The highlord hesitated, considering how to handle such a spirited dragon. There was no question he wanted her in his army, but he couldn't let her think she had the upper hand.
"Can you afford to turn away anyone who would serve the Dark Queen?" the dragon pressed while he pondered.
At that, Maldeev made his decision. Clasping his arms behind him, the highlord turned on his heels and strode out of sight without another word to the dragon. Moments later, a lesser commander emerged into the courtyard and instructed some soldiers milling about to secure a spot for the new dragon next to Jahef s, temporarily quartered in the northern length of the tower's open-air outer ward.
Two years had passed since. The carving of dragon stables in the nearby mountains was almost complete. The number of dragons had risen to five since Khisanth had joined. Mal shy;deev had not spoken to Khisanth once in that time. He couldn't address her directly-for a highlord to speak with any dragon but his own was unseemly, even insulting to his own mount, and an implied elevation of rank.
Maldeev monitored Khisanth's progress by watching the drills and asking for reports from Jahet, his dragon soul mate. Maldeev had begun to notice of late that Khisanth made all the other dragons-even Jahet, the highlord confessed with a measure of disloyalty-look a bit sluggish.
Seeing Khisanth and his lead dragon flying together, it was difficult to believe that Jahet's reaction to Khisanth had been lukewarm at first. The two seemed inseparable now. Maldeev frowned at Jahet's obvious lack of judgment-it was most unwise for the number one dragon to so obviously prefer the number five dragon over all the others.
Therein was the problem. Maldeev could not promote Khi shy;santh to the level of her ability, because she was still unwill shy;ing to take a rider. She'd lost none of her arrogance. Khisanth's resistance bordered on insubordination. That made Maldeev look bad. Word would spread to the other wings that the highlord of the Black Wing couldn't control his dragons. Thinking of the recent problems he'd had with Neraka, High-lord Maldeev wondered if it hadn't already___
Damn, but sometimes these dragons were more trouble than they were worth, thought the old cavalryman. Horses did as they were directed, or were killed on the spot.
Maldeev resolved to deliver an ultimatum at his afternoon meeting with Jahet.
* * * * *
Khisanth's horned hind feet touched down on the dusty plain that served as the Black Wing's drill field. Her massive sides heaved, ribs rising and falling beneath her black scales, glistening with sweat. Khisanth leaned heavily against a lone oak in the otherwise barren field as she struggled to draw huge gulps of air into her aching lungs.
Jahet landed heartbeats after Khisanth. The other black dragon's joyous laughter sent the froth of exertion spraying from her maw. Kicking up dust, Jahet pranced about to keep her legs from cramping. Sunlight glinted off the uncut, apple-sized diamond that she wore like an earring through her left nostril.
"You won again, Khisanth," she conceded through her panting, "but only because you decided, midway to the goal,
to turn the flight into a race!"
Khisanth drew long, deep breaths to slow her breathing enough to speak without panting. "I'll wager the enemy won't give us advance warning, either," she managed at last, making a show of licking a sore muscle so that she could avert her gaze.
Jahet had the grace to smirk at Khisanth's impertinent, though accurate, observation. She gave the other dragon a glance of unabashed awe. "By the queen's ten eyes, you're fast, Khisanth."
Khisanth stifled the urge to gloat. Instead, the dragon said, "Your performance was impressive as well, Jahet."
The Black Wing's ranking dragon gave an ironic snort of laughter. "Highlord Maldeev's mount had better be!" She swung her heavy head around to glance at the Black Wing's highlord and commander, who stood some distance away, watching the drills from the reviewing stand. "If I were a more suspicious dragon, I might think you were angling for my job," Jahet concluded, a mischievous gleam in her eyes.
Khisanth's own tawny eyes widened in genuine alarm. "You know I would never-"
"Never take a rider, is what you mean," concluded Jahet for her. Her expression turned serious. Jahet thought about starting in on a familiar lecture, then changed her mind. "I have something important to tell you, Khisanth," she con shy;fided, "but not here. We've risked too much, speaking in the open, already."
Jahet looked at the three mounted dragons still in flight formation in the cloudless blue sky above. Her gaze abruptly shifted to the long, northern leg of the drill field, to the troop tents and Shalimsha Tower directly behind it. Between them and the tower stood Maldeev in his reviewing box, arms clasped behind his back. The highlord liked to come to the field at least once a week and personally monitor the progress of his generals and their troops. As an old horse cavalry com shy;mander, he derived a special thrill from watching the drag shy;ons' flight drills.
Jahet looked back to the younger dragon at her side. "Meet me in my antechamber as soon as possible" -she looked to the dragons in flight again- "and let no one see you." Jahef s left eye shifted away to look to the sun for the hour. "I need to feed, and I haven't much time before a strategy session with Maldeev."
