The Dragon of Despair

by Jane Lindskold

  For a moment, Duchess Norwood looked like any housekeeper informed of such an annoyance, then her pale eyes became serious.

  "In any case, the more servants I send you, the more eyes there will be to see that your behavior is perfectly respectable. The more tongues to confirm it, too, if the gossips get started."

  Elise blushed, but the duchess pretended not to notice and went on with her description.

  "There is a gatekeeper's house on the grounds, quite large enough for a bachelor establishment. That is where Grateful Peace will stay, and the other gentlemen when they come for their lessons. There will be no question of lack of propriety."

  Elise smiled in gratitude at the old woman. It was very hard to believe Duchess Kestrel the scandalous creature of Grand Duchess Rosene's acid-tongued memories, but when Elise had questioned Lady Aurella her mother had confirmed that no one knew the name of the man who had fathered Norvin and Eirene.

  "You have gone to a great deal of trouble, Duchess."

  "Not too much when it's to fulfill the king's own request," came the bland reply. "In any case, the house needed to be opened, aired, and put into order. No one has lived in it for several years. Eventually, we will need it for Edlin and his wife…"

  "Is he planning to marry?" Elise asked, realizing too late that she had interrupted.

  "Not that I've been told," Saedee Norwood replied with a laugh, "but he's of an age and even if he is not ready to marry, it might not be unwise for him to learn how to manage his own householdùperhaps when he returns from New Kelvin. In the meantime, this gives a good excuse to learn what drains aren't working and just where the roof has begun to leak."

  They shared a laugh over this; then Elise grew serious.

  "You do know that the king wishes to keep gossip to a minimum," she said.

  "I do," the duchess replied, "but the easiest way to start gossip is to tell the servants not to talk. Everyone knows that the crown princess's sister is touched in her mind. I have given out that she has been brought here to get away from things that will awaken bad memories. You have come as a confidant of the queen. As to your language lessons, well, that was a bit of a puzzler. Norvin suggested that it was reasonable to give Citrine something new to concentrate onùthat perhaps she had been left too much to herself and to familiar things."

  "Clever," Elise said, and meant it.

  "Norvin is that," his mother agreed a touch complacently. "You are known to have interest in foreign things, so the material that was chosen to distract Citrine was also chosen so as not to bore you. What do you think?"

  "It will do," Elise said, and her smile made the simple words into praise, "at least until we vanish off into New Kelvin."

  "Time enough to worry about that when you are ready to go," the duchess said calmly. "Happily, the child's instability provides ample reason for Sir Jared Surcliffe to call. The crown princess requested he come all the way to the capital this past winter. It would seem odd if he not call on her here. Grateful Peace has been Jared's patient as well. If the doctor should get interested in the lessons and choose to stay… well, that won't seem odd at all."

  Something in the duchess's tone caused Elise to blush once more, this time more deeply. She was certain that Duchess Norwood was teasing her, but the lined old face looked so completely innocent that Elise didn't dare comment.

  "Will that serve?" the duchess asked.

  "Admirably," Elise replied. "It is easy to see that you were once a soldier. You plan just like my father does."

  Duchess Kestrel accepted the compliment with a gracious nod.

  "Now, I think it best that you and your entourage relocate as quickly as possible. Luella agreed to take Agneta and Lillis away for a few days so that they would not be here when Citrine arrived. Tait was not a problem, but the girls are so much of an age that it would be awkward keeping them apartùthat is, it would emphasize Citrine's instability. However, the delay in your arrival means that Luella may return before you can leave. Will you be insulted if I send you off tomorrow morning?"

  Elise shook her head.

  "Not at all, Your Grace. Quite honestly, I have been relieved at the level of composure Citrine has maintained thus far. Her friendly greeting of Edlin was quite a bit more than we dared hope; she has been rather apprehensive of men to this point. Tell me, were they ever particular friends?"

