Page 15 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection
Chapter 15
And so began my apprenticeship in dragon care.
“This is not a fun job by any stretch of the imagination,” Ged said as we walked up to Cloud Raker. The others had taken their beasts off, having other tasks to take care of, so my first lesson fell to the big man. “Show the pretty ladies your teeth, Cloudy.”
I took an involuntary step back as Cloud Raker did just that. His muzzle peeled back, revealing a dense wall of fangs the length of my bloody forearm.
“They’ve got teeth like needles,” he explained, gesturing to his dragon’s fangs. “Serrated edges, good for ripping flesh apart.”
I blinked, remembering just how well they’d done that job the day before, the change in my expression making Ged’s smile fall.
“The good thing is nothing will fuck with you when you have a dragon at your back.” Cloudy seemed to understand what Ged was saying, his head rising up, hovering protectively over his rider. “The bad thing is they get shit stuck between their teeth, causing them to rot and fall out. It hurts the dragon, so it’ll hurt you. Can damn near kill them if it turns septic.” He patted the dragon’s neck. “So, part of dragon care is seeing to their teeth.”
He pulled what looked like a long knife from a sheath strapped to his leg, but when he held it out for me to inspect, I saw it was a long tapering length of polished bone.
“C’mon, let’s take a look at that mouth.” Ged’s voice rang with command, and I was still surprised the dragons would submit to a puny human’s will. Cloudy did as he was told, lowering his head again and baring his teeth. “No point hanging back there,” Ged told me. “You’ll be having a go at this as well.”
No, no, no, no, I wanted to say, the words repeating over and over in my head as I drew closer, but Ged went to work. He set the tip of the massive toothpick into the tiny gap at the base between two fangs and then drew it upwards, flicking the resulting threads of meat onto the grass.
“Don’t pierce the gums.” He pointed to the pink area at the base of the teeth. “Don’t force the pick between the fangs. You need to put some effort into it. The pick should glide naturally between the fangs, then flick the refuse onto the ground.”
“But…”
“You can watch me do this all morning, but that won’t help you, not unless you try.”
He held the pick out to me, hilt first, and I found myself taking it with the obedience that had long been bred into me. I looked the pick over, seeing the tiny cracks marring the smooth white surface, the way the steel handle had been embossed with tiny dragons along the hilt.
“C’mon, lass…” His hand hovered around my shoulder blades, then pressed down, steering me towards his dragon. “You were fighting off boys intent on robbing and raping you just last night. You can do this.”
He meant well, really he did. I could hear it in the sound of his voice, full of rough camaraderie. But I went still under his touch. It was only last night, though it felt like aeons had passed, yet also no time at all. What had happened to me, the trauma of it, it sat in my guts like a stone, heavy and indigestible.
His smile fell when he saw my face, which sent a pang through me. Somehow I felt responsible for that loss of good mood. His brows knotted, his eyes searching my face and he took a step closer…
Which forced me to take a step away.
He noted the way the toothpick rose, Cloud Raker rumbling a warning, but was it to him or me? Glimmer chirruped then, scrambling up out of my arms and perching on my shoulder with surprising ease, something that earned her a chuff of appreciation from the adult dragon.
He was right though, Ged. I’d faced down so much. And now? What was a man and a dragon, after what I’d seen and had done to me? A man and a dragon who’d lay down their lives to protect the two of us.
I stared at Ged as my hand tightened around the hilt and he nodded when he saw the shift in my expression, the way my knuckles went white. It felt like this was so much more than picking a bloody dragon’s teeth for him as I took a step closer.
Because Ged was with me, side by side, his big biceps nearly brushing mine as we moved together towards Cloud Raker’s mouth. The dragon obediently peeled back his lips, baring his fangs for my inspection as I raised the toothpick. Glimmer made strange little burbling sounds as I got closer, which I chose to interpret as encouraging ones.
“That’s it, lass.”
I could tell Ged was a tanner’s son, and I didn’t mean that in any disrespectful way. It was just, with that coarse, crooning voice? I could imagine him helping a cow deliver its calf in the field, his encouragement for company. I could just see him calling for his sheepdog in that same tone. But right now, I was the lucky recipient, the dragon’s foul breath washing over all of us as I spied a dark mat of bloody fibres at the base of one tooth. I placed a hand on the dragon’s muzzle, then jerked it back when I felt how hot it was. Ged chuckled.
