Rain Wilds Chronicles (168 page)

The downhill hike quickly woke pangs in different muscles of her legs. She gritted
her teeth against them and went on.
Serves me right for spending so much time
sitting inside,
she told herself grimly.

It was in that stratum of forest where evergreens gave way to deciduous trees that
she caught an odd scent. The wind blew more freely here and she halted where she stood, trying to
puzzle it out. It smelled rank and yet strangely familiar. It was only when the creature stepped
into view on the path in front of her that her mind made the connection.
Cat,
she thought to herself. He was not immediately aware of her. His head was low, and he
sniffed at the ground with his mouth open. Long yellow fangs extended past his lower jaw. His coat
was an uneven black, darker dapples against blackness. His ears were tufted, and the muscles under
his smooth fur bunched and slid as he moved. She was caught in disbelief, filled with wonder at the
sight of an animal that no one had seen in ages. And then, almost immediately, her translation of an
Elderling word popped into her mind. “Pard,” she breathed aloud. “A black pard.”

At her whisper, he lifted his head and looked directly at her with yellow eyes. Fear
flooded her. Her own scent on the trail. That was what he snuffed at.

Her heart leaped and then began hammering. The animal stared at her, perhaps as
startled to see a human as she was to see a pard. Surely their kind had not met for generations. He
opened his mouth, taking in her scent. She wanted to shriek but did not. She flung her panicky
thought wide.
Sintara! Sintara, a great cat stalks me, a pard! Help
me!

I cannot help you. Solve it yourself.

The dragon's thought was not uninterested, merely factual. Alise could feel, in that
moment of connection, that the dragon had fed heavily and was sinking into a satiated stupor. Even
if she had wished to rouse herself, by the time she took flight and crossed the river and located
Alise . . .

Useless thought. Focus on now.
The cat was watching her,
and its wariness had become interest. The longer Alise stood there, frozen like a rabbit, the more
his boldness would grow. Do something.

“Not prey!” she shouted at the animal. She seized the lapels of her cloak and tore
it open wide, holding it out to make herself twice her natural size. “Not prey!” she shouted at it
again, deepening her voice. She flapped the sides of her cloak at the animal and forced her shaking
body to jolt a step closer to it. If she ran, it would have her; if she stood still, it would have
her. The thought galvanized her, and with a wordless roar of angry despair, she charged at the
beast, flapping the sides of her cloak as she ran.

It crouched and she knew then it would kill her. Her deep roar became a shriek of
fury, and the cat suddenly snarled back. Alise ran out of breath. For a moment, silence held between
the crouched cat and the flapping woman. Then the animal wheeled and raced off into the forest. It
had left the path clear, and Alise did not pause but continued her fear-charged dash. She ran in
bounds, ran as she had never known that anyone could run. The forest became a blur around her. Low
branches ripped at her hair and clothing, but she did not slow down. She gasped in cold air that
burned her throat and dried her mouth and still she ran. She fled until darkness threatened the
edges of her vision, and then she stumbled on, catching at tree trunks as she passed them to keep
herself upright and moving. When finally her terror could no longer sustain her, she sank down, her
back to a tree, and looked back the way she had come.

Nothing moved in the forest, and when she forced her mouth to close and held her
shuddering breath, she heard nothing save the pounding of her own heart. She felt as if hours passed
before her breath moved easily in her dry mouth and her heart slowed to where she could hear the
normal sounds of the forest. She listened, straining her ears, but heard only the wind in the bared
branches. Clutching at the tree trunk, she dragged herself to her feet, wondering if her trembling
legs could still hold her.

Then, as she started down the path toward home, a ridiculous grin blossomed on her
face. She had done it. She had faced down a pard, and saved herself, and was coming home triumphant,
with wintergreen leaves for tea and berries, too. “Not prey,” she whispered hoarsely to herself, and
her grin grew wider.

Resettling her clothing as she strode, Alise pushed her wild hair out of her face.
The rain was finding her now. Time to get home before she was completely soaked. She still had
things to do tonight. Firewood and kindling to gather, coals to borrow to rekindle her fire, and
water to haul for cooking. And she should tell Carson about the pard so he could caution the others.
Then she could make her tea.

