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“Immortal be his memory,” the others said in unison, save for the Copper, who just mumbled to join in, not knowing the group’s habits.
Now I’m in league with the memory of a dragon I’ve never even met.
“But to go on,” Ibidio continued. “RuGaard, this will be a shock to you. Tighlia mind-spoke and told me that just before he died, the Tyr—Tyr FeHazathant, my mate’s father—said that he was appointing you heir and future Tyr. If you wanted the rank. That’s what his words meant, the day he died. ‘Ask RuGaard to be Tyr.’ I’m so used to looking for plots and hidden signs in everyday talk I couldn’t puzzle out its simple meaning. What do you say to that?”
All the dragons were looking at him.
“What does it matter?” he asked.
“What does it matter?” Ibidio laughed. “If we ever gain back the Lavadome, I think you’ll find it matters very much.”
“If we are to do it, we must strike quickly,” NeStirrath said. “Strike before they get organized, and before all here become used to submission to men the way these accursed foreign dragons are.”
“I have a small force on the Western Road,” the Copper said.
Others listed a few dragons who could be relied on. NeStirrath could bring together his best Drakwatch. But as they counted in their heads they knew it would not be enough. Not against the training and weapons that had been displayed last night.
“The men alone, we might be able to handle,” Rethothanna said. “They’re not much without their dragons.”
“The dragons aren’t much better without men,” the Copper said. “I’ve seen them. They’re not like us. They can’t think for themselves very quickly; they either do what they’re trained to do—”
“Perhaps we could convince them to revolt,” Ibidio said.
“Fat dragons stuffing themselves with Anaean gold?” a dragon from the Wyrr hill asked. “You might as well ask a horse to fight its rider. I’m not sure they could even grasp the concept.”
“Let us meet again tomorrow,” Ibidio said. “Early, around the morning meal. I’ll try to get in and get a feel for the hag-riddens. What’s the matter, RuGaard, not feeling kingly?”
“I’m being hunted by an old nightmare.”
The others nodded understanding, but the last thing he wanted was for them to understand.
The Copper walked back to the Imperial Resort—it didn’t seem like a resort anymore, just a rather dark and forbidding rock—with NeStirrath. They talked of unimportant matters, old memories of training with the Drakwatch.
He even returned to his old cave. There hadn’t been a member of the Imperial line since him serving in the Drakwatch, and he even caught the faint smell of bats—wait.
A bat still lived, up in a shadowy corner. Something about the ears reminded him of an old acquaintance.
“You wouldn’t be related to old Uthaned, would you?”
“I am Uthaned,” the bat said. It stretched. “You’ve grown considerably, m’lord.”
“It can’t be. Mamedi and Thernadad’s nephew? Bats don’t live—”
“They do when they’ve been fed dragonblood. I even talk to Big Ear, Spike Hair, and Wide Nose, as you called them, now and again when they visit.”
The Copper was relieved to be so pleasantly distracted. “But why are you still here, Uthaned?”
“The eating is good. These young drakes, they sleep hard after their days’ hiking, and they dream better, down a little blood. They make it up quick enough. And that old one with all the horns and the stumps where his wings should be…well, he sometimes has a draft of wine to help him sleep, and with a bit of a nip he sleeps sounder still. I like to think I’m doing a service—Ah, soft. None have returned yet tonight. I don’t suppose m’lord might spare…?”
The Copper was thinking back to his own days with the bats. Sometimes they’d left him so listless, and in the mornings if he lifted his head high, he went dizzy….
He froze. It was like the idea had a glowing aura around it, like the moon’s halo in a mist. He didn’t know exactly what the idea would look like once it took shape, but he knew its rough outlines.
“Are there any other bats still about?”
“Another of my cousins still lives near the kitchens, where it’s warm. Then there’s a son of mine, and his family. Oh, and of course—”
“I need more, many more. Can you go to your relatives and then send them out on the western road? Someone must know where that is.”
