“Lom, find me a big enough piece of fabric in all this mess to use as a sling, please.” Bella fluttered her wings a little. “I really hate not having fingers.”
I rummaged through the mess and found what looked like it had been a tablecloth. “You know, if the library was built for and by dragons, who did the weaving?” I wrapped it diagonally around her, between her wings. Having the forelimbs helped keep it in place if she went on hindlegs. Fortunately, they were muscular enough to let her do this. Bob couldn’t, but Bella’s frame was much smaller and more agile. Alger went to get Bob and Lavendar, while I cradled an egg and helped settle them into the sling one at a time.
“I know it’s odd to have them on the outside,” I told her. “But I rather like being able to hold them like this, and feel the little wiggles.”
“Being in this form means I don’t get kicks. But then again, I don’t get kicked in the bladder, which my cousin assured me was the worst.”
She looked up as Lavendar came into the room. Someone had found her a stick, and she was using it as a cane. My heart sank. In the light, I could see the aging. The day before it hadn’t been visible, which meant that this place was accelerating it. Alger had been optimistic about the third plane helping.
Taking Lavendar Underhill was the only option for her survival. But doing so left her to the mercy of the Hunt. Bella walked to meet her, the sling and her posture making her awkward.
“Can you tell her that I want her to come with us?” Bella asked me.
I was moved by impulse, and held out both my hands, and when Lavendar gave her hers, I folded it into mine.
“I’m terrible with words.” I told her. “Bella loves you, so I must. Will you return Underhill with us? I’m afraid this place has gotten unhealthy for you.”
“You are a dear, under that crust you cultivate.” She squeezed my hands. “I have lived quite long enough. I would have liked to see the babies, but I will not go quietly to the Hunt.”
“I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t myself, but there are ways…”
She shook her head. “I have nothing to offer. And my animals need me.”
“But when you are gone? You cannot linger here alone, with no one to help you.”
“I will not be alone. Dear Forrest has promised to come back and stay… as long as necessary.”
I thought I saw. She would have a keeper, and it would be a way for him to learn history from one who had made it.
Bella spoke. “She can stay here in the Library, I will make it understand.”
“No, no, my home is more comfortable. My yen for the Library has faded, now I have gained entrance.” Lavendar replied to my translation. “I will go with you to see you off. Alger was able to open a gate just outside my wards, I think he could do so again.”
“And we will be able to supplement his power.” I commented.
“We should go. I feel… anxious.” Bella headed toward the statue hall without waiting for me.
Alger and Byrne were waiting with Beaker, who was twitching the tip of his tail. He was anxious too, for some reason.
“Where is Bob?” I looked around.
“Here.” He came into sight around a statue. It was a measure of the scale of that room; a dragon could hide in it.
“Then we are ready. Bella?”
She nodded, silently. It was difficult to read emotion on her face, but the way she was cradling the eggs spoke volumes.
“Beaker! Chow time!” I called to him.
He bobbed his head and nudged the doors. As they swung open for him, I realized they were on pivots. I’d missed that, before. I checked my guns. Even with the dragon on patrol, I wasn’t going out there unarmed. Alger, Bob, and I walked out abreast, with the women and Byrne behind. The old man was supporting Lavendar.
The golden mist swallowed us up, and as I scanned our surroundings I shivered in the damp. I’d gotten rather accustomed to the perfectly controlled environment of the Library. A squeal in the distance made me jump a little. Beaker had struck again.
“Alger, do your thing.” I ordered. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Working on it, my boy.”
I kept an eye on the mist, watching Lavendar hug Bella out of the corner of my eye. It might be the last time they saw one another.
“Ah! Here you are…” Alger sounded triumphant.
“Bob, can you go first, to look after Bella,” I started.
Bella cried out. “Oh! Lom… we can’t. Back to the library!”
“What?” I’m not sure who said that.
“The babies,” she reached into the sling. “One is hatching.”
Alger dropped the gate. Somewhere in the mist, Beaker roared in triumph.
