“G’ Morn”
“Good morning.” He yawned at me. He was wearing the same clothes he’d had on the day before but they were covered in dirt and damp. We stood, one on either side of the fire and stared off at the high horizon. A vee of tenfinger butterflies fluttered by and we were both caught briefly by their inconsistent formation falling and rising in the wind currents.
He glanced down at his filthy boots and over my pan. “Looks good, my lord.”
I nodded at him, “Thanks.” I took a breath and apologized. “I’m sorry, Yenay. You had to knock me down. Don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you.” He let out his breath and looked up at me, “I know you’ve been told all the wrong things. You’ll learn to love her.”
“I’m sorry I wanted to kill her. For now, let’s leave it at that.” I knelt down to stir the fire.
“Is Nanda still sleeping?”
“Yes. I think if we’re quiet she’ll stay down for a few more hours.”
He crouched awkwardly beside me and kept his voice low, “Is something wrong with her?”
I wondered how much to share. “She says she’s fine. But I don’t think her stomach should be so firm and I can feel something off with her. . . well, her physiognomy. Have you ever learned any healing?”
“Basic requests for accelerated recovery and pain reduction, some preventative and supplemental herb lore and injury common sense, no more.”
“No more.” I shook my head at him and sighed. “When I put my hands on a person, I can feel their makeup. I can feel how their body works. Everyone is slightly different; different rhythms, different temperatures, different humors, but basically all humans work the same way.”
“Okay.” He stood and crossed away from me to rummage through the food supplies.
“Nanda has been always significantly different from most Kavegans I’ve worked with. I took that to be a result of the pregnancy. But now. She’s changing. Her natural rhythm is speeding up and her heartbeat is slowing down. Her stomach is so solid, so... thick, that I can only just sense the baby’s rhythms. Until this morning, Nanda and the baby were in synch, but now, their very different heartbeats are creating a hemiola between them to the steady rhythm of Nanda’s nature. She’s been cooler to the touch ever since the river and I can tell that she’s feeling great discomfort.”
“And none of this is normal for a pregnant woman?”
“Honestly, I don’t know for certain, but I’ve never heard of these symptoms.” I fussed with the bread for a minute and fumed at my foolishness for bringing her along without admitting how little birthing experience I have. “Yenay, you would have seen your mother pregnant, do you remember anything useful—something she may have done, or taken?”
“Well,” he hunkered back down next to me and set to heating some water for drinks, “it was ten sheddings ago that she was pregnant with dTavel, but—"
“The baby? She was pregnant with dTavel, the baby," I converted the decade into lander terms to make sure I'd heard him right, "ten frseason ago?”
Yenay completely missed the shock in my voice. “Yeah. I know she had some trouble with him. She did go out for days at a time searching for some kind of herb. Let me look around, see if I can find it. Other than that, I think until her belly goes soft she’s fine running around and keeping up with us as long as she’s strong enough for it. And when she goes soft, you shouldn’t have much problem keeping her in bed. Just make sure she has lots and lots of water. With...” He stared off and tapped a finger on his teeth, “with the essence of some purple flower. I’ll look for that too. Oh, and no few bark. For some reason, my dad always wanted to give her few bark but she could smell it in the water and wouldn’t drink it. No few bark.”
“A fever?” Few bark is used to reduce temperatures and inflammation. “Did she have a fever?”
“I don’t know. I had only thirty-three sheddings then.”
“Of course, you were a mere infant.”
We cooked in silence while the sun burned the mist off the dragons. A light breeze dipped down into the clearing and rattled our tent. The fire shuddered against the chill and some sparks leaped to their extinction. The last bubbles stopped popping in the sunbread and the water started bubbling over the edge of the pot so we took both off of the fire. I set the bread aside and took the pot from Yenay. I used the water left after he poured out two mugs to start a medicinal gruel for Ko and Nanda. Yenay pulled some herbs from his own pouch and wrapped them in a large, thin leaf of some kind that I had seen on the branches of some bush-sized tree in the dTelfur grove. The sky was clear, no clouds in sight.
