Dragon Talker (25 page)

Samantha jumped. “You’re supposed to be sleeping for another hour, at least.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yuri asked, wondering if she had cast a spell on him.

“Apparently nothing.” She stared at Yuri. “You are a strange man, blue scales.”

“I think you’re the stranger man, don’t you?” Yuri smiled at his own cleverness.

She smiled back. “You may have me on that one, but scales rank up there, too.”

“So we both are special.”

Samantha interrupted, “Stop. Yuri, you put me in a spot. What you know…”

Now Yuri interrupted, “I don’t know anything.”

“What you know is enough. If you were a fla…a normal person, I would erase your memory and be gone, but magic doesn’t work on you, or at least has no staying power if your response to the sleep spell is any indicator.”

“What?”

“I’ve tried three different spells on you since I met you and two flat out didn’t work and one lasted about ten minutes instead of the two hours it was supposed to. You are protected, Yuri, not just from physical harm.”

“I’m not that protected.” Yuri rubbed his arm where Hental had stabbed him and wondered what Hental was up to and what would happen to the scar now that he had the scales.

“Yuri, you’re from a dragon village, obviously, but tell me what you know of mages.”

“The standard, I guess. Powerful, rule cities, make people work for them, do things they normally wouldn’t. ‘Take the best and leave the rest.’ And they are all men.”

“And how do they treat women?” she asked.

“’Take the best and leave the rest.’”

“That’s true enough for most of them. So, what do you think they would think about a woman with their power?”

“I don’t know…They wouldn’t like it, I guess.”

“There’s as many types of magic as there are dragons, Yuri. Even fla…regular people can touch magic at times.”

“That’s the second time you started to say, ‘fla…’ What’s a fla…?”

“Sorry, ‘flats’ is a term for non-magical people. It’s not a compliment.”

An edge crept into Yuri’s voice, thinking of his family of “flats,” “Aren’t you an exalted person to lower yourself and work on those boys.”

“Yuri,” Samantha sighed, “it’s not fully like that. What would your fine villagers do if a mage was found in your town?”

“Kill him, if we could.”

“Yes, so imagine a woman mage. W…I have to protect myself from everyone because everyone could betray me. You put up walls when you live like that.”

“How many woman mages are there?”

“See, that kind of question answered could get us both killed.” Samantha looked into Yuri’s eyes, hard.

“Don’t,” Yuri replied.

She relaxed, just a little. “Don’t what?”

“Think about killing me. I won’t let that happen and I don’t think you could.”

“I figured that,” she said and silently wondered if his scales could protect him from poison. “Tell me about the scales.” When Yuri hesitated, she added, “With what I told you, you owe me. Make things a little more even.”

“I am a dragon talker. You know how dragons have a sick sense of humor?”

“I’ve heard the tales.”

“If my dragon is any proof, the tales are true. When I met it, it came in, they don’t really use words, it’s more intent and images.” Yuri didn’t know why he was calling Samora it, but something said it wasn’t his place to share her gender. He continued, “…feelings about what they mean. So, it lands, comes up and sniffs me hard, like it’s taking in everything, and I think it was reading my mind, too. Anyway, it’s all nothing to me. I can barely think straight, but then this feeling comes, like an order, to live. It’s not ‘to live,’ though, somehow I know the real meaning is ‘don’t die. Then, it leaves, I think it’s over, and her tail comes and sends me into a boulder.”

“Dragons’ tails. The people killed by those must be legion.”

“I’m not one of them, though everyone thought I was. I was a wreck, but healed by the time we made it back to the village. I seem to be getting stronger, too. Heal faster.”

“Okay, but what about the scales?”

Yuri thought back to the sound Samora made removing the scales. There was something primordial about it, and he instinctively knew this was not information he or Samora wanted shared. “I got them later, for added strength.

So magic wasn’t enough for what she wanted
, Samantha thought but kept it to herself.
This young man,
she started to realize,
may have more potential power than anyone else in the world, and he hadn’t realized it yet.
“Why?”

“Huh?” Yuri was still thinking about Samora’s scream, and the black blood he had seen.