  "Not that I recall," the duchess replied. "Ask Edlin, though. He has a playful streak and may have involved himself with the children at some point or in some fashion that I am unaware. I rarely travel to Eagle's Nest now that Norvin is available to serve as my representative. I could have missed something. Is it important?"

  Elise started to shrug, realized that was an ungraceful motion, and settled for a shake of her head.

  "I don't know, Duchess. It is simply that I am trying to understand anything that will make it easier to help Citrine. Her reaction toward Edlin was unusual, therefore, I thought it worth examining."

  "Wise," Saedee Norwood replied. "Very wise. Well, don't forget to ask Edlin when you get a chance. Would you mind writing me every few days and keeping me current on the situation? I think it best that we not have unwarranted comings and goings between our houses lest it be difficult to keep visitors away. However, I would like to know how things develop. My grandson can bring your letters to me. An hour's walk is nothing to him and doubtless he will have a horse or two with him. The boy acquires pets like a dog acquires fleas."

  "Writing you will be no problem at all," Elise said, wondering if, for all her courtesy, the duchess saw her as a girl, even as she saw Edlin as a boy.

  Elise decided that the duchess could hardly avoid doing so. After all, it had not been many years ago that Elise and Edlin both had run about these grounds, pulling each other's hair and shouting insults. She would take the duchess's courtesy as it was offeredùfreely and with no condescension. In return, she would seek to do nothing that would make the duchess regret her courtesy and trust.

  After taking her leave, Elise went to inform Ninette of their plans and to make ready for the nextùthough thankfully very shortùleg of their journey.

  ON THE ROAD WEST, Firekeeper hadn't much minded her pace being tied to that of Derian and his horses. On the return trip she came to resent it greatly. She longed to push to her limits, walking only when she could not run, sleeping without regard as to whether it was night or day and then only for as long as her body demanded. The plodding steadiness of the string of horses, the need to seek a campground as soon as night approached, the loss of all the good night became almost more than she could bear.

  Blind Seer, catching fire from her own impatience, took to ranging on his own, sometimes sleeping for part of the day and then running to catch up. Firekeeper missed the blue-eyed wolf more than she cared to admit, but she couldn't blame him for his choice. In any case, the horses had learned to tolerate his scent, but they did not like it and their edginess slowed what progress they did make.

  More than once Firekeeper considered hurrying on ahead, leaving Derian to follow at his own pace. Elation, traveling with them for some inscrutable purpose of her winged-folk mothers, dissuaded her.

  "There are predators who would find him all too tasty," the peregrine falcon warned, "and not all of these are to be found in the wild lands. Derian will be in different danger when we reach the lands where humans are thicker. Even I could not protect him by myself. If I were so inclined," she added rather hastily.

  Firekeeper could not disagree, no matter how much she wished to do so. Derian had made the journey west with no other human companion but herself because he trusted in her protection. To abandon him now would be as bad as leaving a puppy to starve.

  Derian himself was aware of her impatienceùhe would have been hard-pressed not to, with her readying the horses for the road in the dank bleakness of false dawn and pressing them down the trail into twilight, urging him just a little farther with a promise of a campfire ready at the trail's end.

  One
night after particularly grueling travel through heavy rain, Derian sat drying his boots over a sheltered fire in a deserted shack no one but Firekeeper would have found, so overgrown was it with vines and close set with young saplings. He was thoughtful and without his usual quips or conversation.

  "Firekeeper," he said at last, "if you're so worried about getting this news quickly to the king, why not have Elation carry him a message?"

  The wolf-woman snarled, less at Derian's suggestion than because his words spoke a private war she had been fighting with herself.

  "I cannot," she replied stiffly. "I refuse to have Kestrel words carried to king by Elation. I cannot make…"

  She paused, hunting for a word.

  "Exception?"

  "Yes, that. I cannot do for me except as I do for them. Otherwise, I do become what the Beasts fear, one who will betray them to the humans."

  Firekeeper didn't tell Derian that Elation had already made a similar suggestion and that she had refused the falcon for the same reason.

