She whistled. “Come on out, pretty one,” Nebekker called. “My turn to be your mama for a little while.”
Silver waited, pretending not to be watching. Who in the desert was Nebekker talking to? Surely there couldn’t be children down here.
Nebekker whistled again. Then her teeth flashed as she grinned. Silver followed her gaze across the river. There was something moving among the stalagmites. Crouched or … even slithering. Something that matched the blue light and pale silver of the cavern.
The thing across the river purred.
Purred?
The sound touched Silver to her very core. She got to her feet and ran toward the river without thinking, as though a string tied to her middle were pulling her. There was no staying away if she’d wanted to. Her need to meet the creature was far too great. She stepped into the river.
The ice-cold water over her boots slowed her down for only a moment. But that was long enough for Nebekker to grab her arm and hold her in place. She was surprisingly strong.
“Of course this would happen.” Nebekker sighed wearily.
“Let me go!” Silver had to get to the other side of the river.
“Stay right here. He’ll come to you. The stars know, it’ll affect the both of you.”
In the back of her mind, Silver wondered what the old woman meant, but she didn’t ask, because the pull to cross the river was still so powerful.
She struggled to free herself. “I have to—”
Splash.
Just then, a shadow slipped into the river and made its way to Silver and Nebekker. Silver knelt into the water, waiting.She didn’t know what for or if she was in danger. She knew only that she had to open her arms and greet it.
When the creature finally burst from the water, it bowled Silver over. She landed on her back, hard, rocks digging into her spine. Soaking in the river water, her arms and chest became even colder than before. But she didn’t care. She was awash in euphoria.
Within seconds, the warmth of the creature bled into her skin. Its happy heartbeat thudded in time with her own. It purred again and licked her face until the smell of fish and river weeds overwhelmed her nostrils.
Silver laughed and opened her eyes. A pair of obsidian-dark eyes looked back down at her from a sky-blue face ringed with white.
“Another Aquinder,” Silver said, marveling. “A little one!”
“If your definition of ‘little’ is ‘the size of a house.’” Nebekker stood with her hands on her hips. She didn’t seem particularly happy. “Kirja’s son. Another troublemaker, if you ask me.”
“No, he’s perfect.” Silver’s heart had swelled to nearly bursting. “And I won’t have you calling him names, or else.”
Nebekker snorted. “Or else what?”
“I don’t know what. But I’ll think of something. I’d do anything for … for … What’s his name?”
The water dragon licked Silver some more, then rolled over and let his tongue loll out to the side, just like Kirja had. Silver rubbed his belly.
Nebekker tilted her head back and spoke to the ceiling of the cavern. “It’s not how I’d have wanted it, Kirja. He should have bonded with someone with more experience. But it’s out of my hands, as you know. We never ask for these things.”
Silver rested her cheek on the dragon’s belly. “Never ask for what? How could you keep this secret from me? A mom and baby!”
“Never ask to be bonded!” Nebekker stood over them. “You think this water lizard is cute? Of course you would. You don’t know a thing about the real world. Neither of you do.”
Nebekker retrieved the paper-wrapped package and walked back to her fire. Her sigh filled the cavern. “Come here. Both of you. I have a tale to tell.”
Silver got to her feet, and the Aquinder followed suit, swaying a bit before he got full control of his balance. Silver stifled a giggle. The Aquinder grinned. When Silver took a step forward, so did the water dragon. When she took another and then another, he matched her step by step.
“He does everything I do,” Silver said.
“Yes, he does,” Nebekker said. “What did you expect with your bond?”
“Our bond?”
Nebekker sighed again and waved them over. She unwrapped the paper. Inside was a selection of dried meats. She placed a small handful in the boiling water, then put the rest on the ground. She whistled, but the water dragon hesitated and looked at Silver.
“You have to tell him it’s okay to come eat,” Nebekker said.
“He doesn’t need my permission.” But Silver nudged the Aquinder and pointed to the food. He leaped forward, tripped over his own front feet, flipped tail to head, and landed in a heap next to his dinner. Without untangling himself, he lapped sideways at the food with his long tongue.
Nebekker ladled some of the stew from the pot into a ceramic bowl. “Sit down and eat, and I’ll tell you some things.”
Silver picked up the bowl, but she didn’t eat. How could she when so much had happened? Kirja’s kidnapping, the underground river, the baby Aquinder, the stories Nebekker had yet to tell. Still, her stomach rumbled at the scent of broth, so she dug into the stew as voraciously as the dragon did.
Nebekker chewed her food for a moment, then set the mug on the ground. “This all started well before I met Kirja. Some five hundred years ago. No … long before that. I don’t have time to explain the Wakening of Breathing Creatures to you. But you’ve learned about the Land and Sea Wars, right?”
Silver nodded. “We studied it in history class last year.”
“So you say, but I know kids these days get a mangled version of the truth.” Nebekker shook her head. “It doesn’t do to deceive our children by rewriting history.”
Silver glanced at the baby water dragon next to her. He had finished his meal and was now napping, with his stubby legs pointing into the air. His soft snores shook his silver whiskers. Silver wanted to curl up next to him.
Instead, she said, “My teachers always said Aquinder were a myth.”
Nebekker clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “I’d like to shock all those vainglorious teachers with a peek at the creature in front of you. What did they teach you about the Land and Sea Wars?”
“Just that the water dragons destroyed the coastal cities, then started moving inland. But a great army arose out of the deep-desert cities, and the vast desert nomadic tribes fought back. They—”
“A desert army, was it?” Nebekker shook her head. “Without fail, humans will rearrange history to fit their own ideas of heroes and glory. Let me tell you some real truth.Aquinder exist and have always existed. Long before the Land and Sea Wars, the dragons gifted humans with bonds after humans helped them send Lava Dragons back into the Black Hole.”
Silver’s eyes widened. “The Black what?”
Nebekker waved her words away. “But as humans began using dragons in their selfish war, they were punished. Bonds were taken away. But then came a young desert boy named Gulad Nakim.”
“Gulad Nakim,” Silver repeated.
“The first dragon rider. Before Gulad, the desert armies thought there was no way to train the desire to kill out of the Aquinder. But Gulad’s Aquinder was as gentle as a desert beetle. He could hand-feed it. When Gulad was ordered to train his Aquinder to be a killer, he refused, and they fled to the vast desert.” Nebekker sipped more stew and watched the baby Aquinder sleep, coiled up next to Silver. “The desert was nearly crushed in the war, but just when all hope had been lost, Gulad Nakim returned with his water dragon. Instead of walking side by side, rider and dragon flew in, together. It was then the whole world discovered that humans could ride dragons.”