“Why do all this for you? Why do you need these gifts to be the talker? What the hell is this dragon planning on saying to the world?”

Yuri was floored by that thought, which led to the realization he might not just be asked to talk to his village. They both sat in silence, each trying to figure out the potential consequences - Yuri to his village and Samantha to mages.

A stray thought entered Samantha’s mind, “How do I look to you?” She wondered how Yuri could see through the disguise. She had the bulk of Bogdan while the spell has held. “Do I look fat to you?”

Yuri laughed because he thought she was beautiful, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. “I…um…it’s hard to describe.”

Chapter 38

Hental stormed into the hut, surprising his mother, who was making lunch. “You’re back early. How are the goats?”

“Mine,” Hental said, angrily.

Agardia stopped chopping carrots. “And you’re angry about this?”

“She hit me. In the face!”

Agardia’s eyes narrowed, “She hit you? In the face?” Her voice was suddenly angry, too.

“Well, more like slapped?” Hental knew his mother’s anger was not to be misled.

“I don’t like that either, but what led up to it?”

“I said,” Hental lowered his voice, “That I wanted…” Hental looked around, as if the walls might hear.

“Go ahead,” Agardia encouraged.

In a whisper, Hental finished, “a dog.”

After twelve years, it took a lot for Hental to surprise his parents. More accurately, his parents had come to expect surprise, so surprise was just confirmation of the norm. This, though, pushed the limits.

Agardia shook her head, “You continue to amaze me, Hental. You are an original. Why on earth would you want a dog? You’re a goat herder, Hental. Dogs are the brothers of wolves. Don’t tell me you want a wolf for a pet?” Inside, Agardia was relaxing. Hental didn’t view animals the way most people did. Hental didn’t view most things the way most people did. His one typical desire had been when, at six, he declared he wanted a dragon as a pet. Most children around that age wanted either a dragon or a larger version of some animal to protect them from a dragon.

“No, that would be dumb. It’s just…It’s just…I played with a dog, once. It was nice.”

All the color drained from Agardia’s face and she felt herself go cold. She grabbed Hental by both arms. “Hental, I love your stories, but Momma needs to know the absolute straight path here, no wind arounds. Did you play with a dog? And not a squirrel, or a big cat, but a dog?”

Hental was used to being questioned about the veracity of his stories. He didn’t care what the rest of the village thought, but he knew when his mother was serious. This was definitely one of those times. “Momma, straight story.”

“I’m going to sit down.” She did. Hental couldn’t understand why dogs seemed to be having such an impact on people. Hental watched her go through the process of calming herself. First, Hental knew, she liked to sit down. This was the leave-mother-be time, which could be short or long, depending both on how upset she was and how much time she felt she had to react. She never sat down in a situation that required immediate attention. At most, she would put both arms on the table and steady herself for a moment before taking action.

Step two, rolling her head around in a circle and side to side. This always made Hental think of an owl. He made Yuri laugh one time when they were talking about their mother and he had said, “I keeping waiting for her to open big eyes and hoot right at us.”

Step three was resolution; Hental called it the lady pose. She leaned back in the chair and crossed her legs, resting her hands lightly on her lap. She was doing that now.

“For starters,” she started, “you are not to talk about this to anyone but family, and I suppose Selma, but if she tries to slap you again, she will have to deal with me. Okay?”

Hental rubbed his cheek, and thought about how others might react, answering, “Yes.”

“Good. Now, I need to know all you can remember. Do you remember around when it happened?”

“That’s easy. I remember exactly. It was the day of the fire.”

By her reaction, Hental thought she might go through the entire process again, but she was already sitting down. Hental was confused, “Why is this such a big deal? It’s just a dumb dog.”

Agardia shook her head, “No, Hental, it isn’t just a dumb dog. It’s what dogs represent and the history of the castle.”

“Yeah, I know. A mage came to the village, started making everyone build him a castle, it was bad, and Samora came and killed him. End of story.” Hental was exasperated by the way the adults acted about something most of them weren’t even around to remember. “It’s the ancient past.”

“I don’t think Selma would appreciate that, and only the children of the last ones to experience it are alive, but we can see the story retold, Hental, in every city with a mage. We don’t want that back. Imagine a man who would take your father away from us, so he could take the best of your father’s hunting trips.”

