Elizabeth Kerner - Redeeming the Lost

Kedra bowed, his eyes alight with amusement. "Are you of the kindred of Lady Lanen?" he asked. 'Tour words remind me of hers. Very well." He carefully cut the lump of khaadish in half and dropped it in Will's outstretched hand.

'That's more like it," said Will.

"And now, Master Willem, will you trust me to bear you?" asked Kedra. "I have flown thus before, carrying one of you Gedri."

"Aye, and you managed well enough then," said Rella, her voice light. "You never dropped me once."

"Mistress Rella!" cried Kedra, bowing to her. "It gives me joy to see you."

"Same here, my lad. Welcome. You can trust him, I reckon, Will."

Kedra hissed his amusement. "I thank you for the recommendation. Come, Master Will. Shall we go swiftly? Be assured, I know how to counterbalance with a weight in my hands—and my young son is very, very hungry."

I couldn't help it. I knew it was rude, but I hesitated. No matter what Rella said those claws were bloody huge. This one wasn't nearly the size of Shikrar, thank the Lady, but it was still immense. And it—he—wanted to carry me in those—Hells, it would be like travelling in a cage of swords.

Hmmm. It had carved gold like butter with a single claw.

A cage of sharp swords, wielded by a giant.

Kedra didn't rush me, though; he just watched and waited. I had come to like his father, Shikrar, over the few days I had known him. For all his overwhelming size and power, I was beginning to see in Shikrar simply another soul. Different, having lived a different life in a very different body, but for all that there were similarities. He had destroyed the Raksha that attacked us up on the High Field in the hills, as we would have if we had had the power; he treated all of us poor weak humans with respect, when clearly he had no need to do so; and it was obvious that he was worried sick about his friend Varien, and about Lanen.

Besides, I had raised my dragon-daughter Salera from her earliest youth, when I found her dam dying in the woods and she so lost and alone. I had fed her and raised her until she had grown to her full stature and left me, but I knew her and loved her as she did me. She trusted Shikrar absolutely. Surely I could trust his son?

And the idea of flying—ah, now. All those dreams of soaring made real. That was temptation.

I swallowed my fear. "Very well, Master Kedra. I'd be pleased to come with you and show you the way."

Kedra nodded, and it looked very like approval. "It is well. Come apart with me, then, and tell me where this farm lies."

"Right now? I mean—I—don't you need to recover a bit first?" I asked nervously. For now it was come to the point, my palms were moist with sweat.

'The need of my son for food is greater than my own need to rest, though I thank you," said Kedra. I wondered if that was amusement I heard in his voice. "Come, let us go a little apart. I will need room to take to the sky. And perhaps I should warn you, it may be a little violent at first."

"Aye, well, birds always seem to have to flap harder when they're taking off, I suppose it makes sense," I said, only reahsing that that might come across as an insult after I'd said it—but no, it was much, much worse than an insult. He was curious.

"Flap?" asked Kedra. "What means 'flap'? I do not know the word."

"It means to—to—you know, move your wings fast," I sputtered, gesturing uselessly, trying to avoid what I knew was coming, but Kedra was none the wiser. I sighed. "Like this," I said, and I swear to you, there in front of all those noble people and ancient dragons I started flapping my arms, as you do with childer, pretending to be a bird.

Great peals of laughter rang out from away behind me, and I swear that wretch Aral's was the loudest, but Kedra gave a great hiss and nodded. Thank the Lady I'd learned that hissing is the way dragons laugh or I'd have run a league. Hells take it, his teeth were huge.

"It is a good word. Yes. I shall have to flap harder to leave the ground," said Kedra. "Shall we go?"

"Aye," I said. The sniggers coming from the direction of my friends stiffened my backbone as we walked a bit apart from the rest and I pointed out the direction Timeth's farm lay in and tried to describe the way there. The memory of looking like an idiot helped me steel myself to step on to the palm of Kedra's hand. His other came around to protect me, and with a sudden leap and a series of wrenching jerks we were in the air.

Blessed Lady aid me, I'm for it now, I thought as I fought to keep my stomach under control. I'm going to have to come back with him, too.

I went to visit her, the day before it shattered. It would be my last chance. I wanted to gloat.

It wasn't as if I had known her. Hells, I only met her the autumn before, as a grown woman, and I only had the word of Berys's demon informers that she was my child. As far as I was concerned, she was the price to be paid to end my pain and no more.

Don't ask me why I went down there. Hells knew she'd caused me enough trouble. I think I was just—curious. I expected to find her proud independence laid low by helplessness, and I was looking forward to seeing that. However, as I am not a fool, I took with me one of the large armed guards that Berys had infested the place with. In case she made trouble. I had just enough experience of my daughter to know that she might well try something stupid.

We were, after all, still in the College of Mages at Verfaren, where Berys was the respected Archimage. He did not wish to reveal himself until all was prepared, so he kept Lanen in bespelled silence that she might not cry out and alert some passerby, or use Farspeech to call for aid from the damned dragon that was somewhere up in the hills a few miles away. I persuaded Berys to change the nature of her silence at midday, that I might speak with her in private. For that brief hour her voice would work as normal within her cell, but nothing she said in Farspeech could get beyond the walls. He didn't like doing it, but he owed me that much.

I even took her food and drink. Berys didn't want me to do that, either. He was still nursing a grudge and a sore throat from when she tried to strangle him, but I finally convinced him I needed her alive and healthy to pay off the demons later that night. The College cook was most generous when I requested a tray of hot food to take away to my chambers. The woman seemed pleased that I was finally hungry. I hadn't been hungry for months. I think I had some idea of a last meal for a condemned prisoner.

I remembered just in time to wear the amulet that Berys gave me to ward off the Rikti He had set to attack anyone who opened the door. The guard took up his station just outside. I left the door a little ajar, in case I needed him: out on the Dragon Isle she had knocked me unconscious with one blow. I didn't care to risk that j again.

The cell was small and simple, originally meant for solitary study. Moving the locks from the inside of the cell to the outside had been all that was required to make a serviceable dungeon. Thick stone walls in good order, a tiny window for light and air, a heavy old wooden door bound with iron. It was enough.

She was asleep. Berys's spell was set to change only when I en- I tered her cell, so she never heard the door being unlocked. I made no sound. The scent of the food must have roused her, or the change in light—in any case, she rose swiftly to her feet, and almost as swiftly staggered back.

I had forgotten until the moment I saw her astonishment that the last she had seen of me was when I was out of my mind. Helpless, in fact. Perhaps there was some symmetry there.

She stood and stared at me, openmouthed, as I put the tray down on the desk where she had been sleeping.