Dragons of the Watch

by Donita K. Paul

  His back didn’t tell whether the tumanhofer joked or asked a legitimate question. She liked it better when she could see his face while he spoke. On the other hand, his sincere expression had her believing everything he said. Perhaps it was better not to see his kind eyes while she debated whether he was trustworthy.

  His comment was odd. No one she knew had ever claimed to mindspeak. Maybe he meant something else.

  “Talk without words, in your mind?” she asked.

  He nodded without looking back.

  Mindspeaking! Ellie had learned over the past day and a half that the rules of Chiril didn’t seem to apply to Rumbard City. Of course, she’d heard of mindspeaking, but only in stories. Those tales arose out of wizards and dragons, rarely sighted even in Chiril. This tumanhofer had answers. He had experience in this strange place. She wouldn’t scoff at the things she found absurd. She was going to remain respectful to get as much information from him as she could.

  Cautiously, she phrased her question and chose a neutral tone of voice. “Mindspeak with an animal?”

  He paused at a place in the wall where a crack let in sunbeams. Nudging a loose board to the side, he peeked out.

  “All clear.” He removed two boards, stepped through, then handed Ellie out. “Don’t trip on that baseboard.”

  Tak hopped through the hole. Ellie waited, glancing up and down the alley, while Bealomondore returned the boards.

  When he finished and brushed his hands on his pant legs, she asked again. “Do you mindspeak with animals?”

  “Only dragons.”

  Ellie pulled in a breath, but it did nothing to tamp down the sudden anger that surged through her. All her good intentions scattered before the familiar feeling of being teased by rascally brothers. “That’s enough!”

  Bealomondore’s eyes widened as he spun around to face her. “What?”

  “I know it’s obvious that I’m a country girl, but I’m educated. I don’t know what pleasure you derive from throwing ridiculous statements at me, but I don’t appreciate it. I’m lost and scared and late.” She struggled to keep her tears at bay. “I was supposed to meet my aunt and uncle in Bellsawyer. We were going to the coronation and the royal wedding reception.”

  “Now that’s a coincidence. So was I.”

  For a moment, Ellie’s ire cooled. “You were? You haven’t always lived here?”

  “It seems like forever, but I’ve only been here two months.”

  “Why were you going to Ragar two months before the festivities?”

  He hesitated. “I know Paladin and Princess Tipper. I was asked to do the wedding portrait.”

  Ellie stared at the tumanhofer. He painted? Did he really know royalty? He looked earnest, but no one knew royalty. No one! Well, she guessed somebody had to.

  Bealomondore tilted his head toward the end of the alley. “If you want to see the horde at feeding time, we have to get moving. We don’t have a lot of time to get there.”

  He turned and hurried away.

  Tak gave her a look that said, “Come on,” and fell in line behind the tumanhofer.

  Ellie couldn’t think of exactly the right word to describe the fickle goat. She’d raised him from a bottle-fed kid and had never had any trouble with Tak until recently. Her beloved pet now seemed intent on leading, or pushing, her into trouble.

  Ellie did want to retrieve her carpetbag and clothing, so she hustled after Bealomondore and her goat.

  They came to the circle from another direction and entered one of the surrounding buildings. Bealomondore’s confidence eased her fear of being so close to the young giants. He led them directly to the front of the building and positioned them behind a broken door where they could observe the circle and not be seen by the children. Ellie didn’t need to be on the same side of the center to see her things.

  Various children had donned most of the garments she owned. Of course, nothing fit. Her beautiful green skirt hung around a dirty boy’s neck like a cape. Several children used her stockings as sashes.

  A lovely dress with a wide, swaying skirt draped over the back of a girl like a hat. She’d crammed her head, down instead of up, through the neck hole. At present she had two pieces of fruit in her hands and took savage bites out of each, chewing and wiping the juice from her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt.

  Ellie’s aunt had said the blue gown was walking apparel and they would promenade along Palismon Boulevard with other fashionable ladies while in the city. Ellie now doubted she’d ever reach Ragar, let alone spend a morning promenading. She blinked back tears as she further examined the fate of her beautiful clothes.

