Page 65 of Dragon Fire

“My great-great-gran, or so I’ve been told. I didn’t really believe it until recently,” she admitted.

“This could explain a great deal,” Gryffid said, surprising her as he sat back in his chair as if contemplating the solution to a great puzzle. “Why, for instance, you could see through the spells of deception layered over Meg. That is not something everyone would have noticed. I know you had just seen Lilith in another part of the keep, but the kind of spells that afflicted Meg would have compensated. It would have shown her as someone else to you. Such considerations are made in spells of that complexity. Yet, you saw Lilith. A clear dissonance that bothered you enough to investigate. If your line was even slightly Goddess touched, that would explain why.”

“Goddess touched?” Livia repeated, unfamiliar with the term.

“There is an innate goodness about you, Livia. All my people have remarked upon it—fey and gryphon alike. Young Flurrthith is one of your biggest admirers and would have been at your side like a hound if his mother had not kept him busy and under her wing. Sending him off like that at such a tender age distressed her greatly.”

Livia nodded. She understood and was glad the young gryphon had such a loving family. She’d missed him too, though. She’d come to enjoy traveling with the youngster.

“Gryphons know instinctively when they meet good people. They have a built-in deception detector, I always thought, which is why the imposter stayed far away from any gryphon who might’ve crossed her path while she was doing her foul deeds under the evil compulsion.” Gryffid’s expression grew hard. “Furthermore, you can bespeak dragons and people. That is not a skill afforded to many females of your species. Some bespeak dragons, but will never be able to hear the thoughts of their husbands or gifted children. Yet you are not even mated to a knight pair and you can speak with either dragon or knight. I suspect you have the same reach as many knights and will be able to speak silently with any resident of the Lair, in time.”

He was speaking as if it was inevitable that she was going to become a Lair wife, mated to two knights, but that seemed so impossible right now. So many obstacles had to be overcome for that to happen, but she wasn’t about to argue with the wizard. This table full of fair folk didn’t need to know every facet of her existence.

She merely shook her head, unable to hide her disbelief. “If you say so, milord.”

Gryffid laughed outright at her response, but it wasn’t unkind. “Mark my words for now, young Livia. In time, you’ll see I was right. In the meantime, you must pay attention to these dreams of yours. They come for a reason. Portents of things to be—and you can help steer events in the right direction. Such is the gift the Mother of All bestowed on certain special women in your land. I believe you are descended from such a woman, though we would have to do some investigating to know for certain. Still, all the signs are there.” He shrugged. “Speak your dreams to your friends, Seth and Gowan especially. Let them help you decipher the meanings and spread any warnings that need to be known. It is a gift of your line and should not be squandered in self-doubt.”

Livia wasn’t sure what to make of the wizard’s advice, but she nodded, thanking him, and letting the matter rest. She’d talk it over with Seth later.

“Don’t be troubled, Livia,”came Hrardorr’s unexpected comment in her mind. She thought he’d still been asleep next to Genlitha, behind them by the fireplace, but apparently, he was awake and had heard the whole exchange.“It does make a logical sort of sense. You are so easy with us—with dragons, in general. I can assure you, such is not the case with most humans. Yet you befriended me as if it was the most normal thing in the world. You are comfortable with magic in ways the other residents of Dragonscove are not. It is something I’ve noticed from the beginning, and it marked you as exceptional. If you ever have need to discuss images you see in your dreams, please know that I am always here for you. I will help you decipher them, if you need help.”

“Hrardorr, I…”She was touched so deeply by his words and the solemn tone in which they were delivered, she had to express it.“Can I hug you?”she asked, surprising herself with the request. She hadn’t touched the dragon often. It was presumptuous at the best of times, but with Hrardorr being blind, he could not see her coming and might move unexpectedly. Getting too close to him could be dangerous at times, so she had always kept a distance unless specifically invited.

“Come here, Livia. You know I would come to you, if I could.”Hrardorr’s words and the emotion behind them found an answering note inside her troubled soul. The dream that morning had shaken her badly. It had been so vivid.

Livia stood from the table and went over to Hrardorr. She knew the others were surprised by her movement. Even Seth seemed a little taken aback as he watched her walk right up to Hrardorr and throw her arms around his neck, but he smiled. Livia caught his eye as she hugged her best friend in all the world, glad of the dragon’s support.

The folk in the great hall were staring, but she didn’t care. She needed Hrardorr’s warmth and support right now. Her world had been turned upside down, and there was no end in sight to the upheaval, merely moments of respite like this one. She would take what she could get.

