Mercedes Lackey - Alta

And so did Kaleth. But Kaleth was giving him the choice, to stay or to go, of his own will.

Ari opened his eyes, and looked straight at Kiron—then past Kiron, to where Avatre guarded an exhausted Kashet.

And he smiled.

“Take me to this Sanctuary of yours,” he said. “I should like to try. ”

EPILOGUE

SANCTUARY—

Kiron stood on the top of a squat, wind-eroded tower, and looked down at the improvised pens where ten dragons wallowed in sun-heated sand, as contented as ever dragons could be. The Lost City was a very strange place. He had thought it would seem desolate, and haunted by the ghosts of thousands. It actually seemed empty, and waiting, as if it never had held people before this moment. The buildings were familiar, yet unfamiliar, the shapes like those of Alta and Tia, yet unlike. Partly it was the utter lack of paintings, inscriptions, and carvings; there weren’t even any statues of gods here. Partly it was the curves of the walls; there wasn’t a straight line here anywhere. The dragons liked it, though. Perhaps it reminded them of the wind- and water-cut valleys and caves where their kind made their homes.

There was water here, the first need of life, an underground source that seemed bottomless. You reached it through the well house in the center of Sanctuary, which covered the stairway down, which in turn led to a cave and a huge spring-fed pool.

Sanctuary itself provided the shelters, far more than the current population needed, although there were more people trickling in all the time. The first two had been Lord Khumun and Heklatis, the latter having shed his womanly disguise, but after them had come several of the dragon boys of Alta and Tia (including Baken!) some of the Healers of Alta, and other folk, common and noble. One of those had been Lord Ya-tiren, who had doubled the population of Sanctuary by bringing with him his entire household. Aket-ten and Orest could not have been more overjoyed.

Kiron could not have been more relieved.

Aket-ten came up through the hole in the roof of the tower to stand beside him. He smiled at her, and made room for her to sit on the sand-scoured parapet. “Look—” she said, pointing straight down below.

Directly below was Kashet’s pen. Entering it were Ari—and Nofret.

Their voices drifted up on the hot wind.

“—but of course there can be more dragons, and more dragon riders,” Nofret was saying, in a voice that sounded surprised. “It is not so difficult! How do we get young falcons? We take them from the nest, of course—and we can do the same with dragonets. We have ten dragons that can guard us while we take a single youngster, and we can ensure we do no harm by taking the ones that might not otherwise live, just as we do with falcons!”

“That never occurred to me,” Ari replied, sounding surprised. “But—by Haras, you are right! We can set a watch on the dragon nests—take the ones that are not prospering—take the ones from parents that are not skilled—”

“And tell me, are there not times when the parents are slain, as happens with falcons?” Nofret asked “Or injured, or killed by a disease? We can save those entire clutches—and of course, since they will have bonded first to their parents, they will eventually breed as well, and then we will have the best of both sorts of dragon, tame and wild!”

Her voice was alight with enthusiasm, as Kiron had never heard before. And Ari’s when he replied, was warm with pleasure.

“How is it that you know so much about falcons?” he asked, “And care so much about dragons? I have—forgive me, my lady, but I admit my experience with women is rather limited—I never met a woman who—who—”

“Who thought about more than hair and gowns and jewels?” she laughed. “But I was a falconer, Ari! I helped tend and raise my father’s birds—Pe-atep was my father’s man, and I trained him. As for dragons, well—the first time I met Aket-ten and saw her Re-eth-ke, my thought was not, that was Toreth’s dragon, it was I want one like that! I confess to you, I was raw with envy, and I would have traded every gown, wig, and gem in the world for a dragon of my own.”

“Ah, now I understand why you thought so much about how to gain more!” Ari laughed—and his hand inched toward Nofret’s.

“Oh, I must also confess that my first flight was utterly terrifying,” she said, a smile still in her voice, “And for a little while—a little —I thought ‘perhaps this is not for me’—but I managed to get beyond that fear as I watched Aket-ten and Kiron flying away into the sky.”

And her hand inched toward his.

And when they touched, their fingers curled around each other’s, interlacing until they seemed that they had never been apart.

“I believe, my Lady,” said Ari softly, “that we must needs find you a dragonet of your own. I should not like to find you trying to win my Kashet away from me. And I—I would like to show you what the world looks like from above. It is strange. There are no borders, you see—”

Kiron found himself smiling—then grinning—and had to swallow to keep from whooping aloud, as Nofret leaned her head on Ari’s shoulder. “I should like that, Ari. And please call me Nofret. There are no ladies here.”

With a start, Kiron realized that his fingers had somehow gotten entwined with Aket-ten’s. “I think we should give them some privacy, don’t you?” he whispered, hoping she could not hear how his heart pounded.

“That might be a good idea,” she whispered back with a grin. “And you know, we might want to go see if there are dragon nesting places around here. It’s going to be a while before Sanctuary can do anything about the Magi and the war. And we’re going to need more dragon riders when we do.”

“We certainly will,” he replied, warmly, basking in their shared dream. Perhaps he was no Winged One, but the vision was clear to both of them. “We certainly will.”