“You were trying to sleep, and I didn’t want to add to the interruptions.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard Nightshade shout like that.”
“No, probably not. Let me do something about that.”
“Short of throwing them both out, or shutting them in the training rooms—I’m assuming that’s not where they are—I’m not sure youcan. They’re almost as loud as Dragons.” And about as safe, Kaylin thought. “I can’t actually understand them.”
“No, dear. I can’t completely diminish the volume, but I am trying to give them some privacy.”
* * *
Bellusdeo looked about as amused at the shouting as Kaylin felt. “You look terrible,” she said when Kaylin entered the dining room.
“I look better than I feel. Have they been shouting like that for long?”
“No. That just started. When I regret my lack of family,” she added, somewhat sourly, “I remind myself that there are some things I don’t miss.”
“You had fights like this with your sisters?”
“I had worse fights with my sisters, if you must know. We were younger, and Dragons are not famously restrained when they lose their tempers.”
“But you were mostly human.”
“I’ll thank you never to repeat that. But I will then add that the elders don’t interfere much with children’s fights if they’re female children. The possible damage is so insignificant it doesn’t warrant constant supervision. That, and they generally have their hands full with the rest of the clutch because the males can cause irreparable damage when they lose it.”
“I don’t think that’s good parenting,” Kaylin replied.
Golden brows rose. “Our concept of parenting is not yours. In the old days, it was considered perfectly reasonable to let clutch-mates murder each other in fits of aggression and rage. It thinned out the weak.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
“She’s not joking,” Mandoran added. He entered the dining hall and draped himself across the table, after first dropping his butt into the nearest chair.
“And Barrani parenting?”
“More careful—but our next generations weren’t born in clutches. Or very often.” He grimaced as he glanced at Bellusdeo. “However, our ‘more careful’ wouldn’t pass your parenting muster, either. Remember why you met us. The cull-the-weak mentality exists everywhere in the immortal world.” His eyes fell to breakfast with clear distaste. “They’ve been talking for a couple of hours.”
“What are they fighting about?”
“Initially?”
Kaylin nodded.
“Kaylin, dear, they are allowed some privacy—”
“Which one of us never gets,” Mandoran snapped. “Annarion told his brother that he’s going to take the Test of Name in the High Halls.”
Kaylin, whose appetite had already been severely compromised, joined Mandoran in his contemplation of breakfast. “Has he lost his mind?”
“Funny, that’s what Nightshade said.”
“Was that the shouting part?”
“No—that came later.”
“Do I want to know?”