Hrardorr needed to know how much he meant to her. She needed to tell him so much about how profoundly he’d affected her life, but she could only think of one way to express the complicated thoughts filling her mind, distilled down to a simple emotion.

“I love you, Hrardorr.”

“I…love you too, Livia. You’re the sister I never had.”

“It is good to see such a deep bond between humans and dragons,” Gryffid said quietly to those remaining at the table, but looking straight at Seth.

“Hrardorr is a special dragon, but I have seen the same between my fathers and their dragon partners,” Seth told the wizard and his folk around the emotion clogging his throat. “And between my mother and my dragon sibs. It is a beautiful way to grow up, surrounded by all that strength and love.” Seth knew he’d thrown away his chance at that kind of family for himself when he’d chosen to forego knight training, but he still counted himself blessed to have grown up in that environment.

“The bond is still as strong as Draneth always hoped. It has not faded over the years,” Gryffid pronounced, his gaze on Livia and Hrardorr, still locked in an emotional embrace that spoke of deep trust and love.

It hit Seth then that Gryffid had actuallyknownDraneth the Wise, the ancient wizard who had created the first dragons. Seth realized that was why the dragons had all been so keen to meet Gryffid. He was a link to their Maker, just as Gryffid himself, was the Maker of the gryphons.

“I know it has been that way for centuries in your land, but I believe the concept of Lair marriage is about to be shaken up on a grand scale,” Gryffid announced, seeming almost gleeful.

Seth didn’t pretend not to know what the wizard was driving at. “You mean Leo and Lady Lizbet? And Xanderanth and Lady Shara?” Seth frowned. “Are you sure that can actually work? I’d hate to lose Leo to madness if it doesn’t. He’s a good lad.”

“I would not countenance it if I feared for any of them. I believe you have to trust more in the Mother of All, my young friend. “Gryffid’s eyes twinkled as he smiled. “Besides, I have given my blessing. Lizbet and Leo came to me to ask my advice, and I gave them permission to marry. We are to have a celebration,” Gryffid announced, seeming to take the fey at the table by surprise as well. “Spread the word to those who want to witness the first union between fey and dragon knight, as well as the first mating between a land dragon and a sea dragon in centuries. There’s going to be a double wedding on the beach where the sea dragons gather this very evening.”

The fair folk at the table recovered quickly, asking a few questions in concern for Lizbet—particularly the problem of age. Fey were long-lived by human standards, but Gryffid assured his fey friends that knights bonded to dragons took on several lifetimes worth of magic from their partners. He turned to Seth to add further reassurance to his words.

“I’m the youngest in my family,” Seth told the gathered folk. “My mother is over three hundred years old. My brother Gerry is a knight in the Northern Lair, partnered with my younger dragon sib, Mowbry. He’s mated and has children of his own now, some of whom are older than me. My brother Pat has been a knight for more than a century now, though unmated as yet. And my other dragon sib, Llallor, is partnered with a knight named Karlac and is stationed at the Border Lair. When a dragon chooses to join his or her life to yours, they give you some of their magic, which extends to the whole family—especially the knights’ spouse. I suppose that I will have the shortest life of my family unit because I am not a knight. I will age as a regular person, but they will go on, and I hope my dragon parents are blessed with another egg at some point. They are just the best.”

“So you see, it’s possible that young Leo will outlive Lizbet, all things considered,” Gryffid told them. “But with the way things are now, and the dangerous times ahead, I cannot abide keeping young people in love apart. Having talked to them at length and observed them together, I believe this is no rash decision on their parts. I believe the hand of the divine had something to do with this arrangement. I mean, it’s too perfect. We meet the first dragon in centuries who can both flame and swim beneath the waves, and now, we have a new pairing between a land and sea dragon that might produce another magnificent dragon such as Hrardorr? I can’t believe the Mother of All didn’t have something to do with that.”

That seemed to convince the fair folk as nothing else, and skepticism soon evaporated into a healthy eagerness for the celebration to come that evening. But if Leo was getting married, then that meant Seth was going to have to make some preparations. There were gifts to be acquired, if at all possible, at the very least.

Seth asked a few pointed questions about local marketplaces where he might be able to find suitable gifts and was rewarded with a wealth of information he would put to good use later that day. He finished breakfast and was ready to go when Livia finished talking with Hrardorr. She had gone from hugging the dragon to sitting beside him, curled against his side and almost tucked under his wing.

---