it’s that young man come to loiter about and beg to be chosen by you at Spring Dance tell him to get lost before I have to throw him off my porch again.”

Sonja grabbed Mckale’s hand and pulled him forward. “Everyone is going to be so excited to see you.”

Mckale followed, drawing Maleena behind him with Mola on their heels. They crossed the threshold and swung the door shut. Sonja skipped across the front room and practically danced into the kitchen where the long, polished table rested.

Mckale followed more slowly. He felt Maleena moving quietly behind him. If she thought she would be able to hide behind him, she was mistaken. His grandmother’s sharp eyes missed nothing and Sonja wouldn’t fail to announce them both.

Ahead of him, his sister smiled widely. “Mckale has returned to us!”

He stepped into the large kitchen to the sound of chairs scraping back. Emotion welled up in him at the sight of them. His father stood at the head of the table. He was a little shorter than Mckale, with gray streaks through the black hair that fell to his broad shoulders. His older brother, Kaden, was a few inches taller than Mckale though lankier and with eyes still full of mischief and amusement. His sister of course. And his grandmother, unbent by the years and with sharp intelligence in her dark eyes.

His father moved first, nearly overturning a chair in his rush to throw a crushing hug around Mckale. He laughed and returned the hug with vigor. Kaden was only a step behind and he too clasped his arms around Mckale, nearly choking him from the pressure.

They stepped back and his father’s eyes raked over him, missing nothing, Mckale was sure. Not even the new scar on his face, a barely visible white line that traced right in front of his ear. A legacy of the battle with the Shadow Riders. “It’s good to have you back, son.”

Kaden nodded. “We weren’t sure you would ever come back. You will have a bit of explaining to do to your commander.”

Mckale chuckled. “You know, Father, you could have saved me a lot of worry if you’d told me you knew about Emallya and Galdrilene.”

His father’s eyes lit up at the same time his brother’s wrinkled in confusion. “So you made it there?”

“Made it where?” Kaden asked.

His father shot Kaden a look, “Mckale will explain later. Right now I want to know about it.” He reached for Mckale’s arm. “Sit, son. Take the evening meal with us.”

“Who is the young woman behind you, Mckale?” his grandmother asked, her voice strong and commanding.

His father and brother turned, as if they only then realized a tiny woman stood behind him. Sonja smiled wide. “That would be Maleena. She travels with Mckale. Although I get the feeling there is more to it than that.”

Mckale felt Maleena‘s anxiety spike and turned to her, using his body to shield her from the curious looks of his family. She’d been fine until all of the attention focused on her, then she became a bundle of nerves. He placed his hands on either side of her face and looked down into her violet eyes. “Will you be alright?”

She nodded slightly and answered in a whisper, “I have to be. This is something I have to get over.”

He smiled and moved so that he stood beside her and she could see his family. They had stepped back to allow them some privacy.

“This is Maleena,” he glanced at Sonja. “Yes, there is more to it than traveling companions. Maleena is my bondmate.”

His father’s eyes widened. “Bondmate? But that only happens to…”

Mckale smiled. “I hatched a dragon, Father. I use Earth magic, so I hatched a green. His name is Tellnox.”

His father stepped back until he reached a chair and slowly sank down to sit. “A dragon? By the Fates, I never expected that. Where is he? Can I meet him?”

“He is circling high above the house right now, waiting to make sure we will be safe here before he finds someplace in the mountains to rest for the night.”

“A dragon? You can use magic?” The flat tone of his brother’s voice made him turn. Open hostility twisted Kaden’s expression. “You’re in league with them!”

“Mckale!” Maleena’s warning came only a second before Kaden rushed him. He grabbed the front of Mckale’s shirt and slammed him back against the kitchen wall. “How could you? How could you join the ranks of something so evil?”

M
ckale had never seen his older brother so furious, so beyond reason. Their father leaped from his chair and tried to pry them apart. “Kaden, back off! What is the matter with you?” Mola backed away, her sharp barks of distress filling the room.

Kaden, his face red with anger and his eyes filled with hate, ignored the older man. “I’ll kill you!”

“Mckale, do you have need of me?”
came Tellnox’s anxious sending.

“No! Fates no. You crashing through the roof would only make things worse. He is my brother. I can make him see reason.”

“If he tries to kill you, I will intervene, no matter the consequences.”

“Kaden, please stop,” Sonja begged, her voice wavered as tears filled her eyes.

Mckale pushed back. Kaden was taller but Mckale was stronger, though he had no wish to hurt his brother. “Listen to me.” He had to make Kaden understand. What would bring such a reaction from his normally easy going brother? Kaden had always been quick to laugh and slow to anger.

Kaden pulled back his arm, his fist balled. But instead of swinging, he grabbed his head and sank to his knees with a groan. “What have you done to me?”

Maleena moved forward and placed herself between them. “I’m truly sorry. This is not how I would have preferred our introduction to be, but I won’t let you harm Mckale and I won’t allow you to behave in a way you will regret later.”