“They’re warm-blooded,” he explained. “Well, hot-blooded really. Too big to be like most reptiles and get their heat from the sun. It’s alright though, Pippin. He won’t burn you.”
Ged nodded as I raised my hand again, watching me more closely than anyone had for a year, as I set the tooth pick between the fangs.
“A little higher,” he said, his hand shooting up to mine and correcting my aim, keeping it there until I felt the point sink in.
I let out a little gasp, at the flush of pleasure at being successful, at the feel of?—
“You’ll have a year-long courtship.” The recollection of the words hit me.
Did Brom know I’d heard the sound of a jailer’s cell door clanging shut when he said those words? As the heir to a rural estate, I would have been afforded some choice in husband, though not much. One of the local boys of similar social standing, or perhaps one I might have met further afield when visiting another town or the city. My eyes might have met a young man’s across someone else’s drawing room, or in a crowded ballroom. He might have inclined his head, then made his way around to my side, asking me for a dance. I’d have felt a flutter at his touch as he swept me out onto the dancefloor.
Just as I did now.
I looked back at Ged, Cloudy’s fence of vicious teeth forgotten for the moment. I was tall, bloody tall for a woman, and yet he was such a powerfully built man I felt tiny as a child beside him. His father must’ve rubbed his hands as Ged grew, imagining the potential of his future strength for the family’s tanning business.
Instead, he was here, with me. My skin tingled under his touch, my breath coming in faster, harder. I hadn’t been touched with any sort of gentleness for such a long time, so perhaps that explained my reaction, I reasoned later. I was off balance, my head still spinning with everything that had happened, so that must have been why.
Those grey blue eyes that had seemed to dance with so much amusement dropped their gaze down now, coming to rest on my lips and staying there. Glimmer let out a little crooning sound in response, Cloudy making one much louder. That’s what jerked my attention back to the job at hand, to what I was supposed to be doing. I stared at those long vicious fangs, forced myself to consider whether or not the meat scrap stuck there belonged to someone I knew or one of my pigs, before I flicked the pick up and then tossed the refuse on the ground. Cloud Raker rumbled his approval of that action.
“You’ve got it, lass.” There was a stiffness now in Ged’s voice, as he stepped back abruptly, and my skin seemed to cry out at the loss of his warmth. “Keep going with all of the front teeth, then I’ll show you the real scary stuff. You have to put your bloody head in his jaws to get to the back ones.”
I nodded, my only response as I felt Glimmer prick my skin with her nails, roaming across my shoulders as I worked, peering down my arms at the other dragon’s fangs.
By the end of the session, I felt I had a good understanding of dragon dental work, having cleared Cloudy’s entire mouth of debris. It wasn’t something I’d have to do often, not yet. Glimmer was too small for such care and, when she was grown, royal stable lads would take over a lot of the day-to-day care of my dragon.
“But sometimes you’ll be away from the capital,” he told me, taking the toothpick back when I handed it to him, although without his usual easy smile. “Sometimes you’ll need to jump in and sort things out yourself. That’s what the first few months of being a rider are about. Learning how to care for your beast.”
Cloudy nudged him with his muzzle, something that had Ged stumbling forward, right before he wrapped his arm around his beast’s head, holding on tight, then rubbing at the ridges above the dragon’s eyes. They closed under his ministrations, an almost purr-like rattle emanating from the dragon’s chest. Ged’s eyes grew heavily hooded and lazy too, as he seemed to experience a second-hand pleasure from the scratches.
“But it’ll be all you want to do. You’ll see.” Ged’s smile was back, but it was a wry one now. “The minute you bonded with that little queen, you gave half your heart, half your soul away to her.”
My eyes flicked upwards at his words, searching the sky for sight of the other riders, of one rider in particular who I was yet to meet. I could give Glimmer all of my heart, all of my soul without thought, but the prince? I had a feeling that instinct wasn’t going to be anywhere near as helpful in that situation.