“I remember disposing of the keletha, I remember flying back and then…”
“And then?”
“And then it all went blank. When I woke up I could hear you calling so I came as quickly as I could.”
“Where did you wake up?”
“It was a field. There were tau and zaan and grass and that’s it.”
“Do you know which direction you came from? How far away was it? Miazydar?”
Instead of an answer, I got a gentle snore.
22
I slept on the couch that night, Miazydar sleeping along my ribs and shoulder. He had gotten a bit bigger, no doubt as he regained his strength. I woke up with a start the next morning when Jez was making a cup of tea in the kitchen. My eyes had barely begun to focus when I started looking around for him. “He’s outside, in his eyrie,” she said. “He must be feeling better, he’s back to full size and ate a tau already. That’s what woke me up.” She rubbed at her eyes. “I wish he wasn’t the only one getting beef.”
“I’ll go take a look,” I clambered free of the throw blankets I had wrapped around me.
It was chilly when I walked outside, so I rubbed my arms. I looked up at the eyries, walking backwards, my chest a little tight until I saw the hint of gleaming red scales. As if aware I was searching for him, his great head dropped over the edge to stare at me.
Feeling better? I asked.
I didn’t get an answer; he leapt off, dropping down beside me in a fluid swoop. Seeing him whole and at the right size loosened something inside me. I stepped into the curve of his neck, resting my face against the smooth metallic scales and wrapping my arms as far as I could. For a moment, I just was, listening to the sound of his breath come in and out, staring up at the sky as dragons wheeled above us, their riders waving as they passed.
“So, you’ve found your dragon.” I turned to see Bhechro standing there, Kelern, the desk bitch in tow, as well as several burly looking guys.
“He found me, yes.”
“Your dragon is an Aravisian asset and not only did you lose an incredibly valuable entity, you did not report his absence,” Bhechro said. He gestured to Kelern who hurried over with a roll of paper. “This is an authorisation to—.”
“No,” Miazydar said, taking a step forward. It was easy to forget just how big he was sometimes. His claws were bigger than any of our heads, his jaws wide enough to swallow us down. A single trickle of flame came from his muzzle, a sufficient enough threat that everyone else stood back. Bhechro, to his credit, tried to stand his ground. He wiped his brow and blinked, the whites of his eyes beginning to show very clearly as the flare flickered closer. He finally backed up but the piece of paper caught on fire, being quickly set alight and forcing him to let go or be similarly consumed.
“This is… You… This will not stand!” Bhechro spluttered.
“You forget yourself, petty pen pusher,” Miazydar said, growing larger as he loomed over the university officials. “You may try to tie me up in red tape, but you’ll never win a head-on confrontation with a dragon. Now, remove yourself, little man, and go and scour your obscure codes and laws for other ways to ensnare me.” He blew a heavy breath of air at the lot of them and they obediently scurried away, Bhechro struggling to do so at a suitably sedate pace. Miazydar’s head turned as other dragons landed in the clearing by the eyries. Keel swung off his dragon, yanking off his helmet and running over, followed by the Captain and several of her riders.
“What happened? What did he try this time?” Keel said, his eyes flicking from M to me.
“Stand down, Lieutenant. Captain Keya, I’m not sure we’ve met officially,” she said to me, holding out a hand. I shook it.
“He was about to try to use red tape to separate me from my rider,” Miazydar said. “I can’t be certain. I burned the paperwork.”
Captain Keya looked M over carefully, blinking several times as if she couldn’t trust them. “That’s quite unnerving. I’d been alerted to the fact that your dragon was quite different, but seeing is a whole other thing than hearing about it. This is my beast, Hunderley,” she said, gesturing for her beast to come over. He lumbered over on massively muscled legs and bunted her side with his head. “He can say my name, sort of. Hunderley, speak!”
“Kay-va! Kay-va!” her dragon said, sort of. It was almost as if his vocal cords had somehow atrophied, his words sounded like they were being forced past some kind of blockage, sounding somewhat gravelly and distorted. She tossed him a piece of jerky from her pocket without a look and he seemed very pleased with the reward.
Dear gods, Miazydar said.
I know, I know. I don’t know what’s happened to dragons here, but they seem to think it natural. We’re a threat to their accepted world view, so keep that in mind before you act.
You think I don’t realise that? I very much look forward to meeting these coll
eagues of the infantile looking one. If they can explain some of what’s happened here, it will not be time wasted.
Keya waved a hand at Hunderley, stopping him from saying her name over and over in the hope for more treats. She moved away with a little frown when he started snuffling at her pockets. “Hunderley, no!” she said and the dragon instantly fell back. She turned to Miazydar. “I’m still trying to decide whether or not this is a clever parlour trick or you really are fully sentient.”
“How does one prove sentience? Most testing is to establish the opposite.”