Dragons of Sarathia - Prologue

"What is he doing?"

It was a breathtaking storm, the worst that Sunclaw had seen in all his four hundred and twelve years of life. Gales snatched up flurries of snow from the mountains that housed Clan Alor and hurled them around to join the hard, almost horizontal rain. Most of the clan had taken shelter inside their respective caves and mountains, the better to last the storm out.

Sunclaw's mate, a slim white dragoness called Moon, joined him in the mouth of the cave, squinting as the wind drove rain into her eyes.

"Who?"

"That...there. See him?" Sunclaw stretched out his thickly muscled neck to indicate direction with his snout. Named for the golden claw on his right hind foot, he was larger than most dragons, a fact Moon knew made him feel awkward and clumsy at times.

Lightning split the sky, throwing the mountains around them into stark relief, and Moon saw him. A male dragon who looked barely old enough to be out the nursery battled fiercely against the ever-changing wind, making determined headway towards their cave and apparently oblivious to the fact that he spent almost as much time being blown backwards and sideways as he did going forwards.

Sunclaw stared. "He'll sprain a wing if he keeps on like that. Who is he?"

Moon frowned, studying the stranger through narrowed eyes.

"I think we should get out of his way," she said suddenly. "I don't think he's going to stop."

Moon had always been regarded as an excellent Matriarch. In this case, she also proved to be quite a good prophet; no sooner had she and her mate stepped aside than the stranger hurtled in through the opening. He tried to brake, but the combination of wet hide on damp stone caused him to skid a full ten feet with forelegs braced, then he half fell, half collapsed onto his side, rotated gently in a full circle and eventually came to rest upside down against the far wall.

There was a long silence. Both Sunclaw and Moon prided themselves on never being at a loss, on always having a response for whatever life threw at them, but a young male dive-bombing their cave fast enough to crash into the opposite wall was a new one on both of them.

Well, mostly. There had been that incident with the clutchling who hadn't quite got the hang of steering and flying at the same time, but this dragon was clearly past that stage.

Dragons grew rapidly considering their average lifespan was a thousand years; most reached their full size by the time they were thirty. This dragon clearly had a lot more growing to do, although he was already the most handsome male either had ever seen. A jet-black hide stretched over a frame that was slender yet muscular, with crystal blue eyes that seemed to pierce their innermost thoughts. There was something in those eyes that made Moon uneasy; they were the eyes of one who had already seen far too much. He was gasping for breath, his tail lashing rapidly in the spasms so common to dragons suffering from exhaustion.

No dragon would send their clutchling out in such weather, Moon rationalised, unless it was an absolute emergency.

"Who are you?" Sunclaw said, not unkindly. The young male somehow managed to roll over and get to his feet, although his legs trembled.

"Your pardon, honoured lord," he said, in between gulps of air. "I was...I need someone to help. Badly."

Matriarch and Patriarch exchanged amused looks. There was only one Clan in the whole of Sarathia whose members spoke like that.

"You're a long way from Clan Hyul," Sunclaw remarked pleasantly.

The effect was electric; the black dragon's head snapped up so fast Moon wondered how he didn't give himself whiplash.

"Who said I was from Clan Hyul?"

"Nobody." Sunclaw kept his own voice and expression calm. "But I know Patriarch Greywind. He's a stickler for flattery."

Something in that appeared to amuse their guest; he gave a short laugh.

"You got that right!" A spasm of coughing racked his body and for a moment afterwards all he could do was stand there, gasping for breath.

"Settle down and talk," Sunclaw said politely. "Moon, see if you can bring food for our guest."

The male shook his head vigorously, accidentally soaking them with water. "I--oh, sorry. No, thank you. I don't have much time. I need help."

"Perhaps you could be a little more specific?" Sunclaw said. "What's your name, young one?"

A shudder ran through the stranger, one that wasn't entirely cold-related.

"Ravenshadow...Raven, rather."

