Faelost Read online

  I wish I'd been able to know him, but all I could do was feign contentment with Mom's assurance that he truly did want me and love me. I was restless, though. A few months after I found out, I decided to see if I could learn anything about the rest of his family. Uncle Elsin was my father's childhood best friend, so I started by talking to him. Rohir had two younger siblings, but both died in infancy. My grandparents were named Rahnan and Aladora Lim. Rahnan was a farrier who died when a horse kicked him in the head the day before Rohir's seventh birthday. Aladora was a lacemaker who sold her wares to my dressmaker maternal grandmother, Nell Sylleth. That was how Uncle Elsin and my father knew each other. Aladora died suddenly and without explanation when Rohir was twelve, leaving him an orphan. The court awarded him the family's tiny cottage, so he had a place to live. The judge also declared him old enough to avoid the orphanage, but Elsin believed it was only because that particular judge considered lower class orphans to be nothing but worthless burdens on the Jadeshire upper classes. Rohir had no assets aside from the cottage and had difficulty finding a legitimate job or apprenticeship because of his age, so for several years he resorted to stealing in order to feed himself.

  With Elsin's help, I was able to dig a little further into my father's family history. Rahnan Lim was an only child whose mother died in childbirth and whose father died when he was young. He grew up in the home of a spinster aunt who kicked him out once she decided he was old enough to survive on his own. He apprenticed to a farrier and remained out of trouble but perpetually destitute. Aladora was the daughter of a lowborn half-elf named Miron Greenbriar and a human woman named Amora Arcan. Amora died thirty years before my search, but I couldn't find a record either of Miron's death or of his current residence. Based on his caste status alone, he was likely as long-dead as the rest of the family was.

  The most interesting part of my research, aside from finding out I had a touch of elven blood, was learning my own name. I'd always believed my surname to be Sylleth, but it turned out my legal name as logged in the official Citadel records was Tessen Lim. Mom wasn't sure why. She suspected the midwife either had filled out the birth papers incorrectly herself or had handed them to my father to sign, and he'd filled them out with his own surname in anticipation of marrying Mom and legitimizing me. After I found out, the court gave me the option of keeping Lim or switching to Sylleth. With my mother's encouragement, I decided to keep my legal name. Tessen Lim still felt strange on my tongue when I introduced myself, but I was getting used to it. It was my way of connecting with the father I never had the chance to know, and of forgiving myself for spending sixteen years believing he was nothing but a wretched criminal.

  My name was one of the only things he had left behind for me. Otherwise, all I had were the scattered memories Mom and Elsin supplied and the simple identification pendant that Mom found on him in the cave and gave to me. Aside from my brown Satlan complexion and russet eyes, I'd been told I looked nothing like my father, so I couldn't create a face to insert into the relayed memories. Mom tried to draw a picture of him once, but her attempt ended up looking more like a squashed troll than an actual person.

  With my new name came the knowledge that I was the sole living member of my paternal family line. It was a sparse line, too, and lowborn with no family crest and few records. I wanted to change that. I'd been sketching crest ideas into my notebook so I could make my own pendant. I was a silvermith apprentice, so it would be a good project for me. My father's pendant was a simple circle with a star and his name etched into it. My mother's surname, Sylleth, meant ascent, and her family crest contained a star, so I was trying to combine the concepts. My favorite idea so far was a large star overlapping a mountain summit, with a circle representing the full moon behind the mountain and a green field serving as a frame behind that. I'd have to play around with it more and experiment with materials in the shop until I came up with something I'd be proud to pass down to my children someday.

  Anyway, back to that evening.

  It was dark outside and the summer crickets were loud enough to be an irritation. I wanted to try catching some to see if the dragons would eat them. My dragon had been asleep since just after she hatched, so I hadn't needed to feed her yet. She certainly was a pretty little thing, and her scales were softer and warmer than they looked. Too bad she wouldn't stay small. She'd grow and keep growing, and she may eventually become the behemoth Shan had told me her mother was.

