I was surprised he knew my formal name—I hadn’t known that he knew my nickname or my full name either. (Or really, my brother’s full name.)
He turned to me and said,
“Auri, this is M’alek.”
“It’s very good to meet you,” I said, stepping forward. I looked up at Ryse. “Can I touch him?”
He gave me an amused look.
“Why don’t you ask him? He’ll let you know if he wants to be touched.”
I looked up at the enormous dragon. His head was twice as big as my body, but I felt no menace coming from him, only that same eager curiosity.
“Hello, M’alek,” I said, addressing him formally. “You’re absolutely beautiful. May I touch you?”
M’alek rumbled softly. Then he stretched his neck and laid his head all the way down on the stone terrace so that his enormous eye was directly level with my head. I got a feeling from him that was so strong it was almost like words—stronger than any feeling I’d ever gotten from any dragon.
“Oh, he’s itchy,” I said, stepping towards him. “He wants me to scratch his eye ridges.”
Ryse’s black eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“Wait—how do you know that?” he demanded.
I frowned at him as I stood on my tiptoes to reach the itchy eye-ridge—a bony protuberance just above the enormous eye.
“I just felt it—felt what he was feeling. Don’t you?”
“Well yes, but I’m his rider!” he exclaimed.
I wasn’t sure what he was getting worked up about.
“Yes, I know—what’s your point?”
“My point is, how can you feel what another rider’s dragon is feeling?” he demanded.
I shrugged.
“I’ve always been able to feel dragon emotions—can’t everyone?”
“No, they fucking can’t!” He still looked shocked, as though I’d said something unbelievable. “So you’re telling me you can feel the emotions of every dragon here?” he demanded.
“Well, sure.” I looked at him in confusion. “Dragons have such strong feelings they send them out to everyone—isn’t that right?”
“Yes, but not everyone can feel them all the time.” He shook his head and pointed at one of the blue dragons who was shifting from foot to foot as his rider mounted. “What’s he feeling?”
“Easy—he’s impatient.”
“You could tell that from the way he’s shifting around, though,” Ryse said, frowning.
“Yes, but you can feel it too,” I pointed out. “Just like I could feel the love between you and M’alex a moment ago. He absolutely adores you, you know. And I can tell you feel the same for him.”
His cheeks went abruptly red for some reason.
“Wait—are you telling me you can read my emotions too?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “I just felt the love flowing between you and your dragon. I’ve never felt anything from any human before unless they’re with a dragon. My father and F’lorn, his dragon…”
But I trailed off, not wanting to remember the awful rage that ruled our house, especially after my father started doing Wide Patrols and looking for any remaining Madlings. It had been a demotion that was beneath a member of a Great House, and he had never gotten over his fury.
