Dragon Kin: Sapphire & Lotus Read online

  The baby dragon wrapped its tail tighter around Sapphire’s arm and then made very quick work of the small mountain of lumpy white. It made a mewling sound in its throat as it ate—and almost immediately, its scaled belly started to warm.

  Sapphire breathed out a sigh of gratitude and laid both of her hands on the sudden heater in her lap.

  The dragonet squirmed, but didn’t stop eating.

  Sapphire giggled and tried to move her face closer to the heat too. “Sorry, I bet my hands are kind of cold.”

  “Do a good job warming your fingers up—I think you’re going to need them to get down.”

  Sapphire’s head snapped up. The voice was coming from far higher this time. She found herself staring again, this time at the person who had been on the ground moments ago and was now stretching toward them through the trees—on the head of a dragon the size of a small mountain.

  Sapphire felt her entire body liquefy. A small, terrified screech slid out and she tried to bury her head under her cloak.

  “This is Afran,” said the voice calmly. “I’m sorry to frighten you, but we need to see if he and I can reach the two of you and help you out of your tree before this storm lands.”

  The tree Sapphire sat in swayed ominously, as if it agreed with the voice in the trees.

  She scrunched deeper into her cloak. Whatever bravery she’d left home with had disappeared long ago. At this point, she only wanted to wake up and find herself in her bedroll by the fire with her sisters, all this gone as if it had only been a dream.

  The tiny dragon in her lap started to make a chittering sound and licked her cheek.

  Well, maybe she didn’t want it all to go away.

  “Hello, tiny girl.” The voice sounded entirely unconcerned by the whole ridiculous situation. “You picked a foul morning to be born.”

  Sapphire peeked out of her cloak. “She hatched in the night.”

  The person with her legs wrapped around the enormous dragon’s neck nodded, as if that made perfect sense. “They never do seem to choose times that are convenient. What chased you up the tree?”

  Somehow that snapped Sapphire’s backbone straight. “Nothing chased us. I saw the egg up here and came to see if I could get it down.” That almost made it sound like she’d had a plan, except for the part where she’d never had any idea how she would get down again. She stared at the woman on the dragon’s head, studying her face. It wasn’t a young face, but not terribly old, either. It carried lines of fierceness and common sense and steadiness. Something in Sapphire relaxed. “Are you a warrior?”

  The woman’s head nodded slightly. “Of a sort. I’m dragon kin.”

  Grandfather’s lore had covered that. The mysterious, mythical elves who lived with dragons and bonded with them. Sapphire swallowed hard. “Then you know where we need to take this baby dragon.” Somehow, that didn’t feel as good as she thought it would, even though she desperately wanted the small creature in her lap to be safe.

  “For now, we’ll be taking both of you.” The woman cast a concerned eye at the sky, and then leaned down, putting her ear almost to her dragon’s head. “The trees are thick here, and we can’t reach through far enough to get you.” She grimaced. “Which is lovely protection for the hatching grounds, but today, it’s not working in our favor. This is as close as we can get.”

  Sapphire looked at the long distance to the dragon’s huge head and gulped. Then she looked up at the sky and gulped harder. Roiling gray clouds were amassing and moving their way quickly. She was elf enough to know exactly what that meant. A storm, and a big one.

  Even as she thought it, the first large, cold drops hit her nose.

  “We need to move quickly.” The woman’s voice was brusque now, with little of her former kindness. “I’d climb up and get you, but I don’t think that tree is strong enough to take my weight without swaying the two of you right out of it. And this rain is about to make the climb down far harder. Are your hands warm enough yet to manage, child?”

  She wasn’t a child, but even as Sapphire’s mind protested, she knew that wasn’t what really mattered. She was small and weak enough to pass for a child, and that was her true problem. “I don’t know if I can.” The climb up had been horrendous enough.

  The dragonet in her lap let out a yowl.

  The woman winced. “I’m also out of cheese curds. Sorry, little one.” She looked Sapphire straight in the eyes. “I’m Karis, and I can see that you’re tired and very worried about your small friend there.”