Moon started. She'd heard of Greywind's fourth clutchling and, like everyone else, had assumed he'd died in that fateful flight five years ago. Glancing at her mate, she saw the same shocked realisation in his eyes.

Something of their feelings must have been obvious on their faces, because Raven added, "I must ask you not to tell my parents I'm here. They would be...less than happy to see me again."

"Rest," Sunclaw said. "You're near dead with exhaustion."

Raven shook his head again. "I can't. I promised her I wouldn't be gone long." Somehow, he managed to stand a little straighter, neck arched, and cleared his throat. "I humbly request the services of a birthing mother." Glancing over his shoulder as though being chased, he added, "The sooner the better. I don't mean to be rude, but there is something of a time factor involved."

Moon nodded and turned away. "I'll get Valley. She's the best we have. How old's the female?"

"Ten. Eleven, almost."

There was a long, stunned silence. Dragons became fertile comparatively early in life, but none would consider mating until they were in their thirties, and most didn't have clutches until at least seventy.

"How old?" Sunclaw said at last. It seemed a ridiculous question - he'd heard Raven perfectly well, after all - but he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Just get the damn birthing mother!" The arrogance that was so typical of Clan Hyul (and in particular the ruling family) flashed across in that snarl.

Without hesitating, Moon broke into a trot. Raven was right; now was not the time for inane questions.

Left alone with Sunclaw, the black dragon seemed to wither in on himself.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have acted that way."

"You're concerned. Perfectly understandable given the circumstances." Sunclaw gestured with one foreleg for the young male to lie down and Raven complied, the action hard enough to dislodge droplets of water from his scales. "Tell me more about--"

"A what?"

This question, posed by a female who sounded suspiciously like Valley (and also posed loudly enough to wake up the rest of the Clan) cut Sunclaw off.

"A female clutching outside, in this weather? Madness!" Valley strode into the cave, closely followed by Moon. The birthing mother was large and solidly built, a vivid green dragon whose mind and zest for life were in no way diminished by her age. While not the oldest dragon in Clan Alor by any means, she had a tendency to treat everyone else - even her seniors - as naughty clutchlings.

"Well, there's nothing else for it," Valley went on as she stretched both wings, limbering them up. "I'll have to bring her back here. I just hope she's not too far gone."

"Are you sure you can manage on your own?" Sunclaw asked.

Valley gave him a pointed look. "In case you've forgotten, I birthed the pair of you and both your respective sets of parents! I may be old, but I'm not decrepit yet! Now, where is this mother-to-be?"

"In the forest." Raven forced himself to his feet and stepped forward. "I'll show you."

"You will do no such thing!" Valley barred the exit imperiously, staring down her broad snout at Raven. "You are going straight into one of the guest caves, where you will get some rest and tomorrow something to eat! I may be old, but I'm perfectly capable of searching the forest myself, thank you very much! Now, is there something I should tell her so she knows you sent me?"

Raven blinked, looking somewhat shell-shocked. Moon didn't blame him. Valley in full spate often had that effect on dragons.

"Uh...her name's Nightwater. That should do; only she and I know it. Her parents wanted to call her...something else."

"She's a mottle," Sunclaw said.

It wasn't a question. Raven nodded once, slowly.

"Yes. Mottled green and blue with dark scales on top. She's almost directly south of here, in the forest."

"Good. I'll find her. And if you don't get some sleep this instant, I'll tie you to a boulder and leave you to Clan Udasi!"

Without waiting for a reply, Valley backwinged out of the cave, whirled with surprising elegance and glided into the night.

After a short pause, Raven shrugged and said, "Well, if she's even half as good a birthing mother as she is a talker, I suppose it'll work out okay."

Sunclaw's eyes twinkled. "Don't worry. There aren't many dragons here under the age of five hundred that Valley hasn't birthed. She knows what she's doing."

"I hope so," Raven said, although he didn't sound too optimistic. There was a slightly glazed cast to his expression now. Whatever energy had sustained him this far had almost gone.

