Home is a Treasure Beyond Price

Chapter 18

It began about halfway through the second day, with fingers tapping every nearby surface. Then a constant shifting shifting shifting, like Cadence couldn't get comfortable no matter what position she tried. Then the pacing began. Back and forth and back and forth, until Nick snapped at her to go outside and work off her energy before Nick brained her with a skillet. This earned Nick an injured look and a determined effort by Cadence to sit still, which lasted all of ten minutes.
The longer Nick spent with Cadence, the more he understood that the human form was unnatural for Cadence, and was uncomfortable to maintain for long periods of time. With the way restless energy seemed to thrum around Cadence, Nick began to worry that the dragon form might explode out of Cadence's skin in an unguarded moment.
"Go outside and be a dragon for a while," he said as he doodled an image of Cadence. The door was hanging drunkenly off its hinges and a surprised-looking dragon's head emerged from the doorway, while a long tail trailed out one window. But it wasn't just Cadence and the structural integrity of his cottage he was concerned about. Being in such close proximity to Cadence in her human form was having a rather deleterious effect on his peace of mind.
Cadence shook her head and shifted on her pallet for the hundredth time. "Then I can't talk to you."
"Why—oh. Is it because I asked you to get out of my head?" A disconsolate shrug was his only answer. Nick exhaled a long sigh that took some of his anger with it. "I'm sorry I said that. I don't mind if you talk to me in my head." He liked it, in fact.
<Thank you.>
It was only when he heard Cadence's voice in his head that he realized how much he'd missed it. "Well?" Nick said, when Cadence didn't make any move to get up. "Aren't you going to change?"
<No.> Cadence's answer was accompanied by the sound of her finger tapping an irregular beat against the page.
"Why not?"
<I said I would follow you to the cottage, and that's what I'm doing.>
Nick was well and truly confused now. "Why does that mean you can't change back?"
<Because,> she said with finality.
"Is this about the treasure again," Nick said, with what he felt was great self-restraint.
Cadence looked him straight in the eye. <No,> she said. <It is not.>
Was Cadence's refusal to change a kind of penance for lying, Nick wondered, or to prove the truth of her need for Nick's help? Whichever it was, it was working. He'd calmed down enough to realize that his impulsive decision to return to the cottage was a way to punish Cadence. At first, it'd been satisfying to see Cadence trying to fit her dragon body into the tight quarters of the cottage. But now, in the face of Cadence's stubborn attempts to ignore her own increasing discomfort, he found it harder and harder to cling to his anger and hurt. Some time in the weeks he'd known Cadence, the dragon had barged her way into Nick's heart, circled three times, settled herself down, and claimed six eighths of it for her own.
On the fourth day, Nick said, "You told me that if you could do it over, you would have offered me the work without the bargain."
Cadence perked up at Nick's words. <I did.> She set down the knot of wood she was whittling into a strange, twisted shape and studied Nick across the width of the table. <Does this mean you'll come back to the cave with me?>
"It depends."
<On?>
Nick fidgeted with the mending in his hand. "On whether we can negotiate a suitable payment." A man needed to eat, wounded pride or not.
<Name your price,> Cadence said, without any hesitation.
"What if I ask for your entire hoard of treasure?"
<Ah, but you won't.> Cadence leaned in as though teasing him. <Your integrity is unimpeachable.>
"It would serve you right—"
<Fifty gold pieces a month.>
Nick gaped at Cadence. "Are you insane? That's too much."
<You have just proved my point,> Cadence said with a smug smile. <But since you drive a hard bargain, forty gold pieces a month.>
"Will you be serious?"
<I am being perfectly serious. I would pay whatever price you asked.>
The thing that worried Nick was that he couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
<Hmm. You don't look satisfied.> Cadence tilted her head and eyed Nick. <Thirty gold pieces a month, one for every day, and that's my final offer. Take it or leave it.>
"Idiot." A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Who taught you to bargain."
<As though you wouldn't have been bargaining in the wrong direction as well,> Cadence scoffed. She held out her hand. <Do we have an agreement?> Cadence asked, all hints of teasing gone from her voice.
Cadence was paying him a king's ransom to do very little. But if Cadence stayed in the area for a month, the money would keep him fed and housed for years, if he was careful. He would be a fool to refuse. "We do," he said, as he gripped Cadence's hand in his. He swallowed past the obstruction in his throat as the heat from Cadence's hand seemed to make its way up his arm, curl round his chest, and wind tightly round his heart.
<I'm sorry,> Cadence said, still holding Nick's hand. <I shouldn't have lied to you, and I should have told you sooner. It was a thoughtless thing to do, and I hurt you. Will you forgive me?>
Nick looked at their clasped hands, then at Cadence, at the regret her face gave away. He nodded once. Cadence's eyes glowed with a quiet happiness, and when she smiled, soft and sweet, Nick felt the last of his anger slip away, and the hurt finally begin to scab over.
By unspoken agreement, they packed up their things and closed up the cottage, the silence between them edging once more towards companionable. It was evening when they got back to the cave. Cadence stubbornly maintained her human form up until she dropped her pack next to the bed. When she finally changed back, she stretched every muscle out and shuddered all over, happy to once again inhabit the much larger body that he was used to.
<I need to stretch my wings,> she said. <But I will remain close by.>
"Stop worrying about me." He got a rude snort in reply, and then Cadence was gone.
Nick had just finished putting away all his things when Cadence returned. The crawling restlessness that plagued her at the cottage was gone, and she was much more settled into her skin.
Nick watched curiously as Cadence walked around the cave, stopping to inspect the places where Nick's things were kept. The last place he stopped at was the table, where Nick had placed his roll of pencils. She nosed at it, sneezed, and looked at Nick. <Will you come sit with me while you draw?> Nick's mouth compressed into a tight line and he blinked rapidly to ease the sudden prickle in his eyes. He nodded, not sure he could get words past the constriction in his throat. When he was settled once more in his usual place in the shelter of Cadence's body—with a long, scaly tail curled round his waist, and a large dragon head snoozing on his shins—warmth soaked into him and filled the hollow place he'd carried inside him for the past few days.