With that, Jahet turned toward the dragon barracks. She'd intended to walk, but decided to step up the pace toward the newly mined dragon lairs in the deforested foothills to the west. Taking a short two-step hop, she extended her wings and glided just above the grassy slope, dropping to the ground again when the land leveled into the glade before her lair.
Alone on the dry, barren field, Khisanth watched with a sigh from her soul as Jahet went. The fatigued black dragon was in no mood for the lectures Jahet delivered with greater frequency these days, but Khisanth didn't wish to offend the ranking dragon by ignoring a summons to her antechamber. Khisanth couldn't remember Janet's asking any of the higher ranking dragons to her lair. Perhaps Khisanth was headed for a dressing down. She thought it more likely that Jahet had invited her because, unlike the other dragons, she and Jahet were friends. More than friends, for they had secretly blood-mingled in the way of those who had come before.
Strangely, she and Jahet had become friendly despite Khi shy;santh's determination not to. Trust no one but yourself- Led's betrayal had taught her that. Pteros had so much as told her. Even before she'd made the decision to join the army forming in the south, she'd resolved to keep her own counsel among humans and dragons because of them. Her ego would never allow her to tell anyone about Led or Pteros.
First Led, whom she'd briefly but utterly trusted, had con shy;sidered her sole value a nighf s pleasure. Khisanth had diffi shy;culty deciding who was the greater fool in that fiasco, though she ultimately concluded it was Led, since he was not alive to learn from his folly.
Then Pteros. He'd disappointed her as much as betrayed her. All she'd asked for was a small part of his vast
knowledge and experience. She couldn't forgive him his weak spirit. In her reflective estimation, worse than leaving her to die was the fact that he left behind none of the treasure of which he had bragged, except the gemless diadem she'd removed from his broad, bloodied forehead.
There was much Khisanth respected about Jahet. She was more concerned with advancing her own considerable skills than comparing herself to the other dragons. Jahet had every black dragon's exceptional greed. While Khisanth admired that, it prevented her from telling Jahet some things, includ shy;ing the range of her magical skills. She was especially careful to conceal her shapechanging ability, thinking the other dragons would feel threatened by the unusual power.
Jahet had disappeared beyond the trees now, and Khi shy;santh realized she would have to hurry if she was to meet with Jahet before the other dragon began her feed. Covering the distance quickly on foot, she plowed through the thick row of ponderosa pines left standing to disguise the entrances to the dragon warrens. Khisanth unconsciously ducked her head as she stepped into the tall cavern that served as the central meeting hall. She needn't have, since the cavern had been carved to twice her own height to accommodate even the tallest of dragons who might eventually join the wing. It was pleasantly dark inside after the annoyingly bright sun shy;shine she had never grown to like. Water dripped steadily in the far recesses of the cavern.
Jahet's rank demanded the privilege of quarters separate from the other four dragons. To the right and left of the meet shy;ing hall, like the legs of an enormous spider, three large dens, or lairs, had been carved, each at half the height of the central hall. That made six chambers, with room to excavate more if necessary, though two were currently empty and awaiting dragons.
Lairs that fed into the main chamber were assigned in descending order of rank from the first lair on the left. Khi-santh's was the last one, located at the right rear of the meet shy;ing chamber. As a result, and to the great irritation of the others, her lair was the most secluded and private.
Her long tail softly brushing the dirt floor, Khisanth walked clockwise around the chamber to steal a quick glance into the other dragons' lairs. It was forbidden to physically wall off the entrance to one's lair, for "security reasons." The rule was Dimitras's, adjutant to Brigade Commander Wakar. He was the human officer responsible for maintaining the dragon wing's morale, which Khisanth always interpreted to mean keeping them under control. He enforced the no-walls rule as strictly as any human among dragons could, prevent shy;ing physical impediments, such as rocks or vines.
Dimitras had no control over the dragons' magical defenses, however. Like most humans, he was terrified by what he didn't understand, a long list topped off by dragon magic. All of the dragons had devised some sort of magical screen that limited or altered the view into their lairs.
The second-ranked dragon's defenses were the most impressive and long-lasting. Khoal was a well-scarred, battle-hardened, ancient male with tremendous greed and an extensive knowledge of magic. He was like Pteros with too much conceit, thought Khisanth. For his own amusement, the confusion of others, or simply to prove his superior magical skills, Khoal varied his spells daily. Some favorites included a wall of force, which created an invisible barrier that allowed others to see into but not enter his lair, and an illu-sionary door that couldn't be moved even by touch or disbe shy;lieving the illusion.