“Dammit. Back to the library. Bob…”
He kept pace with me easily. Between Lavendar and the anxious Bella, we weren’t traveling very fast. We brought up the rear. “What do you know about hatching?” I asked him, scanning the mist. Something was moving out there.
“You know that Bella, Beaker and I are the last dragons, right?” He asked me. His voice was very dry.
“You’ve never seen a hatching?” I felt my panic in my voice.
The bulk in the mist was getting closer. I raised my guns. Bella and Lavendar were just opening the gates.
“Not a one, sorry, lad. I’m almost as nervous about this as you are.”
As the pseudopods swung at us, uncannily accurate from a beast with no eyes, I fired with my left hand. Endless practice meant I was ambidextrous, and I had a lot of bulk to aim at. Bob reared up and belched fire at it. The thing sizzled, when his fireball struck it.
“Time to get inside!” Alger bellowed at us. I fired with the right hand gun, just in case, and ran through the closing doors just behind Bob. We were all in, except Beaker, and the dragon could take care of himself.
“The women went to the nest.” Byrne blurted. “Better hurry, Lom.”
He clapped me on the shoulder as I hurried past him, holstering the guns. “Good luck, lad.”
I would rather have been back outside the gate, with the guns. At least then I was useful. What good would I be at a birth? I knew the myths around birth involved boiling water, although I couldn’t think why. I wondered what dragonets needed. Not the same thing as baby fairies, I was sure.
I was about to find out. I ran into the nest room, and saw Bella and Lavendar in it. How she’d gotten her grandmother up into it I didn’t know. I doubted Lavendar was able to fly, she was visibly… crumbling. My heart fell. I hadn’t known her at all, but Bella was…
I heard a peeping, and broke out of my pause to clamber into the nest with them.
“Look…” Bella was hovering over the eggs. Lavendar had her hands on one, and the other was making the noise.
“Is it… Shouldn’t it be all the way out?” I looked again with the Sight, and was reassured by the steady glow around the little body. I opened my eyes.
“Chicks don’t hatch all at once.” Lavendar was smiling. “Your son will take some time to come into the world, and it’s good for him. Gets the blood moving.”
“My son?” I looked at Bella, who shrugged.
“I don’t know, but she seems certain.”
The egg wiggled, and the little tear lengthened. A shiny little nose peeked out. I couldn’t look away. He was panting, and lying still. I put my hand out and caressed the unbroken bit of shell.
“I can’t bear it. So beautiful.” Bella leaned her scaled cheek against mine. “This isn’t how it was supposed to be, though.”
“Can you forgive me?” I asked her quietly.
“For what?” Bella asked.
“For this.” Lavendar cradled the other egg. “She’s coming.”
“Why would this need forgiveness, Lom? They are absolutely amazing.”
“It’s a big thing, having children. Oh, Lom, you should take her.” Lavendar pushed my peeping daughter still in her egg toward me. She leaned back on the cushions. “I’m rather tired. I’ll
rest.”
Bella scooped a cloth up to cover her grandmother. “Don’t fuss over me, dear, tend to your children. I’m quite happy.”
Bella looked at the egg I was holding. “She’s coming out.”
I looked at the tiny nose. “Indeed she is. And her brother is about to open his eyes…”
“Oh!” Bella nuzzled the little bright blue dragon who was now half-way out of his shell. With another big wiggle he managed to stretch out, and took another rest, still panting.
In my arms, his sister pushed her nose out the rest of the way and emitted a plaintive peep. Bella purred and nuzzled her, wrapping all of us up into a tent of her wings outstretched overhead. I lost track of time, watching them, warm inside Bella’s shelter. Our daughter’s scales were black, like her grandfather’s were. I glanced up and saw him, and Alger, in the corridor.
“Oh, come in.” I told them softly. “It’s not like a messy fairy birth or anything. Bella’s quite decent. But Lavendar is asleep.”
Bob loomed over Bella as she folded her wings back, his eyes reflecting the window light onto the babies. “So little.”
“Like living jewels.” Alger muttered. “Congratulations, Learoyd, on the most unusual family I believe I have ever seen.”