A field of blue that was interrupted as I turned my gaze up to it, by the lighter blue underbelly of the...of Annie. She swooped in low over our camp and then soared off to the west. I looked over to see if her wings’ wind had disturbed Nanda but there was no movement from the tent.
“Lord Geoffrey?” Yenay proffered a mug to me. “There is one more thing you should maybe be aware of.”
I took the drink, “Oh, what now?”
“Your guardian...” He looked down into his tea, blew on it a little, and took a deep breath. “Mobious is dTelfur. His father put the dragons to sleep.”
Nineteen
∞ Nanda Junior’s journal∞
dTelfur Lands, Dormounts, Kaveg
Dear Mama, I don’t feel good. I can’t say, “at all” because through all this heat and hardness, I feel euphoric. Light headed and dreamy, like G gave me some drug to set me apart from all this discomfort, but he can’t have because I haven’t told him how I feel. I can’t let him hurt the dragon. Annie. I know I can understand her if I just learn the words.
Oh, Mama. What am I supposed to do? I shouldn’t be here. Here in Kaveg, obviously not. But why didn’t I stay in Sapproach? What am I gonna do if I go into labor up here? Me, three men, and a baby dragon. I’m not real bright. Am I supposed to feel like this? Is this like the trouble you had with Eva and with me? Yenay took me aside this morning when I woke up. He and Geoffrey put something new in my tea. They think I can’t tell, but the taste is different and I heard them talking through the tent walls. I’m so thirsty.
Yenay took me aside while Geoffrey was checking over Ko. The old man woke up before me again. We walked through the forests and he showed me the entrances to the underground. They’re in the trees! No wonder G didn’t see them when he was up here first. They’re really cleverly concealed. We went down and took a back way to where Ko and Yenay sleep. The walls are like glass, smooth and shiny. It was dark but Yenay told me that they’re colorful too. The dTelfur mixed the dirt with colors to make a painting mud and then the dragons breathed down into the entrances to bake the walls. He said that glow bugs and fireflies used to live in special niches and nests built for them, but since the dTelfur weren’t there to feed them, they must have gone elsewhere to find food.
Yay (his sister calls him that) led me to his sleeping room and gave me a soft shawl from his bag. It’s like a thick cotton sarong actually. I like the way it feels on my skin, it soaks up water like a, like a tampon. I know cause I just spilled tea on it and it feels as dry as if I weren’t clumsy at all. He said it was a present from his mom and as we walked back, he told me this story about the dragons and how they give birth. He told me all about it as we walked back up through the trees and to the campfire. He says that Annie can tell I’m pregnant. He said they lay eggs and then the eggs sit in a hatching ground for a while before they hatch. Some hatch after a few quarters, but some harden there for decades before they hatch. I don’t understand how they would get any nutrition. He said he wasn’t sure how it worked exactly. He said, and this would be I guess the pivotal bit, he said that he hatched after only two quarters.
Deg used to sit on the eggs. Deg hatched Annie’s egg. Deg hatched Mobious’ egg. I said, ‘Mobious?’ Yay said, ‘Yeah, Geoffrey’s regent.’ I said, ‘He’s dTelfur?’ Yay said, ‘Yup.’ I took a nap.
We went over to the lake (no
water, why do we call it that?) in the evening, when it had cooled down. The pit looked different, like the dragon had begun digging a moat. Near the center of the ‘lake’ there was a small mound accruing from the dirt that had been dug out of the space around it. We would have walked out to it, because it was shiny and we were curious, but Annie flew in and discouraged us. So we gathered on Deg’s muzzle again to chat with her. Well, Geoffrey sat in the pit while Yenay translated Annie’s baby talk for Ko and I. The language is simple enough the way she speaks it. Yenay says she has no concept of grammar. Well no wonder! She’s been talking to herself for twenty frseason. He’s teaching me words. She likes that. Maybe she can learn some English? No labials though, I think.
