Vetch was eating his noon meal in the farthest corner of the kitchen court, when the noise from the corridor made him whirl and look at the blank wall behind him in alarm. A shiver of fear gripped him as he wondered if the all of the stress he'd sensed had finally found an outlet, for it sounded like a mob in full cry—
And he wondered who or what was the target for all that pent-up tension—
—or if they could be coming for him—
But then, one of the slaves dashed into the court, his eyes wide with excitement and not fear. 'A dragonet!' he shouted. 'Two of the Jousters have brought in a wild dragonet! Come and see!'
He dashed out again, followed by a stream of quicker-witted folks or more curious dragon boys and servants, as a new fear held Vetch paralyzed in his seat for a moment.
Have they found Avatre?
He broke the paralysis in the next instant—he had to know! With the others who were more slow to react, he shoved his way to the door, just as the procession of two of the younger Jousters and a small army of slaves came triumphantly by. They were, indeed, hauling a squalling, protesting, blue dragonet, encased in a net and bundled onto a palanquin carried on the shoulders of a team of eight or ten slaves. This was a much, much older dragonet than Avatre; it was easily the size of one of the huge, sacrificial bulls of Hamun. Its claws had been encased in padding and bags, its legs tied together, its mouth trussed shut. It looked absolutely furious, and Vetch did not want to be the person who cut it loose.
'Where are they going?' he blurted, not thinking, not really expecting an answer.
'Oh, they'll put the beast in one of the open pens and one of the trainers will come care for it until it's tame,' came the answer from above and behind him. 'Tame enough for a dragon boy to look after, anyway. Haraket won't be pleased! He'll be the fellow who will have to find a boy, and all out-of-season.'
Vetch looked quickly around behind him, and saw that the speaker was one of the slaves, one that had been reasonably civil to him from the time he arrived. 'Why?' he asked, feeling bewildered. '1 mean, I don't mean why are they doing that, I mean why did the Jousters go out after a dragonet, and why go after one that isn't even fledged yet?'
The slave grinned down at him and winked. 'You've been keeping yourself to yourself these few days, or you'd have heard. The Great King sent down a decree to the Jousters. If Alta is going to try to ground our Jousters, then the Great King wants more of them—too many to keep on the ground, no matter how many storms the sea witches raise! So.' He nodded after the mob, which had turned a corner, leaving only the noise behind. 'Now the most restless of the Jousters are going to help the trackers and trappers out, as they used to when there were fewer of them.'
Vetch blinked. 'More dragons?' he asked.
'More dragonets, more Jousters in training, both,' the slave corrected. 'And the King's Vizier made the little suggestion that since the Jousters are grounded, perhaps they ought to be the ones hunting the new dragonets.'
'But—' Vetch thought about the fury in that young thing's eyes, and pictured to himself the fury of the mother if she happened to return while her babies were being abducted. 'Isn't that dangerous?'
'Entirely,' the slave replied callously. 'And so long as no one tells me to go along on one of these hunts, I care not. Whatever it takes to get the young hotheads' minds off making trouble around here is perfectly fine. You would not believe what they've been getting up to in their quarters. The wrestling matches that end in broken furniture are bad enough, and the drunken parties, and the wild adventures with all of the dancing girls, but there are four very angry nobles who had to drag their daughters out of rooms in the compound that they should never have been in, and several more who've been asking pointed questions about where their wives have been, and with whom.' The slave snickered.
'Which is probably why the King's 'suggestion' was phrased so near to an order.'
Vetch could certainly agree with that, but he had to know more, and he decided to go in search of Haraket.
Haraket, it seemed, was already in search of him. He spotted Vetch coming around a corner, and shouted his name. Vetch hurried toward him.
'I've three—gods save us, three!—spitting and yowling dragonets, and more to come, and I need you and Fisk to help train new serf boys,' he growled, as soon as Vetch came within earshot. He was accompanied by a tall, aristocratic man in a fine kilt, striped headdress, and a simple, but very rich, neckpiece and armlets. 'Gods help us! If we don't have some of them killed before this is over—' He shook his head. 'Well, it'll be the stupid ones, or the ones with more bravado than sense, so, small loss, I suppose.'
'No loss,' said the stranger, who had the deep-set eyes, the beaky nose, and the stern look of one of the statues of the Great King. He looked down at Vetch. 'So, this is your little serf boy, Haraket? The one who makes dragons love him?'
