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GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS

“I’m hungry.” Toopka picked up the parcel she had thrown down when she ran for help. She stooped for another. “Are we going to eat all this stuff we got, or just stand around in the street?” Her voice quivered. Tucking the second package under her arm, she reached for another. “I want to play with the little dragons. I want Dar to play music and Librettowit to tell stories. I want to eat a whole lot and have fun and go to bed.”

Bardon put his sword away and scooped Toopka into his arms. The packages tumbled to the ground as she threw her arms around the lehman’s neck, burying her head in his shoulder.

“I’m not big and strong. I’m not brave. Can we please eat dinner?”

Bardon patted her back. “Yes, we can. I think that is a good idea for all of us.”

After the meal and the singing and storytelling, Kale tucked Toopka into the bed they would share. The little doneel curled up with the minor dragons. Gymn snuggled next to her neck. Metta nestled on the pillow, crooning into her ear. Dibl played at the foot of the wide bed, doing somersaults and backflips. Kale knew he would eventually settle down. She kissed Toopka and whispered, “Sweet dreams,” then went to help Bardon clean up the kitchen.

“You were nice to Toopka tonight,” Kale said as she put platters away.

“You told me what to do.”

“I did not.”

“Oh yes, you did. I just followed your prodding.”

“I don’t remember any such thing. I do remember thinking she was scared and needed comforting.”

“And so I picked her up.”

She sat down in a chair by the table. “Bardon, we’ve got to talk about this. What passes between you and me goes beyond mindspeaking.”

Bardon sat down opposite her. He laced his fingers together and rested his hands on the tabletop. His serene expression denied the feelings she felt swirling within him.

“I agree.” He spoke slowly, deliberately. “And I must tell you something else I’ve discovered.” He paused and stared at his hands.

She resisted the urge to delve into his thoughts and pull the next sentence out of him. As she blocked the temptation to freely gather information from his mind, she felt an ebbing of the torrent of his emotions.

He stretched his two index fingers out straight so they pointed across the table at her, but she doubted he was conscious of the little gesture.

I’m going to lose all patience and shake him.

A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “Sorry, Kale. I’ve irritated you again.” He heaved a big sigh. “I’ve discovered that I cannot mindspeak if you’re not in the vicinity. Whatever ability I have seems to be linked to yours.”

“That is odd.” She drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “I wonder if Librettowit has any knowledge of what’s going on between us. His books cover almost every aspect of life. I mean, I wonder if there’s a record of it happening before.”

“We could ask him. But his books are in the castle in The Bogs.”

“So we must practice, or explore, this ability on our own.”

“Gain control,” insisted Bardon. “But let’s still ask Librettowit and Dar for any wisdom they can give us.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “I think we can learn to manage the ability, given enough time.”

“And we should have some time here. Dar says we will gather information about anything unusual happening in the countryside.”

She shook her head. “Why can’t we just be out in the countryside where things are happening? Why sit in this dismal city when we could be out tracking that meech?”

“Prushing is the best place to collect tales and gossip since much trade comes through here. We can pinpoint the other meech’s whereabouts by watching for a pattern.”

I don’t like it. I’d rather be doing something.

“We have plenty to do. We aren’t nearly ready to proceed. We must prepare.”

You sound like Librettowit.

“Not such a bad thing.”

She smiled at the lehman across the table. They had entered into a conversation by mindspeaking naturally. If Bardon weren’t such a pain in other ways, she could enjoy him. She clasped her hands together, trying to keep her nervous fingers still. “What did you think of Regidor’s fighting skill?”

“Spectacular.”

She nodded. “Surprising.” She moved a basket of fruit from the side of the table to the center. She picked up a parnot, turned it over in her hands, and then returned it to the basket. “I think it upset him. He was quiet all evening.”

“Maybe that monk business is rubbing off on him.” Bardon grinned at her, and she noticed a lock of dark hair had fallen forward, out of place.

She looked away. “When are we going to work on fine-tuning our mindspeaking abilities?”

