The Dragon Keeper
And then she had stood up abruptly and walked away from him. Just like that. She had been shocked when he had actually done what she told him to do, and uneasy ever since. She’d avoided him successfully, not an easy feat on a ship. Leftrin had been surprisingly reasonable about changing quarters for them.
“I’ve already put my mind to that, and the materials are on their way. I don’t mind giving up my bunk for a night or two, but much longer than that simply won’t work. But you’ll see. We can set up some temporary shelters on the deck. I’ve done it before for cattle, and it won’t be much different for passengers. The Tarman was built to be versatile. Oh, don’t look at me like that! You’ll see, I’ll make it comfortable enough for even Dapperlad there.” And with an outrageous grin, he’d tossed his head toward the sulking Sedric.
Leftrin had been as good as his word. She had not noticed the fittings set into the deck that allowed for walls to be raised. The chambers created were neither large nor elegant, being not much roomier than a large box stall, but they were private, and when hammocks were slung in them and her own luggage set in place, she found she could arrange her boxes to make a cozy little den for herself. She had a place to sit and write, and a lantern for her own use, though Leftrin warned her sternly to be eternally cautious with it. “Spilled oil and flame aboard a ship is never a trivial thing,” he warned her. Her quarters shared a wall with Sedric’s, and once the walls had been raised, he entered his room and shut the door immediately.
And there he had stayed until the ship had departed the wharf at Cassarick only to put in at the muddy banks of the dragon beach less than an hour later. Sedric looked much better now than he had earlier. Access to his wardrobe for fresh clothes, privacy, a nap, and a solitary meal seemed to have restored his energy if not his charm. He had not said anything directly to Alise about her high-handed ways, but the edge to his tongue let her know that he had not forgiven her. She shook her head to herself and turned away from him. She’d deal with Sedric later. Right now, she wasn’t going to let anything ruin her first glimpse of the young dragons.
“They’re huge!” Sedric sounded daunted. “You don’t intend to go down there and walk among them!”
Down the beach, the golden dragon suddenly lifted his head. The small figure beside him stirred. The dragon looked toward them, flaring his nostrils and audibly blowing. He rolled to his feet and began to lumber toward them.
“Not yet,” Hennesey replied sourly.
“Is there danger?” Alise asked.
“I don’t know,” Leftrin said. Then, as the dragon’s girl-keeper caught up with the creature, he added quietly, “I don’t think so.”
Moments later, the immense creature was following the girl placidly down the beach, back to their sunning spot. Alise let her pent breath out in a sigh. “Look how the sun reflects off him. His markings are so delicate. Such amazing creatures. Even flawed, they’re incredibly beautiful. Of course, the queen at the end of the beach is the most glorious, but this is to be expected. The females of this species were always the most flamboyantly colored. My studies suggest that they could be assertive, even arrogant perhaps, but given the level of their intelligence, such ‘arrogance’ was perhaps the natural attitude that such a superior mind might take. Look at her. The sun soaks right into her and shines back out of her.”
The blue dragon and her tender were a good distance away, at least a hundred feet. Alise was sure her voice had not carried that far, and yet the blue female suddenly lifted her head from where she had been stretched out on the hard mud and regarded Alise with whirling copper eyes for a long moment. Then she said, quite clearly, “Were you speaking of me, Bingtown woman?”