  Derian nodded. Rain, lighter than what had plagued them during the day, pattered against the layer of pine boughs with which Firekeeper had temporarily restored the roof. The horses were visible through a gap in one side of the shack, shifting uncomfortably against their pickets when the wind changed, bringing the rain their way. Mostly they were content, pleased enough not to be moving. The warm mash Derian had insisted on preparing hadn't hurt either.

  "In a few days," Derian said, "we'll be in more civilized lands. I was thinking. I could leave the mountain ponies with some farmer, promise to pay him for keeping them until my father can claim themùor even to reward him if he brings them to Eagle's Nest for me. Roanne's faster than they are. We might make better time."

  Firekeeper felt a warm flush of gratitude. She knew something of human values now and knew that Derian already stood to be in great trouble with his father over the mules he wasn't bringing back. Now he was offering to leave the mountain ponies as well.

  "No," she said. "Is kind of you, but Roanne cannot go so fast on roads of mud. We may as well bring the ponies. We are as far behind if she is hurt going fast."

  Derian nodded. "True enough. Weather's foul."

  Firekeeper understood with that split perspective that was so usefulùand so uncomfortable. On the one hand, she could see how the weather was unpleasant for human-style travel. It wasn't great for wolf travel, either, but a wolf would have borne whatever the weather had to give, driven by hunger or by need. If there was no need, the wolf would lie low until the weather was better. Wishing for the world to be what it was not wasn't usually an option.

  In the distance, a wolf howled. Not Blind Seer, a Cousin probably. They would be ranging out, hunting to feed their pups, enjoying the warmer days.

  She wasn't afraid of them. Even if they were attracted by the scent of the horses, she felt certain she could drive them back. Cousins were timid creatures unless pressed and she had many ways to convince them that easier game lay elsewhere.

  Once Derian had banked the fire and settled into his bedroll for the night, Firekeeper went outside for a final patrol. The rain had abated and the skies were clearing, clouds breaking up into thin white wisps that showed the stars behind.

  The comet was up there, too, coldly burning against the black. It had changed little in size or shape though the moon had waxed and waned and waxed again since its appearance. Firekeeper found its constancy unsettling, seeming a reminder that no matter how those beneath the moon's sphere changed their lives, some things were unchanging.

  "Ever wonder where it was before it came here?" Blind Seer asked, stepping silently over the damp bracken to lean against her leg.

  "Often," Firekeeper replied. "Humans have stories of this, or of ones like it. Queen Elexa wasn't certain whether all the stories were about one or about many. Still, comets are rare. I wonder when this one will migrate to its other hunting grounds."

  "A Waterlander might know," Blind Seer said, surprising her greatly. "I have heard tell that they look to the stars as the humans of Bright Bay and Hawk Haven look to their ancestors."

  "I think I may have heard that, too," she said. "I hadn't realized you cared about such things."

  "I care about anything that might touch you, dear heart. Even lights in the sky that do nothing but distress you."

  "Maybe someday we will go to Waterland and ask them about the stars," Firekeeper said. "Maybe someday we can go many places. I still would like to find where the songbirds went."

  "Curiosity," the wolf said, "Little Two-legs."

  "I know," she replied, hearing the implied criticism but not stung by it.

  Blind Seer was nearly as curious as she was or he would never have left the ordered patterns of the wolf packs to accompany her east. He would have dispersed, roamed for a time, fought his fights, perhaps won a mate. Certainly won a mate. Firekeeper couldn't imagine Blind Seer as one of the lesser males, valued for his strength and hunting prowess, but content to settle in a lesser role and never build a pack of his own.

  She wondered why the thought of Blind Seer as a leader of his own pack made her so sad and knew in her heart that she was perfectly aware why. For now, for all her professed curiosity, she decided not to pursue it. Time enough, always time enough.

  When Firekeeper finally slept, she dreamed she rode astride the cometùor was it Blind Seer whose tail streamed out so broad and bright behind?ùand that they traveled to places where time and earthly limitations mattered not at all.