  She wondered what else Karis could see. “I’m Sapphire.”

  The tree swayed again, and her foot slipped on the branch. She grabbed at the trunk, trying not to whimper, and felt terror strike the little heart in her lap, too.

  “Sapphire.” Karis spoke in the kind of tone that said she expected to be obeyed. Instantly. “I need you to stand up for me. Get yourself a good hold on that trunk and find your first foothold on the way down.”

  She didn’t have enough hands. “But I’ll drop her.”

  “You won’t.” The dragon warrior chuckled. “She’s got four tough little legs with claws that know how to hold on and a tail I bet she’s already got wrapped around your arm.”

  It was somehow comforting that the woman knew that. Gingerly, Sapphire moved her hands away from the dragonet. Four claws promptly latched themselves onto her tunic.

  “Can you climb with her there?”

  Sapphire felt the pounding heart racing right next to hers. “I hope so. I don’t think I can move her.”

  “Good. Then you don’t need to worry about her falling.” Karis’s voice was back to brusque. “Time to show off the fancy climbing skills that got you up that tree.”

  She didn’t have any—and the rain was coming harder now. Sapphire shuddered to think how much harder this was going to be if everything got wet.

  Closing her eyes, she laid her hands one last time on the warm belly of the baby dragon clinging to her for dear life, and spoke words meant only for the tiny creature’s ears. “I’m going to do my very best. You hold on tight and don’t look down, okay? And when we get to the bottom, I’m going to find you some more of those curds and you can eat as many of them as you like.”

  The fear billowing out of the little one’s body dimmed a little.

  Sapphire pushed back her cloak and stood. Then she reached for two nearby branches, scrabbled her feet down the trunk for a good foothold, and tried not to think.

  It took ten eternities, or fifteen, or twenty. She was vaguely aware of the warm heartbeat against her chest, and the soft words of encouragement from the voice behind her, and the icy rain beating down on every inch of her skin and cloak and hair.

  But mostly, she thought about the next foothold. The next handhold. The next step closer to the ground.

  When her questing foot touched down on soft earth, Sapphire simply crumpled into a heap of boneless elf remains.

  Strong hands grabbed her shoulders moments later, pulling her up to sitting. “That was very well done, child. Very well done.”

  A flask met her lips, and Sapphire swallowed convulsively. She wrinkled her nose at the strong, bitter taste.

  The warrior beside her chuckled. “Sorry—my morning tea isn’t to everyone’s liking.”

  “It tastes like shoe rot.” Sapphire was astonished to find that the voice saying that was her own.

  This time Karis’s laugh was bold, loud, and full of relief. “So people say.” She reached out a hand and pulled Sapphire to her feet. “We need to keep moving. I don’t guess you want to camp out here in this cold, and if we rest for long, those legs of yours are going to realize what a hard job they just did and refuse to move anymore.”

  Sapphire was pretty sure that moment had long since come and gone. Her legs felt like jelly, and she wasn’t at all sure standing was a wise idea.

  Four claws clutched her tunic a little harder. She wrapped her arms reflexively around the baby dragon and felt it relax.

&nbs
p; Karis peeked into Sapphire’s cloak. “She’s beautiful.”

  “I wouldn’t know.” Sapphire could hear her voice quivering. “She’s my first dragon.”

  Karis chuckled and scratched the top of the baby dragon’s head. “Such an unusual color. Like the lotus flowers that grow by the Bay of a Thousand Waterfalls.”

  The creature clinging to Sapphire chirruped happily.

  Karis laughed again. “You’d like Lotus for a name, would you?”

  Lotus. Sapphire had no idea what the flower looked like, or where a thousand waterfalls were, or how Karis knew what the baby dragon was saying, but it was a beautiful name—something that sounded like it came out of one of Orion’s poems.

  “This way, child.” Somehow Karis had the three of them walking. “How did you end up here?”

  Sapphire’s brain didn’t feel capable of conversation, but she tried. “I got lost. I do that a lot.”