The most impressive and offensive of Khoal's protective spells was discovered by the fourth-ranked dragon. Neetra, young and even more rash than most black dragons, had refused to attend flight drills one day, alleging that he had a stiff wing. Khisanth had raised an eyebrow at that, since Nee shy;tra prided himself on his strength over Khoal's bulk or Khi-santh's agility. It was also widely known that Neetra felt the competition between Khoal and himself more keenly, since Khoal was the only other male in the stable. No one above or below Neetra in rank chose to order him to the field, since his absence would only make the others look better. Dimitras knew better than to try to force a dragon to do anything. So Neetra stayed in his warren, while the others filed out and onto the drill field.
Khisanth remembered thinking as she passed it that morn shy;ing that the opening to Khoal's lair didn't show its usual signs of a protective spell, as if he'd left and forgotten to cast one. Engrossed in drilling, everyone in the camp heard shrill howls and saw flashes of ghostly blue light cut through the row of trees that hid the entrance to the lairs. Rushing inside, they'd found Neetra in his cave, missing a fang, his eyes red orbs in his soot-covered face. He nursed a claw that was blis shy;tered and cracked open. The cave wall opposite Khoal's den was blackened except for a vague outline at the center. Khi shy;santh and the others could only speculate on the exact nature of the spell Neetra suffered that morning. Neetra's hate-filled look and Khoal's smug expression left no question that they shared some bitter secret.
Hurrying now past the other lairs, Khisanth removed the protective wards from the archway that led to her own lair. She was momentarily annoyed that Dimitras had not yet delivered the live, large mammals for the dragons' usual feeding after the day's drill. Highlord Maldeev forbade the dragons to hunt for themselves, saying it drew too much attention to them. Even so, Khisanth had slipped away sev shy;eral times as a vulture. Flying far from Shalimsha, she'd changed back into a dragon and fed heartily, just for the sheer pleasure of it. Khisanth would have liked to gulp some shy;thing to tide herself over now, but her gnawing hunger would have to wait until after her secret meeting with Jahet.
Khisanth had many secrets. In addition to her ability to shapechange, she knew of a shortcut to Janet's secluded lair that ensured absolute secrecy-even from Jahet. At the back of Khisanth's chamber a fresh mountain stream cascaded in a steady, three-foot-wide waterfall through a vertical crevasse. Desiring to swim one day, but too large to fit into the flow as a dragon, Khisanth used the opportunity to keep her qhen skills honed. Shapechanging into the form of an alligator she'd once seen in the moors, she stepped into the falls and discovered a small, dry crevasse in the stone wall behind it.
Curious, she'd followed the narrow crack for some distance. To her great surprise, it led to a similar crack in the back of Jahet's lair. The other dragon seemed unaware of the crevasse, likely because it was concealed on her side by a curved rocky outcropping that ran from floor to ceiling; her size prevented her from seeing beyond it.
In a blink, Khisanth shapechanged into a small brown field mouse, darted behind the curtain of cold, falling water, and slipped through the crevasse. In this form, the distance to the back of Jahet's lair seemed miles, but soon her little mouse nose smelled fresh blood. Poking her pink nose and black eyes just beyond the stone curtain into Jahet's lair, the dragon-turned-mouse could see her friend feasting on a cow, its side torn and bloody, eyes open wide in death. The smell of fresh blood tickled Khisanth's hungry stomach. The rank shy;ing dragon had many privileges, concluded Khisanth, not the least of which was that Jahet got her meals delivered first.
Suddenly the dragon looked up. Her frenzied gaze fell upon the unexpected mouse at the back of her lair. Khisanth was glad that Jahet had already eaten, or she might have been a snack, and not allowed to skitter around the perimeter of Jahet's cave. Khisanth ran as fast as her mouse legs would carry her to the antechamber and reverted to dragon form beyond Jahef s vision.
The antechamber to Jahet's lair was large, with a very high ceiling that curved slightly away from the entrance. The stone walls were rough and glistened with moisture; the high humidity of summer made these quarters reasonably com shy;fortable for the swamp-loving dragons.
Displaying proper dragon etiquette, Khisanth waited until she heard Jahet finishing her meal before announcing her presence. "I'm at your disposal, Jahet."
Jahet's head swung around to face the opening between her lair and the antechamber. She pulled stringy pieces of raw meat from between two razor-sharp fangs before speaking.
"That's strange, I didn't sense your approach," said Jahet, looking a bit puzzled as she shuffled forward to enter the
chamber. The dragon's meal had made her slightly sleepy, so she circled slowly around and finally lowered her form to recline on the cool stone floor.
"I asked you here because you and I both know your skills are being wasted. You'll never rise beyond the fifth rank if you continue to refuse a union. It's a credit to the highlord's belief in your abilities that you've maintained your position without a rider."
"There you have it!" cut in Khisanth quickly. "Many thought Maldeev would send me away after the first month for declining to take a rider. But he hasn't. I've maintained my current position for nearly two years without a rider." Jahef s was a familiar lecture, as were Khisanth's answers.