Over dinner, it was decided that we should head back out of the Dormounts and get Ko back to a more skilled healer for his eyes. Yenay is gonna stay with the dragon while Geoffrey, Ko, and I head back to Sapproach and then on to Voferen Kahago by cart to reach Tahnt, Geoffrey’s healer teacher. We’ll send a drum message ahead for them to expect us. I would say that Geoffrey seems to be quitting his quest, but even I can see the need to get Ko some serious help and if that help is at Voferen, then that is where he has to go. I just hope he’s thought about it. I can’t remember what Geoffrey plans to do about the dragon. He should tell people about her. Maybe he will. I don’t know. Geoffrey is drumming now, up on the eastern dragonbacks and my little one is drumming too. Damn, she’s strong! Tomorrow we’ll pack everything up and say goodbye to Yay and Annie. I wish I could stay, but I kinda think I’m the real reason we’re leaving. Don’t tell Geoffrey, but I don’t know if I can make it all the way to Sapproach. How will we get over the river? Maybe Geoffrey is drumming Girard to meet us.
Are the five going to be waiting for us? Or do they really think that we’re dead, drowned in the river?
I’m sorry. I’m just so tired. And thirsty.
Twenty
∞ Edling Geoffrey of Kaveg’s journal ∞
November 5
Denver, CO America
Kelly leaves tomorrow. Faite plans to take her away without seeing me again. Except, she left her stuffed dragon in our apartment. Nanda scoured the place and took all Kelly’s things yesterday, but she missed the dragon. Kelly will make a fuss about leaving without her Sophie and Faite will have to bring her by here to collect it before they go. Then I’ll get to say goodbye. And meet him.
I’m trying to be positive. I put on a smile for Nanda but it’s hard. With Kelly, I felt like I had something to do, like there was some reason I’m here. It doesn’t make any sense that I should be satisfied with babysitting a little girl. I’m the prince. I should be leading my land. Until the end, Mobious did okay without me, but he’s not blood.
He’s not even Lander. That tale Scademann repeated was told from the perspective of a dTelfur child not to pander to his audience but because it was Mobious’ memory. The bloodprice he inherited was Konifer’s. Mobious’ father was the mage who froze the dragons and led the march against the Landers in 169ath.
Yenay told me that dTelfur talent was isolated in one leader and Konifer’s natural abilities would have passed to his child. Mobious should have come into his full powers at the moonrise of his hundred and fiftieth frseason or shedding, as the dTelfur count. In other terms, shortly before he turned up at Voferen Kahago, right around the time the dragon woke up. What have you done Mobious? What is the point of all this? How does trapping me here in America pay your bloodprice?
Perhaps it was meant to be that Fierell take the circlet. But if she did, what happened to Nanda? I have to believe that Mobious honored my last request. Donja must be safe.
But all of my friends, my people under bloodmage rule? No. Fierell should not wear the circlet.
I failed to find the queen with my own heart. I failed to fulfill the prophecy and so there is no healer for the kingdom and Fierell has destroyed the peace and Nanda is dead because I failed.
So, why did I get a second Nanda?
I should finish packing. We head to the mountains tomorrow after Musketeers rehearsal. Nanda rescheduled classes and has no obligations for a week. I have no obligations at all. We’re hiking from here and should reach the base of the rocks before moonset. We’ll camp there for the night and head up in the morning.
Nanda took me shopping for the trip. She bought me a pair of flip-top mittens and I bought her a pair of fuzzy green socks, for bed. She complains, every morning and night, about frozen toes.
∞
I would’ve given my kingdom to hear that complaint in the Dormounts. For six nights she was delirious with fever. We intended to return to Sapproach. Ko’s eyes were getting worse and he was going to need a true healer. Tahnt, for preference who knew him so well when he was at Kahago. It was only a matter of few moons before his body accepted blindness as preferable to the constant exhaustion of straining to see. The changes in Nanda’s body, her rhythms, and her personality were too strange and I wanted to find her a birthhealer. But we made the decision too late.
As the rest of us were finalizing a plan to get us safely out of the Dormounts, Nanda tore through camp and flung herself into our watersource. When I tried to pull her out, she fought against me. With Yenay’s help I wrestled her back to the tent. She struggled for hours, devouring all the water we gave her, spilling as much as she ingested. But as the sun went down she fell into a fitful sleep.
