allowed to hurt him, but they could do other things to make his life difficult. 'Yes, sir,' he replied, and hesitated. There were a hundred questions he wanted to ask, a hundred reassurances he wanted to beg for.
Haraket read all that in his face, and shrugged. 'Somebody will put you right if you ask. You'll have to learn quickly, but you aren't stupid, boy. You can manage.'
Vetch didn't much like the sound of that, but it wasn't as if he had any choice in the matter.
Well, actually, he did. He could make a mess of his duties, and be sent back to Khefti.
But he was just one serf, after all, a single unimportant serf. How could he expect an Overseer to devote any amount of time to herding him about in his duties? Haraket had already spent an incredible amount of time on him yesterday, and that was probably only because he was making sure he would not have to send Vetch away. If he was to succeed, he would have to be better, smarter, and more diligent than the freeborn boys here.
Haraket's face took on an expression Vetch didn't recognize. 'Look, boy, I can't lead you around as if you were a Palace brat needing a nursemaid. If 1 do, it'll only make things difficult for you with the other boys; they'll think I'm playing favorites, and then there'll be hell to pay. You're in a bad place, and so am I, and you'll just have to jump into the river and hope Lord Haras' amulet protects you from crocodiles.'
Vetch swallowed, but this, he understood. Haraket was right.
'Now, listen, you know what to do in the afternoon—so these are your morning duties. The very first thing you do every morning is to feed Kashet. That is of first importance; Kashet will have gone all night without eating, and you should know by now how much a dragon has to eat; he'll be starving as soon as he's thoroughly awake.'
They both looked over their shoulders at that; Kashet was barely stirring, and raised his head to blink sleepily at them. Obviously, he was not thoroughly awake yet.
'Once you've done that, then saddle and harness him,' Haraket continued. 'Jouster Ari will be here as soon as he thinks Kashet will be ready; he's the first in the air, you can count on him for that. Once Ari and Kashet are away, then you can get your breakfast, and follow the other boys and do what they do.'
'Yes, sir,' he repeated, and Haraket strode off on some duty of his own. Kashet had put his head back down and had gone back to sleep, torpid despite the rising sun.
So it looked as if he had some breathing space before Kashet started looking for his food.
Vetch gave himself a good stretch, shook out and rewrapped his kilt, then went to fetch Kashet's breakfast of meat. But this time he found himself showing up at the butchers along with many other dragon boys. Haraket was already there, and while Vetch was waiting his turn for a barrow, he kept one eye on the Overseer.
Haraket watched each boy fill his barrow with a critical eye; twice he stopped a boy from leaving without truly filling his barrow, and once he stopped a boy who was trying to stagger off with too much. He scooped half of the meat into another boy's barrow, with the admonition, 'Dump that in front of her and come back for a second trip, Waset. If you hurt yourself trying to carry too much, you'll get no sympathy from me.'
Vetch had to line up for the butchers once he got his barrow, but once he had it, and loaded it up with as much as he could carry safely, Haraket waved him past a station where the other boys were scooping powder atop the meat and mixing it in.
'That's the tala,' the Overseer warned. 'Remember, not even a touch of tala for Kashet. Ari would have my hide, and I'd have yours.'
Well, Vetch didn't doubt that one bit.
Haraket left him in the next moment, to go and scold yet another boy for loading his barrow too lightly. Vetch could still hear him roaring at the other lad as he pushed his barrow away down the corridor. 'How dare you short your dragon because you're too lazy to carry him a full meal! How dare you overseason with tala to make up for it! You young bastard, are you trying to kill your Jouster? Don't you know what will happen? If his dragon—
The sense of the words was lost as Vetch pushed his barrow around another corner, but he wondered what would happen to an underfed, overdrugged dragon. Would it be so weakened that it couldn't fly properly? Would it just not have enough energy to fly a combat? Would too much tala make it drunk, or stupid? Or if it got really hungry, would it turn on its Jouster? Wild dragons could and did eat humans…
He shuddered a little, and hurried on. The east was getting brighter, with long streaks of light shining up across the blue sky, the hands of the God reaching out to touch the land. He found himself humming the morning hymn to Re-Haket for the first time in so very long… perhaps for as long as it had been since the last time he remembered smiling. He was smiling now as he whispered the words of the hymn to himself. How beautiful are Thou, bringer of life, shining-winged one… how beautiful with morning's banners, streaming forth in glory.
Kashet was restive and a little waspish after the long night without food, but in the other pens, Vetch heard hisses and whines, the snapping of jaws, and the curses of the dragon boys. He knew then that he was very lucky to have Kashet as his dragon. All Kashet did was to play his favorite trick for snatching meat from the barrow, snaking his head around the corner again once he spotted Vetch coming from his vantage point over the wall. Vetch been more than half expecting it, so this time he didn't jump. In fact—the dragon gave him such an amusing sidelong glance as he grabbed his treat that Vetch had to laugh.
