Page 26 of Accounting for Drakes

Abil smiled slightly. “She works out.” She glanced at Yorath. “Can we go watch?”

He grinned. “Of course. She’s your guardian, after all.”

He held out his hand, and she stood. They walked with Arken to the main doors. Thumping was happening outside, and when they entered the sun, there were two drakes writhing, and Abil heard a soft voice. “She’s a planet eater.”

She looked at Arken. “She is, or she will be. She has the potential.”

Arken smiled. “You know her.”

“Yes. She raised me. She found me as a toddler and raised me until I was ten.”

“Did she talk about us?”

“No. She didn’t talk at all. She made this rattling noise with her wings when she slept, but they were stumps, so they banged together.”

“Stumps?”

“She tried to protect my parents’ shuttle as we all fell from the sky. Her wings were burned, or that’s what she said.”

Arken murmured, “He tried to catch her to hold her, so he bit her wings to break them. She flew anyway.”

“You didn’t go after her?”

“She made me promise to stay out of it. I had to remain separate. It wasn’t our time, and she knew it.”

There was a thud, and Nanny had gotten bigger, pinning Zenim’s head down and sitting on his body with her other claws holding onto his tail to stop the damage.

Yorath called up. “How long can you hold him?”

Nanny huffed and pushed harder on Zenim’s skull.

Abil asked, “How long is she going to hold him?”

Until he surrenders his obsession with me. I don’t know how he can be so obsessed while being violent and insulting. Hello, Abil.

She looked at the drake and watched as the wingless version of her guardian kept the male dragon under control.

“She’s magnificent.” Arken sighed.

It was supposed to be Arken for me, but Zenim expressed his interest, and Arken never defied him. The more Arken pulled back, the more vile Zenim became. It was... disappointing.

Abil looked at him. “You hurt her as much as he did. She wanted you just to speak out, but you refused to go against your brother, so he began more vile behaviours to get you to react. I think you both need to grow up and try again. Nanny needs someone who respects her the moment they see her.”

Yorath smiled. “That is why I made more than one call. Arken and Zenim are too tightly bound. One inflicts pain, and the other feels it. Wait, is she speaking to you?”

“Yes. Now that I have a better grasp of language, it is easier.” She watched the wriggling of Zenim.

Arken walked forward, and he bowed low to Nanny. “Lady, you have avenged your honour and have proven your point with Zenim. Neither of us was worthy of you. He understands how unworthy he is, don’t you, brother?”

There was a low whine, like air escaping from a punctured hose, and it was coming from the drake on the ground.

Yorath was grinning. “The moment I met Nanny, this is what I envisioned. There are others with better temperaments. These two are going to be stuck with offerings. I think they prefer it that way.”

Arken looked at them and blushed. “I... he... we do better with shorter-lived beings.”

Abil heard a blast in her mind. “Then why did you let Zenim put a claim on her to begin with, you wormy, crawling bastard? I am paraphrasing. She was a little more blunt.”

“Your Imperial Highness, if she gets off Zenim, we will leave.”

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