A well-earned cup of wintergreen tea. Part of having her own life, now.

Day the 20th of the Fish Moon

Year the 7th of the Independent Alliance of Traders

From the Bird Keepers' Guild, Bingtown

To All Guild Members

 

To be posted prominently in all halls.

It is essential that all members of the Guild remember
that our profession is a time-honored trade with rules, professional standards, and secrets of bird
handling, training, and breeding that are confined to Guild members. Guild birds remain the property
of the Guild, and the offspring of Guild birds remain the property of the Guild. Our reputation and
the custom we have built up depend on our birds being the swiftest, the best trained, and the
healthiest. Our clients use Guild birds and bird keepers because they know they can rely on us and
our birds for message transport that is quick and confidential.

Of late, there has been a spate of complaints and
queries about possible tampering with messages. At the same time, we have noticed more citizens
turning to private flocks for the transport of messages. To make matters worse, the recent plague of
red lice led to many of our customers being frustrated at the lack of available Guild birds to bear
their messages.

We must all remember that not only our reputations but
our livelihoods are at stake. Our honor demands that members report any suspicions of message
tampering.

Likewise, any members stealing eggs or fledglings for
personal use or profit must be reported.

It is only by all of us adhering to our Guild rules that
we can maintain the quality of service that our patrons expect. Maintaining our standards will
ensure that we all prosper together.

C
HAPTER
T
WO

Flight

T
he dragons looped in wide circles over the river like swallows. Their flight looked effortless. The scarlet one was Heeby, and high above her, flying in an ever-widening gyre was Sintara, a blue gem against the blue sky. Tats's heart soared as he finally spotted a set of emerald wings. Fente. His very own Fente. She had been flying for three days now, and every time Tats glimpsed her aloft his heart swelled with fondness and pride. Tinged, of course, with anxiety.

Foolish one. I am a dragon. To me the skies belong. I know this is hard for an earthbound creature to grasp, but this is where I have always belonged.

He could only smile at her condescension.
You fly like thistledown, beauty on wings.

Thistledown with talons! I go to the hunt!

May you find red meat!

Tats watched her tip her wings and peel away from the others, heading toward the foothills on the far side of the river. He felt a pang of disappointment. He probably would not see her again today. She would hunt, kill, gorge, sleep, and in the evening she would return not to him but to Kelsingra, to soak in the baths there, or to sleep in one of the awakened dragon sanctuaries in the city. He knew it was for the best. It was what she needed if she was to grow and improve her flying. And he was so glad that his dragon was one of the first to achieve flight. But . . . but he missed her. Her success had left him more alone than ever.

On the shoreline before him several other dragons were attempting what she had mastered. Carson was standing beside silver Spit, holding the tip of the dragon's extended wing as he inspected it for parasites. Spit already gleamed like a polished sword. Tats could tell that Carson was forcing the dragon to stretch his wing in the pretense of further grooming. Spit was rumbling in a way that was both unhappy and threatening. Carson was ignoring it. Not all the dragons were enthusiastic participants in their exercises and practice. Spit was among the most recalcitrant. Ranculos was reckless one day and sullen the next. Midnight-blue Kalo simmered with dignified resentment that mere humans dared to supervise his efforts to fly, while Baliper was openly fearful of the moving river and would not attempt flight near it.
Most of the others,
he thought to himself,
were simply lazy.
Training to fly was demanding and painful work.

Some, however, were intent on achieving flight regardless of the cost. Dortean was still recovering from crashing to the earth through some trees. Sestican had torn a rent in the membrane of one wing. His keeper, Lecter, had held the injured wing opened and wept as Carson had stitched up the tear.

Mercor stood erect, his golden wings spread wide to the thin sunlight. Harrikin and Sylve were watching him, and Sylve's face was pinched with anxiety. Harrikin's dragon, Ranculos, watched jealously. The gold drake lifted his wings high and then gave them a short, sharp snap as it to assure himself all was working. He gathered himself, setting his weight back onto his hindquarters. As Tats watched, Mercor leaped, wings spread and beating frantically. But he could not gain enough altitude for a full beat of his wings, and the best he could manage was a long glide in parallel to the river before landing clumsily on the sandy shore. Tats let out a long sigh of disappointment and saw Sylve briefly cover her face with her hands. The golden dragon was growing thinner as he grew larger, and he did not gleam as he once had. Learning to fly and to hunt for himself was now a matter of survival. For the others as much as himself. Where he led, the other dragons would follow.

