The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume II

name unique to my family.”
    “I grieve for your loss, my lord. I was an orphan. I have no knowledge of my parents or why I was named Myrilandel, only that I came to my guardian with the name.”
    Her voice was the same melodic whisper Ackerly remembered from the hospital tent last autumn. He wanted to lean closer to capture every last nuance of her words. He needed to reach out a hand and touch her to make certain she was real, to smell her flowery scent, to follow her anywhere. . . .
    No wonder Moncriith thought her a demon. She could enchant the most hardened of hearts.
    “Before we settle in for a proper discussion of our mutual goals, I think you should know that the islands are soon to have some rather awesome visitors.” Nimbulan spoke with the commanding authority he used only on the battlefield. All within the room heard and turned their attention to him.
    “If we are to have guests, I would like to take my daughter home to her mother and give her a good meal and a bath. There is much to prepare at the school before we can offer lodging and meals. How many should we prepare for?” Stuuvart reached to clasp Kalen by the shoulders. The girl shrank away from him, trying to hide behind Myrilandel’s skirts.
    “Our visitors won’t require anything of you, Master Steward.” Nimbulan placed a reassuring hand on Kalen’s shoulder. The little girl relaxed a little, but didn’t move closer to her mother’s husband.
    “Will they be staying with me?” Lord Quinnault looked as if he were calculating the stores in his cellars.
    “No, my lord. Our visitors require nothing from us in the way of hospitality. I doubt they would fit inside either building.” That wry smile threatened to break through again. Myrilandel smiled, too.
    What was Nimbulan up to? In years gone by, Ackerly was privy to all of his master’s schemes. But now he’d been shut out, ignored. He deserved better than this. After all, he’d made the school a profitable and popular business. Nimbulan would never have been able to recruit nearly fifty apprentices and fifteen faculty. Nor would he have found the funds to make the school self-supporting.
    “Tomorrow morning, five dragons will grace us with their presence. For they are the secret to combined magic.”
    Everyone in the room grew unnaturally still.
    “Dragons?” Ackerly asked the question for all those present.
    “Dragons, Ackerly. I went in search of myths and found my future. The dragons are real and ready to form a covenant with us.”
    “If this isn’t some Tambootie-induced delusion, then the dragons are more likely ready to dine on all of us. Lord Quinnault, I suggest you lock Nimbulan and his wife in your deepest dungeon for their own protection. I ask only that you give me back the children. I am their master and have more legal right to their raising than their mothers.” Ackerly stalked out of the keep, heading for his school. He didn’t truly expect his children to follow.

Chapter 33
     
    N imbulan emerged from the central door of the old monastery at dawn the next morning, still yawning. Myri clung to his arm, barely able to contain her excitement. He looked across the sky for evidence of the dragons. Not that he expected to see the nearly invisible creatures themselves. If he caught a glimpse of a rainbow arcing down from where the sun struck their wings, he’d be lucky.
    “I guess we’ll have to wait a bit,” he said stifling another yawn.
    “I don’t think so.” Myri giggled, pointing upward.
    He followed her pointing finger to the top of the residential wing—right over the suite he had appropriated for himself and Myri. Shayla perched on the peak of the roof.
    The dragon peered at him with one multifaceted crystal eye. She cocked her head in a listening posture very like the one Myri adopted.
    Nimbulan broke the mesmerizing eye contact. He needed his wits about him today, not another dragon dream.
    Four smaller dragons—the twenty-year-old adolescents—silvery as moonlight, swam in the river, guarded the causeway, and eyed the fields of fat cows near Quinnault’s keep. Five full-sized males sat, reclined, and hovered over other portions of the island. Curious. None of the males had been present during the training session in the meadow.
    “Your mates joined you, Shayla!” Myri called and waved.
    (The need to control magic brought them out of their solitude. We will see if the covenant we reach is enough to keep them with me. ’Tis not