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AN OLD FRIEND

The figure shifted, striding several steps along the top of the cliff.

Bardon smiled and lowered his sword. “Regidor!”

The meech dragon stepped off his perch, dropped ten feet, and landed lightly beside the squire. His tail, glistening, green scalelike skin with a dark ridge down the center, swooped out from under the long cape, then back under. With one forefoot on the hilt of his sword and the other a fist against his waist, he smiled his long, flashy grin. Two rows of gleaming, pointed teeth showed between thin lips. His hairless jaw line extended from a squarish chin with a deep dimple in the center to the almost indistinguishable ears on the sides of his head. Even with the oddness of his appearance, Regidor was handsome.

Bardon considered the seven-foot meech dragon. “You’ve matured a great deal since last we met, my friend.”

Regidor agreed with a downward jerk of his head. “Almost too fast. It was more fun chasing Toopka around and trying to get Librettowit to let me stay up late to read.”

Bardon gave a slight nod. Sounds like a typical, though short, childhood. I have no recollection of the years before I entered The Hall. Wonder if my childhood included chasing friends and reading at night.

This is awkward. What do I say next?

His comrades inched closer to him and the odd visitor. They still had their weapons drawn and looked ready to pounce should Regidor make a threatening move.

Bardon nodded to Captain Anton. “This theatrical fellow is a friend, Wizard Regidor of The Bogs.”

The guard relaxed on their leader’s signal but continued to watch the meech dragon, now out of curiosity.

On the crest of the hill, Ahnek whispered earnestly to Sittiponder. A few feet away, Granny Kye stood beside N’Rae, who had gotten up and was dusting off her clothing. It seemed everyone but the minneken had gathered at the gully.

“So.” Bardon shifted on his feet as he sheathed his sword. “How’d you get here?”

“Sir Dar sent a message, and I came. I wasn’t far. In Dael, in fact.”

What in the world would he be doing in the tumanhofer underground capital city? The universities! I bet he was studying.

“Yes, I was.”

Now that’s not very polite.

Regidor grinned. Bardon responded with a laugh, and the two young friends embraced, pounding each other on their backs. Regidor was more than a foot taller than the squire.

“You overgrown lizard,” exclaimed Bardon. “What have you been up to? And I have a hundred questions to ask you about those in the bog. Did you finish your apprenticeship? Are you a wizard?”

“I am,” said Regidor. “Best pupil Fenworth has ever trained.”

“I bet!”

“Well, considering Fen slept through most of my instruction and Cam Ayronn and Librettowit taught me most of what I know, it is an amazing feat. Of course, the venerable Wizard Fenworth is capable of any task.”

A sudden thought struck Bardon as odd. Greer had not told him of the arrival of another major dragon. “Regidor, how did you get here?”

“Sir Dar—”

“No, no. Physically, how did you get here?”

“I floated in on a stiff breeze.”

Bardon looked at his friend’s serious face for a moment. The expression was almost too serious, as if he were trying to hide an emotion.

No, he couldn’t have. But… “You flew?”

Regidor’s green eyes gleamed, and he silently nodded.

The squire gasped. “I didn’t know it was possible.”

“There is very little known about the meech, including whether or not they fly. I figured I had the wings, so I would give it a try.”

“And?”

“And I fell off successively higher platforms until I eventually got the coordination down right.”

“Ouch!” Bardon laughed. “Are you joining our quest?”

“Yes.”

“Then let me introduce you to our party.”

The riders stepped aside so Bardon could lead Regidor to Granny Kye and N’Rae.

“Granny Kye,” said the squire in his most formal tones, “may I present Regidor.”

The meech dragon bowed, and the emerlindian granny curtsied. He took her hand and kissed it. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Granny Kye. I admire the wisdom of your people.”

“Oh w-well,” Granny Kye stuttered, “you see…well, I kind of missed out…on the wisdom. Took my mother forever just to teach me to tie my shoes.”

“That would seem to be a problem of dexterity, not discernment.”

Granny Kye took back her hand and propped her chin on it. “Yes, I see your point, but I’m not sure they would.” She shook her head. “No, that doesn’t make sense at all. Now my fingers are much more clever than I am. I paint, you see.”

