Elvenbane

She had to stop and lean against the rock surrounding the otter pond, as yet another wave of sickness and dizziness came over her. When leaning did no good, she sat down on the rim of the pond, and bent over the water, scooping up a handful and splashing it over her face.

Then she lost her bearings and her balance...and she was in the pond.

The cold water shocked her into awareness; she rose to the surface, spluttering, but clear-headed again, though still weak. She clung to the rock of the side for a while, as the otter came out of his den and nosed her curiously, swimming around her and nudging her. It took a long moment for her to drag herself up out of the water, and she lay on her side, panting, as the otter gave her up as a hopeless bore and went back to bed.

Her impromptu bath did one thing for her, at any rate. She was clean, at least, if battered and bruised by the afternoon's misadventures.

The dry air pulled the moisture off her; by the time she staggered to the entrance to the lair, everything was dry again except her hair. She was very glad that her bed was nearest the entrance; she wasn't sure if she could have told Foster Mother anything sensible about her absence after dark.

Even so, it was a long trek across the stone floor of the linked caverns. More than long enough that she was half-asleep and shaking in every limb by the time she made the safe haven of her little cavelet. She literally fell into her bed of Alara's stolen fabrics, already asleep, deaf and blind to everything around her.

Shana stared at the magically smoothed rock of her cavelet ceiling, and blinked befuddled eyes. When she first woke, she had been puzzled about why she ached so, and why her knees and elbows were so battered. Then she had remembered...and could not believe the memories.

It must have been a dream, she thought finally. No one could have thrown stones around just by thinking about it. Even Foster Mother couldn't do that; all she could do was move the stone, mold it with her hands. She couldn't make it fly through the air.

The more Shana thought about yesterday, and all the things she thought she'd done, the less likely it all seemed. All except the part with Myre and Rovy...her bruised and battered body gave ample testament that this much, at least, was very real.

When she couldn't shift, she was so tired...she must have cried herself to sleep and dreamt it all.

She had no idea how long she'd slept, but she didn't feel entirely rested...and her head ached, a dull, constant throb, that made her feel a little sick. Not from the temples, the way it did when she'd overworked, but from deep inside, somewhere behind her eyes.

I'd better get up, she decided. Before someone comes looking for me.

She pulled herself out of her tangled nest of fabric, and stripped off her tunic. After the beating she'd given it yesterday, this one would need some repair-work to make it fit to wear again.

She pulled out another, she had half a dozen, all told, most of them made by her own two hands. Alara had shown her how, but had been adamant that she learn to make her own clothing.

And now she knew why. Because she'd have to have clothing to wear, she thought glumly, as she ran her fingers through the tangled mess of her hair, trying to put it in some kind of order. Finally she gave it up as a bad job, and went to find Keman.

He's bound to be up by now, and his punishment is over. Maybe we configure out something I can do. She was no longer angry with her foster brother and his mother...they couldn't help it. If they'd told her the truth, she wouldn't have believed it anyway. She looked in Keman's little sleeping-place...only five times the size of her own...but he wasn't there. She was torn between going out the front, and seeing if Keman was in the rear with his pets.

Alara found her first.

The shaman intercepted her halfway between her little sleeping-cave and the rear outside entrance. She startled Shana halfway out of her wits. When she chose, Alara could move with complete silence, and her appearance on the trail before Shana, noiseless and sudden, made the girl jump back a step, stifling a scream.

'Myre told me you were out last night after dark.'

Alara said without preamble, in that steady, expressionless voice that told Shana she was in very deep trouble.

If I lie, she'll know, Shana thought with resignation, putting her hands behind her back and staring up through the gloom of the softly lit cave at her foster mother's head. Alara looked down at her; a long way down. The adult dragons were large enough to carry Shana on their backs, if they chose, without using much, if any, magic to help them fly. That meant they were very tall indeed, and Alara knew how to use every bit of her height to her advantage.

'Yes, Foster Mother,' Shana said sadly. 'I didn't mean to be, but I was so unhappy after Keman's fight yesterday that I went and hid. I...It got dark before I...I...could go home.'

Alara blinked; twin ellipses of her moon-pale eyes. 'Are you what Keman and Rovy fought over?' she asked evenly. 'I didn't see you there, but Keman wouldn't tell me where you were, and I thought that you might have been the cause of the quarrel.'

'Yes, Foster Mother,' Shana replied. She lifted her own chin defiantly. 'Myre was mean to me, and Rovy shoved his snout into it. Rovy tried to hurt me, he almost choked me. There are bruises on my neck if you don't believe me...'

She started to pull her tunic away from her neck. Alara stopped her, but without uttering a word in reply. Shana waited for her to say something and, when nothing was forthcoming, decided she might as well say everything.

'Maybe I'm not Kin,' she said, her voice trembling with anger, 'but I'm not an animal, either! I'm not a pet Rovy can hurt whenever he wants to! Keman wanted to protect me; he tried to, he tried his best. That was why he shocked Rovy, it was the only way he could get Rovy to put me down.'

She didn't ask what she was thinking, which was: Where were you when we needed you? Why haven't you protected me from the rest? And why did you let me go on believing that I was Kin?

Alara just sighed, though she lowered her head a little. 'I know you're not an animal, Lashana,' she said softly, some of the cold flatness gone from her voice. 'And none of this was your fault. There's no sin in not being of the Kin, though there are more than a few dragons who would tell you that I'm mad to say that. I don't blame you for the fight...and I'm very glad Keman stood up to that bully.'

Shana sighed with her own feeling of relief. But her relief was short-lived.

'You disobeyed by staying out after dark, though,' Alara continued, 'and I'm going to have to punish you for that. If I don't, Myre will think she doesn't have to obey either, and she'll be out on the wing with Rovylera all night. She gets into quite enough trouble as it is.'

Shana's heart sank. There was only one punishment Foster Mother was likely to mete out to her, given her love of the open sky and the hills.

'You're staying in or near the lair until I tell you differently,' Alara finished, putting the seal on Shana's fears. 'That should teach you a suitable lesson, I think.'

'Yes, Foster Mother,' Shana said unhappily. 'But...'

'Not another word. You heard me.' Alara drew herself back up to her full height, and her eyes glistened in the blue glow from the lights beside the pathway.

'Yes, Foster Mother.' Shana's heart sank, and she stared at her feet, her hands clasped behind her back.

She heard something that almost sounded like a chuckle. 'You'll find Keman by the otter pool. He's staying confined to the lair too, for the present.' As Shana lifted her head and looked up at her foster mother in astonishment, Alara turned lithely and vanished into the darkness of the caverns, heading into the unlit areas where only she went.

Shana's heart lifted a little, and she sighed and rubbed her eyes, still sore from all her weeping yesterday. At least, if she was going to be confined, she wouldn't be alone!

She trudged up the pathway to the rear entrance; no longer a hidden exit-point, since there was so much activity around it, what with Keman's pets and all, that there was no concealing the fact that it was there. The entrance was in sight when Shana literally ran into Myre. The dragonet was lurking in an alcove beside the passageway, waiting for someone. Probably Keman; she faced the entrance rather than the passage. Shana didn't see her until the girl was on top of her, and Myre squealed and jumped in surprise when Shana stepped on her tail.