DragonLight (37 page)

They no sooner stepped inside the cave than the floor shook and grit let loose from the ceiling, showering their heads. A moment later a horde of black dragons flew out of the dark tunnel toward the sunshine. They turned north as soon as they hit the fresh air.

“North!” said several of the men.

“The village,” said another.

“Kale,” said Bardon and ran up the path he had just descended.

         
47
         

N
EW
T
HINGS

“What are you reading?” Sittiponder stood at Kale’s shoulder, examining the book in front of her.

“It’s a volume of information on dragons. Leetu Bends gave it to me many years ago.” She laughed. “Actually, it was in Granny Noon’s library, so I ought to say Granny Noon gave it to me. Leetu thought I would need the information and took it off the shelf and pushed it into my hands. Years later, I asked Granny Noon if she wanted it back.”

“And she said no.”

“She said, ‘I guess not. I didn’t know it was missing.’”

Kale examined her young friend. His face lit up upon hearing the story, but he’d already worn an expression of joy. She wondered what it would be like to see the world for the first time. “What have you been doing?”

He grinned. “Looking. I’ve decided yellow is my favorite color. One of the meech children showed me all sorts of things and told me their names. I’m surprised so many of the birds are tiny. Their songs are so big. I like the way water runs in a brook. The way it moves matches the way it sounds.”

Kale turned in her chair and hugged him. “I’m so glad for you, Sittiponder.”

“I’m glad for me too.”

“Why did you come find me? Do you need something?”

“No, I got cold, so I decided to come inside and watch the fire crackle.”

“I don’t blame you. I shut the window after Brunstetter left. I couldn’t latch it because I didn’t want to climb on a chair.”

“You couldn’t move it with wizardry?”

Kale shook her head. “I tried, but things are off balance around here. The simplest of wizard maneuvers just don’t work. No, that’s not accurate. Some of my wizardry works and some does not. There’s no rhyme or reason as to which manipulation reaps success and which does not.” She frowned, thinking. “I’ve thought maybe it has to do with polarization.”

“What?”

She smiled. “Never mind. We’ll have to ask Regidor to figure it out.” Her smile faded. “Right now he’s preoccupied with Gilda.”

Kale’s own baby felt huge, heavy, cumbersome, and annoyingly active. She tried to reach the baby and met with resistance. How could a baby block mindspeaking? She wanted to sing to it. She wanted to know if it was a he or she. Just that much would be comforting. But this baby lived in silence, not reaching out to its mama. If she continued along this line of thinking, she’d bawl.

She searched her mind for another topic of conversation. “What is Toopka doing?”

“She’s playing with the other children. Every once in a while she pulls out the egg and shows it to everyone. She tells them how important it is and that she’s going to use the egg to save the world.”

“Does she say how she’s going to save the world?”

Sittiponder shook his head vigorously. “No.”

Kale turned back to the table. “That’s actually why I pulled this book out. I’m looking at all the different types of eggs. Some have pictures and some are described. So far I haven’t found a match to the one Toopka carries. So, I’m sure it is not a dragon egg, but something else.”

A tremor shook the table. The book jiggled toward the edge, and Kale stopped it from falling as she tried to balance on a moving chair. The window popped open, a log fell from the fire, and a picture fell from the wall. Both Kale and Sittiponder grabbed for the platters of food headed for the sides of the table and, consequently, the floor. They managed to shove all the dishes back to safety. The shuddering earth stilled.

“Wow!” said Sittiponder. “That was a big one.”

A niggling feeling in the back of her mind brought Kale’s head up. She stared at the window. Something disturbing was just beyond her reach.

“Close the window!” she shouted. She jumped out of the chair, knocking it over. Both she and Sittiponder ran, but the tumanhofer got there first and pushed the two sides of the window into the frame.

“I’m going to boost you up, Sittiponder,” said Kale as she grabbed his thighs. A cramp shot across her back, but she ignored it. “You’ll be able to reach the latch.” She grunted as she shoved. “Why would anyone put their locks at the top where pregnant o’rant wizards cannot possibly reach?”