  Not all the children had chosen to wear something from her carpetbag. Some items must have been tossed into the air. Her shoes dangled from one of the watering ladies. Her lace slip had landed ringed around a broken bench. Someone had stuffed one of her caps onto the head of another stone woman. The carpetbag floated in the fountain pool like a colorful sea ship.

  Ellie sank to the floor and put her face in her hands.

  Tak pushed his nose into her neck and huffed. His warm breath comforted her a little, and she put an arm around his neck.

  “We’ll be able to get some of the things back,” said Bealomondore. “They’ll play all afternoon and discard the items as they go. We just need to snatch them up before another child lays claim.”

  Ellie turned enough in her sitting position to peek out again. All of the children ate like swine, smashing the fruit into their mouths and taking huge, slurpy bites.

  Bealomondore sighed. “You don’t want to get close enough to smell them.”

  “If Old One in the library provides the food, why doesn’t he guide them at all, teach them?”

  The tumanhofer shook his head. “Old One never comes out. I don’t think he’s the one providing the food. I can’t figure out any logical means by which the meals can be assembled and delivered. Added to that, I haven’t even seen Old One yet, though I’ve explored the library. I only know of him by eavesdropping on the little jackanapes.”

  Ellie watched a child run in from a side street and check the baskets placed around the rim of the fountain. The enraged boy threw down each empty container and roared. The others ignored him. He didn’t bother with the last few but approached a busy eater, grabbed his portion, and shoved him into the fountain.

  “Oh my!” exclaimed Ellie. “They need some discipline.”

  “I doubt it would do any good. This lot is incorrigible.”

  Ellie raised an eyebrow and asked, “Have you tried?”

  “No, and I don’t intend to. I’ve been trying to discover a way out of this place.”

  “Really?” She pondered his response. While it would be honorable to try to reach these lost children, it certainly made wonderful sense to escape the city. “You think we can get out?”

  He grimaced. “Wait until you see the library, then you’ll understand the enormity of the problem.”

  He didn’t sound very hopeful. Ellie returned to her study of the children. “How many are there?”

  Bealomondore sat down beside her, his back to the door. “On some days when I count, I get fifty-eight. On other days, I get sixty-three. They move around too fast to get an accurate tally.”

  “I don’t understand.” Ellie stretched up a little to get a better view. “They all look like they’re around the same age. There are no babies, no older children?”

  Bealomondore shook his head, agreeing to the negative.

  “How old are they?” asked Ellie. “Do you know?”

  “They are all six, every last one of them.”

  “Six?”

  “Six.”

  “So someone has been feeding them for six years.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “I have found documents in the library, written by hand, probably by Old One. Rumbard City is under some kind of wizardry. Those rapscallions have been six for several centuries. But they don’t remember that they were si
x last year and will be six again on the next birthday. Therefore they never mature, never learn from their experiences, never grow up physically. They are little hooligans suspended in a perpetual state of selfish rebellion.”

  Most of the children had finished their noonmeal. They wiped sticky hands on their clothing and ran off, some in groups and some alone.

  Ellie sank to a sitting position again and turned to share the door as a backrest with Bealomondore.

  “If Old One does not provide their food, then who does?”

  Bealomondore shrugged. “I have no idea, but whoever it is supplies me as well.” He sat up straighter. “All that running and hiding this morning made me hungry. Would you like to share whatever has been provided?”

  “Yes, please, and I’m thirsty too.”

  He stood and extended his hand. She grasped it and easily came to her feet.

  He nodded his approval. “You’re strong and agile. That will come in handy. And I have nothing against country girls.” He smiled. “Princess Tipper lived most of her life away from any city.”

  The comment pricked that doubt Ellie had laid aside. She followed the tumanhofer but didn’t ask him any more questions. She didn’t know if she could trust his answers.