  Someone hummed in the hallway. I thought everyone else was asleep, but I was wrong. The floorboards creaked and Daelis tiptoed into the great room. Zinnia was nestled in a sling on his chest. A tunnel collapse in the caves had left Daelis with a partially-paralyzed left arm, so he had difficulty carrying her without support. I still wasn't sure what I thought of him. Sometimes I hated him because he abandoned Mom when she was pregnant with Shan, but most of the time I respected him for atoning for that. Daelis was odd, even for an elf. He was a highborn, and the heir to the Jadeshire duchy, but he didn't act like any highborn I'd ever met or heard about. He'd taken to keeping his fair hair short in defiance of all elven customs, he moved into our house in merchant class Hawthorn Heights instead of dragging all of us into a manor, and he never treated other people like they were beneath him. He also continued to assist the Uldru that he'd helped rescue from the Jarrah. As much as I initially wanted to hate him, I had to admit now that he was a good match for my stalwart, ex-mercenary mother.

  Daelis paced across the room several times before settling on the couch next to me. Zinnia was awake. She stared at me, so I smiled at her and let her hold my fingers. She was a pretty baby with Mom's dark hair, Daelis's vibrant blue-green eyes, and distinctively half-elven ears. Mom said Zinnia looked a lot like how she remembered me as a newborn, aside from her half-elven features and fair complexion.

  “She wants to be nocturnal but Rin needs sleep.” Daelis kissed Zinnia's wispy hair and smiled at me. “I thought you were asleep. How are you doing with all of this chaos?”

  “The chaos is why I'm still awake,” I said. Zinnia let go of my hand and mewled. The tiny dragon on my lap echoed the sound, then yawned. “I'm trying to figure out a name for this dragon. And a proper family crest. I think I finally have an idea for the latter, but the former just isn't happening. I won't be able to sleep until she's named.”

  “Any ideas so far?”

  “None. Not one. When they hatched, Shan immediately spouted out 'Lumin' for the other one, but I am entirely not prepared for this. What's even appropriate for dragon names? I don't think she should be named like a pet, but a person name doesn't seem right, either. I tried looking for ideas from historical dragons in one of Shan's books, but those were all long, ridiculous, pretentious, unpronounceable names.”

  “Maybe you're overthinking it.” Daelis shifted Zinnia's weight on his chest, then reclined so his head rested against the back of the couch. “Take a good look at her and say the first thing that pops into your head. My grandmother once told me that was the best way to name a dragon.”

  I slipped my hand under the dragon so she rested on my palm and then raised her up to eye-level. One blue and one amber eye stared at me with mild interest. She released a brief purr and closed her eyes again. I thought I had something. “Pineapple Rumcake.”

  “What?” Daelis said with a cough that startled Zinnia.

  “I'm joking. Serida. It's a rearrangement of Erisda, her mother's name. She looks like a Serida to me.” I held the dragon to my chest and felt her warmth radiate into my heart.

  “Then call her Serida.” Daelis stared up at the cobwebbed ceiling beams and sighed. “Before you go to bed, I want to ask you something. Did Shan coerce you into letting this dragon bind to you, or was this a decision you made on your own?”

  “I'm not going to answer that.” I plucked a skittering spider off the couch arm and offered it to Serida. Her jaws snapped and she swallowed it without chewing. “Whatever happened, it's done now. She's mine and I'm hers and it's against
Bacran law to keep a dragon in the Jade Realm so we're both in trouble.” I leaned to the side so I could kiss my baby sister's brow. “Good night, sweet Zinnia. I love you. Good night to you too, Daelis. I hope she lets you get some sleep.”

  Chapter 3

  I woke with a tiny dragon curled up on my pillow. A faint floral scent clung to the linen. Lily, was it? No, not lily. Lilac. Why did my bedroom smell of lilac? I leaned close to the dragon and sniffed her. The smell was definitely radiating from her. Was the floral musk a dragon thing, or was it particular to this specific dragon?

  The odd-eyed hatchling chirped at me and uncoiled her long tail from around her body. She stretched, then attempted to stand, but her legs wobbled and she dropped back onto the pillow.

  “Good morning, um . . . damn it all, I can't remember what I named you.” I searched my memory for the name I gave her while I was half-asleep. “Erisda . . . no, that's your mother's name. You are . . . who are you? Serida. Now I remember. Good morning, Serida.” I stroked her back and she swiveled her slender neck around so she could nip at my fingers. “Are you hungry? I bet you are. Let's go find some breakfast.”

