I guess that means we’re not being punished, Callam thought. The bronze dragon made a low fluting noise, like get on with it.
“And you are a third time fortunate,” Dalvenjarelarkhan added without haste, “For you have been chosen.”
As if the words broke whatever spell had held them frozen, Callam and Edit turned to look at each other. “Together?” they asked, almost in unison.
“Both of you, together,” Dalvenjarelarkhan confirmed. “That you may continue to aid each other as you have done thus far. Now you will learn of your new role and your new companion - Roharanarkhan, who favors miscreants like himself.” Okay, Callam thought, now she really sounds like my mother.
Of course it was the bronze dragon who stepped forward to meet them, so evidently eager it was hard to hold him in as much awe as his majestic elder. He would have led them straight away, but with a look Dalvenjarelarkhan detained them for a final word.
“It is not only the dragons who choose; the chosen must choose in turn whether to accept the role offered to them. Ordinarily at this time, when all obligation as tribute is discharged and a candidate has had a taste of what they agree to, we would ask if you still wish to go farther. From your speech just now I do not think there is any doubt of your current willingness, but it is necessary to say nonetheless. Roharanarkhan is so confident of his choice, it might not occur to him that his chosen could feel otherwise. If your mind should change, know that your refusal will be honored.”
“Yes, Dalvenjarelarkhan,” Roharanarkhan assented, and Callam and Edit echoed him.
Roharanarkhan led then from the meeting room by a different door than they’d entered, and down a wide hall. As soon as they were away from the other dragons Callam felt better—more relaxed, almost as if there wasn’t a huge bronze dragon close enough to touch. Edit caught his eye and made a face of relief.
Roharanarkhan strode ahead in dragonly state until they came to a turning in the hall, then snaked his sinuous neck around—”All clear! Just wait!” Wait for what? Callam barely had time to wonder. There was a brief, queasy shimmering where the dragon had been, and then-- a man.
Roharanarkhan shifted. He was gorgeous—golden-brown skin barely lighter than his dragon hide, glossy hair several shades darker, long and slim and muscled--the build Callam had hoped his gawky adolescence would grow into but never had. Dressed in the simple tunic and sandals like citadel guards wore under their armor, little different from Callam’s own clothing. Something familiar about that… Features regular and strong in a way that suggested his dragon’s prominent facial bones but still seemed perfectly human. Features that were shaping themselves into a delighted, almost mischievous grin as Callam watched. Wow.
“That’s easier for you, I think?” the dragon-man asked. “I can’t keep it up all the time but I’ve practiced and practiced and I’m getting better! I know it’s hard for humans to be around our native forms and I want you to be comfortable. I think I can manage most of the time until we’re bonded, and then it won’t affect you so much. At least, I think I can if we are bonded soon. Oh, I am doing this so badly! Please don’t tell Dalvenjarelarkhan, she’ll be so very angry if she finds I haven’t treated my companions properly!”
Callam couldn’t help it; he laughed. It was a sort of release-of-nerves-and-adrenaline laugh, but it was a laugh. Roharanarkhan in human form was not intimidating at all. He was handsome and guileless and enthusiastic and Callam liked him already. Edit, however, was staring at him with something akin to suspicion.
“You’re not angry with me, are you? Can I try again? I’ll do such a proper human greeting—” He offered his hand as if for a handshake, only a bit awkwardly. “You know my name already and I know yours, but Roharanarkhan is such a very dragonish name; I would be really honored if you would allow me to have a human sort of name—would you? Would you call me, perhaps—Rohan?”
“Rohan,” said Edit slowly, looking at him through narrowed eyes. “Do you know our names because dragons are told the names of their tributes? Or did you find them out some other way?”
“Some other way,” he admitted, deflating a little. “I wasn’t supposed to.”
“You were one of the guards, weren’t you. The ones who were always around the Tributes’ Precinct.” It wasn’t exactly a question; she seemed certain. Callam could not tell what she thought or felt about that; she was holding herself very still, in that way she had.
“Yes,” Rohan agreed. “How did you know?”
Edit shrugged. “The armor didn’t cover very much, apart from your face; the rest of you looks much the same. Smell. How you move in this shape. How you...seem, I guess. It’s not important. What else did you find out by sneaking, that we might have preferred to choose when and how we shared with you?”
“Oh.” Rohan looked dismayed. “I guess that wasn’t very—considerate—was it? I am sorry. Perhaps that’s why we unbonded dragons aren’t supposed to linger among humans, even in our human shape—so you have privacy before you are c
hosen, just as we do. But no one ever said why! And I didn’t find out anything very much, only that you come from far to the other side of the mountains where everyone barely knows anything about dragons and your people were not very good to you – I want to do something about that, when we are bonded! --and you liked Callam first because no one else treated you like a person, which was wrong of them; you are a very interesting person, my chosen.”
The look he gave her was so appreciative, so covetous, that Callam might have been jealous, except that it was for Edit, and Rohan’s look was not so very different from his own feeling.
“And Callam I learned is from here and has been a proctor for the Trials ever so long -“ He caught Callam’s eye with a wry and wistful smile - “so close! Yet I never knew him until now, and maybe never would have—” His breath caught at that distressing thought— “So I am grateful Edit came to change our fortune. And Callam knows quite a lot about dragons, because he finds our kind fascinating as I find humans though I don’t know as much, and he has sexual interest in other males - ”
“Hey!” Callam protested. “Why would you even -”
And sharply Edit reprimanded: “Rohan! That is not for you to say!”
“I’m sorry!” He put up his hands placatingly. “You asked. I didn’t know that was especially private; it’s not, among us. Dragons, I mean. And I didn’t really try to find that out. It was kind of noticeable.”
Oh hell, thought Callam. Then said it aloud for good measure. “Oh hell.” He wondered if his flush of embarrassment was visible. Hell, he hadn’t thought he’d ever done anything to give away his uncommon preferences; if Rohan had casually ‘noticed’ that, his flaming face was probably as obvious as a beacon, despite his dark complexion.
“Sexual interest is very much the sort of thing a person prefers to make his own choice to disclose,” Edit said dryly. “Or her own choice,” she added. “In case you need that spelled out. And, I don’t know about dragon custom, but among humans it is also very much the sort of thing not to be discussed in a public hallway where anyone might come along and overhear.”
“But it might be discussed somewhere?” Rohan asked very tentatively. “Might such very personal things be discussed somewhere that no one else could enter without being invited? I would like—I invite you to to come with me to my apartments, to speak more—if you are still willing, if I have not given too great offense.”
Edit looked at Callam; Callam looked at Edit. He could not quite read her face, or guess what she might be thinking. This is not at all what I was expecting seemed likely; it was foremost in Callam’s own mind. When he looked a little deeper he found, though, that he was not too offended - not offended at all. He was embarrassed, off balance - but also elated and most of all curious.
I am a dragon’s chosen companion. Ordinary social rules don’t apply. There’s going to be nothing but strangeness for while if I go on with this. And I want to. I want to talk with Rohan about anything and everything, teach him about humans, learn about dragons. See how they live. Find out what their scales feel like. I want to find out how bonding works, I want - everything.