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THE COMPANY ASSEMBLES

The guests did not arrive that evening, which meant the cakes could not be eaten. Fenworth finally relented and cut one cake into nine small pieces. The eighth piece was shared by Metta and Gymn. The ninth piece was given to a big blackbird named Thorpendipity, who landed on the windowsill when Fenworth whistled.

Toopka went to bed grumbling over the cakes going stale and woke up with a bad stomachache. A second cake had disappeared during the night, with only a few crumbs left to testify to its former existence. Those crumbs dotted Toopka’s bed covers.

The only ones awake to witness the little doneel’s suffering were Dar, Kale, and the minor dragons. Dar shook his head and put a small copper teakettle on the old stove.

“We’ll scold you,” Kale said, “after you’re well enough to listen. I’ve got something Granny Noon gave me. It’ll make you feel better.”

“I won’t ever eat a whole cake again,” promised Toopka. “I won’t ever eat anything again.”

Gymn curled up on Toopka’s shoulder while Kale fetched the moonbeam cape and spread it out on the kitchen table. She reached into a hollow and handed a packet of dried, pink leaves to Dar to brew.

“Something is wrong,” she muttered, running a hand over the front pockets. Six of them held unhatched dragon eggs.

Toopka groaned loudly. Kale ignored her and took out the eggs, one by one, placing them carefully on the inside folds of the cape. The sight of the eggs struck awe in Kale’s heart. Paladin had charged her to tend the unborn dragons and raise them once hatched. She’d even been called the Dragon Keeper. The responsibility seemed too enormous for a former slave girl.

The fourth pocket held a stone, not an egg. When Kale saw the irregular shape and dark gray color, she dropped the offending rock on the table and moved on to the last two pockets. In only a few seconds, Kale looked with dismay at the row of eggs. She had five dragon eggs and one smooth stone.

Toopka’s groaning subsided to a whimper.

Dar came to stand beside Kale, putting a comforting hand on her stiff arm. “Nothing can be stolen from a moonbeam cape. Did you move the egg?”

Kale shook her head slowly.

“Then the only way it could have been taken is if you allowed someone to ride within the cape, and that someone took the egg.”

Toopka’s noise ended abruptly.

Dar and Kale both turned to look at the forlorn figure huddled beneath a light blanket in her hammock.

Kale took a step toward the doneel child. The little girl’s ears perked upright on top of her furry head, and she dove beneath the covers.

“Toopka and I,” said Kale as she continued walking, Dar beside her, “went for a walk several days ago. It began to rain, and Toopka rode back under my cape.”

Dar put his hand on the blanket and tugged, but Toopka held fast from underneath.

“I’m sick,” she wailed.

Dar growled. “Because you got up in the middle of the night and stole a whole cake, it seems you are still a common street thief.”

“I didn’t steal the egg.” The muffled protest quivered.

“Then where is it?”

“I just wanted to see a baby dragon hatch. I didn’t mean any harm.”

Kale patted the trembling hump of blanket. “The egg has to quicken before it begins the hatching process.”

Toopka’s eyes appeared at the edge of the covering. They were big and full of wonder. “It quickened.”

Kale stifled a moan. Paladin had trusted her with the eggs. If this egg quickened under the warmth of Toopka’s body, who would the egg bond to? Kale could only imagine the kind of mischief Toopka and a young dragon could instigate.

Dreading the answer, Kale asked, “Who quickened the egg, Toopka?”

“You did.”

“Me?”

“Yes, it’s under your pillow.”

With a flutter of leathery wings, Gymn and Metta raced out of the room.

Toopka sniffed and ducked her head. “I thought you’d be mad at me if I held it until it quickened. I was right, wasn’t I? But you’re mad anyway, so I guess all that figuring out how to do it without getting into trouble didn’t work. I won’t bother figuring next time.”

“There better not be a next time,” warned Kale. “Why didn’t I feel the egg?”

“Because I put it under your pillow after you went to sleep and took it out before you woke up. Only last night, when I came back in here, I saw the cakes on the counter, and I was just going to have one piece, but it was so good.”