"Do you want to sleep?" Sunclaw asked courteously. "If you do, there are plenty of caves available."

Raven shook his head. "I can't. Not until I know she's alright."

"Then perhaps we should talk, to take your mind off this."

The dragon shivered again. If this pair helped Nightwater, he'd talk to them until his voice stopped working if that was what they wanted.

"Yeah. Sure."

"Very well." Sunclaw settled himself in a corner, acting as though young, long-lost sons of Patriarchs frequently blew into his caves. "I'm sure we all know this anyway, but just to confirm...you are Greywind's son, aren't you?"

The corner of Raven's mouth twisted in a wry grimace. "I was. Since I put my life on the line to save a mottle, I think I condemned myself to life in exile." He ruffled his wings in a shrug. "No great loss. Father always favoured Blizzard to take over the Patriarchy. He's got the temperament for it. Me, I'm too soft. Father made that clear when I tried to persuade him to my way of thinking on certain matters."

"Mottles?" Sunclaw inquired delicately.

"Of course. There were seven of us in that clutch, but only five are alive now." Raven looked away, his expression dark. "I'm sure you don't need me to tell you what happened to my sisters."

Moon's tail twitched once, irritably. Her views on Clan Hyul's prejudice against mottled dragons were well known, and it was only Raven's status as a guest that kept her from blurting them out.

"Greywind was very concerned about you," Sunclaw said, his tone now gently reproving. Whatever the Hyul Patriarch's faults were, he was genuinely devoted to his family.

Raven snorted, meeting the older dragon's stare with unrepentant eyes. "Yeah. I bet he was. Just like I'd bet he never mentioned the fact that my oh-so-wonderful older brother had tossed a mottled clutchling off the cliff two minutes before."

"Nightwater?"

The black dragon nodded. "Yeah. I didn't fully understand what was going on, except I didn't want it to continue. I just leapt after her, caught her, spread my wings and hoped."

"That was brave," Moon said quietly. Raven snorted again.

"Stupid more like; let's not kid ourselves here. I was fifteen years old and barely able to fly from one cave to the next, much less pull off a stunt like that."

"You managed it though," Sunclaw pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I did and I didn't. Sure I caught her, but my wings cramped up a hundred feet up and I fell the rest of the way. If I hadn't been above the Glass Lake, we'd both be dead by now." He gave another draconic shrug. "Still, we lived. I swam out with Nightwater and we went into hiding in the forest. I didn't want anyone from the Clan to find us and pick up where they left off."

"Yes, I'm all in favour of not killing mottles," Sunclaw remarked.

Glancing at the older dragon's navy and cyan mottled hide, Raven smiled slightly.

"Yeah. I guess you would be, huh?"

Unable to contain herself any longer, Moon burst out, "It's ridiculous! Even Clan Udasi doesn't kill its own clutchlings because of the colour of their hide! It's sick!"

"It's tradition," Raven said with a shrug, although the hard light in his eyes said he was more inclined towards the Matriarch's point of view than his own Clan's.

"Tradition!" Moon lashed her tail furiously. "One of my clutchlings happens to be a mottle, for your information, and if you think I could be persuaded to murder her for no better reason than tradition--!"

Raven took a few steps back. "Stay cool. In case it hasn't penetrated that horned head of yours, Matriarch, I'm no more in favour of this than you are." He gave a bitter laugh. "Hell, I didn't even know there were mottled dragons until I met Nightwater."

The tip of Moon's tail twitched once or twice. "Yes, and while we're on that subject, exactly what happened to her?"

The black dragon curled his upper lip in a wry smile. "Not me, if that's what you're thinking." He shook his head. Thinking about this was still painful, even now. "I went out hunting. Brought back a couple of deer to our lair, but there was no sign of Nightwater." He snorted. "I wasn't too worried. She likes to play hide-and-seek, you know? I found her in a thicket. She'd been...well. I'm sure you don't need me to fill in the blanks."

