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“You can live in the world and accept it, or you can pretend the hatchling songs and stories are true. Which will it be, dragon?”
“At the moment, a quiet life in Anaea seems enough of a dream.”
“Easiest thing in the world. Simply mate with Halaflora and you can be back on the western road the next day. You’ll forget your little Firemaiden soon enough, roasting ceremonial kern.”
“What if her love is some pleasant dream of mine? What’s wrong with dreams? I’ve seen enough of the world to prefer them.”
She took a deep breath. “Oh, you are a prize fool, boy. I try and I try to help you. And this is what I get. Ingratitude. Ah, well, you’ll get no more help from me. Or my brother. I’ll see to that.
“Go to your precious Firemaiden, RuGaard. Someday you’ll learn what dreams are made of.”
He sought out Nilrasha on the milkdrinker’s hill. The place was a warren of aboveground dwellings housing mostly human thralls, with blighters in huts on the other side of a filthy stream running in twin channels with a wall between that held washing.
He remembered NeStirrath on one of the hikes telling him that the humans wouldn’t drink or wash in the blighter water, and the blighters wouldn’t drink or wash in the human water, yet both were indistinguishable in their foulness.
There were dragon-holes on the hill too; in fact, the whole area was sort of one vast catacomb, with little ledges and chambers off the main passage, so that few had what could really be called a place of their own, and mother dragons had to shelter their eggs with the weight of their bodies to keep them from being disturbed, if not accidentally crushed.
“Our day for visitors,” a mud-speckled Anklene said, looking at the painted stripes curling back from his shoulders.
“I’m looking for the Firemaiden quarter. I was told it was down here somewhere.”
“Down it is, and then some; they’re well below. Bottom of the air shaft to the left, your Imperial grace.”
He had to climb slowly, thanks to his sii, but he made it to the bottom of the shaft. A few of the Firemaidens made jokes or hooted about an invasion of Drakwatch.
He searched for Nilrasha but could learn nothing more than that an Imperial messenger had come for her. He managed to find Fourfang, and told him to make ready for a journey back to Anaea.
He hurried on the path back to Black Rock, scrambling up every prominence and kern mill to look over the grounds for Nilrasha. He hoped it was just some matter of business with the Firemaidens, or that she’d gone to visit friends.
He marked a lone female sitting on a wall next to a mushroom field, and hurried toward her. With each step he became more certain it was Nilrasha.
He limp-trotted up to her. “Nilrasha! I’ve been looking for you for hours.”
Her tail flicked up, but she kept watching the mushrooms. “So you’ve found me. I understand you’re to be mated to the late Tyr’s own granddaughter. Well-done.”
“No, you misunderstood. I refused her.”
She turned and looked at him. “Refused her, or refused Tighlia? That was a foolish thing to do. Such a strong connection to AgGriffopse’s line would be to your advantage.”
“I’m not looking for an advantage, just a chance at what…what my parents had.”
And who took that away? Not Tighlia.
She looked away again, flicked out her tongue, and consumed a black beetle climbing the stones. “I’ve changed my mind about mating. I’m taking vows as a Firemaid.”
“Have they threatened you?”
“No, they’ve not threatened me. I’m a poor drakka from a lowly line. What could they possibly take away that I cherish?” She blinked, and the Copper saw a wetness in her eyes; then she took a cleansing breath. “Our eldest was thrilled to hear me decide to take the vows. Offered me any guard post I wished.”
“No. Come back to Anaea with me. There’s nothing to stop us from mating.”
“Nothing but the fact that I don’t love you. I was just using words, words used by mated dragons for ages, and they worked their magic. But the Skotl clan is on the rise now, and they’ll never let go of Black Rock. I had hopes for you.”
“I thought—”
“I made you think, you mean. Yes, just as Tighlia said. I was after your lineage, your position, not some comedy of a mating.”
“How do you know what Tighlia said?”
