Robin Hobb - The Dragon Keeper

“Hunting where?” Rapskal persisted.

“In the forest. Go away.”

“It’s a big forest.” Rapskal didn’t seem to have the sense not to annoy the blue dragon. Alise felt the dragon flex and knew her claws were digging into the wet mud. She distracted her. “Loose scale right here by the corner of your eye. Don’t blink while I lift it away.” To her surprise, Skymaw obeyed. Alise held it up on the tip of her finger, marvelling at it. It was like both a fish scale and a feather. There were lines on in, possibly indicating how it had grown, but at the edge of it, it feathered into fine tendrils. It was a deep deep blue, deeper than the best sapphire she had ever seen. She leaned forward, looking at the place it had come from, suddenly seeing how the feathered edges interlocked into a smooth surface with the following scales. “This is incredible,” she breathed in awe. “Sedric, can you draw this for me?”

“I’d love to!” he replied with enthusiasm. She was startled to find that he’d set down his desk and come to stand at her shoulder. “But, to do it justice, I’d want a steady surface, a bright lamp and my coloured inks. I have all that back on the Tarman . Let me put it in a safe place.”

He had reached out his hand for it when Skymaw’s head suddenly lifted. Her tongue, long and forked just like a lizard’s, was of a size commensurate with her body, and when it flicked out, it was like having a large, fleshy whip crack in the air right between her and Sedric. It happened so swiftly that suddenly the scale was gone, lifted deftly away from Alise’s fingertip with an accuracy that astonished her.

“No!” cried Sedric, aghast.

“What is a part of me is mine.” The dragon spoke sternly.

“Oh, Skymaw,” Alise cried sorrowfully. “We only wanted to draw it. Part of the knowledge that I seek to collect is knowledge of your physical body. You let Sedric draw your claw yesterday.” She sighed. “I would have loved to have an accurate, to size drawing of a scale.”

“Scale?” Rapskal said. She was a bit surprised to find he was still standing there. “Maybe I have one… here.” He’d bent down to brush at the rough fabric of his trousers. When he straightened up, he was offering her a gleaming ruby. It was substantially larger than Skymaw’s blue eye-scale, the size of a large rose petal, but no rose had ever gleamed so scarlet. She caught her breath at the sight of it. When she took in her hand the treasure so casually offered, she was surprised at the heft of it. It was less than a small coin’s weight, but that was surprising to her. The growth rings and the feathering were much more obvious than on Skymaw’s scale.

“It fell off Heeby when I was riding her today during her flying practice. I guess my knee rubbed it off, but she said it didn’t hurt.”

“Riding her? You were on a dragon’s back?” She was astounded.

“That’s disgusting!” Skymaw was outraged. She drew her head up high and for an instant Alise feared she would strike one of them. She saw Sedric reflexively wince away.

Rapskal was unfazed. “Heeby doesn’t mind. She’s going to fly pretty soon, and she doesn’t want to leave me behind. We practise every night, and I sort of watch out for rocks and logs so she can concentrate on running and flapping.”

“You are both idiots. Dragons do not run as a prelude to flying, and we do not allow anyone to ride us. It’s humiliating even to think that she does. She’s a disgrace to all of us. You are a moron and she is a half-witted lizard!”

“What did she say?” Sedric demanded.

Rapskal knotted his fists and stepped up to the dragon. “You take that back! You can’t talk about Heeby that way! She’s beautiful and smart, and she’s going to fly. Because she’s brave enough to try and smart enough to know I’m helping her because I love her.”

“What is going on?” Sedric demanded in a shaky voice.

“Skymaw! Please! Restrain your wrath, beautiful queen! He is only a foolish boy, not even worthy of your anger!” Alise was surprised at how calm her own voice sounded as she deliberately stepped between the incensed dragon and her target. She had closed her fist around the precious scale and as she spoke, she stuffed it into her bag without looking. She kept her eyes on the dragon. Skymaw’s eyes blazed scarlet and copper like a seething kettle of molten ore. Her immense head wove back and forth over them, reminding her of a snake deciding whether or not to strike. How could she have forgotten how huge an animal Skymaw was? One snap of her jaws would sever the boy in two. She spoke over her shoulder to him. “Rapskal. You should leave now. Thymara isn’t here. Thank you for loaning me the scale. I will be certain that it is returned to Heeby after Sedric has finished sketching it.”

“But…” Sedric began.

She pushed her words past him, speaking with all the authority of an older sister. “Rapskal. Go now! If I see Thymara, I’ll tell her you are looking for her. For now, do not bother the lovely, the gracious, the most powerful and awesome Skymaw.”

Perhaps the severity of her tone finally made him realize the danger he was in. “I’ll go,” he said sullenly. He turned on his heel and strode away. But at a safe distance he stopped and flung back at Skymaw, “Heeby is going to fly a long time before you ever get your big blue powerful and gracious arse off the ground, Skymaw! She’ll be a real dragon long before you are, queen stick-up-your-bum!” Then he turned and wisely ran as Skymaw hissed a furious but venomless mist at him.

Somehow, Greft had moved closer to her. He stared at her and she found herself meeting his gaze. There were blue Rain-Wilds lights behind his eyes, just like her own. Something changed in his smile and in his eyes as he said in a quieter voice, “I’d like to help you, Thymara.”

“Oh, I’ll just ask Tats. But thank you for offering.” She turned hastily away from him, uncomfortable with her refusal but certain that accepting his offer would make her even more uncomfortable. She didn’t want to be out here alone with him.

He refused her dismissal of him. “It will make no difference to you or your dragon who helps you,” he pointed out, his voice hardening as he spoke to her back. “I’m here, right now. I’m stronger than Tats. Together, we can get this meat back to the dragons much more swiftly than if you go there, get him, come back here and then start hauling it. It only makes sense that two hunters such as ourselves should help one another. Why do you prefer him to me?”

She didn’t have to answer him. She didn’t want to answer him but the words came out anyway. “Tats and I have been friends for a long time. He used to work for my father sometimes.”

“I see. You feel loyalty to him based on a shared past.” A lecturing note had come into his voice. She didn’t like his smile. It seemed cruel somehow. She didn’t like how he assumed he had the right to talk to her in such a tone, to keep her standing here when she wanted to leave. “You and he had a bond in the past. And you think that bond still binds you. But from what I’ve seen going on, he doesn’t feel the same. This life you are entering into now is not your past, and is nothing like your past. You are moving toward your future, Thymara. Sometimes I think you don’t comprehend your own freedom now.”

He moved a few steps closer to her. “You can break free of everything you’ve always taken for granted. You can put aside rules that bound you and kept you from thinking for yourself, rules that kept you from doing what you wanted, rules that actually kept you from doing what was best for yourself. Tats was someone your father chose, Thymara. I’m sure he’s a very nice fellow in his own way, but he’s not one of us and never will be. It was kind of your father to take him on and give him work after his criminal mother abandoned him. It probably kept him from becoming a thief himself. But all of that is in the past, Thymara. I am sure your father is a good man. But you are under no obligation to continue his kindness to Tats. Surely your family has already done enough for him? If he cannot take care of himself by now, then your putting more effort into him is a waste of your time. You’ve left your old life behind, Thymara, with your father’s blessing.”