“Golly, thanks.” I grinned at him. He wasn’t going to deflate me that easily. I could see the smile even through that beard he insisted on cultivating, like a hedge.
“Lavendar should see this.” Bob shifted, and nudged her shoulder gently with his nose. She shifted, and I could see immediately that she was gone.
“Bob…”
“Damn.” He closed his eyes. “Damn.”
That was all he said. Bella looked blank. “Lom?”
“Lavendar…” I choked up. “Bella, your grandmother is dead.”
A tear splashed onto our son’s head, provoking a startled “Meep!” from the infant. “At least she saw them arriving.” Bella nuzzled the little one. “Lom, take us home, please. Now…”
Return
It wasn’t that easy, of course. Provisions had to be made for Lavendar’s body, and none of us wanted to bury her where the monsters would dig it up. Byrne pointed out he had access to her wards, and that he would have to come back to take care of the farm animals, anyway. Bella emphatically stated that she wanted her grandmother to remain here.
“She wasn’t happy Underhill, Lom, and she was here.” She said.
I nodded. “We will take care of it. You stay with the babies?”
“Yes, I know it’s dangerous. And you don’t need to be distracted by me.” She nuzzled my cheek, unable to kiss me.
With magic, Alger had neatly carved a divot in the ground, and I laid her frail body to rest. Bob had shifted to human form, and he brought handfuls of flowers to lay over her.
“She always had a garden.” He told me gruffly. “I used to tease her about her weeds, but it was pretty, and smelled good. I didn’t mind it.”
Alger replaced the sod, and looked at me. “She was a bright young thing. But an idealist, and never happy with the way things were. She wanted to be an iconoclast.”
“She brought up a very wonderful girl.”
We all turned away from the grave without speaking. The trip back to the Library was uneventful and silent. Beaker swam parallel to the wall, keeping us safely hidden and protected. Bella was waiting in the nest.
“I can only carry one.” She sounded distressed.
“Don’t worry, dear, I can manage.” I scooped up my son. “Let’s go home and surprise Ellie, eh?”
The little dragon was surprisingly heavy for his size, and quite warm. He wiggled around in my arms until his tail was curled around my forearm, and then closed his eyes with a little sigh. I held him close. Someone else was going to have to provide cover for us.
As it turned out, Beaker had that taken care of. The gates stood open, and he had formed a barrier with his body, a semicircular dragon wall. Bella walked over and showed him our daughter. He snuffled appreciatively, and I took my cue. The little boy yawned in Beaker’s face, and I chuckled. “Most people would be impressed, you know.”
He went back to sleep. I followed Bella to Alger and Byrne. “Bob went through.” Alger told me as Byrne stepped into the shimmering portal.
“Want me to hold it open for you?” I asked. He shook his head.
“Get the kiddies home. I can manage.”
I followed Bella into the between. My skin tingled, then burned. I swore out loud, and then stopped myself. The boy didn’t need that example just yet. Must be the Library’s changes shedding off. I stepped out on the other side, and immediately looked down.
In my arms I held a ruddy, naked newborn with a tuft of blackish hair. He squirmed, and erupted into an angry squall at the chill. I could hear Bella laughing and crying all at once. I looked at her. Byrne was wrapping his coat around her and the baby. Bella was as naked as her child.
“Here.” Alger thrust his cloak at me. “Cover up before you both catch your deaths.”
I wrapped it around me. I’d completely forgotten about the lost shirt at some point. It must still be in the nest. I had no intention of going back for it. My son stopped fussing once I had him skin to skin with me and covered warmly.
“Home.” I said to Alger. I bubbled all of us, and took us there. I landed in the Library, just a tiny drop above the floor, with a huge sigh of relief. Having the bubble go astray in the library had been frightening, and it was good to have it go right.
Ellie ran out of the kitchen. We were a bedraggled bunch, and I didn’t blame her at all for stopping with a little scream at the sight of us. Then she recovered, and ran straight for Bella.
