Home is a Treasure Beyond Price

Chapter 4

<Are you sure that's enough?> Cadenza asked Nick as he carried his plate over to the small folding table.
He looked down at the two slices of bread and salt pork on his plate, more than he usually got to eat for lunch, and then at Cadenza.
"Are you trying to fatten me up?"
With an exasperated sigh, Cadenza went back to reading.
Nick looked around the cave while he ate, gazing over the bed, the table and the pack full of human clothing.
"Is there someone else living in this cave with you?"
<Why do you ask?>
"Well, you have all these things for people." He waved a hand at the evidence of a human occupant.
<A dragon can always do with a pair of hands.>
He straightened.
"So there is someone else living here?" How was he to keep his end of the bargain if the dragon already had someone helping her?
<Only you, Nick. The one who usually helps me is... long gone.>
Nick relaxed at Cadenza's words.
"He won't mind that I'm using his things?"
<I'm sure he won't,> Cadenza said, with a furtive humor that Nick found worrying.
"You didn't eat him, did you?"
Cadenza turned to look at him.
<Where does this constant fascination with being eaten come from?>
"Well... we've all heard the stories."
<Old stories, I'd wager,> Cadenza said scornfully, flicked her tail, and went back to reading her book.
It was true that the stories had the smooth worn edges of constant retelling, and that Cadenza hadn't caused any trouble since she'd arrived a week ago. Yet everyone in the city had seen the dragon flying overhead and become terrified. Which was to be expected, since no being that gave off the sense of coiled power that Cadenza did, and was possessed of wings and fangs and two-inch long claws, could ever be anything but terrifying. It was more that she didn't act terrifying, which seemed an important distinction.
Another thought occurred to Nick.
"How did you get me into the bed?"
Cadenza's eyes gleamed when she coiled her tail around the bookstand, picked it up, and waved it about.
<Like that,> she said.
<Although you were a lot floppier, so there was more dragging and shoving involved.> Then she put the book stand down and carried on reading.
Cadenza could have left him on the floor where he'd fallen, but hadn't. For some reason, the image of Cadenza wrestling his unconscious body into the bed with nothing but her tail, and then pulling the blanket over him, wasn't as disturbing as it probably should have been.
"Thank you," he said.
Cadenza nodded and turned back to her book.
Since Cadenza didn't seem to mind answering Nick's questions, he decided to ask another.
"Cadenza?"
<Mmm?>
"What are those balls with the light inside them?"
Cadenza looked at the ball nearest to her in surprise, as though she'd forgotten they were even there.
<Glow globes.>
"How do they glow like that?"
<Dragons can create light. It's a simple conjuring that even younglings can do. Our craftsmen bind them and trap them in glass.>
Dragons could do magic. Of course.
Nick felt like he'd stepped through a sidewise door and emerged into another world which ran counterclockwise to his own mundane one.
He dug through the pack Cadenza had pointed out to him, looking for clothes he could borrow. Whoever had functioned as Cadenza's hands before Nick had expensive taste, if the clothes and soap he found were anything to go by. He gathered up what he needed and, after a quick glance at Cadenza to make sure her back was turned, stripped off his clothes. He hurried through his bath, wincing as the soap stung his cuts and the raw skin around ankles and wrists.
By the time he was done, he was shivering, and the tips of his fingers had turned a light gray. He hurried into the borrowed clothes and discovered, to his dismay, that they were made for a man very much larger than him. No matter how he folded the fine linen sleeves of the shirt, they kept unrolling, and the pants sagged around his ankles. He walked back from the river feeling like a child playing dress up.
The closer he got to the center of the cave, the warmer it became. It was Cadenza, Nick realized, she was the source of it. Nick slowed as he walked past Cadenza, trying to absorb as much heat as possible. Something coiled around his wrist, jerking him to a surprised halt. He looked down and saw that it was Cadenza's tail.
<Why are you blue?>
"I'm not—"
<Do you argue like this with everyone?> Cadenza asked.
"Yes," Nick admitted on a sigh.
Cadenza tsked.
<I forgot how cold the water is. I cannot have my hands falling sick. You may sit here till you warm up.>
"I can—Hey!" Nick landed with a thump on the blankets when Cadenza tugged at Nick's wrist with her tail. "I can take care of myself," Nick snapped. She unwrapped the bit of tail coiled around his wrist. "You can't move me around however you want."
<I'm not worried about you, Nick.> Cadenza pulled her tail away and tapped Nick's hand with the tip.
<Just your hands. They're for doing my work remember? Can't have your fingers falling off because of frostbite.>
Jerk, Nick fumed silently. He leaned back against Cadenza even though it felt like he was leaning against a giant pine cone. As warmth seeped into him, he had to admit that the dragon was probably right. The cave was cold, and with his weakened state, it would be easy to fall sick.
<Next time, I'll go with you. At least you won't be so cold.> Cadenza ignored Nick's attempt to interrupt.
<Don't worry. I won't look. Your honor will be preserved.>
Bargain, he reminded himself, as he gritted his teeth.
"Alright," he forced out.
"Thank you."
Cadenza threw off so much heat that Nick soon went from being so cold he had a tight, sick feeling in his stomach, to warm and drowsy. Cadenza's deep, even breathing, and the rushing of water over stones were the only things he could hear. When his eyelids began to droop, he jerked himself upright. Best not to fall asleep against a dragon. He studied the interior of the cave, looking for something to do.
Cadenza, or whoever had been helping him before, was not the most meticulous when it came to tidiness. Books were scattered everywhere in disorganized piles, several packs were strewn near the camp bed, and one very large and misshapen pack was thrown against the far left wall of the cave.
Nick himself wasn't all that tidy either, but he had a job to do, and he intended to do it well. He got to his feet and started gathering up the books nearest him. There were books on astronomy, science and mythology. Each was beautifully illustrated and illuminated and most were too advanced for him. He knew his knowledge of letters was hardly more than basic, but seeing them drove home how little he knew of the world outside the village. He wondered if Cadenza would mind if he read them in his spare time.
He gathered up a respectable pile of books and started sorting them by subject. The whole time he worked, he could feel Cadenza's eyes on him.
<Such an industrious pair of hands. I have chosen well.>
Nick glared at the dragon as he placed a book on astronomy on the astronomy pile. When he was done, all the books were stacked in neat piles on flat rocks to raise them off the cave floor. He was looking for more things to do when his eyes fell on the dragon curled up in the center of the cave. Cleaning dragon teeth might not be something he was quite ready for, but he'd groomed his fair share of horses at the Bruno farm—perhaps those skills could be applied to the dragon?
Cadenza watched with interest as he approached. Nick said, "I could... groom you?"
<What a wonderful idea,> Cadenza said.
<You shall do this bright and early tomorrow morning.>
He hoped the civilians appreciated how much he was putting up with for their sakes. At the rate he was going, his throat would be sore from all the words he was swallowing.