The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume II

enjoyment.
    No bickering and passing off of responsibility among these people. Nor any question of authority. They all knew who led them and what their role in the clan was. Sometimes Nimbulan wondered if their minds were all connected, passing thoughts and commands back and forth.
    What an interesting idea. If he could figure out how to do that, then his school could train magicians to truly work as a team, even if they never learned to properly join their magic.
    An ache of regret formed a knot in his throat. He missed his boys. But he couldn’t return to them yet. He had secrets to learn.
    Someone had tried to murder him to keep him from pursuing his quest for unity among magicians. He had to be careful.
    An image of Powwell’s freckles turning darker against his pale skin as he concentrated on a spell, invaded his mind along with an intense wave of loneliness. He pictured Powwell turning his wide gray eyes up to him, begging for an easy answer.
    And Rollett, the orphaned apprentice who stood by his side in battle. Without his keen observations of all that happened during the battle, many of Nimbulan’s spells might be misdirected. Rollett, who looked to him as a father. . . .
    He gulped and pushed the emotions aside. This lazy routine of wandering was his life for now. The Rovers had accepted him as one of their own—mostly. He needed their complete trust before they’d show him the secrets of their rituals.
    “My family works together very well, does it not, Lan?” Televarn sat beside him.
    “You move as quietly as a cat. You should announce yourself.” Nimbulan breathed deeply, trying to quiet his racing heart. People had never startled him before he met the clan. His magic hummed a warning whenever someone approached. How did Televarn avoid his natural alarms? He couldn’t detect any countermagic.
    How had the Rover known the precise angle of his thoughts?
    “Why should we announce ourselves? Enemies could be warned as easily as family.”
    Without that sense of awareness, Nimbulan would never truly belong to them. Some of the warmth went out of the lodge and his life. His longing to return to his boys and the school intensified. He belonged there.
    “There are ways for you to participate in our Kardiagenea, friend,” Televarn said casually, watching the dancers rather than Nimbulan.
    “Kardiagenea,” Nimbulan murmured and stroked his new beard. “You make your own Kardia? Impossible.” While his words denied the process, his heart leaped into his throat with eager anticipation. Televarn offered him a chance to share in the clan’s unique bonding. Perhaps they’d finally reveal some of their magic.
    “No, we seek to become the Kardia. All the elements and the cardinal directions combined. We merge with the blue lines that lace the surface of the land, connected by energy to the source of all knowledge, all magic, all life. Think of it, Lan. You could share the most intimate relationship of all. Better than joining your body to Maia’s. You would join yourself to all life in your thoughts, your emotions, your very being.” Excitement tinged Televarn’s voice, infecting Nimbulan with the possibilities.
    “How is this done?”
    “With magic. Special magic.”
    “How can you know that I am capable of this magic?”
    “You are a powerful magician. I sensed it the first moment we met. I knew it when you refused to give your true name.”
    “You have not asked for proof of my magic.”
    “Rovers know when they are in the presence of one who can work our magic. It is part of the Kardiagenea. We need no proof that you have Rover blood in you.”
    “If I have Rover blood in me, then why am I not part of the Kardiagenea already?” Part of him screamed a denial that any of his ancestors had stooped so low as to introduce Rover blood into the aristocratic family. He might be only the second son of a second son with no chance to inherit land or title, but he was proud of the lineage traceable back to the time of the Stargods. His dark auburn hair—before gray had faded much of it—proclaimed his pure ancestry.
    “You need to be awakened if you are not born among us and exposed to the Kardiagenea from the moment of conception. Maia wants another child. Our clan needs more children. Children are the only true wealth of Rovers. You must be truly one of us before the child is conceived.”
    “You have too many mouths to feed now, Televarn.” Nimbulan wasn’t about to dash the man’s hopes