He let out a frustrated breath and said, “There’s so much we don’t know about them, and it bothers me.”
Willem raised his brows. “You really have been thinking about this.”
Aeron nodded.
“Listen,” Willem said, taking Aeron’s hand, “you shouldn’t worry too much. We’ve got a plan to deal with them. We’re going to get more dragonlinked and fight those things when they try to get near people. We’ll keep as many as we can from hurting anyone else.”
Aeron looked at Willem’s hand clasped in his own. It was warm and strong. He squeezed it briefly in thanks and said, “You’re right.” Then he chuckled.
“What?” Willem smiled at him.
“Anaya. She said we don’t need to know anything more about nahual.”
“Oh?”
“She said we know plenty enough about them now to kill them.”
Willem laughed quietly. “She’s so adorable in how straightforward she is.”
“Yeah.” Aeron smiled. Then he looked at Willem, all humor gone. “Were you serious about wanting to be a dragonlinked?”
“Of course.”
Aeron bit his lip. After a moment, he said, “Don’t tell anyone, but I think you’re going to be the next one.”
“How do you know?” Willem’s full attention was focused on Aeron.
“Last night, just before we landed, I told Master Doronal that we needed more dragonlinked if we wanted to keep everyone in our region safe. He agreed. And asked if I thought you would mind taking care of a dragon.”
“Really? That would be so amazing! What did you tell him?”
“I told him I thought you would love taking care of one.”
“Golden! Though, I’m going to try not to get my hopes up, just in case.”
The distant sound of a door opening and closing on the other side of the building signaled the first arrival for the meeting. It didn’t take long for everyone else to arrive and find seats around the table.
Cheddar, who had taken to making notes of their meetings, was writing in his neat script as Millinith began with a quick recap of the nahual examination.
Master Canneth, the Caer’s Master Zoologist, head of its Animal Craft Hall, and the other leader of the investigative team, asked a few questions.
Not much new was revealed, though the fact that this beast, too, was female, was noteworthy. When there were no more questions, they moved on to the real purpose of the meeting.
“Flying back last night,” Master Doronal said as he looked around the table, “Aeron brought up an important point. He and Anaya can only sense nahual in a ten mile radius. If we want to keep the region around Caer Baronel safe from the evil things, we will need more dragonlinked, more dragons.” He then looked at the Animal Craft master and smiled. “Something which Lord Baronel, Master Canneth and myself have been aware of for some time.”
Aeron raised his brows and looked at Willem, then Sharrah and Cheddar. All his friends looked similarly surprised.
“While we do have great plans for the future, we must start small. We simply do not know quite enough about dragons as of yet. But we will continue to remedy that.”
He rested his elbows on the table and clasped his hands together near his mouth, tapping his two forefingers against his lips. “One of the first things we learned, and one of the most remarkable, is that bond-mates are linked extremely tightly, down to their very spirits. Due to this, Master Canneth and I suspect that a bonded dragon’s mate selection will be heavily influenced, even if unintentionally, by his or her bond-mate.”
Everyone glanced at Aeron, and cheeks warming, he cleared his throat. Sharrah was nodding a little to herself as she stared at him.
“As such,” Master Doronal continued, “we think that Willem will be the best choice for the next dragonlinked. Because as much as others would like to be bonded with a dragon, we must think of the future of dragonlinked and our need to increase the number of dragons we have for bonding.” He spread his hands. “To put it bluntly, we need dragon breeding pairs.”
Cheddar sighed loudly. “You’re right, of course, Master Doronal, much as I hate to admit it.” He turned to Willem, a wry smile on his face, and said, “Congratulations.”
Willem, looking nervous, nodded.
“One of the things we are not sure of,” Master Canneth said, “is exactly how to procure dragon young for bonding. From what we learned from Anaya, dragons have rarely, if ever, traveled as far as her mother to clutch. It was sheer luck that Aeron came across Anaya.”
We could always ask at House Yaot.
That’s a great idea. Do you think you could fly us there?
“Does anyone have any ideas about this?” Master Doronal looked around the table.
I do. I remember my mother’s flight here, well. I can even try to show you my memory of it, so we might be able to use a portal.
Aeron raised his brows. Would that work? “Anaya thinks we could ask the dragons at House Yaot,” he said. “She remembers how to get there, and she says she can try to show the location to me, through the link, from her memories. It might then be possible to open a portal for it.”
“Can you do that?” Willem asked. “Portal to somewhere you’ve only seen from one of her memories?”
“I don’t know,” Aeron replied. “But we can try, assuming the idea is approved.”
“If it were possible to learn a location from a dragon memory,” Master Doronal said, “that could have any number of uses. But putting that aside for now, House Yaot may actually be our best plan. Since her mother is from there, Anaya can meet with them as one of their own, perhaps even convince her mother to help recruit.”
“And,” Sharrah said, “with her maternal memories, she knows everything about the place.”
Master Canneth nodded. “House politics and history, the standing of the various members and families . . . yes. This could work out rather well.”
“An excellent idea,” Master Doronal said. “We’ll devise plans in that regard soon. And should those efforts succeed, we will need housing for the increased number of bond-mates. Any ideas in that regard?”
