The Bond (Book 2) (35 page)

Her voice sounded so pained that Jessip grabbed her hand. “But you didn’t. Besides, you had been lied to. You thought dragons were evil. How can anyone blame you for that? The moment you found out about the Order’s lies, you left, right? And don’t forget that you saved Xochi—you brought her here, away from those terrible people.”

She stared at him, hope in her eyes. “I guess so.”

“You did! And now, you’re here with us. You can help dragons, help with their purpose.”

“He’s right,” Aeron said. “You’re dragonlinked, now. We fight nahual, we protect people and dragons, and we stand together.”

Renata nodded. “Okay.”

Jessip squeezed her hand in reassurance. It was warm, soft, and seemed so delicate. It made him want to protect her, keep her safe. After all he’d learned about her, though, he wasn’t sure she needed help with that. She’d survived Bataan-Mok, after all, and escaped the Order.

That place sounded like a nightmare. The monks treated children terribly, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they hunted dragons. His stomach twisted just thinking about them slaughtering Zolin, or Xochi, or Anaya. He checked the link and found that his bond-mate was much calmer, and safe.

If the Order—or anyone—wanted to hurt Zolin, wanted to hurt any of their dragons, they’d better be prepared to die trying.

Master Millinith stared at Master Doronal. “They declined the petition?”

“They did, and I need your help figuring out where we go from here. I know you’re very busy,” he said, “but we seldom get challenges at our leisure.”

She hadn’t known leisure in weeks. Sitting back in her desk chair, she said, “I don’t even know the definition of that word any more. How did you hear about this, anyway?”

“My mother sent an express letter. One of her contacts got wind of their change of heart.” Master Doronal looked at her. “She also mentioned you.”

Master Millinith raised her brows. “Me?”

“Yes. She seems interested in you. In much of her recent correspondence, she’s asked questions. When we met, what kind of a protege you were, what I thought of—” His eyes narrowed.

Damn the woman. Couldn’t leave well enough alone.

“So,” she said, “what are we going to do?”

He stared at her a moment. “I, ah, I’m not sure.”

“About the guild?”

He shook his head, seemed to come to his senses. “Right. Without the Investigation Guild, we no longer have a secondary craft. I’ve thought of a few others, but their connection is weak. I’m not sure they will be acceptable to the Council. I’d like you to think on it. Perhaps you will succeed where I’ve failed.”

“I’ll see what I can come up with.”

“Good. Let me know.” He almost ran from the office.

He seemed as nervous about the prospect as she did. Her faint smile didn’t last long.

Gregor walked in the office, face grim. “My father wants to know if the rumors about Lord Baronel having more than one dragon are true.”

Glorious. More problems. “Let me get a cup of tea. I’ll be right back.”

He had the decency to wait until she’d sat back down, infused the tea, and taken a sip, before he continued.

“He’s my father. I don’t want to have to tell him an outright lie.”

She thought about his problem as he paced in front of her desk.

“I’ve only mentioned how much I love what we do here, my work with Anaya, and some of what we’ve been able to learn by using healing arts and techniques on her.”

Chin propped on her left hand, she said, “I understand. We all face this same dilemma.” She had to take care herself when corresponding with her aunt, Caryn, who still sent the occasional letter with veiled questions about Anaya and their intentions with dragons.

Gregor turned to her. “I’ve tried to limit what I tell him, but what should I do about this question?”

She sat back, hands clasped on the table. “Tell him the truth. If rumors of our dragons have already spread to him, then denying them won’t do you or us any good. The truth will eventually come out. Tell him we have three dragons. You can even tell him how they came to be here.”

The young man frowned. “How do I explain not having mentioned them before?”

She tapped the table with a finger as she thought. “Tell him you haven’t spent very much time with the other dragons, that you’ve been focused mostly on Anaya. Which is technically true. You
might
have forgotten to mention them before because of that.”

Gregor chuckled. “That wording is vague
enough to actually suffice
.”

She smiled and nodded. “Exactly.” The smiled faded. “Approval meetings for both the business and guild applications are just about four months away. There is enough interference from the person or persons as it is, so we have to remain vigilant. And knowing that the Order is out there?” She shook her head. “It is imperative that the guild be approved.”