There was an appalled silence.

"Do you know who did it?" Moon asked at the end of it.

Raven smiled again, a feral expression. "If I did, he'd be dead." He shrugged. "There's no way of finding out unless the jerk steps forward to confess, and I can't see that happening." Shifting his weight uncomfortably, as though afraid he'd said too much, he tried and failed to stifle a yawn.

"Get some rest," Sunclaw advised him. "Valley will wake you as soon as she gets back with Nightwater."

Raven shook his head. "No. I'm not closing my eyes until I see she's alright."

"No?" The Patriarch stretched luxuriously, flexing his claws and gouging out a trail two inches deep in the stone. "Very well, as you like. I'll go and make sure there's a spare cave for when our guest arrives, and then I must ask you to excuse me. It's been a long night."

"Sure." Raven was staring at the cave entrance again, as though he could embarrass it into producing Valley and Nightwater on the spot. Sunclaw let it go. It would have been stupid - not to mention crass and insensitive - to pull rank on the young dragon now. Besides, Raven had every reason to be preoccupied just then.

Left alone, Moon stepped closer to him.

"It was brave, saving her," she said again.

Raven snorted, brushing aside her words with an irritable swipe of the tail.

"Yeah. Right. If I was so great, I could have stopped that jerk from doing...what he did."

"You mustn't blame yourself."

"Why not?" Raven demanded. "If I'm not responsible for her and her safety, then who is?" He shifted from foot to foot, then glanced at her over his shoulder. "Look. Don't think I'm ungrateful for all this, but I just need some time alone. Okay?"

The look Moon gave him was a little too understanding for Raven's peace of mind, but the dragoness didn't say anything beyond, "Of course."

Turning, she walked out, leaving the troubled black dragon behind.

Ironically, Moon thought that the clutchling that Greywind had declared an exile was easily the best possible successor that any Patriarch could wish for. Raven was smart, resourceful, and very handsome as well.

Chuckling at such adolescent thoughts, Moon padded softly into her sleeping chamber.

"I was beginning to think our young guest had enticed you away," Sunclaw remarked from where he lay comfortably on the stone. Generations of Patriarchs and Matriarchs had lain in that same spot, wearing away the rock over time until it was a comfortably shaped niche.

Moon favoured him with an expression that would have been considered a smirk on any dragon but a Matriarch.

"Well, he is rather nice. I don't know but if he'd been around when we were in our thirties, you might have lost out."

Sunclaw chuckled. "I find it hard to believe that our guest could have wooed you on the lellela with as much care and thought as I did."

Moon laughed as she settled down next to him. "And how shall I ever forget that? I was cold and aloof towards you and so you came and serenaded me every night for a week!"

The Patriarch stretched one hind leg out luxuriously. "Well, it worked. Before that week was out, you were snout over tail in love with me and proposed the next morning."

"Well, anything was better than suffering your attempts at music for another night. People were starting to complain."

Sunclaw groaned. "Oh, you are a hard and thoughtless female! Never a care for how much I suffered, never a thought do you spare for how I wrecked my talons plucking the hard strings on that wretched instrument--"

"Your plucking did more damage to my ears than to your talons," said the unsympathetic Moon.

Still bickering amiably, the pair drifted off to sleep.

Back in the cave, Raven stared out at the mountains without really seeing them. It felt strange being among other dragons again; for the past decade it had been just him, Nightwater and the odd drake that stopped in passing.

If he ever got hold of that bastard who had raped Nightwater... Raven flexed his talons unconsciously, digging shallow grooves in the rock under his feet.

I should go after that dragoness. Suppose something goes wrong with the birth?

Almost immediately the thought flashed into his mind: And if it does, just how much help are you likely to be? Besides, she said she'd bring Nightwater back here and she doesn't seem the type to lie.

Raven remained motionless for the rest of the night, waiting, mind filled with a whirlwind of memories.