  “Hmm.” Karis cast a pensive glance back at the tree they’d come down from. “No one finds this forest unless they’re meant to be here, but that’s something we can consider when we’re fed and dry and sitting by a crackling fire.”

  Sapphire had never heard anything that sounded quite so good. Fierce tremors still ran through her body, even though she could feel and see her feet finally back on solid ground.

  “We’ll also need to send word back to your family, youngling. Which clan do you hail from?”

  The one that was going to be ready to crack her head against a hard rock for being so foolish—and she was going to agree with them. “Moon Clan, over in the Early Waters Vale.” Wherever that was from here.

  “Ah.” The warrior woman looked like she was thinking. “I don’t believe we’ve had any of your clan arrive here before. Certainly not in recent memory.”

  If Grandfather hadn’t included it in his lore classes, it probably hadn’t happened.

  “Come.” Karis reached for Sapphire’s rucksack and swung it easily over her own shoulder. “Can you carry the dragonet, or would you like me to?”

  A tiny peach head emerged from the folds of Sapphire’s cloak and hissed. It reminded her sharply that she wasn’t the only one who had been terrified.

  Karis touched a finger to Lotus’s forehead ridges and grinned. “A spitfire, are you, little one?”

  Sapphire shifted her hold. Her arms were exhausted, but clearly this was one baby dragon that wasn’t going anywhere without a fight. “I can carry her.”

  The old warrior gave her a quick nod of respect, and then turned to the huge, hovering presence in the trees to their left. “Afran, when you get out of these infernal trees, fly ahead to the village and let them know to expect our arrival.” She laid a hand on the shoulder of Sapphire’s sodden cloak. “It will take us about an hour of walking—do you think you can manage?”

  There didn’t seem to be a whole lot of choices, and Lotus was already curling back up in the warm heat of the cloak, expecting the bigger, wiser creatures in her world to keep her safe. “I’ll do what I need to do.” She winced at the plaintive tone in her voice. “So long as there’s a fire at the other end.”

  Karis laughed, loud and long and with the kind of appreciation that fed strength to Sapphire’s legs. “There will be a fire, my girl, even if I have to get Afran to light it. I know Inga was putting bread in the ovens when I left this morning, so there should be some of that tucked away for us too, along with a bowl of her venison stew.”

  That sounded like Sapphire’s idea of bliss. She extended her step a little, trying to find the ground-eating stride the older elves used when they had long distances to travel.

  Karis chuckled and matched her, step for step.

  Chapter 4

  “We’re here, youngling.”

  Sapphire tried to peel her eyes away from the sodden ground. She’d never been so wet in her entire life. Her wool cloak weighed more than she did, and her feet had stopped feeling like flesh and bones long ago. She managed to tip her chin up far enough to catch a brief rain-soaked view of where they’d arrived, and blinked at the first building she saw. It was curved, almost in the shape of an eyebrow, with walls running seamlessly into the roof.

  “Come this way.” Karis’s arm tugged her off to the left. “The kitchen’s just over yonder, and I’m sure Inga’s got something to warm our bellies.”

  Food.

  Sapphire found strength she didn’t know she had left and followed in the older warrior’s wake. Karis was saying things, pointing to things in the village that were probably important, but the words barely penetrated.

  Then they stopped, and Sapphire realized they were inside a building. A dim one, and very small—but the rain had stopped. Not that it mattered much when she’d carried an ocean of it in with her. She could hear the drops running off her onto the hard floor.

  Karis’s hands lifted the sodden cloak from her shoulders. “Here. We’ll get you down to clothes that aren’t quite so wet, and then you can go sit by the fire and have a bowl of stew with Kellan here.”

  Sapphire blinked the rain off her eyelashes and realized there was someone else in the room with them. A younger girl with brown hair and lively, curious eyes, dressed in a simple tunic and leggings the color of new spring grass. The girl grinned and held out a cup. “I’ve got some mulled cider for you. Somehow the babies always seem to choose to come when it’s wet or windy or cold.”

  “They’re dragons,” Karis said dryly. “They’re not much bothered by the weather.”

