‘Tip your head back,’ Tats ordered her gruffly, and when she did, he poured clean water over her face. ‘Doing your arm now,’ he warned her, and the cool flow made her gasp as it eased the burning she’d been trying to ignore. She sneezed abruptly and water and mucus flew everywhere. She wiped her face with the blanket, earning a cry of ‘Hey, that’s my blanket!’ from Rapskal.
‘You can use mine,’ she said hoarsely. She suddenly realized she wasn’t dead or dying, only strangely humiliated by everyone’s attention. She struggled to get to her feet. When Tats helped her, she managed not to jerk her arm away from him, though she didn’t like to appear weak in front of everyone. An instant later, it was even worse when Alise enveloped her in a hug.
‘Oh, Thymara, I’m so sorry! I nearly killed you and all for a fish!’
She managed to disentangle herself from Alise. ‘What sort of a fish was it?’ she asked, trying to divert attention away from herself. Her abraded arm stung and her clothes were wet. She slung the blanket around her shoulders as Alise said, ‘Come and see. I’ve never seen anything like it.’
Neither had Thymara. In shape, it was like an inverted dinner plate, but a plate twice the size of Thymara’s blanket. It had two bulbous eyes on top of its body, and a long, whiplike tail with a series of barbs on the end. The top of it was speckled light and dark, like the river bottom, but its underside was white. It bore the wounds of spears in a dozen places, and gashes where Sintara had dragged it ashore. ‘Is it a fish?’ she asked incredulously.
‘Looks a bit like a ray; yes, a fish,’ Leftrin commented. ‘But I’ve never seen anything like this in the river, only in salt water. And I’ve never seen one this size.’
‘And it’s mine to eat,’ Sintara asserted. ‘But for me, it would have been lost.’
‘Your greed nearly killed me,’ Thymara said. She did not speak loudly but firmly. She was surprised she could say the words so calmly. ‘You knocked me into the river. I nearly drowned.’ She looked at the dragon and Sintara looked back. She sensed nothing from her, no sense of remorse, or justification. They’d come so far together. The dragon had grown stronger and larger and definitely more beautiful. But unlike the other dragons she had not grown closer to her keeper. A terrible regret welled up in her. Sintara grew more beautiful daily; she was, without doubt, the most glorious creature that Thymara had ever seen. She had dreamed of being companion to such a wonderful being, dreamed of basking in her reflected glory. She’d fed the dragon to the best of her ability, groomed her daily, doctored her when she thought she could help her and praised her and flattered her through every step of their day. She’d seen her grow in health and strength.
And today the dragon had nearly killed her. By carelessness, not temper. And did not express even a moment of regret. Her earlier question came back to her. Why had the dragons wanted keepers? The answer seemed clear to her now. To be their servants. Nothing more.
She had heard people speak of ‘heartbreak’. She had not known that it actually caused a pain in the chest, as if, indeed, her heart were torn. She looked at her dragon and struggled to find words. She could have said, ‘You are no longer my dragon and I am not your keeper.’ But she didn’t because it suddenly seemed as if that had never been true at all. She shook her head slowly at the beautiful sapphire creature and then turned aside from her. She looked round at the circle of gathered keepers and dragons. Alise was looking at her, her blue eyes wide. She was soaking wet; Captain Leftrin had put his coat around her shoulders. The Bingtown woman stared at her wordlessly, and Thymara knew that she alone grasped what she was feeling. That was unbearable. She turned and walked away. A stone-faced Tats stepped aside and let her pass.
She hadn’t gone a dozen steps before Sylve fell in beside her. Mercor moved slowly along beside her. The girl spoke quietly. ‘Mercor found you in the water and pulled you out.’
Thymara stopped. Mercor had been the dragon overshadowing her when she was recovering. Reflexively, she touched her ribs where his teeth had torn her clothes and scraped her skin. ‘Thank you,’ she said. She looked up into the golden dragon’s gently swirling eyes. ‘You saved my life.’ Sylve’s dragon had saved her after her own had shoved her into the water and left her there. She could not bear the contrast. She turned and walked away from both of them.
Alise could scarcely bear to watch Thymara go. Pain seemed to emanate from her in a cloud as she trudged away. She swung her gaze back to Sintara. But before she could find words to speak, the dragon suddenly threw up her head, wheeled around and stalked off, lashing her tail as she went. She opened her wings and gave them a violent shake, heedless that she spattered the gathered humans and dragons with water and sand.
One of the younger keepers spoke into the silence. ‘If she isn’t going to eat that, can Heeby have it? She’s pretty hungry. Well, she’s always hungry.’
‘Is it safe for any of the dragons to eat? Is it edible?’ Alise asked anxiously. ‘These fish look strange to me. I think we should be cautious of them.’
‘Those are fish from the Great Blue Lake. I know them of old. The one with the red belly is safe for dragons, but poisons humans. The flatfish, any may eat.’
Alise turned to Mercor’s voice. The golden dragon approached the gathered humans. He moved with ponderous grace and dignity. Perhaps he was not the largest of the dragons, but he was certainly the most imposing. She lifted her voice to address him. ‘The Great Blue Lake?’
‘It is a lake fed by several rivers, and the mother of what you call the Rain Wild River. It was a very large lake that swelled even larger during the rainy seasons. The fishing in it was excellent. These fish you have killed today would have been regarded as small in the days that I recall.’ His voice went distant as he reminisced. ‘The Elderlings fished in boats with brightly-coloured sails. Seen from above, it was a very pretty sight, the wide blue lake and the sails of the fishing vessels scattered across it. There were few permanent Elderling settlements near the lake’s shores, because the flooding was chronic, but wealthy Elderlings built homes on piers or brought houseboats down to the Great Blue Lake for the summers.’
‘How close was the Great Blue Lake to Kelsingra?’ She waited breathlessly for the answer.
‘As a dragon flies? Not far.’ There was humour in his voice. ‘It was no difficulty for us to cross the wide lake, and then we flew straight rather than follow the winding of the river. But I do not think you can look at these fish and say that we are close to the Great Blue Lake or Kelsingra. Fish do not stay in one place.’ He lifted his head and looked around as if surveying the day. ‘And neither should dragons. Our day is escaping us. It is time we all ate, and then left this place.’
With no more ado, he strolled over to the red-bellied fish, bent his head and matter-of-factly claimed it as his own. Several of the dragons moved in on the flatfish. Little red Heeby was the first to sink her teeth into it. The tenders moved back and allowed them room. None of them seemed inclined to want a share of the fish.
As they dispersed back to their abandoned bedding and cook-fires, Leftrin offered her his arm. Alise took it. ‘You should get out of those wet clothes as soon as you can. The river water is mild today, but the longer it’s against your skin the more likely you are to get a reaction to it.’
As if his words had prompted it, she became aware of how her collar itched against her neck and the waistband of her trousers rubbed her. ‘I think that would be a good idea.’
‘It would. Whatever possessed you to get involved in Thymara’s fishing anyway?’
She