“Meeches are taller.”

“I know that!” snapped Kale. “Oh, I’m sorry, Sittiponder.”

The tumanhofer stretched. “Why would anyone put their locks at the top of windows where tumanhofer boys standing on pregnant o’rant wizards cannot possibly reach?”

Kale giggled.

Sittiponder struggled with the metal hook and finally got it to slide into the small notch.

Kale put him down. Her hand went straight to the small of her back. “Ow!” A deep ache coursed across the bottom of her bulging abdomen and settled in to torment her. She wrapped her arms around the pain. “Oh! Oh! Ow!”

Sittiponder took her by the arm and guided her back to the table. “Should I go get someone?”

Kale gasped. “Gymn is coming. So are the others. Oh no, Sitti, the black dragons are coming. That’s what I felt. I can feel the buzz now.”

“What should I do?”

“Build up the fire so they can’t come down the chimney.” Kale glanced around the room, trying to find something helpful. “I’ve got my cape. I’ll put up a shield, but I don’t know if I can hold my concentration if another contraction hits me.”

“Contraction?”

“I think the baby’s coming.”

Sittiponder stepped back from her as if she had just announced she was carrying the plague.

Kale laughed. “Stir up the fire.” She nestled into a corner of the room. Crouching on the floor, it would be easier to maintain a shield if she had less area to cover. The walls would provide part of her protection.

“If they get in,” she told Sittiponder, “open the door and run. They won’t bother you as long as you leave them alone.”

She saw his stoic nod and wondered what he was thinking as he put on another log. She also wondered why she couldn’t just penetrate his thick skull and dig out the information she wanted. Everything was harder to do. Was it the labor associated with a coming baby? Was it the closeness of the monstrous evil in the bowels of the earth? Would she be able to hold the shield in place, or would that bit of wizardry slip through her fingers as well?

She heard the distant buzz, the screams of frightened children, and the mixed warnings from her minor dragons. Ducking low, she covered herself with the impenetrable armor.
I hope it holds. Maybe they’ll pass right over the village.

A whack against the windowpane destroyed that flimsy hope. The rat-a-tat-tat against the glass sounded like hail. The new little dragon who hid from her came out of the moonbeam cape. She sat on Kale’s shoulder and hissed in the direction of the onslaught.

“It’s all right, little girl,” cooed Kale. She reached to stroke the blue dragon and got nipped for her concern. Kale jerked her hand back and examined the finger. At least the ill-tempered beast hadn’t drawn blood. Kale put the finger in her mouth and sucked away the sharp pain.

She glanced at the window and didn’t like the fact that the glass flexed with the impact of each black body. Sittiponder stood between her and the window with a thin log held like a club.

Sittiponder, you are to run. Do you hear me? They won’t hurt me. I’m safe. You run.
He didn’t respond but stood swinging the club, then bouncing it against his palm. Did he not hear her? Could she not even mindspeak? He’d never hear her voice above the droning and the battering of bodies against the glass.

Sittiponder, do you hear me? Great! Now you’re deaf instead of blind.

He turned long enough to flash her a cheeky grin.

Kale knew when the villagers rallied to attack the black dragons. The minor dragons flashed images to Kale of the villagers attacking the black dragons. Her dragons also engaged in the battle, bombarding the smaller beasts from above the swarm. Some of her dragons swooped down and attacked along the flank of the horde. Kale could feel Crispin’s excitement as he spat fire at the enemy instead of caustic saliva.

The crash of glass brought her vision back from what others could see to what was happening in this room. Sittiponder swung at the invasion with his clunky stick and managed to hit several of the nasty beasts with each swing. The mass swarmed around him and came directly at Kale. She closed her eyes and concentrated, keeping the shield in place while she listened to the creatures thud against her cover. Too busy with her defense, she didn’t have a clue what was happening beyond her small refuge.

She covered her ears, jostling the blue dragon, who bit her wrist. Her concentration flickered, and so did the shield, but she managed to hold it together.

