A Sending of Dragons Read Free Page B

“Here, big fellow,” he said aloud, adding a quick green-tinged visualization of the wort.
    Sssargon’s rough tongue snagged the plant from Jakkin’s hand, and his answer was the crisp snip-snap of wort being crunched between his teeth.
    Sssasha landed just as Sssargon began to eat, with neither fanfare nor commentary. She
stepped over his outstretched tail but folded her wings a second too soon, which made her cant to one side. She had to flip her outside wing open again in order to right herself.
    The red flicker of amusement that Sssargon sent through all their minds made Jakkin sputter. Akki broke into a cascade of giggles, but Sssasha was too even-tempered to mind. She was as sunny as the splash of gold across her nose, a slash of color that—along with her even disposition and placid ways—would have made her unfit either to fight in the pits as had her mother, Heart’s Blood, or to be considered for spaying and dwarfing as a
beauty,
a house pet. Jakkin realized, with a kind of dawning horror, that Sssasha would have been one of the early culls in the nurseries, where hatchlings were bred for only one of three destinies. The bonders said,
pit, pet, or stew.
Jakkin swallowed hastily at the thought of Sssasha in one of the stews, a green-suited steward standing over her, placing a stinger to her ear, a knife at her throat. He bit his lip, all laughter gone.
    â€œWhat pain?”
Sssasha’s question poked into his mind.
    â€œNo pain,” Jakkin said aloud, but his mind transferred a different thought.
    â€œ
Yes, pain,
” insisted Sssasha.
    â€œ
Old pain. Gone.
” Jakkin made his mind a careful blank. It was hard work, and he could feel himself starting to perspire.
    â€œ
Good,
” said Sssasha.
    â€œ
Yesssssss, good,
” Sssargon interrupted suddenly, exploding red bomb bursts in Jakkin’s head. “
Sssargon have great hunger.
”
    Akki, who had been following this silent exchange thoughtfully, soothed them all with a picture of a cool blue rain, holding it in mind long enough for Jakkin to go back into the cave for two more large handfuls of wort.
    Once in the cave, Jakkin was able to let his guard down for a minute, though he reminded himself that even in the cool darkness of the cave, behind walls of stone, he could not be private. His mind was an open invitation to Akki or any dragon who wanted to enter it. Only with the most careful and arduous concentration could he guard its entrance. He had to visualize a wall built up plank by plank or a heavy drapery drawn across it inch by inch. And usually by the time he had carefully constructed these images, the
traitor thoughts had already slipped out. He wondered how dragons kept secrets or even if they had secrets to keep. Everything he thought or felt was now open and public.
    â€œOpen to me, anyway,” Akki said as Jakkin emerged from the cave.
    He realized with sudden chagrin that she had been listening to his self-pitying thoughts. The more powerful the emotion, the farther it seemed to broadcast. Akki, listening quietly, had sent nothing in return. Flushing with embarrassment, Jakkin looked down at the ground, trying to think of a way to phrase what he had to say out loud. He knew he could control words, because he didn’t actually have to
say
anything until he was ready. At last he spoke. “Sometimes,” he began reluctantly, “sometimes a man needs to be alone.” He held out the wort to Sssargon and concentrated totally on that.
    â€œSometimes,” Akki said to his back, “sometimes a
woman
needs to be alone, too.”
    He turned his head to apologize. Words, it seemed, could be slippery, too. But Akki wasn’t looking at him. She had her hands up to her eyes, as if shading them from the too-colorful dark.
    â€œJakkin, this is a strange gift we’ve been given, being able to sneak into one another’s minds. But . . .”
    â€œBut at least