“Tatush would never do that.”

“He would, Henti, if a mage forced him to, and they are that powerful. They do that and much, much more.” She did not want to get into what some mages did with the local women. “They feel they deserve everything, and so they take everything.”

“If it’s so bad, why do people complain about Samora so much?”

“That, Hental, is a good question. I don’t think we were made to be ruled by other people, or dragons. There’s just something about being free that is in us that fights control, even while another part of us takes comfort in someone else making the decisions. Someone else thinking for us.”

Agardia stopped Hental before he could contradict her, “Hental, I know that part about control is not you. You are about the freest boy I know, but you do like when Tatush is around, don’t you?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t try to control me. He just makes good suggestions.”

Agardia had to smile. Her husband did have a deft touch with the boys. She hoped he would be as good with their daughter as she grew up. “Well, people will complain about whoever has power, and that means they will complain about their messengers, too.”

“They don’t like Yuri because he’s a talker? He didn’t ask to be. He’s helping everyone.” The words kept coming faster, “They should be grateful for what he does. It’s dangerous. This village is stupid.”

“Whoa, Hental. Some are, and it will ebb and flow depending on the weather. Or how often Samora visits. Or something else. That’s just what we have to get used to, which is why we can’t have the dragon talker’s brother saying he wants to be a mage.”

“I don’t. That’s stupid.”

Agardia rued the day Hental learned the word ‘stupid.’ It was a staple in most of his discussions.

“I’m not going to…. There are a lot of things that make you wonder, Hental. Some you start to understand as you get older and some, I’m still wondering. Now, the day of the fire, tell me exactly what happened.”

“Selma was mad at me because I threw a rock at Dragon Butt.” Hental saw his mother’s’ I don’t approve’ look. “He butted me first. So it wasn’t my fault.”

“Go on.”

“Well, I had nothing to do, so I thought I’d go up near the dragon talker’s hut. There’s a good spot there for not being bothered by anyone. There’s this little spot, surrounded by trees, that has plenty of shade and some sun if you want to stay warm. A doe and fawn were in there when I arrived. I watched them for a while. I know you don’t kill little ones, so I was just seeing how close I could get when I saw a dog - It didn’t care how old they were. It was hunting. And I threw a rock at it.”

Agardia had to smile at her son’s penchant for rock throwing. “That was dangerous, Hental. What did the dog do?”

“He stopped hunting the deer and looked at me. I don’t know if he knew if I threw it or not, but I thought I should be nice. I had some goat cheese I took from Selma’s in my pocket and took that out as he came up to me.”

“He didn’t seem mad. And he liked the cheese.” Hental smiled, “He even licked my hand. Dogs have big tongues compared to goats.”

“I bet they do. Then what?”

“We played.”

“How do you play with a dog?”

“I don’t know. He chased me, I chased him, and then I threw a stick. Oh boy, he sure liked that. He could run like a deer. I must have thrown that stick a thousand thousand times.”

“And then what?”

“He was panting like crazy. Oh, I rubbed his belly, too. We just relaxed, and then he started sniffing the air. Then I noticed the smoke. He took off back towards the hut. I followed him. When we got there the hut was all flame. It was pretty bad. It looked like Uri and another man were holding each other, but they were all burnt. I didn’t get close. The dog looked at the hut, looked at me, and slinked off like I just scolded him.”

“Is there anything else? What did he look like? Did he have a collar?”

“Um, he was black and…he did have a collar. It had curvy designs in the leather. Very pretty.”

“That dog,” Agardia said, amazement in her voice, “was the mage’s dog, and what he was doing playing with you while he should have been with the mage is beyond me. I thought they always stayed together.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, on that, Hental,” she replied, “I can’t argue with you.”

“Is this important? I mean, does it matter that a mage was around?”

Agardia paused before answering, “It definitely does, Hental. It definitely does, but I’m not sure how. And why Lindale and the mayor never said anything about a third body in the fire. Something bigger than a change in dragon talkers is going on. You and I are going to talk to your father when he gets back from hunting.”