  I slid off the bed. I expected woven wool, but instead my feet landed on something warm and squishy. Shan was curled up on his side on the rug next to my bed, his dragon sprawled across his neck.

  He yelped as I shifted my weight off his thigh. “Hey, watch it!”

  “What are you doing? Why are you on my floor?” I picked up Serida and stepped over Shan.

  “Can't remember. Go away. Sleeping.”

  “Whatever.”

  It wasn't the first time I'd found him asleep on the floor this year. Considering how neatly made his bed was when I was in his room yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if floor-sleeping had become a habit for him. I didn't understand it, but I wasn't the one who'd spent over three months trapped in a cave, followed by a week of torture. Mom told him he was welcome to do whatever brought him comfort as long as it doesn't involve hurting himself or anyone else. She also told me not to poke fun at him for his strange behavior.

  My bedroom was the smallest in the house, barely more than a pantry, so it was only a couple steps to the door. I used to have the loft, but I gave it to Yana when Mom and Daelis adopted her. I didn't mind the change, but I still sometimes woke in a panic because I had no idea where I was. It was only temporary, anyway. I had another two years left in my apprenticeship, and then I planned on moving out of Mom's house and into a place of my own.

  Mom and Yana were already in the kitchen. Zinnia was nowhere in sight, so I assumed she was asleep in her bassinet. Mom was barely awake as she spread a dark red jam well-past the crust of her toast. She yawned, then scratched at the side of her head with the jam knife, leaving a sticky mess in her dark curls. She blinked her pale blue eyes several times before looking up. She smiled at me and yawned again.

  “You've got jam in your hair, Mom,” I said.

  “Oh. Again?” She sighed and tugged at her hair with a napkin. She'd let her hair grow out over the past year, and the curls now touched her collarbones. I'd never seen her with long hair before, and I wasn't sure if I liked it. I thought she made the change to signal that her adventuring days were over, but now she looked less distinctive and more like the average Jadeshire woman. Katrin Sylleth-Goldtree was hardly an average woman.

  I put Serida on the table before sitting down. The little dragon crawled toward Yana's plate and began gulping down her blueberries and crickets. Yana had spent her early life eating whatever she could find in the underground, and her diet still included assorted insects and amphibians. I always tried to sit next to her so I didn't have to watch her eat. It was especially bad when her meal was still alive and trying to escape. At least her breakfast crickets were dead, probably only because they'd hop off her plate if they weren't.

  “I like your dragon,” Yana said. She touched my shoulder and grinned at me with a mouth full of uneven, slightly pointed teeth. She was missing the top center pair as well as one on the bottom. Based on the adult Uldru I'd met, her permanent teeth would grow in with even more alarming points. Yana's appearance took some getting used to, but I'd come to find her adorable. Uldru were related to elves, and their elven features were more prominent in the adults. The refugee Uldru rescued from the catacombs were all adolescents and adults, so Yana was the only young child of her race I'd seen. Her huge, pale green eyes sat on either side of an upturned nose, but she usually shielded them with dark goggles during the day. Her pointed face was crowned with thick, moss-green hair, which she had chosen to crop neatly to chin-length. Uldru complexions were metallic of hue, ranging from pale silver to dark bronze, and Yana's skin fell on the argent end. Rose-touched starlight, Shan once said, and I thought that was an apt description.

  “I think I like her, too.” I scratched behind Serida's head crests. She growled and chomped another cricket. She'd already eaten four or five, and I wondered how big the stomach of a creature so small could possibly be.

  “She's tiny. I could eat her now, but soon she'll get big and will eat me instead.” Yana giggled and poured herself a cup of milk from a dented silver pitcher.

  “Don't you dare eat my dragon.”

  “I think she might taste like salamander.”

  “Yana!” My fist dropped to the table, startling both Serida and Mom.

  “We don't eat dragons, Yana.” Mom rubbed the side of her nose, then propped her elbows on the table. The toast still sat on the plate before her, uneaten. “Tessen, Daelis said you gave her a name last night. He had to tend to Uldru business this morning, so he didn't have the chance to tell me what it is.”

  “Serida.” I said. The dragon looked up at me when I said her name.

