The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

seeking him when they were first separated.
    Only then did he notice the dozen silvery shapes hiding in the shadows of smaller side falls that fed into the pool.
    “You mated again! Or are these little ones three years old?” A smile spread through Jack at the sight of the pretty cublets, all silvery and dainty, climbing onto rocks to sun themselves. He counted ten little dragons—if one could consider a winged creature the size of a pack steed to be small—with pale colors beginning to emerge on spinal ridges and wing tips. Two each of blue, green, and red, the usual colors of dragon males. Still clinging to the protection of tumbling mist sat a shy pair tinged a rare purple. The last two dragon children who swam to Shayla’s side showed no trace of color of their own. The immature females reflected light; sun and water shimmering into a myriad of rainbows.
    (My other children seek lairs of their own and will mate at the end of the next century.) A note of maternal pride colored Shayla’s mental voice. She seemed brighter and her eyes more colorful as images of the eleven older cublets grown strong, flashed into Jack’s mind.
    “Two purples in this litter?” Jack asked. “Isn’t that supposed to be impossible to have two purples alive at the same time?”
    Shayla hunched her shoulders in a dragon shrug. (Destinies I cannot control determine the colors of my children.) She glanced at each of her offspring. Love seemed to radiate from her in almost visible waves.
    (I do not wish to birth a third litter in this land. When you have rested and eaten, we will begin the healing.)
    “We don’t have long,” Jack informed her. “Someone approaches from the south.”
    (The Simeon comes but once a year to renew the pain.) Shayla’s eyes grew dull. (’Tis not time for him.)
    “Unless his spy summoned him. He seeks new recruits for the coven. He wants me to fill an opening.”
    (Do you wish such a fate?) No emotion touched Shayla’s voice. Yet Jack felt the great anger filling her to near bursting. He didn’t want to be on the receiving end of her fury. Stargods help Simeon when she broke free of this beautiful prison.
    “I have no love for King Simeon or his coven. They wreak havoc with each spell they throw.” Jack affirmed.
    (Then come behind the waterfall. There is time for you to dine and sleep. We begin our work at dawn. When the agents of my enemy arrive, we will be long gone.)
    “If I can remember the spell,” Jack muttered to himself as he gathered the two packs and assisted the drooping Fraank around the edges of the pool. On the far left side, a narrow path led to a deep undercut behind the waterfall. A perfect hiding place or a dead-end trap?

Chapter 23
     
    I have found the lacemaker. She hides within an enclave owned by a Rover. She possesses knowledge damning to Simeon. Which does the king fear more, the knowledge or the Rovers? Zolltarn’s clan does not frighten me. I will have the knowledge and the lacemaker. Then I will have control over Simeon, king and sorcerer, as well.
     
    Fraank looked better already. He sat, huddled over a fire—ignited by an attentive baby dragon showing off his newly learned trick of blowing fire. The older man absorbed warmth while a meal of venison and tubers roasted over the coals. A red-tipped dragonet crouched beside the weary man, much like an oversized puppy anxiously protecting its master.
    This was no puppy. Rufan, as Shayla had named the dragonet, stood nearly as tall as Jack and probably weighed twice as much. His wings were wide enough and strong enough to support his body mass while flying. The hooked talons at wing elbow, wing tip, and on all four feet could flay man or crush the neck of a goat. He was not yet telepathic with humans.
    Jack watched his traveling companion lean against Rufan’s flank. Tension left Fraank’s spine and neck as his body slumped further against the dragonet. In moments Fraank was asleep against his warm and furry pillow.
    Relieved at the ease Fraank had finally found, Jack relaxed against a nest of dried leaves and blankets, easy in mind and body for the first time in years. For a while they were safe, warm, and dry. He could turn his mind toward matters beyond survival.
    “Your mate, the blue-tipped dragon who showed me this place in a dragon-dream, promised me information when I found you.”
    (You desire to know of your family.)
    “I have a right to know my own history!” The familiar anger of his youth began