Regidor nodded his long head solemnly. “Yes, painting requires dexterity.”

“Bardon, you will unravel this knot for me at a later time, I trust.”

Oh yes.

“And this is her granddaughter, N’Rae.” Bardon gestured toward the pale emerlindian. “It is her father we seek to rescue.”

Regidor bowed. N’Rae curtsied.

“Charmed,” said the meech dragon.

The emerlindian girl giggled.

“A beauty.”

Don’t.

“Don’t what?”

Dally.

“Why not?”

She innocently captures men’s hearts and then doesn’t know what to do with them.

Bardon cleared his throat. “I’ll introduce you to the guard Sir Dar sent to accompany us. Captain Anton will want his riders to get back to their duties.”

The captain and his riders were loath to return to camp. None of them had met a meech dragon or knew anyone who had. But their military training won out, so they took their curiosity and returned to camp.

Bardon moved to the next member of their questing party.

“Bromptotterpindosset, this is Regidor.” He turned to the meech. “Regidor, our mapmaker friend reads and speaks meech.”

Regidor’s eyes grew wide. “A rare accomplishment. I do not speak the language of my heritage. I would be honored if you would instruct me.”

“Gladly.” The tumanhofer beamed with pleasure at such a prospect.

“May I ask, where did you learn meech?”

“On the vast continent of Punipmats, there is a thriving colony of meech in a hard-to-reach area surrounded by tropical forest.”

The two would have continued their discussion, but Bardon interrupted.

“We have four more members of our party.” He took Regidor’s elbow and turned him to face the marione.

“Holt Hoddack is…a riding-animal expert.”

As the two exchanged conventional greetings, Regidor snickered in Bardon’s thoughts. “This will be an interesting story.”

Later.

“One of N’Rae’s smitten beaus?”

Later.

“And these two youngsters are Sittiponder and Ahnek.”

Regidor shook hands with both lads.

Overawed, the boys merely bobbed their heads in response to the meech dragon’s deep-throated, “Hello.”

“I believe you said four more members, Squire.” Regidor looked around. “I see no other.”

“Jue Seeno,” squeaked Ahnek.

“Jue Seeno?”

Both lads nodded vigorously.

“Come see,” said Ahnek. He took the shorter tumanhofer’s arm and turned him toward the camp.

“He means come meet her,” said Sittiponder over his shoulder. Aside to his friend, he whispered, “Be polite. You don’t show somebody to somebody as if one somebody was an interesting cat or dog you happen to have in the barn.”

“What are you talking about? We don’t have a barn. She’s in a basket.” Ahnek frowned at his friend as they walked.

Bardon and Regidor exchanged glances, each smiling over the boys’ argument. Bardon shrugged, and they followed the two lads.

“You have the manners of a street urchin,” Sittiponder grumbled.

“I am a street urchin.”

“Not anymore!” He shook Ahnek’s hold off his arm and trudged forward, using his walking stick. “You are a member of a questing party charged by Paladin himself to rescue noble knights from an evil curse.”

“Now you sound as if you’re telling one of your grand stories again.” Ahnek stomped alongside Sittiponder. “And I learned to eat with my mouth shut like you wanted. That’s manners.”

“You still slip up.”

“How do you know?”

They stopped and faced each other, oblivious to the grown men who stopped as well.

“I can hear you,” shouted Sittiponder. “I’m not deaf, you know.”

“It might be easier if you was.”

“If you were, not was. And you don’t mean that.”

“No, I don’t.” Ahnek stared at his friend’s mulish expression for a moment. He reached out and punched Sittiponder’s skinny arm. “Let’s go tell Mistress Seeno a meech dragon is coming. Bet she doesn’t believe he’s real.”

“Bet he won’t believe she’s real.”

The boys hooted with laughter, grabbed each other by the arms, and ran ahead.

Regidor turned with a question in his eye, accentuated by one lifted eyebrow. Or rather, the skin that would have sported an eyebrow if the meech had any hair.

“I won’t believe this Jue Seeno is real?”

“She’s a minneken.”

“Aha!” Regidor contemplated this. “He’s correct. How refreshing that there should be someone else on this quest who is the personification of myth. I wish to meet such an oddity.”

Bardon laughed as he quickened his pace to keep up with his friend’s long stride.