  “Serida. I like it. I assume you derived it from Erisda.”

  “Yeah. I thought it might be a good way to honor the mother she'll never know.” I glanced toward the bedrooms. “Shan's sleeping on my floor again. I stepped on him when I got out of bed. I have no idea what I'm doing. Wasn't expecting my own dragon. What am I supposed to do with her? I mean, it's obvious that she's not going to be able to stay here, or in the Jade Realm at all once she gets bigger, but that means I'll have to take her somewhere she can be safe. And thanks to Shan, it has to be me who takes care of her.”

  “You'll figure it out,” Mom said. Sadness flashed in her weary eyes. “And yes, you'll have to take her away from Jadeshire. We'll help you figure out where. Daelon is supposed to come by later to meet Zinnia, and I think he has some ideas. This is his realm, but the dragon prohibition is not his law to change.”

  “He's more likely to ramble at me about minerals than want to talk about dragons. I know he's just trying to be friendly when he does that, but it's tedious.”

  Duke Daelon Goldtree was Daelis's father. They were on unfriendly terms with each other for the entirety of Daelis's pre-cave life, but then the Jarrah faked Daelis's death and Daelon acknowledged that he'd loved his only child all along. Their new relationship was strange and uncomfortable, but I knew Daelis appreciated that his father was trying. Daelon liked me for some reason, which no one understood because he had a reputation for disfavoring humans. He was cold to me when we first met, but that only lasted a few awkward minutes. Once I told him I was a silversmith apprentice, we found ourselves in an hours-long discussion on metallurgy. He was more knowledgeable about it than I expected, and Daelis later told me it was because Daelon obsessively learned about the topics that ignited his curiosity. Because of our shared interest and my willingness to discuss it with him, I suspected that Daelon liked me a lot more than he liked impatient Shan, and that would be a problem if Shan ever noticed. I knew I'd be jealous if the situation were reversed.

  “He's . . . well, he's different. He wants to help, though. Daelis told him about the eggs just after we recovered them, so I know he has been working on the problem.” Mom finally took a bite of her cold toast. She chewed several times, then stared at the jam jar and sighed. “I have
no idea what this jam is supposed to be. I don't think I like it.”

  “Well, isn't that to be expected when you marry someone intent on bringing home strange fruits?” I picked up the jar and studied the label. “Chokeberry.”

  “When did you learn to read Dwarvish?” Mom asked, an eyebrow raised.

  Serida crawled onto my forearm. I eased her upward and slid her onto my shoulder. “I read it fluently now. Speak it okay, too. It's the standard language used in smithing texts, so it's kind of mandatory.” I rotated the jar so I could read the rest of the runes. “Chokeberry, ginger, apple vinegar, birch syrup. Made in Voldhum. I loved the pear-cardamom jam he brought home last time, but I don't know about this one.”

  “It's yuck,” Yana said. She stuck her tongue out at the jar. She dipped a cricket into a small bowl of honey butter, then loudly crunched it.

  “Try it if you like,” Mom said. She pushed a partial loaf of fresh bread toward me.

  I sliced off a thick piece and spread it with butter and jam. I was far too hungry to wait for toast. The flavor was tart, but not unpleasant. “Puckery. It's okay. More astringent than I like and it's the wrong combination for this rye, but I can eat it. Might be good with some sliced chicken and sourdough. Caramelized onions, a spread of soft cheese...”

  “It's yours.” Her chin drooped toward her chest. She startled and shook her head.

  “You really ought to go back to sleep, Mom. Zinnia's asleep, so you should be, too.”

  “I have things to–”

  “It's only been six days. You're not supposed to be doing anything except taking care of yourself and the baby. Let us do whatever needs to be done. And don't even think about mucking about in the garden. That's my job.”

  “Wake me up if–”

  “Enough, Mom. The only person I'm going to let wake you up is Zinnia. Don't worry about us. I've proven myself self-sufficient, remember? I'll clean up breakfast and make lunch. I'll watch Yana and make sure Shan doesn't do anything weirder than he did last night.” I offered Serida the last bite of my bread. She huffed and turned her face away from me. So far, spiders, crickets, and blueberries were dragon-approved. My stepfather's weird dwarven jam was not. Or, maybe it was the bread itself she didn't like.