“Look!” Bella pulled back the lapel of Byrne’s coat. “See what we brought you?”
Ellie dissolved into tears.
The next few hours were a blur. I got myself and Bella and the babies upstairs into our room. Once in that refuge, where we could get into clean clothes after a bath… Bella was reluctant to let go of the babies, having taken both of them. Ellie held out her arms, and Bella passed them over with a kiss on each of their heads.
“I will call Ash, and have him bring someone to help.” She told us. “There are so many things to tell you, but you both look filthy and half-starved. Go on with you.”
We took turns bathing. As much as it had been a very long time, there were too many people in the house, and the children; Bella kissed me and growled, “tonight.”
When we emerged clean and dressed again, Ellie was sitting on the loveseat, a baby in each arm. They were sleeping, and she had produced from somewhere little soft clothes, and I assumed, diapers. Baby dragons didn’t need them, but baby fairies did. She smiled at us, her face crinkling into a million wrinkles.
“What are their names?” She asked. Bella and I looked at each other.
“We hadn’t named them yet. There wasn’t a chance, really. Oh, Ellie…”
Bella sat down beside Ellie and put her face on the elf’s shoulder, crying. Ellie looked at me, her eyes wide.
“It’s a long story. She’s been through a lot. Ellie… how long have we been gone?”
Bella mumbled an apology, but Ellie shushed her. “You were gone for twenty-eight days. Corwin was beginning to talk about sending someone after you, but we weren’t really sure where you had gone.”
Bella sat bolt upright. “Corwin! I almost forgot…”
“I sent him a message. He’s in the kitchen, and so is Joe, and Joe the younger. But before you go rushing off, there’s someone I want you to meet.” She raised her voice. “Come in, dear.”
The door swung open, and a tiny wood elf with a mop of ringlets that were woven full of leaves and flowers looked in.
“All the way in.” Ellie prompted. “Contrary to rumor, neither of them bite.”
“Can’t promise that for the babies, though.” I smiled at her. She stepped in and bobbed a curtsey.
“Hello, I’m Bella.” Bella got up and held out her hand
. The little elf hesitated, then shook awkwardly. Ellie had to have been coaching her, that wasn’t a Fae custom.
“I’m Luned, mum. Luned Aeron.”
“I knew you would need a nursemaid for the babies. I just didn’t know how soon.” Ellie filled in the blanks for us.
“Did I take you away from anything?” Bella asked. “I know, we all thought we had months yet.”
“Oh, no, mum. Just my little brothers, and well,” Luned turned pink.
Bella laughed. “If they are anything like my cousins, this will be easier duty. Ellie, can we get the nursery ready?”
“Working on it now. You’ll have it by tomorrow, and Luned can bring in bassinets for tonight, unless you’d rather they stay with her.”
“Oh, no, they are going to stay with us,” my wife said firmly. “For one thing, I don’t know if I have milk, so…”
On cue, our daughter wailed. Bella made a face. “Never mind. That feels… ouch.”
I was torn between feeling distinctly out of place as the three of them worked at arranging babies and Bella in optimum positions, while Ellie gave her a stream of low-voiced advice. It seemed that natural as it was, breastfeeding wasn’t immediately obvious to any of the parties. I retreated. This was no place for a man.
As I came down the stairs, Corwin came out of the kitchen. He met me at the bottom with a warm grip on my shoulder.
“Lom.” He looked me up and down. “Good grief, man, you look like you’ve been through the wringer.”
I pulled a face. “Having babies will do that to you.”
He laughed. “Come sit down, have a beer, and let’s tell tales.”
“We were gone longer than I anticipated.”
The king and I sat at the table, along with Devon, Byrne, and Alger. I’d greeted my nephew with a clasp of his shoulder, and a searching look. He’d grown so much in the few months since his mother’s death. Not physically, but his face was harder, more adult than boy. It grieved me to see this, and to know I had been gone far too much while he was thrown into the thick of running Elleria. The estate in human terms was like a mid-sized company, with employees, and problems that had no straight human translation.
Dragon Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 3) Page 18