The thudding subsided, then stopped. Kale peeked. Bardon stood in the room with the other questers and a few meech men. She could see the bottom of Brunstetter’s legs outside the window. Sir Dar hugged Sittiponder and Lee Ark slapped the boy on the back.

“Come out, Kale,” said Bardon, walking toward her. His feet kicked tiny black bodies aside. “It’s safe now.”

The pain swelling across her abdomen shattered the shield. Kale panted and tried to speak.

Bardon knelt beside her.

“The baby?” he asked.

She nodded.

Tulanny pushed through the crowded room. The blue dragon hissed at the meech as she knelt beside Kale.

Tulanny’s eyes widened. “Is this a protector dragon? Is that his talent?”

“Her?” Kale looked askance at the minor dragon who had slid down her arm and stood on her stomach. She shook her head. “No, this is a cranky dragon who has no talent that I know of. She failed to bond.”

Tulanny and Bardon helped Kale get to her feet. Tulanny frowned and wrinkled her nose at the dead bodies littering the floor. Then her face cleared, and she stared at Kale.

“These creatures attacked you, didn’t they? They were after you.”

“Yes.” Kale leaned against Bardon. “I really would like to lie down.”

“That means,” said Tulanny, “that you’re not just a wizard with dragons. You’re a Dragon Keeper.”

Bardon steered Kale through the room. Her friends backed away to make a path.

Kale gritted her teeth. “That’s right.”

“You’re our savior. A Dragon Keeper. It’s perfect.” Tulanny grinned at the other meech in the room. “Who better to manage that wicked dragon than an experienced Dragon Keeper?”

Kale saw several nods and heard one person’s “worth a try.”

She had to set them straight.

“Look, I have a tiny blue naughty dragon who bites me. I can’t control all dragons.”

Tulanny patted her back. “But you can try, Kale. Surely, you could try.”

All Kale wanted was a bed, a drink, and some time alone. “I’ll think about it,” she said, trying not to add a screech as another gripping pain clutched her abdomen. “Right after I have this baby.”

         
48
         

L
IFE AND
D
EATH

“Oh, I wish Mother were here.” Kale panted as Bardon wiped sweat from her face. Gymn sat on her stomach and eyed first her and then the blue dragon that no one had succeeded in chasing away. She sat with her wings outstretched on the pillow next to Kale’s head.

Kale huffed. “I wish that confounded dragon would at least flap more often. It cools me off.”

Gymn chirruped at the intruder. The blue dragon hissed back.

Bardon picked up a straw fan loaned to him by Tulanny and waved it over Kale’s face.

Kale groaned. “I wish Granny Noon were here.”

Bardon wiped her face again. “I’m here.”

“How many babies have you helped into the world?”

He nodded. “Got your point. Do you want another sip of water?”

“Here she is,” announced Tulanny from the doorway.

Sachael Relk stepped into the room, and an enormous weight of anxiety lifted from Kale. But another contraction caught her, and all reason left with the grip of muscles trying to birth the baby.

Sachael gently pushed Bardon to one side and took Kale’s hand.

Bardon flinched. “She’ll mangle your fingers until you think they’re going to sink into each other.”

Sachael smiled. “The trick is to give her the palm of your hand to squeeze and keep your fingers free.”

“Do you think it’ll be much longer?” Bardon asked.

“Son, I just walked through the door. At this point I don’t know if it’ll be five minutes or five years.”

“Years?” gasped Kale.

“Just kidding, young lady.” She patted Kale’s arm as the contraction eased off. “We’ll get you comfortable so the only time you’re hurting is when you’re working to have that baby. No sense in fidgeting in between times. I’ll show your husband how to hold you so he can rub your back exactly where it will do the most good.”

Forty-five minutes later, Mistress Relk laid a squirming baby boy on Kale’s chest.

“There,” said the meech. “He can listen to your heart just like he’s been doing for months.” The midwife rubbed him with a cloth, listing off his inventory while Kale and Bardon gazed at their new son.

“Two arms and legs. Ten toes. Ten fingers. Two of everything he needs. My, these ears are pointy.”

She looked curiously from Kale to Bardon. Bardon grinned and lifted his hair covering his ears.