  The vent they had used to enter the building still stood open. Bealomondore stopped before exiting and listened. He held up a finger, indicating “wait a minute,” then pressed it to his lips. With his hand on her shoulder, he gently pushed her to the side of the huge crack.

  “One of the hunters is coming.”

  Ellie’s eyes widened as she heard shuffling feet coming down the alley. The lone hunter did not stop but continued on until they could no longer hear him.

  Ellie whispered, “Why did you call him a hunter?”

  “Because they spend a great deal of time hunting me. And now, it would seem, they are intent on hunting you as well.”

  “They’re just children. I have brothers and sisters around their age. It’s a game.”

  “Didn’t you hear them express the desire to eat us? Recall, if you will, the savage way they tore into parnots, berries, melons, and apples.”

  “Just play-talk and rudeness.” Ellie looked into Bealomondore’s eyes. “They need a mother. They need an adult. They are children without anyone to care for them.”

  “Miss Ellicinderpart Clarenbessipawl, they are children, but they’ve gone feral. Wild beyond taming. Dangerous to anyone smaller and weaker. We are the wee ones. There is nothing we can do except stay out of their way.”

  Bealomondore chose the shortest route to take his visitor to a fountain a few blocks from the town’s circle. On one hand, it was good to have company, but on the other, he would have to protect her from the hooligans and make sure she had a safe place to stay.

  And then there were the proprieties to consider. She was lovely and single. He was single and a good prospect for matrimony.

  Even with purple berry stains on her chin and fingers, she had a certain unsophisticated charm. Better if she would have come to him as an old crone near death’s door. But they were both young and eligible, and they had no chaperone. The squirmy heathen kids did not count. The goat didn’t count. The mysterious Old One in the library didn’t count. And they might be here for months. He hadn’t found any useful information in the library on how to leave Rumbard City, and the answer might not even be among the bookshelves.

  The goat kept close to his mistress but made forages to the side, poking his nose in places that must look interesting to one of his species. He gazed down alleys and seemed to listen. What a goat would listen for, Bealomondore did not know. He had no experience with barnyard animals and found that the pet acted like a dog in many ways. The urchins thought it was a dog, but he wasn’t surprised since they were sorely uneducated.

  Ellicinderpart kept up with him, even though he set a quick pace. And she climbed well. Rumbard City, built exclusively for urohms, presented plenty of opportunities for tumanhofers to climb up, over, and down what the giants would consider ordinary steps. Bealomondore thanked Wulder that He had not sent him a prissy society girl who would cringe at such athletic pursuits.

  A couple of urohm blocks made a long hike for tumanhofers. Ellicinderpart uttered no complaints as they traveled. And she quickly hid without a fuss when noises from the gangs reached them.

  She definitely was not an ordinary individual. She had many superb qualities, but he feared some of them would be inconvenient. She clearly suspected him of outrageous lies. She would remain skeptical of anything he said, wanting full explanations. He couldn’t blame her. When he’d first met Tipper and her father, he had been full of doubt.

  He wondered for a moment if his preoccupation with Ellie stemmed naturally from two months of his own company. He couldn’t remember any time in which he had been so isolated. His life had been full of cultural events with the upper crust of Chirilian society. Then he had accompanied Paladin and others on adventuresome quests. He’d met many unusual people in his journeys around Chiril, but he’d never met a traveler who had a goat for a companion.

  After a long walk, they reached the fountain they sought. The deserted square held a patch of grass with the artful monument in the center. Once tidy flower beds now held a riot of colored blooms in a helter-skelter array.

  “This is where the provider leaves my meals.”

  “It’s beautiful.” Ellicinderpart walked slowly around the metal art. Flowers, small animals, and birds clung to a central cone, three feet wide at the base and culminating in bubbling water at the top. The fountain cascaded over, through, and around the metal wildlife. The pool at the bottom was smaller than the huge, elaborate fountain in the middle of the city.

  The girl’s goat ignored the water and trotted over to the doorway of a butcher’s shop. On the stoop, in a dark corner, stood a box carved and painted with chickens, pigs, and cows. Tak butted the box.

