Dragon Talker (6 page)

Chapter 9

At 16, Lenore was old enough to be married, but she was Lenore enough to be single - at least that was what her father always said. She had a number of suitors who were attracted to her long, silky brown hair, and her cute smile, yet somehow managed to remain ignorant of her sarcastic wit. More than once it had gotten her in trouble with older men, but her older brothers, woodsmen with no sense of humor, broad shoulders, and sharp axes, had persuaded them they were best off leaving her alone.

Today, she met her brothers as they came into town. “Did you leave any trees left in the forest?”

Lanner smiled and gave his customary reply, “Just the little ones.”

Lenore brought the small basket she had been hiding behind her back out and showed it to her brothers.

“Now that, little sister, is the best thing I’ve seen all day.” Lamot, thick shouldered, jumped off the wagon with an unexpected agility as he said it, heading for the basket.

“Not so fast.” Lenore put the basket behind her back. “What’s this I hear about Melanie?”

“Don’t look at me.” Lamot nodded his head towards his brother, “Now can I have some of the food?”

“For you, yes. She handed him the basket. Lanner started heading towards the food, “Lanner, not yet.”

Lanner scratched his shaggy head of hair, saying, “Come on little sis. What are you going to do, tax my food?”

Lenore asked, “You’re not the one I hear is mooning over a certain Melanie?”

“I am a woodsman, Little Sister, I don’t moon.” Lamot was already eating a carrot from the basket, watching the conversation to see where it would go. With Lenore and Lanner, any conversation could turn into a battle of one-up-manship that either one was just as likely to win.

“Than what is this I hear about you writing poetry?”

Lamot stopped chewing on his carrot and laughed, bits of carrot flying from his mouth. Lanner’s cheeks flushed as he tilted his head and squinted his eyes, wondering how she knew about his secret.

“Oh yes, I know, and apparently it is pretty sweet, my mooning brother, to move Melanie to share it with a few of her friends.”

“’Nora, you’re still young, so I’ll use little words and keep this simple so you can understand.” Speaking slowly, he continued, “Man like woman…. Woman like sweet words… Man gives woman sweet words and both are happy.  Woodsman…no…moon.”

Lenore put her hand on her chest, “Quoteth the insulted one, ‘My heart beats like a racing stallion,’ sayeth the insulter, my mooning brother, ‘every time I see your beauty.’”

Lamot thought the lines over, raised his eyebrows and nodded his head in approval. Lanner relaxed his brow, admitting, “It is pretty good, but it is not mooning. You have been spending too much time with that wandering healer woman. She is messing with your vocabulary, confusing your young mind. But,” Lanner was relieved to find his older brother appeared to accept his poetry, “continue if you must.”

“I must. ‘your skin glows like the light of the moon, and your hair shines like the sun.’”

“Brother, “Lamot broke in, “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Shhhh. No interruptions, please. ‘Your body curves…’”

Lanner’s face began to redden. “Okay, time to stop… I didn’t think she shared the whole thing. You have a good memory, Nori, and if it stops you, I will admit to mooning, just a bit.”

“I…” Lenore paused for exaggerated dramatic effect, “will stop, for the sake of all that is proper.”

“Thank you. Can I eat now?”

Lenore laughed and waved her hand at the basket. Lanner dived in.

***

Of her two brothers, Lanner and Lamot, Lanner was the one who shared Lenore’s wit and love of words, while Lamot was more likely to mind his own business, work hard, and carve wooden figures in his free time. Both were hauling timber to Perante’s castle when Lenore stopped them with food. After Lenore’s teasing of Lanner, they ate quickly and got the horses headed towards the castle. The only thing more dangerous than working for Perante was not working for Perante, and the brothers were not stupid. The lumber was going to brace the third floor. They had been bringing in timber for two months now. No one asked why bracing was needed, at least not out loud.

Lanner and Lamot had passed through the inner and outer baileys, bringing their load to the inner courtyard. Two years ago, they had helped bring in lumber for the construction of the hall in front of them. The hall itself was massive; three horse-and-carts could be lined up end to end for its width, and the length was twice that. A windlass and treadmill had taken up permanent residence in front of the hall to keep the large supplies moving into a large square opening made in the second floor wall. If it was level with the ground, the men could have brought their horses and wagon through with room to spare.