“I completely agree. The idea that people are slaughtering dragons . . .” Gregor shuddered. “Still, taking special care to only discuss certain things about our work has been difficult. Being able to just leave it all out would be a boon. And you’ve given me an idea on how to do that.”

“Oh?”

“I am technically an employee of these dragon companies, right? So I can beg off saying anything more due to trade secrets.”

“That’s actually a good idea,” she said. “I may have to use it. The companies aren’t real, though. I thought you didn’t want to lie?”

He raised a brow. “They’re real while the applications are being processed.”

She laughed. “True enough.”

“I’ll go pen that letter right now and drop it off at the mail station.” With a smile, he left the investigation office.

Gregor’s love for his work was a constant inspiration to her and the others. He got excited by anything having to do with dragons, especially when they discovered something new about them.

Her eyes widened. Yes. That could actually work as a secondary. She’d discuss the idea with Master Doronal before dinner.

Feeling less burdened, she turned back to the documents she’d been studying before the interruptions. There was a lot to learn about the running of a guild. Not that its approval was guaranteed. And if they couldn’t get a second craft’s support, it wouldn’t be. Damn that person for interfering with the Animal Craft Guild. They were the logical first choice as a secondary, but they had been prejudiced against Lord Baronel nearly from the beginning. And now, Investigation Craft had been as well. Hopefully, her idea for a secondary would be unexpected.

The interference was annoying and alarming. How did their opponents know so much about them? It almost seemed as if they had someone in the Caer spying for them.

Head shaking, she chided herself. Stop getting carried away.

She resumed reading about guild organization, structure, and staffing.

+ + + + +

“All this training is making me tired.” Liara toyed with the food on her plate.

“What do you mean?” She didn’t seem that tired to Aeron. Was she just being dramatic?

“I don’t like having to work on two crafts at once.”

“Having trouble keeping up with both?” Sharrah nibbled on a biscuit.

“No, not really. I’d just rather quit Archive Craft and focus entirely on Dragon Craft.”

“It’s not actually a craft, yet.” Fillion wolfed down his dinner. Through a full mouth, he said, “But I wish it was. I’d join it full-time, too.”

Aeron thought about that. Once the Dragon Craft Guild was approved—he wouldn’t even think of the possibility of it not being approved—would he switch to it from Magic Craft, get his journeyman rank, and then add in sorcery as secondary? Or should he hurry to journeyman in Magic Craft and take Dragon Craft as a secondary?

No. Rushing sorcery was a bad idea. Besides, he was good at it. He could afford to take time off to rank up in Dragon Craft and return to it later.

He ate another spoonful of stew. It was especially tasty tonight. Master Tallah must have made it. She was the best chef in the Caer. He grabbed a biscuit, dunked it in the stew, and took a bite. “I’m going to transfer to Dragon Craft as soon as it’s possible. I’ll take Magic Craft back as secondary when I can.”

Most of the others agreed: take your current craft as a secondary later.

Liara frowned. “Cheddar is archive craft, too,” she said, glancing at him. “I don’t think they’ll need two archivists in the guild right now. I can be just a dragonlinked.” She shrugged.

“‘Just’ a dragonlinked?” Fillion’s eyes were slightly bugged.

Liara laughed.

“I think most of us are in crafts—or were in crafts—that will complement being a dragonlinked fairly well,” Jessip said.

“Leather Craft, for instance,” Willem said. “Like I said before, maintaining and repairing gear will be essential, and Healing Craft wouldn’t hurt for in-the-field healing and such.”

“That’s true,” Aeron said. “Actually, those crafts should be included in training for everyone. We should remind Master Millinith about those.”

She had pretty much taken over training this past week. She taught Magic Craft lessons herself, now. And she worked with Master Canneth and Gregor on the Animal Craft lessons. Aeron wouldn’t be surprised if she eventually took over those as well, with occasional assistance from Gregor.

Fillion shoved another spoonful in his mouth and turned to Jessip. “So, Zolin’s flight exercises seem to be going well.”

“He really loves it.”

Renata looked over and chuckled. “As much as he feigns hating the ‘babying,’ as he calls it, he’s slowly adjusting to the idea that he should listen to Anaya and Xochi. At least when it comes to flying.”