  “Tak!” Ellie ran to grab his collar. “What are you doing now?”

  Bealomondore laughed as he joined her. “I wish I’d had Tak with me two months ago. This is where our noonmeal is hidden. I almost starved before I found it.”

  He reached to open the lid and laughed again when Ellicinderpart peered over his shoulder while the goat tried to push between him and the box. He used his knee to shove Tak out of his way.

  “How did you find it?” asked the girl.

  He didn’t hesitate in answering. She would soon learn that he spoke the truth. “The dragons of the watch took pity on me.” He pulled out two bottles and a package wrapped in brown paper. “Aha! Whoever leaves the meals knows that there are two of us now.”

  “Dragons of the watch?”

  “Yes, they patrol the entire city. It’s a large city, and you can go days without seeing one.”

  He gestured for her to have a seat on the bench between the butcher’s and shoemaker’s shops. She climbed the wrought-iron side and sat on the wooden slats. He handed up the package and then the bottles. She waited until he climbed up and settled beside her before handing back the parcel of food.

  Bealomondore stifled a sigh. He knew from her arched eyebrows that this would not be a comfortable noonmeal with inconsequential chatter. He untied the string on the package.

  “Tak and I,” she said, “walked from the very outskirts of this city to the center, and we never saw a dragon. How can huge flying beasts not be visible? And even before we got to the city, surely we would have seen them above the buildings as we approached.”

  “Look, sandwiches.” He picked up one to examine, knowing he would not divert her attention. “This one has pickles and mustard.” He offered it to her. “Do you like pickles and mustard?”

  She took the sandwich without comment, but Bealomondore saw the suspicion in her eyes. He tried to win her with a little cordial conversation.

  “What? If you don’t like pickles and mustard, there’s another sandwich.” He picked it up to check the contents. “Oh dear, more pickles and mustard.”<
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  Her attention shifted to the sandwich in her hand. She lifted the top piece of bread a bit. “There’s greens, tomato, and some kind of meat as well. You needn’t go on and on about the pickles and mustard.”

  “Then you do like pickles and mustard?”

  She turned to look at him, her eyebrows scrunched down and her mouth pressed in a firm line. “It doesn’t really matter whether I like pickles and mustard. It really doesn’t! I wish you’d stop talking about pickles and mustard and sandwiches.”

  Bealomondore did his best to sound sympathetic. “Aren’t you hungry?”

  “I’m starving!”

  “That explains it then.”

  “Explains what?”

  “Why you’re a bit peevish.” He smiled even though she showed signs of inflicting violence on him. Her empty hand had balled into a fist. “Let’s eat, and then we’ll both feel better. Do you mind if I thank Wulder for our food?”

  “Wulder? Who’s Wulder? I thought you didn’t know who left the sandwiches.”

  “I’ll give you a complete explanation of Wulder after we eat, and all good things come from Wulder, either directly or indirectly. I’ve often thought He might be the provider. But that’s a discussion for after we eat.” Bealomondore pointedly bowed his head to cut off any further comments. “Oh, Wulder, I thank You for this meal and for bringing Ellicinderpart Clarenbessipawl to Rumbard City. Help us to work together to find a way out. Thank You for meeting our needs even before we ask. And bless this food.”

  He lifted his eyes to find her staring at him wide-eyed and slack-jawed. He took a bite of his sandwich and winked at her.

  “Delicious. Try it.”

  Raising the sandwich to her open mouth appeared to be an automatic movement. But once she chomped down on that first bite, an expression of delight came over her. She chewed, swallowed, and took another bite. Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

  A feeling of satisfaction filled Bealomondore. She was enchanting in that unguarded moment. And his tension over their circumstances fled with the pleasure of a good meal. Perhaps he would be able to gain her trust. They could work together to solve the mystery of Rumbard, although by that time the coronation and wedding would have passed. He took another bite of his sandwich and hoped for a myriad of solutions to his varied problems.