Taniel (The Taverner's Daughter I)

12: Taniel

Water sloshed over my head, lots of it. Slowly, I shrugged slowness from my thoughts enough to realise that the piglet squeals and snorting came from my own throat. I focused my eyes on the dragonrider grasping my chin.

He held the water bottle against my lips until I opened them to drink. I was not thirsty. Why did he keep making me drink?

His eyes laughed.

I summoned my meanest glare. "It's not funny," I said.

"You should've heard yourself. Anyone would think I was trying to drown you."

My lips betrayed me with a smile.

The dragonrider's grin slipped. "Where does it hurt?" he asked.

"It's more than that," the dragon said. I noticed the knobby fingers around my waist and stroked a long, deadly fingernail.

"Taniel?"

"Huh?" I looked up in time to see the dragonrider and the green dragon exchanging an amused glance.

"Have you spoken with another dragon?" the dragonrider asked.

"Of course not." The denial was out before I remembered how the mindtalk with Rufus had made my mind tingle.

I tried to think.

"I don't think so." I felt my scalp and peered at the wound on my arm. It had stopped bleeding. "My jacket."

Slipping from the dragon's grasp, I took a step towards the cave.

The dragonrider grabbed my arm, swinging me around to face him. "Either you have or you haven't." His voice was loud. "How could you not know?"

"The sea dragon might have tried," I said, pulling away. "I don't know. It sort of felt the same as when your dragon spoke in my head."

"How?"

"Like a bee got in there. One of the sea dragons stared hard at me, and my head started buzzing."

The dragonrider frowned. "Rufus, can you tell?"

"Taniel, join minds with me," the dragon said.

With bated breath, I eagerly rested my palm in the centre of a warm green shoulder scale. This time I was ready.

A gentle tingle heralded the dragon's words. He told me to relax and let him look. After a few moments I felt his mind pull away and I tried to make him stay.

"No," Rufus protested, shying away from my hand, severing our connection. "We are too close to the watchward for untrained dragonspeech."

"Well?" interrupted the dragonrider. 

"There are signs that another has attempted entry." The dragon's eye ridges arched. "Jarryd, does a sea dragon have different rules of engagement to us?"

The dragonrider shrugged. "Probably."

"So I can talk to just any dragon?" I asked, clasping my hands between my breasts, my eyes surely as wide as they could go. When I realized I was acting like a child, I cleared my throat, dropped my hands, and tried to make myself look indifferent.

"Look, Taniel, I'll explain but first we must get Rufus out of sight."

"Why are you sneaking about?" I asked, as he ushered me toward the tree line.

"I'm on a secret assignment," he said.

"Lead on then, Sir Dragon Knight." He really is cute, I thought, reaching for his hand.

He gave me an odd look.

I chided myself. I must not let my flippant tongue spoil my chances.

Thirty paces later, screened by the thin forest canopy, we arrived at the dragonrider's camp. I hadn't been in this part of the wood for an age.

A pile of dragon dung, stinking and crawling with flies, lay on the far side of the clearing. I palmed my wound, and breathed through my teeth. 

The dragonrider pointed to a folding stool leaning against a tree. 

"Make yourself comfortable while I clean up," he said.

I held my breath while he expertly shovelled the dragon dung in a single scoop. As he rushed it off into the scrub, I unfolded the stool and sat. My insides shook with exhilaration.

The dragon settled. The echo of rustling bushes and snapping twigs died away, leaving the woods hushed. The gloom reminded me the hour was late but I had time enough for questions.

When he returned, the dragonrider rested the earth encrusted shovel against a tree on the edge of the camp. I cautiously sniffed the air. It still stank of dragon's piss. I reckoned I could get used to that.

I would never get used to a dragon talking in my head, though. It was hard to believe it had really happened.

"So, what do I do now?" I asked. "Do I just front up to the watchward and ask for a job?"

He looked down at me. "It's not that simple. You're a girl and girls do not join the patrols. You'll be assigned ... different duties."

"But I want to ride dragons," I wailed. "I've always wanted to ride dragons, as long as I can remember!" My voice rose. "And now I can but you're telling me I can't?"

He walked away, running his fingers through his hair. He swung back to me, his face grave.

 "You will have to go to Eighalh," he said. "The wizards will want you for breeding."

I gasped. 

All I could hear above the pulse pounding in my throat was the gentle rasp of the dragon breathing. I felt behind me for the stool and sat, stifling the sobs jamming my thoughts.

We stared at each other.

Tears slid down my cheeks.

"No," I cried. "I will not marry a smelly old wizard."

"I didn't say anything about marriage," he said.

***

Thanks for reading.

26 May 2021: Final update, synchronising Wattpad, Book Funnel and Kindle versions.

8 March 2017 - exchanged scene with revised version. Much the same.