establishment, to live with my wife and dragonets, mingle with my friends and patrons. Is she a maiden still, or have you given her color back by deceit? Should she marry Blessed Frelt?”
“She should certainly not marry any such blackguard who would do such a thing,” Amer said, slapping the beef down hard and turning to Penn as if he were still five years old. “Deceit indeed. She’s a maiden for sure, the same as if that dragon, who would better be called damned than blessed, had never crowded against her. Two minutes in the passage! It takes more than that to turn a maiden’s scales for good, if she doesn’t want them to be turned. I gave her some tea to help her body calm itself, the same as if I gave her sallow-bark for a fever, that’s all, no tricks, no deceits, she’s not been awakened to him. She’ll make some good dragon a true mate one day, you need have no fear.”
Penn was not entirely convinced by this, but he was nevertheless extremely comforted. He knew he had asked the name of the herb Selendra had taken, and that Amer had carefully not given it. Still he felt reluctant to inquire further. This assurance seemed enough. He remembered his wife, Felin, how her gold scales had blushed pink all at once when she accepted his proposal and his embrace. He wanted that for his sisters and no counterfeit. But neither did he want to force Selendra to marry a dragon they all despised. He had been trying all day to persuade himself that Frelt was not such a bad dragon, but the memory of his judgment in the undercave the day before had kept coming back to remind him that Frelt was not the kind of dragon he would seek as a brother-in-law. Now he could forget that, and forget too Avan’s shocking suggestion, and put his mind at rest.
“Very well. Thank you, Amer,” he said.
“One more thing,” the old nanny said. “I spoke to ’Spec Sel but she won’t have had time to say anything to you. I’d like to come with her to Benandi. I’ll work hard and help your wife with the dragonets, or do whatever work you ask of me. I really want to stay near ’Spec Selendra now, in case she needs me at all, you know.And besides you were always my favorite when you were one of my young ones.” She sank slowly down onto her back legs, her wings bound back, and her arms extended towards him. “Please, Blessed Penn. Let me stay with the Agornins.”
Penn had by no means intended taking Amer with him. He knew Felin, his wife, would be astonished. He wasn’t sure whether they could entirely afford another servant. But he also knew that he couldn’t possibly refuse. The combination of the appeal with the hidden threat of what might happen to Selendra without Amer nearby to help was too much for him. He raised the old dragon back to her feet. “Of course we will take you with us,” he said.
4
Leaving Agornin
12. PENN’S PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE
A mong our great families such as the Telsties and the Benandis there is a tendency for dragons to act as if the world will go about its accustomed course forever, improving a little in each generation as best such improvement can be accomplished—the addition of a farm to an estate here, some marshland drained there, perhaps a new method of running beeves so that ten can graze where only eight grazed before. Change, to these dragons, is something slow and steady as the erosion of mountains. Proposals for improvement are examined very carefully, and a lord could say that this matter of improved grazing methods might be something his grandson could profitably begin—and this when the lord is himself scarcely married. Yet somehow, despite the great demesnes these families hold, and the great influence they control in the Assemblies, progress in a different sense has swooped down on them at the speed of wings and not the slow considered creeping steps they would prefer.
Bon Agornin’s gold, not that which he had passed on to his three younger children, but that which
“She should certainly not marry any such blackguard who would do such a thing,” Amer said, slapping the beef down hard and turning to Penn as if he were still five years old. “Deceit indeed. She’s a maiden for sure, the same as if that dragon, who would better be called damned than blessed, had never crowded against her. Two minutes in the passage! It takes more than that to turn a maiden’s scales for good, if she doesn’t want them to be turned. I gave her some tea to help her body calm itself, the same as if I gave her sallow-bark for a fever, that’s all, no tricks, no deceits, she’s not been awakened to him. She’ll make some good dragon a true mate one day, you need have no fear.”
Penn was not entirely convinced by this, but he was nevertheless extremely comforted. He knew he had asked the name of the herb Selendra had taken, and that Amer had carefully not given it. Still he felt reluctant to inquire further. This assurance seemed enough. He remembered his wife, Felin, how her gold scales had blushed pink all at once when she accepted his proposal and his embrace. He wanted that for his sisters and no counterfeit. But neither did he want to force Selendra to marry a dragon they all despised. He had been trying all day to persuade himself that Frelt was not such a bad dragon, but the memory of his judgment in the undercave the day before had kept coming back to remind him that Frelt was not the kind of dragon he would seek as a brother-in-law. Now he could forget that, and forget too Avan’s shocking suggestion, and put his mind at rest.
“Very well. Thank you, Amer,” he said.
“One more thing,” the old nanny said. “I spoke to ’Spec Sel but she won’t have had time to say anything to you. I’d like to come with her to Benandi. I’ll work hard and help your wife with the dragonets, or do whatever work you ask of me. I really want to stay near ’Spec Selendra now, in case she needs me at all, you know.And besides you were always my favorite when you were one of my young ones.” She sank slowly down onto her back legs, her wings bound back, and her arms extended towards him. “Please, Blessed Penn. Let me stay with the Agornins.”
Penn had by no means intended taking Amer with him. He knew Felin, his wife, would be astonished. He wasn’t sure whether they could entirely afford another servant. But he also knew that he couldn’t possibly refuse. The combination of the appeal with the hidden threat of what might happen to Selendra without Amer nearby to help was too much for him. He raised the old dragon back to her feet. “Of course we will take you with us,” he said.
4
Leaving Agornin
12. PENN’S PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE
A mong our great families such as the Telsties and the Benandis there is a tendency for dragons to act as if the world will go about its accustomed course forever, improving a little in each generation as best such improvement can be accomplished—the addition of a farm to an estate here, some marshland drained there, perhaps a new method of running beeves so that ten can graze where only eight grazed before. Change, to these dragons, is something slow and steady as the erosion of mountains. Proposals for improvement are examined very carefully, and a lord could say that this matter of improved grazing methods might be something his grandson could profitably begin—and this when the lord is himself scarcely married. Yet somehow, despite the great demesnes these families hold, and the great influence they control in the Assemblies, progress in a different sense has swooped down on them at the speed of wings and not the slow considered creeping steps they would prefer.
Bon Agornin’s gold, not that which he had passed on to his three younger children, but that which
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