Page 14 of Triumph at Pemberley

Magic crackled in the air. The little dragonet blinked twice, and then his usual animation seemed to return. He craned his neck to look down at the floor. “Why are you carrying me?”

“Because you fell asleep on my feet.” He deposited the hatchling on the floor. The dragonet was endearing, but he was supposed to be in the dragon nursery up the hill, not sneaking about Pemberley. “How did you get here?”

“I walked. It was a very long way. I wish my wings were big enough to fly! It would be so much faster.”

Coquelicot scolded, “You must not leave the hatchery by yourself. It is unsafe, and you can hurt your body by traveling so far. How did you manage to get inside without anyone noticing?”

The dragonet, apparently not the least bit cowed by this, puffed up with pride. “I made myself invisible.”

“You are far too young for that,” Coquelicot said.

“To do it with dragon magic, yes. I did it the way he does it.” He lifted a foreleg in Darcy’s direction.

Darcy frowned. Invisibility was his earliest and strongest Talent, but he had never taught it to the dragonet. Or anything else, for that matter. “How did you learn that?”

Both dragons, the huge and the tiny ones, looked at him in puzzlement. “Because you touched him in the shell,” Coquelicot said. “Hatchling, you must not use invisibility to deceive. It is only for protection.”

Now the dragonet wilted. “I will not do it again. I wanted to see him so much. Can I not stay here?”

Coquelicot spoke inside Darcy’s mind. He is uncomfortable having so much distance between you. If you were a dragon who had imprinted him, he could reach out his mind and touch yours for reassurance, but you are a human and he cannot do so from far away.

Darcy frowned. Can he not touch your mind instead?

Coquelicot’s aura changed to amusement, as if at a child who did not understand the facts of life. Little One, I did not imprint him. Only you and his sire did that, and his sire is dead.

Dragons were so confusing, especially on this subject. “I do not understand why dragon mothers have so little attachment to their hatchlings.”

“Oh, Little One, you are thinking like a human! The Wicked King created dragonkind to be his most perfect weapons. Having an urge to protect our young would keep us out of battle too long, so he made certain we would not feel one. He designed our hatchlings to be imprinted while still in the egg and born knowing how to care for themselves, so we would have no divided loyalties.”

Every time he thought he could not possibly hate the High King of Faerie more, something new surprised him. “Does that not make your eggs vulnerable? What if one of the human children touches one of them? Would that imprint on the hatchling, too?”

Coquelicot’s chest rippled with amusement. “You reached inside the egg with your Talent and spoke to the unborn. A mere touch does much less, but it does not matter since we keep the eggs away from mortals.”

“They are just sitting there in the underground nursery, though. One of the children might find them.”

“There is a strong ward around them, less for the eggs than to keep any mortals from stepping into Faerie unknowingly.”

He drew in a sharp breath, horrified. “Wait – is there a Faerie ring?” Right on Pemberley land?

“Not a ring, just a trapped bit of Faerie, a blind pocket. No fae can travel through it. The nursery was built in it because it is a natural anchor.”

Darcy rocked back on his heels. Faerie again. He should have known, though. Long ago the Eldest of the Dark Peak had told him dragons traveled secretly to Faerie to lay their eggs. “Could a mortal travel into Faerie from it?”

“No, but they can still lose time if they pass through the boundary. Hence the wards.”

And he had known nothing of it, since he had never tried to go near the eggs when he visited the nursery. Even when the hatchling was ready to be born, one of the other dragonets had brought the egg to him. The memory brought up another question. “Do you remember when this hatchling had a vision of the future, of bonding to my son? Does that mean he will be a seer like Cerridwen?”

“No, Little One. It is not uncommon for dragons to have a vision of their future companion.”

That was a relief, at least. One Seer in the family was more than enough. But it did not solve his current problem. “What shall I do with this hatchling?” Coquelicot might feel no need to care for him, but Darcy could not forget helping the little creature enter into this world.

Coquelicot clasped her forelegs together in a sign of consideration. “I suppose he could stay upstairs with Agate, but he must also spend time with his younger age-mates in the clearing.”

Two dragons in his daughter’s nursery? This was getting ridiculous! But he could hardly have the dragonet underfoot all the time. “What do you think, Hatchling?” he asked.

“Oh, yes! I would like that.”

Darcy sighed. “I must ask her nurse Nelly and Agate first. Do you have a name yet? Or should I just call you Hatchling?”