The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

into the mountains? They all lead back here, nowhere else. That is magic, and women have no talent.” His hands dropped as if burned by her skin. He began pacing, his hands combing his beard and untamed hair.
    “Women are too worn out with bearing and raising men’s brats to have any strength left over for magic. What talent I have has not been impaired by a man’s interference.”
    Jaylor’s mouth moved, but no words came forth. She could see in his eyes that her words troubled him.
    “Interference. Strength. Yes. Yes, that is why magicians must avoid women until their powers are full and settled. Women drain their strength. Just as wifely duties drain a woman.”
    She waited while that idea sank into his brain.
    “If your father had an undeveloped talent you could have inherited something from him.” His eyes probed hers. “There is a way to know.” He hesitated as if embarrassed. “I could look into your mind. I have followed other men’s dreams before with just a touch.” Again his hands reached for her face.
    “No.” She backed away from those wonderfully gentle, probing hands. “No.” Panic tinged her voice. She forced mastery over her mind and trembling body.
    See into her mind! Never. He might see what had driven her here to this remote clearing, so far away from her family and the husband she had killed.
    The image of her husband stretched across their marriage bed, eyes bulging, tongue protruding, limbs rigid in death, flashed across her vision. The terror of that night visited her again. The terror and the relief. No one would look for the new bride early the next morning. She’d had nearly twelve hours to escape the prison of her marriage. Twelve hours to find the sanctuary of this clearing.
    It had taken longer, closer to a full moon to walk the length of the province. A moon’s cycle in which she moved closer and closer to the nameless thing that called her. She’d known the calling since early childhood. Back then she had thought it a yearning for peace and quiet, away from the noisy family home. Now she knew it was the empty clearing needing a new witchwoman.
    But Jaylor must not see any of that. He would know then that she was hunted, blamed for a man’s death. By law her life was forfeit. He must return her to her father’s village for judgment and punishment. She wouldn’t think what form that hideous punishment would take.
    “To touch me that way is more intimate than if I allowed you into my body.” She stalled his forward movement. Doubt clouded his eyes. She pressed her advantage. “You can’t dare to look into my mind.”
    Jaylor’s hand dropped again in agreement. “You’re right. I can’t take that chance.”
    “You still have your magic. But here in my clearing you must use your hands to move things.”
     
    My head aches with magic gone wrong. The glass is dark, obscured by another. More of the Tambootie removes the pain. I can see clearly again.
    The wolf! Injured. Good.
    He would have died, except for the cursed dragon.
    He must die this time. Then I can get on with the rest of my plans.
    The witchwoman and her lover will seek the dragon, and I will follow. Soon, very soon, all will be in place. I can set right three hundred years of mismanagement by the inept, so-called magicians!
     
    Brevelan paced in front of the door of her cottage. If only Jaylor would hurry. He always headed for the bathing pool first thing in the morning. So why was he dawdling over his morning routine? At last he stretched and scratched, ran his hands through his hair and beard then turned toward the creek.
    “Shayla?” Brevelan called to her dragon friend as soon as Jaylor had disappeared among the ferns.
    Hm? The dragon replied sleepily.
    “What am I going to do with that man?” Brevelan had never had a friend before, someone close enough to discuss this sort of thing. Shayla seemed to be the only one who could understand her dilemma.
    Trust him. Came the succinct reply.
    “Trust him? I don’t even know why he is here.” Partial answers and dragon riddles weren’t enough this time. She wanted the truth, all of it and right now.
    He is the only one who can save the Darville.
    “I don’t understand your obsession with a wolf. Why is he so important to you?”
    He must be protected. That seemed to be enough explanation for the dragon. Brevelan could feel her friend sliding once more into drowsy oblivion.
    “Every creature has a name.” The cat had told Brevelan her true