“I have an idea for what we can do while we continue to look,” Aeron said as he unrolled the map of the Caer, “and while a new location is being prepared.” He slid two map weights to Willem, and those, along with the two Aeron used, held the map open on the table.
Placing a piece of the tracing paper onto the map, he said, “For the first dragon, we can build an extension, here.”
Everyone moved closer to see the map.
“It’s not as big as the original stables?” Millinith said.
“Well,” Aeron replied, “we won’t need another office at the end. And we may or may not need another living space either.” He quickly slid the remaining piece of tracing paper onto the map and positioned it. “And then we can add two more dragon dens, one there, and another there, in the future.”
“We talked about it earlier,” Willem said, “and there are a few benefits to building near the Dragon Stable. For one, people are used to a dragon being here. Also, the large scale for weighing them is here, and the routines for a dragon are in place for here too, such as feeding the dragon until it can go hunt on its own.”
“Exactly,” Aeron said.
I like your idea, Anaya told Aeron. It will keep everyone together, bond-mates and everyone caring for them.
Aeron smiled. Me too, dear-heart.
“That’s an excellent start,” Master Canneth said, “for all the reasons you mentioned. But we will eventually have to find a location for the much greater numbers we expect to need. Anyone have ideas for that?”
Aeron waited, hoping someone did. He had only been able to think of one place, but he really didn’t want to lose it. It was his favorite spot to sneak off to when he wanted to be alone. After a few minutes, however, no one else had any ideas.
Finally, Aeron said, “How about the quarry?”
“The quarry?” Mas
ter Doronal’s brows rose. “That could work out quite well.” He looked at Master Canneth. “It’s enormous, has plenty of room to start and for future expansion, and is a little closer than the Farm, but far enough away so that it could be considered separate.” He nodded. “Yes. We will definitely study the viability of that location. A good start on that as well.”
“Thinking about other needs of dragons,” Master Canneth said, “I had Sharrah do some rough calculations on food requirements.” He turned to the young zoology apprentice. “What did you come up with, Sharrah?”
She checked her notes. “It seems that Anaya’s food intake has leveled off to about a deer or so a week, maybe two or three if she’s flown a lot. Now, she doesn’t always eat deer, but the amount she eats is equivalent. On average, deer are around two hundred pounds each, so that’s two hundred to six hundred pounds a week for one dragon. I think three hundred and fifty pounds is a good number to use for our purposes.”
“Good grief,” Millinith said. “I didn’t even realize.”
I could try to eat less, Anaya told Aeron. She sounded embarrassed.
Don’t you fret about it, Aeron replied.
“That’s a lot of food,” Cheddar remarked.
Eat as much as you want, Aeron continued. You need to keep growing and you need to be strong and healthy so we can continue to do what we do.
That is true.
Sharrah looked up from her notes. “There is ample game in our large valley to easily support Anaya. As the number of dragons increases, however, we will eventually get to a point where their hunting will begin to impact the local wildlife’s ability to maintain its numbers.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Willem said. “We wanted to have a fair number of dragons, didn’t we?”
“We do have a couple of options,” Sharrah said. “One, we can increase the number of cattle we raise. Currently, we limit the number to just what we need for the Caer and the Farm.”
“That’s workable,” Master Canneth said, “though not ideal. What was the other option?”
“Bison. The combined numbers from the male and female herds that frequent our valley is over twenty-five thousand, according to the estimates from the last field study. And their numbers increased by twelve percent from the study three years ago. There are also other bison herds that are not too far away whose range doesn’t include our valley, but they could be a resource as well.”
“Yes,” Master Doronal said. “Bison would be a much better option. And they’re quite a bit larger than deer, aren’t they?”
Sharrah nodded. “Bison cows weigh around five times more than a deer, the bison bulls, ten to twelve times. One good-sized bull could feed five or six dragons for a week.”
Master Doronal looked to Master Canneth. “It looks like we’ve found our food source.”
“Indeed,” the master zoologist replied. “However, when we get dragon numbers high enough, we’ll want to monitor the herds closely, as we intend to make use of bison for ourselves as well.” He nodded at Sharrah. “Good work.”
Master Doronal looked around the table and said, “Were there any other questions, concerns, suggestions or otherwise? Don’t hold back anything. Now, at this early stage, is the ideal time to address any issues.”
“We’ve talked a lot about dragons,” Cheddar said, “but what about dragonlinked? Aside from what you said earlier, Master Doronal, about finding a mate for a specific dragon, how are we going to select who will be dragonlinked?”
“Anaya knows who will make good candidates,” Aeron said.
“What do you mean?” Millinith asked.
“She can tell, when she’s been near someone for a bit, whether or not they are a candidate.”
“Really?” Willem asked.
Or a good candidate.
“Anaya says there are candidates, good candidates, and people who are not candidates at all.”
“Oh?” Master Canneth said. “What differentiates them?”
“She says there are many things—personality, magical ability, and the like.”
“So, if someone had no magical ability . . .”
“They would not be a candidate. Nor if they were mean, she said.”
“So,” Millinith began, a thoughtful expression on her face, “she can . . . sense these things about people?”
