The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

to curl within Jack’s empty stomach. He clamped down on a temper he knew could soon boil out of control.
    (Are you certain you want to know these things?)
    “I must. How can I know who I am if I know nothing of my parentage and childhood? I need to know if the name I chose for myself is truly mine and I am worthy of it.”
    (You make your own life, your own future.)
    “But my past shaped me.”
    (At moonrise, you may climb to the second highest peak above the waterfall. The dragon who wears magician blue on his wings and spines will speak to you there.)
    “Is there a path, or must I levitate up there?” Levitation took more energy than Jack thought he could muster right now.
    (A staircase exists. You must use your special gifts of sight beyond sight to find it.)
    Sight beyond sight. That meant magic and only his bodily strength to draw upon. Time to refuel. “I think that venison is cooked enough.”
    Fraank woke up as Jack approached the fire pit. Rufan looked at them both with a sparkle of mischief in his eye. Maybe it was just a reflection of the firelight. The baby dragon eyed the venison and then cocked his long head at the two men. Jack caught a glimmer of a thought.
    “Don’t you dare add any more char to my roast!” Jack lunged to restrain Rufan from breathing more fire upon the deer carcass. He wrapped both hands around the silvery muzzle.
    Rufan’s surprise jolted Jack off his feet. Telepathic communication dribbled into Jack’s mind as Rufan scooted backward on the cave floor, closer to his mother. A few incoherent thoughts and a gibberish of dragon language fed a confusion of images. Still Jack clung to the dragon’s muzzle, afraid to let go, lest he be the next target of fiery experiments.
    Shayla appeared at his side, looming tall and protective over her youngster. Jack cringed away from her powerful talons.
    (You seem to have awakened the boy’s mind. Now we must teach him to speak in words instead of baby pictures,) Shayla chuckled. With a nudge of her muzzle against Rufan and a wink of her enormous eye at Jack, she sent the child to his nest for the night.
     
    “Sight beyond sight,” Jack muttered to himself as he stretched his hands above him, seeking the next handhold on the cliff wall. The moon rose above his left shoulder, nearly full in a hazy sky. Diffuse light washed the cliff in a uniform pearly gloss. “I need eyes in my hands and feet for this climb.” He clung to the next narrow indention.
    Tired and panting, he pulled himself up another step. If the “stairs” were a little wider, he’d probably crawl. As it was, the indentations weren’t wide enough to support one knee let alone two. The ledge he’d stood upon during his dragon-dream of this valley had been this narrow.
    The moon rose higher. An irregular knob appeared above Jack, outlined in an eerie shimmer of magic and moonlight. A halo of deep blue hovered around the form. The dragon who wore magician blue.
    Jack took another step and another, and then he was within the blue aura.
    “Sir?” Jack tentatively probed the slumbering dragon with mind and words.
    (You are late again, Boy.) The huge male didn’t stir from his crouched pose, muzzle buried in a pillow of forepaws and encircling tail.
    “I ran into some problems along the way,” Jack defended himself. He wasn’t a naive adolescent any more to bow to just any authoritative voice and manner.
    (Did you learn anything from your brash mistakes?) The dragon opened one eye briefly, as if to verify his presence. Faceted points caught the moonlight and sparked with emotions Jack couldn’t read. Then the translucent membrane dropped and the dragon seemed to slumber once more.
    “My experiences taught me many things about the man I can be. Only you have the key to the child I was.”
    (You won’t like the story I have to tell.)
    “I don’t like not knowing more. I have a right to know who I am, where I come from, what my true name is.”
    (Jack suits you fine; more honestly than Yaakke.)
    “But what name was I given at birth? No mother would leave a child unnamed. You promised to tell me when I found Shayla!”
    (The lack of this knowledge burns deep within you. That yearning must be satisfied or you will not have the concentration to work the healing spells. Come.) The nameless dragon heaved himself up onto his hind legs in a curiously graceful undulation for so large a creature. He stretched his spine and reached his shorter forelegs toward the night