Garrett grunted. “Just as long astheydon’t rule the world throughus.”
Ruell shook his head, smiling. “They don’t want to rule anything. All they’ve really wanted since the last dragon callers disappeared is to be left alone. But now that I’ve called them, they’ll help us, share their knowledge. Maajhasha is really excited about it, because there’s some benefit for him, apparently, being fire-bonded with a human. Transference, he calls it, but I don’t really understand it. He’s on our side, Garrett, they all are, and with their help, we can enter a new era of enlightenment, won’t that be wonderful?”
Garrett raised an eyebrow, but he kept his cynicism to himself. There would be time enough for Ruell to find out just what kind of new era they were in for when they reached Mesanthia. Instead he said, “Where’s your lady? She usually materialises as soon as you’re earthbound again.”
“She’s with Hytharn, talking to the Keeper.” He looked sheepish. “Something… a bit odd has happened.”
“A bit odd,” Garrett said. “Odder than dragons and glass balls and secret towers and wind-blowers and flame-throwers and pretty ladies who are magically drawn to you?”
That made Ruell laugh. “Well, no, I suppose no odder than anything else. Unexpected, then.”
“I don’t like unexpected happenings,” Garrett said grimly. “Can you tell me about it?”
“It started a day or two after the transition,” Ruell said. “I began to be aware of Second even when we were not touching, and gradually, as the days have passed, I’ve become aware of the others – Hytharn and the Second Protector, who is at Minaar at the moment. Today, I became aware of the Keeper, and she of me. And Second is aware of me all the time, too. And… and there is more. Second has gradually become aware of the dragons in her mind, and now she can communicate with Haanish. Somehow, she and I have bonded even more than before, such that our consciousnesses have blended together. And we don’t know why, or what to do about it.”
“Hmm. Maybe it’s a normal thing, with this kind of bonding? That it changes after a while.”
“I don’t think so. Because I can also do this…” Ruell held out one hand, and flames shot out, reaching right across the deck and beyond, hovering over the water before vanishing. A couple of passing dragons puffed flames of their own in response. “I can move water a little, too, and I’m just beginning to read people’s emotions.”
“So you’re getting her abilities and she’s getting yours. Thatis odd. Does that make you… like the Protectors? Part of this group bonded to the Keeper?”
“Looks that way. That’s why they’re talking to the Keeper. It’s a big change.”
“And has this happened just because you’re very close to Second? You’re somehow being absorbed into the group?”
“I don’t think it’s that. The only way this happens is— Garrett, you mustn’t tell anyone this, right? It’s Keeper business, and no one’s supposed to know, but Hytharn said it’s all right to tell you and Elestra. It’s to do with blood. The Keeper and Protectors become bonded when they share blood, and Second and I must have exchanged blood when I was injured by the arrows, remember? Second was hurt too, and our blood must have got mixed up, and now we’re physically bonded as well as mentally.”
Garrett pondered the implications of that. And there was something else… “Why did Hytharn say it was all right to tell me and Elestra?”
Ruell’s face lit up with enthusiasm. “Why, because he wants you to blood-bond with the Protectors too, then you would have all their abilities.”
“And they would have ours. Two more notches on the Keeper’s spear – wind-blowing and seeing through the eyes of others. And what next? Stone shaping? Metal bending? That’s a very dangerous road to follow, Ruell. Adding this power and that power – what you end up with is mages, so powerful that no one can stop them doing whatever they want, and then they’ll take over the whole world and break something. The world itself, probably, like the mages did last time. They almost destroyed everything, don’t you understand? No one can have that much power safely. It’s madness.”
Ruell was silent for a long time, then he said tentatively, “I think in the right hands, such power could do a great deal of good. Mage power broke the world once, but it doesn’t have to happen that way again. With care, and with the dragons to watch over us, we couldchange the world, make it a better place for everyone. That would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?”
“Changing the world is always dangerous, Ruell. I’ve never been slow to take a risk when it was only myself likely to be damaged by it, but the whole world? That’s too high a stake.”
Ruell said no more, but Garrett was sure he wasn’t convinced. And what would the Keeper do with this new information? Not only would she have dragons now, and all the glass balls they’d brought from the tower, but she could usher in a new era of mages if she were so minded. And that was a frightening prospect.
~~~~~
Garrett and Elestra leaned on the ship’s rail watching the sun drop into the ocean. To the north, the young dragons chased each other round and round, squealing, and older ones flapped lazily nearby, keeping a watchful eye on them. They were always livelier at night, and the setting sun often sent them into crazy spasms of excitement. Their frenzies made him smile. Sometimes dragons were just like other creatures. When they weren’t trying to roast or eat humans, that is.