“Tomorrow.”


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The next day, Dar took on the persona of the butler and hired servants to come in the afternoon and work through the evening.

The band of comrades soon fell into a routine. In the mornings, Dar, Bardon, Kale, and Regidor sparred in the courtyard, perfecting their skills and learning from one another. When Dar suggested the regimen, Kale offered no resistance. Still smarting from Bardon’s assessment of her attitude, she determined to show him she had discipline.

Regidor continued to mature at a phenomenal rate. He grew to a foot taller than Bardon and soon outmatched both Dar and the lehman in hand-to-hand combat.

In the afternoon, the servants roamed through the house doing their chores. Librettowit left the house with Dar, and they sought information from the upper class as well as the merchants and academicians. Librettowit used his letters of introduction and his ability to tell a good story to garner social invitations. Dar visited the taverns where the upper echelon of servants took their afternoon break.

After noonmeal, Regidor retired to his quarters along with the minor dragons. The hired help never caught a glimpse of the “monk” during his meditations each afternoon.

Kale and Toopka worked alongside the servants and gathered news. Bardon talked to the maids and occasionally helped with heavy lifting, but as the sheridan he did no housework. Kale thought again how oddly females behaved around Bardon. And it wasn’t just the young, giggly maids. The older housekeeper and the cook blushed when Bardon spoke to them.

Also, during the long afternoons, Bardon and Kale sequestered themselves in Regidor’s chambers and practiced mindspeaking. Kale demonstrated for Bardon the things that Leetu Bends had shown her. The more she remembered and practiced these exercises, the more her own proficiency grew.

Regidor grew enthusiastic about their endeavors and joined them. He constantly thought of new twists for the old techniques. Some of them were outrageous, and if Dibl were in the room, the results were pushed to absurdity. The meech dragon “confused” Kale’s tongue so that anytime she tried to say something, the only thing that came out of her mouth was, “I’m a rapid rabbit.” She convinced Bardon his pants were soaking wet through a series of mental pictures that made him think he had spilled a jug of water. He would laugh at their antics, but the serious lehman never instigated any mischief.

Kale insisted they also practice the proper etiquette for mindspeaking. Regidor often had trouble bending his own formidable will to Wulder’s principles. He challenged the need to respect another person’s private thoughts.

“Article ninety-three,” said Bardon with authority. “‘Preserve dignity by honoring privacy.’”

The three became very adept with their mindspeaking skills, although Bardon’s talent lay dormant anytime he and Kale were separated. Bardon and Kale could meld their minds and work as one, or totally ignore each other at will. She found it much more comfortable than her earlier experiences of being flooded with a maelstrom of his emotions.

In the evening, the companions came together to compile bits and pieces of the information they had acquired. Librettowit had a map on which he recorded their findings.

“Trese is definitely losing the dragons’ cooperation.” The librarian pointed to the center of Trese, near Bartal Springs Lake. “The latest reported incident was at Bealour, a small village on the eastern shore of the lake. Two dragons destroyed crops and disappeared from the area. Five additional dragons flew off to the north and never returned.”

Dar pointed out the last three areas of discontent. “The pattern indicates that someone is moving from place to place. See how they’ve followed this trade road?”

“Shouldn’t that tell us where the meech dragon is?” asked Kale.

“It should, but for one puzzling thing,” said Dar. “No one has reported seeing the meech dragon. And a meech dragon is pretty hard to overlook.”

“So he’s traveling much as I am,” said Regidor. “He’s in disguise.”

“And doing a good job of it,” said Librettowit. “Most people would remember you as the monk shrouded from head to toe in your clerical robes. This meech is disguised so that even his disguise is unremarkable.”

Toopka squirmed on her chair. “Can we go and look for ourselves?”

“No,” said Dar. “First we must gather information from the port. We haven’t yet extracted what news they might have.”

“Humph,” said Librettowit. “The Port of Prushing is dangerous with many unsavory characters lurking about.”

“Exactly!” said Dar with a wide grin.