Aeron smiled. Renata was now back to her normal self, it seemed. He was glad. She’d been quiet for days after telling them of her past.

Jessip nodded. “He can be a handful, but yes, he seems to be settling into the teacher-student relationship.”

“Watching one dragon fly was amazing,” Sharrah said, “but now there are three. It’s an incredible sight.”

“I can still remember when we first met Anaya,” Willem said, a small smile on his lips. “She scared the life out of me, running out of the passage and jumping on Aeron.” He leaned sideways and bumped shoulders with him. “I thought you were done for.”

Aeron laughed. “She was a lot like a puppy, jumping up on me all the time. I kind of miss it.” He turned to Renata. “Back then, we had no idea dragons could start flying so soon. Anaya was nearly a month old before we had her flying around to exercise her flight muscles. Does Xochi mind the weights?”

They’d not made saddles yet for Xochi, she was still growing too quickly to make it worth the effort. Instead, they used the same kind of weight belt Anaya had first used.

“She doesn’t mind at all,” Renata said. “She actually pesters me to add more weight so that she’ll get strong enough to carry me even faster.”

“That would be unwise,” Sharrah said. “It would be terrible if she strained or tore a muscle.”

“So I keep telling her, as does Anaya. She is like Zolin, in that regard. Not yet used to taking advice from an older, wiser dragon.” Renata smiled at Jessip.

“Yes, well, she’ll learn soon enough. Zolin did. Mostly.” Jessip chuckled, then got the far-away look in his eyes that they all had come to recognize.

“He’s awake?” Aeron said.

“Yeah.” Jessip nodded. “And starving.” He shook his head. “Is that all he’s going to do? Sleep, eat, and fly?”

Aeron laughed. “Pretty much. At least Zolin has added flying to the mix. Anaya only ate and slept when she was that young.”

They are hungry. Will you be bringing their food soon?

We will, sweetheart.

“Xochi is hungry, too,” Renata said. “I should feed her.”

“So Anaya tells me. She’s a little bit like a mother dragon right now, watching over them.”

“That’s kind of cute.” Liara smiled. Her smiled faded to a lopsided grimace and she sighed.

“You’ll get one eventually.” Cheddar said. “We all will. At least that’s what I keep telling myself as I lay in bed before sleep, pining away.”

Everyone chuckled.

Dinner didn’t take much longer, no one wanted to keep their bond-mates waiting. They then left for the stables, food in tow.

The dragons—no surprise—were eager to eat, but records needed to be updated first.

Jessip said, “Okay, Zolin, hop on.”

The black dragon chirped at him, then turned and padded onto the large platform of the scale. He looked small, sitting in the middle. Aeron found it hard to remember what Anaya looked like that young. It made him sad.

“What’s the matter?” Willem murmured.

Aeron glanced at him and back to Zolin. “I can hardly remember what Anaya looked like when she was little. It makes me sad that one day I might not be able to.”

“Maybe we should have them photographed, even if just as part of their log, part of the records.”

“You are a genius.” Having a photographic record of their growth would be great in and of itself, but it would also be a record for memory’s sake. He’d talk to Millinith about that. There weren’t any photographers in the Caer right now, but perhaps she could get one for the guild.

“I just want to go over there and grab him in a big, giant hug,” Liara said. “He’s adorable!”

Aeron smiled. “He is at that.”

Jessip adjusted the weights on the scale and said, “Until you try and get him to go to sleep.”

Zolin let out a grunt. It sounded remarkably like a harrumph.

Cheddar and Fillion laughed.

Grinning, Jessip wrote down the figure in his dragon log. “Alright, you’re next Xochi.”

Renata reset the scale to zero as her bond-mate stepped onto the platform. After sliding the counter-weights, the balance hovered near center, and she recorded Xochi’s weight in her own log.

The food chests were next. Sharrah wrote down their weights, and then the dragons dug in.

Renata shook her head. “You act like you haven’t eaten in days.” She frowned. “Though, she really is hungry.”

“Not surprising,” Sharrah said. “They’re both still growing. And quickly. Their bodies need the food for that growth. They’ll be like this for a few months, yet.”