All of this was taken for granted by the brothers, who had seen it all over a hundred times before.

“Did you see Melanie this morning? The ribbons in her hair?” Lanner asked Lamot.

“I really doubt, big brother, that it was her ribbons that you were looking at nor writing poetry about. Now grab that strap and help me off-load this timber, before his high and magic gets angry.”

“Watch the high and you know what, little brother. This place has ears and I’ve heard even the mice report back what they have heard.” Lanner was sarcastic, but he also was a good judge of who he could be sarcastic around.

“Right, seeing eyes and all-knowing.” Lamot’s smile left his face. “Let’s get this hoisted up to the third floor so we can leave this place.”

“Eager to leave my humble abode, woodsman?” Perante’s tone was cool, but Lamot did not know how much he had heard.

“No sir, only to get the work done so as not to impede your construction.” Lamot kept his eyes down, showing his respect.

“Don’t lie to me woodsman. Nothing wrong with knowing your place.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lanner attempted to take the attention from his brother, “This is fine lumber, sir, straight and true.”

“It had better be…You look alike, siblings? That means brothers.”

“Yes, sir.” Lanner bit the tip of his tongue to keep his reply short.

Perante eyed his discomfort and decided to play with the hired help. “You are two young men in your prime. Tell me, who is the fairest in the village? Where do you cast your eyes and your calloused fingers?”

“We spend too much time in the woods, sir, to really know.” Lanner attempted to dodge the question.

“That’s right, sir,” Lamot answered, “we work from sun up to sun down most days.”

“Now, now, if you take me for an imbecile, that means stupid, I will be insulted.”

Not any more than I, with your damn vocabulary lessons
, thought Lanner.

“Who,” this time said with more force, “do you do you fancy among the young women of the village?”

The brothers stood silent, not knowing what to say and unwilling to offer a name to the mage who would do who-knew-what with the information.

“Ah,” Perante shook his head. “I have noble woodsmen, who having heard too many false tales thinks I may abuse this knowledge - take the woman for myself. Do terrible things to her in the boudoir. That’s bedroom. ”

“No, sir, that’s not…” Lanner tried to answer.

“Of course, I can do as I please. I made this town and that is only right, but do you cast aspersions on my character, you simpleton?”

“Sir, my apologies. I meant nothing. We are simple…”

“Shut…up. I was getting bored and now I believe I am getting angry. Who the dragon do you think you are? Were you really planning to explain yourself? As if you have some justification for what you do that isn’t based on what I command?”

Lamot walked back towards their wagon, and his ax.

“Walk away, fool, and I will have you spending the rest of your miserable life emptying my chamber pot while your brother decides to join my army. I can always use willing, strong men.”

Lamot stopped two feet from the ax.

“You may not be as dumb as you look.” Looking away from Lamot, Perante asked Lanner, “Who, right now, is a fair maiden of the village? Don’t think, answer.”

Lanner looked at his brother, knowing he would pick up the ax before he said anything. “Melanie Fontaine, sir, is a pretty girl….” Lanner dropped his head, defeated.

“So simple an answer.” Lamot took a step toward his axe. Lanner moved quickly to the horses harnessed to the cart. “We will be off now, Sir, with your permission, to get more wood for your project.”

“Yes, go ahead. I look forward to further conversations with you.” The two brothers had brought up too many thoughts in Perante’s mind, and he was angry. His voice was cold as he added, “And Melanie.”

Chapter 10

Tadeus watched his son Hental come back into the hut with firewood. He had been quiet since Yuri left, but Tadeus was beginning to think there was more to the silence than the absence of his brother. “Good boy, Hental. It’s going to be a chilly night.” Agardia was chopping carrots at the table with the sleeping baby slung in front of her chest.

Hental didn’t reply, but added a log to the fire. “Sit by your father, Hental, and tell me what is on your mind.” Hental looked at his father. Tadeus smiled at him and motioned him to the chair next to him. “You are too young to carry such a weight I see on you, Henti. Your dragon rite is at least a spring away, so let me share your burden.”

