Dragon's Egg Blue

Chapter 2

"The Patrician sent this?" Angua asked. They were looking at a rock about the size of Carrot's fist. It was egg-shaped, and at first glance looked like a rough-cut, deep blue jewel. Dragon's egg blue.

"It arrived last night," Sarah said as she donned her apron and placed the gloves in its pocket. The apron and matching gloves were leather and bore stains from the acid drool of swamp dragons. "At first I thought it was a wedding gift."

"You don't think that now?" Carrot asked.

"When I checked the gift book, I saw he'd already sent something two weeks ago. The note that came with the egg said he trusted the sanctuary to care for it, and that the Watch would stop in to see that it was safe."

"That's why you were expecting us?" Carrot looked surprised. "Captain Vimes didn't mention ordering us to stop by?"

"No. That is, no one said anything to me about a request from the Captain."

"It's an amazing replica of a snow dragon's egg," Angua said, tracing a finger along the edges. The story she'd told Carrot on their walk was fresh in her mind, and this resembled the egg she'd imagined when she heard the tale. It seemed incredible to her that a dragon which started out so small grew to be as large as the creatures of legend. "It even has cracks, as if the dragon were about to hatch."

"That's what is worrying me," Sarah said. "When it arrived last night, the cracks were much smaller."

Angua pulled her hand away from it. "But it can't be real! Snow dragons are a myth."

Sarah gestured toward an old and well-worn book lying open beside the egg on Lady Sybil's desk in the sanctuary. "The most noted dragon expert says they were real. Centuries ago snow dragons roamed the Disc -- the colder regions, anyway -- but always returned to one specific mountain for breeding season. There are stories of landslides occasionally burying a generation of eggs, and that might be how this one was preserved after the species died out. I've been researching their food and habitats. If there's still a live sprout in this egg, I believe I can care for it, but it doesn't belong here."

"Does it belong anywhere?" Carrot asked.

In his face and tone, Angua read something he usually kept hidden -- the struggle of a man learning to accept that he wasn't a dwarf. He was too big to return to life in the mines, but the human city of Ankh-Morpork still felt alien. It was in these moments she felt hope that they had more common ground than simply their work at the Watch. She too was searching for home, a search that meant discovering and accepting who she was.

He rolled the egg along the desk and looked up sharply. "Did you hear that?"

Sarah nodded. "Laughter?"

Angua's sharper ears had picked up giggling and a tiny voice saying, Wheee!

"What exactly did the Patrician say about the Watch?" Carrot asked.

Sarah picked up a note written on the Patrician's letterhead. "It says, 'The Watch will make sure it's safe.' That could mean keeping the egg safe, or keeping the sanctuary safe from the egg. Or from what's inside of it."

The door to Lady Sybil's office opened, and a child ran in. "Sarah! Emma told me there's a pretty new egg! Can I see it? Can I?"

Sarah sighed. "Jane, where is your sister? She knows you're too young to be left unsupervised in the sanctuary. I told her not to leave you alone when she brings you here."

"Emma said no one would notice if I stay out of the way!" Jane yelled.

"Use your inside voice," Sarah requested.