  “That’s fine, but the rest of us can’t make fire in our bellies, so it seems like the babies could be a little more thoughtful.” The girl settled the cider in Sapphire’s frozen fingers as she talked—and then giggled as a pink tongue dipped into the mug. “You’ve woken up, have you, little one? Cider’s not for dragons. We’ll send you with Karis and you can go have some nice milk curds.”

  Sapphire tried to juggle the mug and a suddenly very wiggly Lotus.

  “Here.” Karis held out her arm, palm down, like she was getting ready to land a hawk. “I’ll take her over to the nursery and get her settled.”

  “No, I’ll do it.” Sapphire jumped, astonished she was the one who had spoken. “I want to stay with her.”

  “You need to get warm and dry and fed, youngling. You’re no use to anyone if you catch your death of a cold, and Inga will hammer on my head for it too.” Karis deftly moved Lotus to her arm as she talked. “I’ll come back once she’s settled.”

  Sapphire’s heart was objecting fiercely, but her arms and legs could barely move, much less put up a fight, and Lotus didn’t seem overly upset. She watched, bewildered, as the warrior left with a peach-pink dragonet wrapped around her arm.

  “Come this way.” It was Kellan tugging on her arm this time.

  Sapphire followed the younger girl through a narrow doorway and into a larger room—one full of heat and light and smells that could bring a hungry elf to her knees.

  “It’s venison stew with lots of mushrooms—Grady and I picked them fresh this morning.”

  Sapphire collapsed into a chair by the fire, ridiculously grateful to be off her feet. A bowl of stew landed on the small table beside her moments later. She stared into its depths, barely able to believe that something that smelled that good was real.

  “Here, you can dip some of the bread in that. Easier than a spoon, and the bread’s just out of the oven.” Kellan broke off a small piece and held it out as if she were feeding a young child.

  Sapphire was too weak and too hungry to protest. She dunked the bread in the thick, rich stew and nearly passed out when she shoveled it in her mouth. “Mmmmppphh. Gddddth.”

  Kellan laughed. “I guess you like mushrooms, huh?”

  She would have eaten every drop even if she hated them, but this was the best stew Sapphire had ever tasted. She managed to chew and swallow, and then picked up the cider to wash it down so she could start all over again. Even that was delicious, tasting of fall and cinnamon and apples so ripe they
dripped juice everywhere when you bit into them. She didn’t bother trying to talk this time—she just sighed happily and took the next hunk of bread Kellan handed her.

  She wondered if Lotus would like bread. Maybe she’d take her some once she’d finished. She took a small piece and laid it to the side of her bowl.

  Kellan raised a questioning eyebrow.

  Sapphire shuffled stew into her cheek to reply. “I was going to take it to Lotus when I was done.”

  Kellan grinned. “Dragons don’t like bread—it gums up their fire. Irin and Kis will take good care of her now. They’ll make sure she gets plenty to eat.”

  Sapphire felt curiosity rising up even through the stupor of the mushroom stew and the frustration that no one else seemed to think the baby dragon was hers. Kellan sounded like she knew things. “Who are Irin and Kis?”

  “You saw the rondos when you came in, right? The buildings that look like really big cooking ovens?”

  They’d been impossible to miss, even in the rain. “They looked warm.”

  “They are, especially with a dragon inside heating them up.” Kellan handed over another chunk of thickly buttered bread. “The biggest rondo is the nursery, where the youngest dragons live. Irin and Kis take care of things over there. Lots of us help out sometimes, especially when someone’s sick or teething, but they’re the two in charge. They used to be fighters, but then Kis got a wing-wound and Irin brought him back here to get healed, but they still can’t fly very well, so they stayed.”

  Sapphire tried to imagine a clan where the retired warriors raised the babies. “They sound scary.”

  Kellan nearly snorted cider out her nose. “Kis and Irin? Plenty, especially if you don’t pay enough attention in weapons class or if you’re silly enough to wake a sleeping dragonet. Irin threatened to cut off my head with his sharpest sword when I did that once. But mostly they’re sweeties. They look fierce, but they’ll take really good care of the baby you rescued.”