The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

University. We have plenty of room in that great barn of a house Myri inherited from the dragons, especially now that Powwell is gone.” Nimbulan paused to stare at the mongrel. He wrinkled his nose at the smell of wet dog. “I hope you aren’t planning to bring that with you.” He pointed accusingly at the dog.
    “I don’t know. It followed me when we left the docks.” Bessel stooped to continue caressing the dog. In a way it seemed they belonged together. The bedraggled mutt looked up at him adoringly and licked his hand.
    “Myri won’t let it in her house until it has had a bath. I’m not sure I want the thing around. I’ve never had a use for familiars. My staff was always enough. . . .” He looked up at the sky and gulped back his emotions.
    “My familiar.” Suddenly Bessel knew that by announcing the bond between himself and the dog he had completed the process of adoption. They belonged together like the family he’d never truly had. Even the Commune had not offered him the trust and companionship this scruffy mutt did.
    Bessel looked at the dog in a new light. “I wonder why it waited until now to adopt me? Not many magicians have familiars anymore.” Perhaps the dog had sensed his magic only when he tapped the ley line. Perhaps the relationship of magician and familiar depended upon rogue magic.
    “That’s a question we can puzzle out later, along with other matters. Gather your things and meet me at the house in the morning, after you’ve cleaned up yourself and the dog. I wonder if the dragons have replaced familiars . . . ?” Nimbulan turned and wandered off into the city. He kept his left hand up, palm out while he pondered whatever great thoughts filled his head.
    No matter how depleted Nimbulan’s body, his mind obviously continued as bright and active as ever.
    “Come on, dog. Do you have a name? I can’t keep calling you dog.” Bessel beckoned the animal to follow him.
    Mopplewogger. The word came clearly into Bessel’s head.
    “That is a bizarre name. Mopplewogger. I wonder what it means.”
    Pictures of a long-legged and sleek water dog standing in the prow of a fishing boat filled his vision.
    “Sorry, dog. You don’t quite fit the picture.”
    The dog sat abruptly with a depressed look, if a face truly existed beneath the tangled ropes of muddy curls.
    The mind picture the dog sent Bessel abruptly switched to show an even larger dog jumping from the boat to assist a fisherman battling a bemouth, one of the voracious giants that inhabited the outer depths of the Bay.
    “If you say so, Mopplewogger,” he chuckled. “That’s how you see yourself. Maybe you are as brave and loyal as those dogs even though you’re less than half the size and all that wet fur would weigh you down in the water. C’mon, we both need a bath, some sleep, and something to eat before we present ourselves to Master Nimbulan and Ambassador Myrilandel. She talks to dragons. Maybe she can answer some questions for me.”

Chapter 21
     
    Before dawn, neighborhood temple near the University of Magicians, Coronnan City
     
    “H ome? You’ll take me back to Televarn?” Maia bounced into Kinnsell’s arms.
    “Whatever you wish, my dear.” Whoever Televarn is, he’s a lucky man. He held the young woman close against his chest a moment, breathing in her delicious feminine scent. He hadn’t been with a woman for quite a while. Surely his current wife would forgive him one lapse considering the wealth and prestige he would take home to Terra. It was not as if he were replacing his wife with a younger woman with a bigger dowry and better political connections.
    He’d done that three times before and was tired of the game. His current wife suited him fine. She’d make an elegant empress.
    Then the significance of the name Maia had given her man at home hit him between the eyes. Televarn: one who speaks to Varns. He’d run into a swarthy man of that name once on a mission to Kardia Hodos about a decade ago. The man was incapable of telling the truth, would betray anyone for the right coins, and drove a hard bargain, harder than any other trader Kinnsell had come across anywhere in the galaxy. He was also one of the most beautiful men Kinnsell had ever seen. No wonder Maia wanted to return to him.
    Kinnsell certainly wouldn’t take this delicious woman anywhere near Televarn until he’d finished with her.
    “Do you have possessions you must gather? We must leave immediately.” He’d take her