Mercor held an odd sway over the others, one Tats did not completely understand. In their serpent incarnations, he had led their “tangle.” It surprised Tats that a loyalty from a previous life prevailed still. But when Mercor had proclaimed that the flighted dragons must hunt only on the far side of the river, and leave the game on the village side alone so that the keepers might better provide for the grounded dragons, no one, dragon or keeper, had protested. Now the other dragons watched him limbering his wings, and Tats hoped that if Mercor made a successful flight, they would all become more willing in their efforts.

Once the dragons could fly and hunt, life would become easier for all of them. The keepers would also be able to transfer their lives to Kelsingra. Tats thought of warm beds and hot water and sighed. He lifted his eyes again to watch Fente in flight.

“It's hard to let go of her, isn't it?”

He turned reluctantly at Alise's question. For a moment he was stricken, thinking she had seen to his core and knew how he pined for Thymara. Then he realized she spoke of his dragon, and he tried to smile at her. The Bingtown woman had been quiet and grave of late, and distant. It was almost as if she had returned to being the stranger among them, the fine lady from Bingtown who had startled all the Rain Wild keepers when they had first discovered she was a member of their expedition. Initially, she had competed with Thymara for Sintara's attention, but Thymara's competence as a hunter had soon won Sintara's belly if not her heart. Nevertheless, Alise had created her own place in the expedition company. She did not hunt, but she had helped groom and tend dragon injuries as best she could. And she had known things, information about dragons and Elderlings that had helped them along the way. For a time, it had seemed she was one of them.

But Alise had not been chosen as keeper by any of the dragons, and Rapskal's declaration that the city belonged to the keepers had thrust her to one side. Tats still winced when he thought of that stark confrontation. When they had first reached Kelsingra, Alise had asserted her authority and decreed that nothing must be touched or changed until she had had a chance to thoroughly document the dead city. Tats had simply accepted her rule, as had the other keepers. It surprised him now to realize how much authority he had ceded to her simply because she was an adult and a scholar.

But then had come the confrontation between her and Rapskal. Rapskal had been the only one of the keepers with free access to the city. His dragon, Heeby, had been the first to take flight, and unlike the other dragons, she had not minded carrying a passenger on her back. Heeby had provided passage to the city for Alise many times. But when Rapskal and Thymara had ventured to the city to explore and had returned the next day with a trove of warm Elderling garments to share with the other ragged keepers, Alise had been incensed. He had never seen the genteel Bingtown woman so angry. She had cried out to them that they must put the garments down “this instant and stop tugging at them.”

And that was when Rapskal had defied her. He had told her, in his direct way, that the city was alive and belonged to the Elderlings, not to her. He had pointed out that he and his fellow keepers were Elderlings while she was and would remain a human. Despite his own heartbreak that day, despite seeing Thymara beside Rapskal, Tats had felt a flash of deep pity for Alise. And a stripe of shame and regret to see her so quickly retreat and withdraw from their company. When he thought about it now, he felt a bit guilty that he had not at least knocked at her door to ask if she was all right. He had been nursing his own heartbreak, but still, he should have gone to ask after her. The truth was, he hadn't even noticed she had been missing until she reappeared.

Did her effort at conversation mean she had recovered from Rapskal's rebuke? He hoped so.

He smiled at her as he replied, “Fente has changed. She doesn't need me as she once did.”

“Before long, none of them will.” She was not looking at him. Her gaze tracked his dragon across the sky. “You will all have to start thinking of yourselves in a different way. Your own lives will come to have more significance to you. The dragons will take command of their own fates. And probably ours as well.”

“What do you mean?”

Now she looked at him, a direct look with her brows raised as if startled that he did not immediately grasp what she had told him. “I mean that dragons will rule the world again. As they used to.”