The baby squalled.

“He’s got good lungs,” said Tulanny.

Sachael tsked. “That wasn’t very original, Tulanny. If you want to be useful, get this nosy dragon out of my way.”

“Not me,” said the meech. “That beast bites.”

The baby’s wails turned to soft sobs, then to a coo. The blue dragon crept closer. Bardon reached to keep the creature at a distance from his son. It hissed.

“Just as I thought,” said Tulanny. “That’s a protector dragon, but she’s not protecting you, Kale. She belongs to the baby.”

“Oh,” whispered Kale. “It’s all right, Bardon. Don’t move her. I should have known. The dragon bonded to our baby.”

The little blue dragon put a wing over the child and looked up to Kale’s face.

“Her name is Fly.” Kale giggled. “Not the insect kind of Fly, but the act of soaring.”

The baby’s small fist waved in the air. The blue dragon intercepted a swing and allowed the tiny fingers to latch on to her neck.

Kale laughed again. “Fly has forgiven me for keeping her child trapped inside me. I have risen in her estimation since she can see I’ve done a fine job of taking care of him so far.”

“Well, the dragon has a name,” said Tulanny. “What’s the boy’s name?”

Kale looked at Bardon, and they spoke at the same time. “Penn.”

“It’s time for Master Penn to have his first meal.” Sachael gave Bardon a nudge. “You go tell the men out there what a fine son you have, and in fifteen minutes, you can come back and tell your wife what a fine lady she is. Right now, you’re in the way.”

Bardon started to object.

Sachael pushed him toward the door. “She needs cleaning up, and she’ll appreciate all the pretty things you have to say to her after she’s in a fresh gown and has her hair combed. Out.”

The midwife closed the door. She turned and smiled at Kale.

“Now, haven’t you got the most beautiful boy baby in the whole world?”

Kale sighed contentedly.
Yes, I do.

For the three days that Kale stayed inside with her husband and baby, Mot Angra slept soundly. Her friends came to see the baby. Brunstetter knelt outside the window and held the baby like a butterfly in his huge palm. Sir Dar said he got the first smile out of Penn. Tulanny said it was a gas pain. Seezle said Penn smiled in his sleep when he dreamed of kimens. The meech community paraded through, offering their congratulations, small trinkets, and tiny bags of potent herbal tea. The fragrance from the teabags gave the room a pleasant air.

Lee Ark showed Kale how to hold the baby with his little tummy on her forearm when he fussed. She already knew to do that from helping marione housewives with their fussy babies. But Lee Ark was so pleased to help, she nodded and smiled and accepted his advice.

Finally, Regidor came to see her. The others cleared out of the room to give them time alone. When Regidor peeked at the baby, tears sprang to his eyes.

“One coming into the world, one going out.”

Kale gasped. “Gilda?”

“She’s not going to make it, Kale. She doesn’t want to.”

“Oh, Regidor, I should have sat with her. She probably thinks I don’t care.”

The meech barely shook his head to disagree. “She didn’t want you there. And”—he sighed deeply—“she probably hasn’t thought of you once in all the time she’s been fading away. All she thinks about is herself, really. Her cosmos is the strange things she has decided are important. I don’t believe even I am within that isolated circle.”

“How can that be, Regidor? You love her so.”

He shrugged and wiggled his hand above the baby.

Penn swung his tiny fist in the air and caught one of Regidor’s fingers. Kale tried to absorb the knowledge that Regidor’s wife lay dying and he was cooing at her child. It boggled her mind that her sophisticated meech friend cooed at all.

“You’re making faces,” she said.

“Of course, I’m making faces. That’s what you do with an infant.”

“How do you know what to do with an infant?”

Regidor looked briefly nonplussed, then he grinned. “I must have read it in a book somewhere during my vast studies of libraries in every city of our fair land.”

Kale choked on a laugh. Regidor helped her sit up and thumped her back. Penn started to cry, and Fly zipped across the covers to stand on his little chest. He immediately calmed.

