The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume II

of Televarn’s women has just lost her baby—Maia, I think, is her name. I’ll send for her.” Yaassima spoke to the guard outside the door of the suite.
    “I will have no Rover woman taint my child!” Especially not Maia, Nimbulan’s former lover. “Rovers steal children from their lawful parents.”
    “Your daughter deserves a name,” Yaassima continued without acknowledging Myri’s protest. “She needs a name of power; a name that will resound through history as does the name of our ancestor, Hanassa. Tomorrow we shall hold the Festival of Naming.”
    This time Yaassima caressed the baby’s hair, only a shade darker than Myri’s. Just a trace of silver gilt had appeared in some of the strands with the last few days.
    “Dragon hair. We all have it. You, me, the dragons. My daughter didn’t have it. Crystal fur on dragons, crystal hair on us. It reflects light away from us so that none may penetrate our thoughts and actions. Mystery is power.”
    “She’s just a baby. Her hair and eye color will change within a few weeks. She will grow into her long fingers and toes. She has no trace of the elongated spinal bumps.” Myri denied the kinship her protector pressed upon her daily. “Did you hear me when I said that Maia will not touch my child?”
    “I shall present the baby to the people of Hanassa at her naming. They must see that the dragon blood continues. No one will dare oppose me if they know for certain that another dragon waits to exact retribution. They wouldn’t have respected my daughter. She was weak, too like her father.” Yaassima continued to touch the baby, delaying Myri’s retreat to the privacy of her bedchamber. “Her name must be Hanassa.”
    Never! Myri kept her protestations to herself. She had to persuade Yaassima rather than defy her.
    “Rovers steal babies,” she repeated. “So few of their babies live that they must rob others of their children to bring new blood into the clans. If you allow Maia near my baby, she will find a way to kidnap her—or substitute her own dead child for my healthy one.”
    “She wouldn’t dare. I am the Kaalipha, and the child is my heir.”
    “ My baby is very wet. Do you wish to change her?” Myri asked coyly, knowing fastidious Yaassima would have nothing to do with the rather messy process of rearing an infant.
    “Go.” Yaassima fluttered her fingers in disgusted dismissal.
    Myri dodged around the older woman and walked toward the door to the inner room of the suite.
    She waved her hand across a metal plate set into the wall by the doorway. The light panels in the ceiling came to life, activated by some spell only Yaassima understood. The clear panels gave off a directionless glow, like witchlight, but yellow instead of the more natural fire green.
    The Kaalipha came no farther into Myri’s chamber than the doorway.
    “Where is the pywacket?” Yaassima asked. She used the ancient word for a familiar, from a language that had died out from all of Kardia Hodos except here in Hanassa.
    “I . . . I don’t know,” Myri stammered, halting her quest for a clean diaper. Grief nearly felled her again. “Perhaps he hunts rats in your kitchens.”
    Amaranth! You can’t be dead. Knife-sharp pain stabbed her heart and brought tears to her eyes again. The void beckoned for her to follow Amaranth into his next existence.
    “Did Televarn kill Amaranth, too?” Yaassima asked. A half smile creased her face and her eyes lit with lustful glee. The Kaalipha didn’t read minds often, but when she did, she always found her victim’s vulnerability. “I wondered how long that jealous Rover would allow your nasty creature to live. He could never possess it, so it must be eliminated. Just as he will never possess you. I can protect you from him, Myri. But only if you mind your duty to me. I will expect you in the Justice Hall as soon as you clean up the child. You may feed her there. Maia will take over as wet nurse this evening.”
    “I will not allow another to nurse my child—especially a thieving Rover. Never. And I will not nurse the child in front of your amoral criminals and perverts. Do you hear me?” So much for remaining invisible. But, s’murghit, some issues she had to fight.
    “My people must see the child and know her for my heir. If they see your breasts and lust after you, all the better. Their uncontrolled emotions give me control over their desires and power over their lives. Just as I have the power of life and death