Hental’s lip started to tremble and tears began to stream down his face. Even though he hadn’t sat on his father’s lap in many years, he jumped onto his father, burying his head in his neck and accidentally driving his knee into his father’s stomach. Tadeus tried to catch his breath that just rushed out of his lungs as his son started sobbing.

Agardia stopped preparing dinner to look at the two of them. Tadeus raised his eyebrows, letting her know he didn’t know what was going on. “Hental, my boy, everything is going to be okay.” Hental’s shoulder’s raised up and down as he cried. “Can you hear me, Henti?” Hental nodded into his neck. “That’s my boy.” He continued to pat his back.

“Henti, you just about made me a gelding.” Hental leaned back, putting his knee once again into Tadeus’s stomach. He rubbed the tears from his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Papa.”

“That’s okay…let’s get you in a better position.” Stephanvoich shifted Hental so he was now sitting across his lap. He had one arm over Hental’s shoulder. “So, what is all this about?”

“I…I…I…ate someone.”

“You what?!” If he hadn’t been so withdrawn before, Tadeus would think this was just another one of Hental’s stores.

Agardia set her knife to the table.

“And a wolf.”

Tadeus looked to his wife, who raised her hands in an I-have-no-idea gesture. He then smiled at Hental. “I think your friends were playing a trick on you, Henti. You didn’t eat anyone.” Tadeus let out a deep breath and started shaking his head. “Henti, you had us both worried there.”

“But I did,” whispered Hental, “when I was with Yuri, I…I grabbed his necklace and felt Samora eat someone, and later, it ate a wolf.”

Agardia came from the table and knelt beside Hental, putting a hand on his head. “Oh Henti, that must have been terrible.” She gave quizzical and worried look to her husband, who gave a similar one right back.

Tadeus spoke soothingly, “Start over, Henti. When did this happen?”

Hental looked up at his father’s face, pausing before answering. “Well, I know you told me not to bother Yuri when he went to the dragon field, but I thought I could help.”

His father slowly nodded his head. “I know.”

Hental wiped one of the last tears from his cheek. “I wish I would have listened, but I didn’t know what would happen to him.”

A tone of reproach crept into Tadeus’s voice. “Then what happened?”

“Well, he gave me the necklace to wear and…”

Agardia interrupted, “Yuri gave you the dragon talker necklace to wear?”

“Sort of.”

“Hental?” A tone of reproach entered Agardia’s voice.

“Well, not really, but he did give it to me to hold…and then I put it on.” Hental was sitting up straighter, as if telling the tale was making him lighter. “It was horrible. I put it on and then I felt like I was Samora, and she was eating!”

Agardia asked, “What happened then?
“Well, she ate this weird man, and it tasted gross…and his bones crunched.” He grimaced at the memory, but the grimace was short lived. “And then, I was flying! That part was cool, but I was, she was looking for this wolf, and she ate him!”

His parents exchanged looks. They both knew that was no wolf, but dragon villages didn’t talk about dogs, and there was no reason to burden Hental with that information.  Agardia asked, “How long did you wear the necklace?” 

“Ummm….a while.”

“Hental,” Tadeus’s voice became more stern, “now is not the time to exaggerate.” At this, Hental made a face, reacting as if he was just insulted. His father smiled and lightened his tone, “Hental, I love you but you do tell a great tale. This is serious. I need you to answer as accurately as you can.”

“If I think real hard, I’d say it was about 2 heartbeats. Yuri tackled me and took it right away when I put it on…he should be punished for that.”

“Maybe, Hental... You had it on for just a moment but you felt all these things that lasted longer, right?

“Oh yeah, I felt stuff all the way until I got home.”

“Do you feel anything now?” Tadeus was trying to figure out what to make of this. A lost or misused dragon necklace usually meant bad things for the village of its owner. The two people with the most knowledge of the subject were dead.

Hental climbed out of his father’s lap, pushing off against his stomach with one hand as he wiped away his last tears with the other. Tadeus just shook his head in wonder.

“Just hungry. Can I eat early?”

“Hental, only you can go from feeling terrible for eating a person to eating dinner early so fast.”

“You hush,” Agardia interjected, “of course you can, Hental. You did the right thing talking to us. You let us know if you get any more feelings, okay?
“Okay Mom, I will.”