The ship bobbed at anchor, waiting for the dawn when they would make their way in procession up the Durralar River to Mesanthia. What would happen then? Garrett had no idea, except that there would be ceremony, receptions, long, tedious meetings and a great deal of adulation for Ruell, no doubt, the first dragon caller in thousands of years. Most Mesanthians had never seen a live dragon, so half the population would be on the streets to watch, and the boy – his boy – would be revered like a god. He could only hope it wouldn’t make him insufferable, and that he’d still have a place in his life for his father.
“So do you want to try this thing, then?” Garrett said, shifting so that his back was to the rail and he could look into Elestra’s face, golden in the lowering sun.
“The blood-sharing? With Hytharn? Not sure about that. I think you’re right to be cautious. Anyway, I’m not sure I want to share you with so many other people. Oh but—” She stopped, reading her mistake in his face. “You mean just us? Oh, I’d like that!”
“I think it would be good, too,” he said. “If it doesn’t work, well, that’s useful information and no harm done, but if it does… I’d like us to be connected in some way. Even if we don’t have the mental bond, I’d like to share our abilities. I don’t really understand your wind-blowing power, and I really ought to. Then I wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking you need protecting.” She chuckled, but he went on, “It seems funny now, but I nearly killed Ruell because I thought I needed to shield you from the fire-thrower. That was stupid of me, and if I’d understood better I’d never have made that mistake. But actually, that wasn’t what I was thinking about.”
“What else do you want to try? Oh!” Her hands flew to her face.
“Mmm. The baby thing. Do you still want to give that a go?”
“Oh,yes!But… Garrett, I don’t want to have a baby and then find that it changes everything.”
“Bound to, really, isn’t it?”
“Exactly, and…” She chewed a lip, then reached for his hand, stroking it with sudden intensity, not looking at him. “The thing is, I’d hate to lose you because of it. If you find you don’t like being a family, I mean.”
“I don’t know if I’ll like it or not,” he said simply. “Never tried it before, but I’m willing to give it a go, though, if it’s what you want.”
“But what doyou want?” she cried, lifting her head to look him in the eye.
“I want you to be happy,” he said, in surprised tones. “Nothing else matters to me as much as that. Do you want me to promise I won’t leave? Maybe get married? Would that help? I’ll do
whatever makes you happiest.”
“You’d do that for me? But you’d hate to be so tied down, surely? You’ve always had the freedom to move around whenever you wanted.”
He thought about that. “I’ve drifted a bit over the years, yes. But you know, I’ve never just upped and left a place for no reason. I moved because I was made to, or told to, or I was going to end up dead if I didn’t. And I’ve stayed with Ruell for a good few years. So I’m not really as much of a drifter as all that. Look – I don’t know how things will work out for us. No one can see the future, after all. But I’m willing to take a chance on it if you are.”
“Then let’s do this,” she said, laying her head on his shoulder.
“And if we’re going to get this baby born before I’m quite in my dotage, we’d better get started, don’t you think?”
“I couldn’t agree more, old man. Let’s go below, shall we?”
He followed her meekly to their cabin, smiling every step of the way. Whatever the future held, for the moment he was utterly contented.
THE END
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About the Brightmoon Annals:
The Brightmoon Annals is a series of books all set in the same world, some five thousand years after it was reshaped by a magical catastrophe. The disaster almost destroyed magic – but not quite. The many different ways in which the pre-catastrophe mages tried to keep magic alive forms the theme of the series.
Most of the books can be read independently of all the others. However, some characters and artifacts from earlier books make an appearance in later books, so there are fun references to enjoy for those who read the series in order.
1: The Plains of Kallanash
2: The Fire Mages
3: The Mages of Bennamore
4: The Magic Mines of Asharim
5: The Fire Mages’ Daughter
6: The Dragon’s Egg
7: The Second God (a sequel to The Fire Mages’ Daughter)
8: Findo Gask’s Apprentice
9: The Dragon Caller
10: The Return of the Mages
About the author
I live in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland with my husband. I like chocolate, whisky, my Kindle, massed pipe bands, long leisurely lunches, chocolate, going places in my campervan, eating pizza in Italy, summer nights that never get dark, wood fires in winter, chocolate, the view from the study window looking out over the Moray Firth and the Black Isle to the mountains beyond. And chocolate. I dislike driving on motorways, cooking, shopping, hospitals. I also write Regency romances under the name Mary Kingswood.
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to:
Lin White of Coinlea Services for beta reading and proofreading.
Kitten of Deranged Doctor Designs for the cover design.
Additional beta readers: Kira Tregoning of Fantastical Reads, Graham of Fading Street
Last, but definitely not least, my first reader: Amy Ross.
The Dragon Caller (Brightmoon Book 9) Page 34
