Haraket took a deep breath, and Vetch felt a surge of triumph, knowing he had won—at least so far. 'Very well. You may feed her, but I and my helpers will be standing by to guard you. Ari will never forgive me if I let any harm come to you. We will see—
Vetch did not wait for Haraket to have second thoughts. Haraket left to get help, while he seized a barrow, got it loaded with meat, and was out into the corridor before anyone could blink, his own footfalls making the walls echo as he ran—but not, like Sobek, for the outside world. He had a chance; he had to make the most of it. Unlike Sobek, he had nowhere to go, nothing to lose, and the world to gain if he succeeded…
Haraket and two of the biggest of his slaves, trailing a curious and apprehensive crowd of dragon boys, intercepted him on the way to Coresan's pen. He was wheeling a barrow heaped with tala-treated meat, as much as he could manage, and double the ration that he usually gave Kashet. If Coresan was breeding, she'd be hungrier than usual even given the exertion of the mating flight as her body demanded the wherewithal to make eggs, and if Sobek had been neglecting her because he was afraid of her and impatient to get away, he might not have been feeding her properly for some time—and she'd be hungrier still. The way to a dragon's heart was ever through her stomach. There was no reason, no reason whatsoever, why he should not feed her to bursting. She wouldn't be flying any time soon—she would be making eggs. Why not stuff her, and soothe her with food?
Besides all of that, with a double ration of meat would come a double ration of tala, which, once it got into her, would gentle her even in her aroused state. With all of Ari's instruction, he knew whattala did. If he could get her to allow him to lay nurturing hands on her, with a full belly that he had supplied, and the tranquilizing effect of the drug making her see things in a pleasant light-He would create a mighty contrast to Sobek, and it would be right in the forefront of her mind—
Well, he might truly tame her. She would never be a Kashet, but she might become one of the better dragons.
He heard her hissing before he even reached her pen, and looking up, saw her head up above the walls, watching the corridor, swaying back and forth at the end of her long neck.
She was gorgeous; if she hadn't been so angry, he'd have been able to appreciate her beauty more. Her color was a deep ruby, shading at the extremities and along the vanes of her wings to a turquoise-blue. But her scales looked dull, as if there was a haze of dust over them, and that made him frown.
She ignored him—except for a voracious glare down at his laden barrow. He was not Sobek; she did not expect feeding from him.
But when he appeared in the door of her pen with his barrow heaped with fresh, red meat, she reared up, her hiss of anger turning to a short bark of surprise. Then she went into a lunge that came up far short of where he stood, her chain snapping taut between her collar and the wall.
She was ravenous, and Vetch gritted his teeth when he realized that she was thin—not unhealthy, not yet, but that miserable excuse for a dragon boy Sobek truly hadn't been feeding her nearly enough, just as he'd suspected! Hadn't he seen how much hungrier she was?
Hadn't her Jouster?
Like Jouster, like dragon boy, it seemed; Sobek and Reaten deserved each other, for neither of them had noticed the changes in Coresan. Seftu's rider was evidently nearly as much in the wrong. As Ari had said, none of the trouble of this morning would have happened, if they had only been paying proper attention to their dragons!
Vetch didn't leave the poor thing straining at the end of her tether for any longer than it took him to get up beside the barrow and begin tossing the biggest chunks of meat in it in her direction. She was quick; she saw the first one coming and snatched it right out of the air, snaked her head around to catch the second, and the third-She paused to swallow; he kept the meat coming. Only when the barrow was half empty did she pause, for a breath, then to turn her head to take a good long drink from her trough.
While she was drinking, he moved the barrow nearer her, and perforce, himself; when she looked up, the barrow was well within her reach, and Vetch stood behind it, making sounds that Kashet found soothing, a kind of 'pish, pish' noise.
Now the tala that had been dusted over the meat she'd bolted had begun to take effect, taking the edge off her aggressiveness and the anger that must have been born of hunger. Oh, he understood that, all too well! He felt a surge of sympathy for her. He would see to it that she never had another hungry day in her life!
She had eaten as much as she usually did, too, and although she was still hungry, she was no longer ravenous, and her mood had mellowed considerably. She arched her back and her neck, and eyed him with a great deal more favor.
'Come, my beauty,' he said to her, in a soft and coaxing voice. 'See what I've brought you? There will be plenty of meat for you from now on, if you can be a good girl for me. I understand how you must be feeling! I know how much an empty belly hurts!'
Evidently she could, when she chose, move her head as fast as that whippy tail. She snaked her head at him with a lightning-strike, and snapped a pair of jaws that could have taken off his head—
If his head had been what she was aiming for.