“Yes. Not as well as she can with me with the link, but yes.”
“Fascinating.” Master Doronal also had a thoughtful expression. “And what makes a good candidate?”
“She said candidates are limited in some ways that good candidates are not.”
“Limited?” Sharrah said. “How so?”
Aeron blushed and said, “She said that for one thing, people who will make good candidates could love, could fall in love, I think she meant, with anyone.”
“Why that would matter to a dragon?” Sharrah wondered aloud. After a moment she said, “Mate selection?”
Master Canneth nodded. “Possibly.”
“What do you mean?” Master Doronal said.
Sharrah turned to him. “Well, if all the dragonlinked were mix-and-match, so to speak, it would make it easier for a dragon, especially at the beginning where numbers of dragonlinked will be limited, to find another dragon whose bond-mate is acceptable to their own. Because, keep in mind, there is the restricting factor of the sex of the dragons. As Master Doronal noted earlier, we need breeding pairs.”
“Even using good candidates only, it could get exceedingly complicated very quickly,” Master Doronal noted.
“We could simplify it, somewhat,” Cheddar said, “by selecting the dragonlinked candidates first, and early.”
“Hmm,” Master Canneth said. “Give them all a chance to get to know each other, mingle?”
“Exactly.” Cheddar looked at Sharrah, smiling. “It would be easier to match dragons to any candidates who happen to be seeing each other.”
“Couples don’t always stay together,” Millinith noted, quietly.
Aeron looked at her. She stared blankly at a parchment before her. Then he reached over and gave the Willem’s hand a squeeze. “That is true,” he said, looking back at Millinith. “But it is somewhere to start, at least for now. Eventually, it won’t matter anyway. There will be a lot of dragonlinked, so the need for breeding pairs will not be as important.”
“What about the dragons?” Willem still looked at Aeron. “We’ve been talking about matching dragons to people who are couples, but don’t dragons want to choose a dragon they are in love with to . . . pair with?”
Aeron hadn’t thought of that. Anaya? Wouldn’t you want to be with a dragon you are in love with? What if you don’t like the dragon who bonds with Willem? What if his dragon is female?
Dragons can love any dragon, so that is not a large issue. As Sharrah pointed out, however, being able to breed is a consideration at this point. It would be best if Willem bonded with a male dragon.
“Anaya says that dragons can love any dragon. She isn’t concerned that she won’t like the dragon Willem bonds with. She also said that Sharrah is right about breeding pairs. It would be best if Willem bonded a male dragon.”
“So many questions,” Master Doronal said. “How soon after hatching must a young dragon be bonded? Can adult dragons be bonded? And if it turns out that bonding must occur within a short amount of time, is it possible to determine the sex of a dragon while it is still in the egg? And does a particular dragon only want a specific person, or type of person to bond with?”
“I can check with Anaya about those last two,” Aeron said.
He looked out the door to his bond-mate. Is it possible to tell if a dragon is a girl or a boy before they hatch?
It is. I remember some of my previous mothers speaking with their children before they hatched. It would be an easy thing to discover.
“Anaya said that dragons can speak to their children before they hatch. A dragon could ask, or maybe even sense the sex then.”
“Inte
resting.” Sharrah wrote in her notebook.
What about Master Doronal’s last question? Is each dragon fated to be with a specific person?
A dragon would be happy to choose any good candidate, any candidate, to bond with. That is part of what makes them candidates.
“For the other question, Anaya said that dragons would be happy with any candidate or good candidate as a bond-mate. That removes one complication, at least.”
“A small blessing,” Master Doronal said, “but a blessing nonetheless. Are there any other suggestions or concerns?”
“Dragonlinked will have to be trained in magic,” Millinith said, “if they aren’t already.”
“Yes, at least to a certain extent. We’ve considered that.”
“Certainly enough to kill nahual and for defense,” Master Canneth said. “And for portals.”
“You know,” Cheddar remarked, “maybe that’s what candidates do in preparation for becoming dragonlinked. Learn how to use magic.”
“A good suggestion,” Master Doronal said, looking at Master Canneth. “We’ll consider that as we craft a dragonlinked training regimen.” He stood. “But it is nearly time for dinner. I think that’s plenty for now.” He looked at Cheddar. “If you could organize the meeting notes and provide a copy for Master Canneth and myself?”
“Of course,” the archive apprentice replied, nodding.
“Excellent. We have a very good start. Keep thinking about dragonlinked ideas and concerns. We’ll meet each afternoon to discuss them.”
Later, as Aeron walked with his friends to the Dining Hall, he wondered when he and Anaya would be allowed to visit House Yaot. What exactly would he and Anaya say to those dragons? Would her mother help? And would the dragons be friendly or not?
+ + + + +
Renata put the finishing touch on another pad and tucked it in with the others in her pack. She gathered up the remaining rabbit fluff and cloth scraps, bundled them together, and along with the sewing kit, returned them to the pack as well. Not only would the jackrabbit caught earlier provide her with meat, it would also provide a small bit of leather, along with the fluff she’d plucked from its hide. She couldn’t afford to waste anything out here.
The Bond (Book 2) Page 6