“As they used to?” Tats echoed her words as he followed her toward the riverbank. It had become a new habit for all of them; the keepers and the flightless dragons gathered in the morning on the riverbank to discuss the day's tasks. He glanced around and for a moment was seized by the beauty of the scene. The keepers were gleaming figures in the fleeting morning mist, for all wore their Elderling garments daily now. Their dragons were scattered across the hillside and along the bank. They were limbering their wings, beating them hard against the meadow grass, or stretching out necks and legs. They, too, gleamed brilliantly against the dew-heavy grasses of the wet meadow. At the bottom of the hill, Carson had given over his efforts with Spit and waited for them, Sedric at his side.

The leadership had evolved, Tats realized. For all Rapskal's charismatic speech when he had returned from Kelsingra, he had not assumed the command as Tats had thought he might. Probably because he was not interested in being a leader. He was handsome and cheerful, beloved by his fellows, but most of them spoke of him with a fond smile rather than deep respect. Rapskal remained as odd as he had always been, introspective one moment and bizarrely social the next. And happy with who he was. The ambition that would have burned inside Tats was not even a spark to him.

Carson was by years the oldest of those who had taken on a dragon. It seemed natural to cede authority to him, and the hunter did not shirk from it. For the most part, Carson assigned the daily tasks to the keepers, a few to groom and otherwise tend to the remaining dragons, and the rest of them to hunt or fish. If a keeper protested that he had a different task in mind that day, Carson did not let it become an issue. He recognized the keepers' individuality and did not attempt to impose his authority on them. As a result, all seemed to accept it.

Alise had quietly claimed some of the menial but necessary tasks of daily living. She tended the smoking racks that preserved fish and meat for them, gathered edible greens, and helped groom the dragons. Sylve, never the most successful hunter, had turned her energies to the preparation of meals. At Carson's suggestion, the keepers had returned to large shared meals. It was strange but nice to return to the communal meals and talk they had shared when they were moving the dragons upriver.

It made him feel a bit less lonely.

“As they used to, and will again,” Alise continued. She glanced over at him. “Seeing them in flight, watching all of you change . . . it puts a different light on all that I discovered in the course of my early studies. Dragons were the center of the Elderling civilizations, with humans a separate population that lived apart from them, in settlements like the ones we found here. Humans raised crops and cattle that they traded to Elderlings in exchange for their wondrous goods. Look at the city across the river, Tats, and ask yourself, how did they feed themselves?”

“Well, there were herds on the outskirts of the cities. Probably places to grow crops . . .”

“Probably. But humans were the ones to do that. Elderlings gave themselves and their lives over to their magic, and to tending the dragons. All they did and built and created were not for themselves, but for the dragons who overshadowed them.”

“Ruled them? The dragons ruled them?” He wasn't enjoying the images in his mind.

“Ruled isn't quite the right word. Does Fente rule you?”

“Of course not!”

“And yet you gave your days over to hunting for her, and grooming her and otherwise caring for her.”

“But I wanted to do those things.”

Alise smiled. “And that is why
ruled
is the wrong word. Charmed? Englamoured? I'm not sure quite how to express it, but you do already know what I mean. If these dragons breed and bring more of their kind into the world, then inevitably they will end up running the world for their own benefit.”

“That sounds so selfish!”

“Does it? Isn't it what humans have done for generations? We claim the land as ours and turn it to our purposes. We change the channels of rivers and the face of the land so that we can travel by boat or grow a crop or graze cattle. And we think it only natural that we should shape the whole world to be comfortable and yielding for humankind. Why should dragons be any different in how they perceive the world?”

Tats was quiet for a time.

“It may not be a bad thing at all,” Alise observed into his silence. “Maybe humans will lose some of their pettiness if they have dragons to contend with. Ah, look! Is that Ranculos? I would not have believed it possible!”

The huge scarlet dragon was in the air. He was not graceful. His tail was still too skinny, and his hindquarters flimsy for his size. Tats was about to observe that he was only gliding after a launch from a higher point, but at that point the dragon's wings began to beat heavily. And what had been a glide turned into labored flight as he gained altitude.