I left Ko to watch her and let Yenay show me how to rip up the leaves of a flower, steep them one stem at a time in a full pot of boiling water, and then cool it to lukewarm before offering it to Nanda. Yenay had collected quite a few of the large and less-fragrant local version of feildpurples and packed them up earlier for our trip. Instead he piled the whole lot by the fire. I showed him how to make the thrice-daily compress for Ko’s eye and how to care for his leg as well.
As he folded my herbs back into their delicate envelopes, he tried to assure me, “I’ll help you as best I can.”
“Yenay,” I took my pouch from him before he put the envelopes back into it. Instead, I began transferring what he would need into a separate bag. “You are going to have to take care of him yourself. If an elder healer doesn’t see him soon, he will never see one.”
“Soon?”
“A quarter moon, no longer.” I handed him the small bag of herbs and a few clean cloths. “I can’t leave Nanda, so you are going to have to take him to Voferen Kahago. When you get there, ask for Tahnt. He’ll know what to do. After that you can return as quickly as you wish.”
“We’ve had no response to our messages. Girard may not even be at the bridge site.”
“Take Ko’s drum. It won’t do me any good here.” I pulled a small purse from my sac and gave it to him. “If anyone denies you help in my name, here are some muntcoin to pave your way.”
“I’ll go pack.”
“Will my clothes fit you?” I sized him up. “Just take my things. I’m more prepared for travel than you. I’ll remove what I may need for Nanda. Grab any personal items you know you must have and take Ko away. If the winds are with us, Girard is waiting.”
He led me down into the underground as we discussed the details. I had not explored this cavern as I should have, but I was going to find time when Nanda was better. The walls were entrancing, colors dancing with the moving light of the few glowbugs Yenay had tempted into the first chamber. His mattress lay rolled up against the moisture of the earth. His things neatly arranged in a small closet. He took three items from beside the stone ledge holding his mattress; a double hooked wooden throwing weapon which looked to me like a child’s puzzle, a blue ribboned rope, and a whistlepipe.
He tied the rope about his waist, hung the weapon from it, and tucked the pipe into his hairbraid. “I’ll send the Sapproach healer back with the map to help you.”
“Thank you. I was going to ask.” I led the way back out of the cavern. I would return for his clothes as I needed them.
“And I’ll bring my mother when I return.
”
“Let’s hope that Nanda will be well by then.”
“You may need dTella for other reasons.”
He and Ko left within the hour. An hour after that, Nanda woke again.
∞
Nanda has found the stuffed dragon. She’s rushing out to get it to Faite before they leave. I offered to take it, but she refused to let me even accompany her. I argued until she broke down and explained that she and Faite had agreed it would be too difficult to ask Kelly to say goodbye to me. She wouldn’t be able to comprehend that the separation was only temporary any more, Nanda said, than I did.
I can’t disagree. If she saw me like this, she’d have to suffer a tearful goodbye. This way it’s more like she’s heading off on an exciting adventure. It’s always better to leap forward than to gaze back. She won’t be gone forever. It’s not a big deal.
So why do I feel like my very heart is being taken away?
Twenty-one
∞ Nanda Junior’s journal∞
dTelfur Lands, Dormounts, Kaveg
I’ve had a fever. I’m feeling okay right now. Thirsty. Better than I was for that last entry. It must have started then, but I was so determined to be strong that I ignored it. Then it hit me with everything it had yesterday after lunch and knocked me out.
We were taking a break from packing. I rose last again and ate my breakfast alone by the fire while Ko and Geoffrey took Yenay up to the eastern dragonbacks to teach him drumcode. He jokes that if he needs to send an urgent message, he’ll just get Annie to fly him to Sapproach, but Geoffrey is teaching him the code for his own protection when the dragon turns on him. Ko knows it and I’m not sure that he doesn’t agree. Although he confessed to me last night that he didn’t think it would make any difference.
“I drummed for many frseason and no one ever came to help me.” Ko tucked my blankets in under my toes.
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