  Chapter X

  THE HOUSE WAS as comfortable as Duchess Kestrel had promised. Indeed, it was nearly the equivalent in size and elaborate appointments of the family residence on the Archer Barony lands. The comparison brought home to Elise that the difference between a Great House and a lesser one went far beyond titles and wealth, but into their relative places in history as well.

  Not only had the Great Houses been in place since the creation of the kingdom, but their founders had often held landsùor claimed them after the departure of the Old Country rulersùbefore the kingdom's creation. Queen Zorana the First had less granted land as much as confirmed those holdings, and provided the Crown's tacit support in maintaining that holding.

  Idly, Elise wondered how matters of property and precedence were handled in New Kelvin and resolved to ask Grateful Peace. It might help her understand this strange land into which Melina had now inserted herself so successfully.

  The thaumaturgeùor Illuminator, as Peace preferred to be termed now that he was in exileùhad taken up residence in the gatehouse a few days after Elise's own arrival. He looked more frail than she recalled, doubtless in part because of the physical struggles related to his healing from the amputation of his arm, but moreùat least so Elise thought on later considerationùbecause he had been robbed of the trappings of office and position that had been such a part of him.

  The ornate silk robes and curly-toed slippers were gone, replaced by shirt, waistcoat, knee-breeches, and buckled shoes after the fashion of a Hawk Haven gentleman. His facial tattoos remained, but seemed disfigurement rather than adornment in a land where they marked him a stranger. In New Kelvin even the youngest child would have known at a glance the things Peace considered important about himself: his place as a member of the Sodality of Illuminators, his personal vow not to remarry, his promotion to a counselor to the Dragon Speaker.

  In Hawk Haven all that anyone saw were stylized patterns that rather than clarifying who Grateful Peace was seemed to set him apart. The untrained eye flitted between the tattoos and the face beneath, uncertain which to focus upon and, inevitably, coming up with a confused image that muddled both into one useless mess.

  Peace's myopia didn't help matters, the spectacles through which he surveyed everyone and everything providing yet another means of distancing himself from his surroundings. All in all, he was not an easy man to like, yet Elise did like him at least a littleùa liking that was two-quarters pity, one-quarter admiration, and one-quarter cu
riosity.

  Citrine had not warmed to Grateful Peace as she had to Edlin, but that would have been rather much for which to hope. At least she had not started screaming or having nightmares after their initial introduction. That was a start.

  Elise began Citrine's initiation into New Kelvinese language and custom with costumes and makeup. Elise had yet to meet a child who didn't like playing dress-up and Citrine was no exception. This could provide a bridge to more complicated things.

  Elise also realized she needed to polish her own command of the language. Last winter she had developed a good enough accent to be able to pass almost as a nativeùall other things considered. She wanted to achieve that again and to add to it the myriad details of body language and mannerism that would further help.

  "I don't see why, what?" Edlin said, when Elise pressed him to practice his own New Kelvinese.

  The young lord's tones were somewhat more peevish than usual. Grateful Peace had suggested that Edlin grow his hair longer since almost no one wore it short in New Kelvin and Edlin complained about how heavy his hair felt. Spring had become summer when no one was looking. The days were longer and the nights hotter. Even here in the northern reaches of Hawk Haven there were ripe fruit and fresh salads on the table. The cook Duchess Kestrel had loaned them made a fruit tart Elise was ready to die for.

  Elise knew these culinary flourishes interested Edlin less than the fact that two litters of puppies were toddling around. There were also some promising foalsùfruits of Derian's initial purchases for the stablesùto be checked over lest the grooms be less than perfect in their training.

  Especially when the days were hot, Elise felt something of the same desire to avoid study. It would be much nicer to sip cool drinks on the terrace over at the Kestrel manse and gossip about fashion with Lady Luella and her attendants. She knew her relatively fresh arrival from the capital would make her quite popular in such discussions. However, duty calledùduty assigned by the king himselfùso Elise was a bit strict with Edlin when he whined.