Regidor gave Kale a glass of water when she could hold it, then laughed at her when she spilt it down her front. He mopped her up with a towel.

When Kale could talk, she glared at him. “What are you trying to do? Drown me?”

“Nah, just freshen you up a bit.” Regidor eyed the little blue dragon standing protectively on the baby’s blanket. “Is this the famous spitfire dragon?”

“This is Fly, Penn’s minor dragon.”

Regidor laughed and pulled up the stool again to sit beside her bed. “I hear she bites.”

“Not so much now that Penn is out where she can see him. Fly really had me stumped, Reg. I couldn’t figure out what her problem was.”

“And now you know?”

“She was mad at me for keeping her baby prisoner inside my stomach.”

Regidor laughed again, his rich, deep laugh. Hearing it made Kale’s heart lighter. They bantered over the food and the furniture they’d found in Bility. Then they talked quietly about the history of the town and Mot Angra and, on a note of wonder, what could be Toopka’s role in the danger they faced.

“Could it be,” Regidor speculated, “that the egg will hatch an equally powerful but good dragon?”

“As far as I can tell, Regidor, it is only shaped like an egg. I’m not convinced that it will hatch into anything. But Toopka has been as happy as any carefree child ever since Wulder removed it from her chest.”

“And gave Sittiponder his sight.” Sadness fell on Regidor once more.

“What is it, friend?” asked Kale.

“It’s been good to sit with you, Kale. For a while I could put away the horror Gilda has brought upon us.”

Kale gasped. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, I don’t mean us, the community. I mean us, the couple, Gilda and myself. She’s taken the precious love we had and tossed it aside. Sometimes I’m so angry, I would like to leave her to her moods and rants and misery.

“I want Gilda to discover joy again. I want her to see her self-destruction. I love her and want to shake her to make her see how her hold on life is riddled with falsehoods, and it is those lies that are killing her. She doesn’t listen. She doesn’t believe. There is no way I can tie her to a post and keep her from slipping away.”

Kale touched his hand. “I think Wulder must feel that way at times.” Regidor squinted one eye at her, so she continued. “He has always given us reason to draw near, always fed us truth through word and deed. Yet we, as His people, continue to harbor false expectations, trading a glorious reality for a shabby imitation of truth.”

Regidor remained silent, staring off, in his own world of thoughts.

Kale let him wander a bit, then brought him back with a question. “Regidor, what have you been doing while keeping Gilda company?”

“I’ve been building a gateway.”

“You have!”

He nodded and twisted his lips into a puzzled frown. “This gateway has been the hardest thing to construct, and basically, it is an ordinary portal. Not as fancy as the talking gateways.”

“Mine quit working.”

“So did mine. I think we are too close to that source of power that fuels Mot Angra. The power of his wickedness generates a disturbance to natural laws for miles around.”

Kale nodded, although she only partially grasped this concept.

“The animals who attacked Gilda and me as we came closer, I think were driven by the madness of Mot Angra.”

“Why you and not us?” Kale nestled her baby closer to her side, marveling at his tiny nose, long dark eyelashes, and pink pursed lips. Fly settled on her shoulder, a perch that gave her a good view of the room.

“Because Mot Angra knows and hates the meech.” Regidor slapped his knees. “But the gateway is constructed, complete. It is probably the strongest gateway in the world. I had to reinforce almost every strand to keep each one from slipping out of place.”

“Where does it go?”

He chortled. “Where does it not go?” Regidor stood and then bent to kiss Kale’s forehead. “I have talked with the others. Seezle is going for help. She will bring back Paladin and every wizard and knight and fighting man loyal to him. The next time Mot Angra stirs, he will face a formidable army of Wulder’s people.”

Kale looked up at Regidor, a strong warrior himself, whose shoulders drooped with sorrow. “I’m not so sure a big army will defeat our enemy, Regidor.”

“This may be true, Kale. But until Wulder reveals another plan, we must be ready.”

He left, and Kale continued to muse. She shifted her son to rest on her chest with his head on her shoulder. “One small weapon piercing one vulnerable spot. I think that is what will defeat the foe, Penn.”