“And this morning,” said Dar with a shake of his finger, “you were too sick to retrieve the egg.”

The chittering of excited minor dragons interrupted Dar’s lecture. Gymn entered the room doing aerobatics accompanied by wild, shrill whistles. Metta followed more sedately. Her wings whooshed the air in a steady rhythm. Between her front legs she held the missing egg.

Kale stretched out a hand. Metta landed on her wrist and placed the egg in her upturned palm. For a moment the egg lay cool against her skin, then it began to warm. A slight tingle raced up Kale’s arm, and in her hand, the egg began a gentle thrum.

Metta scampered to Kale’s shoulder, singing a song of joy in her soft, cooing voice.

Kale smiled. Yes, the egg has quickened. And it already connects to me. I can feel its life.

She rummaged through a hollow in her cape and came up with the same red pouch Mistress Meiger had given her to carry the first dragon egg she’d found. She slipped the egg into the safety of the soft cloth and hung it around her neck by the leather thong. She tucked it under her blouse.

“Attention! Attention!” Wizard Fenworth’s voice boomed from behind his bedroom door. “Does no one around here pay attention to details? We could be surrounded by the enemy, overwhelmed by evil, blasted to smithereens by ravagers of utmost depravity. Attention to your surroundings, that’s what’s needed. We could be undone!”

Bardon, Regidor, and Librettowit barreled into the room from one of the corridors just as Fenworth’s door banged open.

A frisson of apprehension raised bumps on Kale’s arms and shivered her spine. She looked around the room at the faces of her companions. Bardon glared, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Librettowit looked annoyed. Regidor had a silly grin on his face. Dar scowled, and Toopka dove beneath the covers again.

A knock brought all eyes to the massive front door.

“See?” Fenworth whispered. “Didn’t I tell you?”

Bardon drew his sword and approached from one side of the room as Dar armed himself with two bejeweled daggers and came at the door from the other side.

Kale reached with her mind to discern who stood on the other side. She gave an exclamation of surprise. “It’s Leetu Bends and Lee Ark!”

Librettowit threw the old wizard a look of disgust.

Fenworth bristled, shaking his robes around him and clasping his beard. “I never said the enemy was here. I merely noted that no one was on guard. Our guests have arrived, and they very well could have been a troop of bisonbecks. Intentional attention to detail is essential in all quests. All quests at all times!” He raised his eyebrows and looked down his nose at the occupants of his common room. “Someone open the door.”

Librettowit stomped across the wood floor and threw open the door.

“Greetings,” he said and promptly stepped aside to allow the two soldiers of Paladin’s forces to come in.

Lee Ark entered the room with Leetu following. His brown uniform covered a short, bulky body typical of the marione race. His forthright stride proclaimed power of muscle and confidence in leadership.

Leetu’s slight feminine form was likewise clothed in the earth tones of Paladin’s army. Kale hoped she would have the chance for a long talk with the young woman who had guided her through the initial stages of her last quest. She counted Leetu as a real friend.

I’m glad you’re here. Kale spoke directly to Leetu’s mind.

Without an outward flicker of acknowledgment, the emerlindian answered. “Friend, we have another adventure ahead of us. Paladin issued a call for warriors and for you in particular.”

Kale nodded and carefully watched her comrades from the previous quest.

Both the officers were of the same height, yet Lee Ark embodied tension and a lethal force waiting to be unleashed. Leetu displayed grace and tranquility.

They answered Bardon’s salute with a tap of a fist to the chest, Lee Ark’s sharp and Leetu’s casual.

“Welcome to my castle.” Wizard Fenworth stepped forward and clasped both of Lee Ark’s arms at the elbows. Lee Ark grasped the wizard’s lean forearms.

“I bring urgent news,” he said.

Fenworth nodded. “Yes, yes. Urgent, deadly, insidious. The world is in peril, and we must rise against evil.” The old wizard released the general and patted him on the shoulder. “Tea and cake first, don’t you think?”