Oh,please, let us talk.
A pity that making conversation was not his strong point.Will you tell me about Pierre, your companion? I would like to hear about him.
Clearly his request pleased her, and over the next hour he listened to tales of a seventeenth century gentleman's second son and his adventures with Coquelicot, the healings she performed and the magery he became renowned for. He could see the events through her eyes as she presented them to his mind, a strange experience as if he had travelled back in time. It was fascinating.
Then her body seemed to suddenly relax under his, and her mind, too. She shifted her attention from him, but with their bodies touching, he could hear the echo of her sending.Eldest, you came!
His eyes flew open, but instead of the Eldest of the Dark Peak Nest, Rana Akshaya stood before them in her massive draconic form.
I am here.Quickthorn, this is something you can heal, should you choose to do so, Rana Akshaya sent.
I am not a healer. Quickthorn's sending was sharper, like her voice.
He was hearing echoes of a conversation he was not part of. Did touching Coquelicot make a difference? Or was it something from their unique bond, which was neither a true bond nor a lesser one?
Rana Akshaya's heavier sending.You have the ability to heal dragons, even if you have not developed it. This is a simple matter, finding the egg that is too large and making it smaller.
No one has ever seen that ability in me!
A brusque retort.Then they are blind, for it is obvious. Whether or not you heal this one, do not deny the gift you were born with.
Quickthorn, sounding small.Are you certain?
A blast of something powerful washed through Darcy. Anger, pride, arrogance. Rana Akshaya's sending made Coquelicot tremble. I reigned in my Nest and my kingdom when your Eldest was still in the egg. I have said so; it is true.
Silence, then Quickthorn was back to her usual brusque self.Show me what I must do, then, and I will try.
Rana Akshaya, sharp as a knife.You will give up some of your life force to heal this one, who is not even of your Nest?
Quickthorn's response was instant.What is a Nest but a group of dragons who live together on the same anchor? Whatever we call ourselves, here at Pemberley we have an Eldest, hatchlings, eggs, the nestling Agate, and three dragons - even a Seer. Something has drawn each of us here, something larger than any of us. What are we, if not a Nest?
A heavy, poignant silence fell.
Darcy was now quite sure he was not supposed to be hearing this conversation - and equally certain no one was turning his Pemberley into a dragon Nest. It was bad enough that the Dark Peak Nest considered his estate to be their territory. He would accept dragons as guests there. But that this should be their home?
He would tell them it was impossible.
And then Coquelicot would be homeless again. He could take her to another Nest, once matters at Pemberley were more stable, but she would spend her life far from her eggs - and he would never see her again.
If there were a Nest at Pemberley, she could remain here with him and watch her nestlings hatch. She could help if Elizabeth or Jenny were sick, not to mention all the people of Pemberley whose lives would be forever different for having a healer dragon here.
He could keep his bond to Coquelicot.
What would Elizabeth say if she could hear his thoughts now?
Perhaps he should hear more about this plan for a Pemberley Nest before he vetoed it out of hand. If Rana Akshaya did not shoot it down as a ridiculous conceit.
Then Cerridwen's sending entered, otherworldly and resonant, as he had last heard it when she prophesied over Jenny's afterbirth.It is true. And while this Nest stands, dragonkind shall be safe, but if it falls, so will Europe, and India and China will be next.
The Nests in India will fall?Rana Akshaya's demand loomed over them.
Then a vision struck him, so huge and all-encompassing that he could only grasp at fleeting details of it. The faces of strange dragons, screaming inagony. Flames everywhere. An oddly sculpted hilly landscape with strange vegetation, with smoke rising everywhere and piles of burned human remains. Then snowcapped, jagged mountain peaks piercing the sky, and lifeless dragon corpses scattered across the icy fields. An inhuman fae face under an impossibly pointed silver crown, laughing with vicious glee as steaming dragon blood dripped from his hands. The High King of Faerie, whom the dragons called the Wicked King, who had ordered the invasion of Pemberley, too.
The horror of it pulsed through him, making bile rise in his throat - and then, thankfully, it vanished. Leaving blessed silence in its wake, and a feeling as if he had just wakened from a terrible nightmare that he was not yet certain was just a dream.
Quickthorn sent,Then we have no choice but to create a new Nest, a true one. But no one knows any longer how to create a Nest anchor.
I do,Rana Akshaya rumbled.I carry an anchor inside me. Have you never wondered how I traveled so far with no companion, or why you are so comfortable at Pemberley when you are far from your anchor? Why even companionless dragons can come here, so far from their Nest?
