Elvenbane

It's not that she's annoying, it's that she's doing it at all. This wasn't something we even thought about when we told you we'd leave her alone. What we want to know is, what do you intend to do about her?'

'I don't intend to do anything about her, at least not at the moment,' Alara said flatly, coiling up around a sun-warmed rock and spreading her wings to the last evening rays. 'I think she's doing very well as she is. She isn't hurting anything, she's staying out of trouble, and these little tricks of hers keep her amused. What did you want me to do about her?'

Keoke laughed, and his smile broadened. 'Not a thing, actually, at the moment. It's rather fun to watch her learning what she can do, and leading Rovylern a merry chase. She's awfully bright, you know. You might take her for Kin if you didn't know any better.'

Anoa coughed politely, and shook her head, her spinal crest half-raised. 'Well, I won't go that far,' she said doubtfully, 'but I do say she has a lot of potential. The fact is, Alara, we've been thinking. All this time we've been playing with this Prophecy, but it's occurred to us that your little fosterling could well be the Elvenbane. I mean, we could make her the Elvenbane with a little nudging in the right direction. She's got all the right credentials, so to speak. If she ever finds out what she is, and about her mother and father, she's likely to be a little handful for you. I'd be willing to bet that you'd have a time keeping her here.'

Orola chuckled, and stretched her neck up to look Alara straight in the face. 'We might as well stop dancing around the bush. Actually, we thought we would like you to tell her about her mother and father; about the elven lords and the humans, and everything else. To tell you the truth, Alara, once we realized she was working magic, it seemed to us that there was an opportunity here too good to be wasted. We'd like to turn her loose in their world and see what she can do.'

Keoke rolled his eyes and grinned, his tail twitching a little. 'She ought to create a marvelous amount of havoc before she's caught,' he said in a satisfied voice. 'And if one of us went along to keep an eye on her, we could make sure she either got loose again, or simply couldn't tell the elven lords anything about us.'

Keoke's matter-of-fact tone of voice made Alara's blood chill. She knew very well what he meant. If...no, when...Shana was caught, one of them would see to it that she died before revealing the secrets of the dragons. They just want to use her, as if she were a two-horn to be petted then eaten at will, or a tool to be wielded until it breaks.

'I think that's a bit much, Keoke,' Orola objected mildly, lowering her lids over her eyes. 'It's a child, after all. Not Kin, but it hasn't done us any harm, and it might provide us with a lot of entertainment if we take very good care of it.' She turned to Alara. 'I agree, we should turn it loose among the elves, but I think we should assure its safety. There is a certain amount of honor involved here; we've taken on the child, we really are somewhat responsible for its safety. Just letting it go charging into danger is...distasteful.' Orola curled her tongue a little, as if she had bitten into something bitter. 'It's like...oh...eating one of your Keman's pets. You don't bring up something to trust you, then betray it.'

'Hmm.' Keoke tilted his head to one side, considering her words. 'True. That smacks of something Lori might do...and we all know Lori's irresponsible.'

Orola nodded, while Alara held her temper firmly in check, and kept up a serene exterior. 'If nothing else,' Orola continued, 'we have no idea how long these halfbreeds live. If it has a lifespan even half that of elves, and keeps learning all the time, it could probably think up any number of clever tricks to work on them. And it would have all the motivation in the world to do so.'

Alara resented Orola's categorization of Shana as an 'it,' but at least Orola had some notion of honor, even if it was only the kind of protection owed to a pet. She wasn't planning to throw the child out into the world with no defenses, and kill Shana when the child was caught. Keoke, on the other hand, seemed a bit more cynical about it all, probably considered Shana's welfare purely in terms of her entertainment value, and might still be able to convince the other two to come around to his point of view. Unless she could change Keoke's mind instead.

Alara took a deep, calming breath, and began to plan, her mind working as quickly as ever it did in the Thunder Dance. She had to make them see Shana as a person, even Orola, and convince them all that Shana was worth the kind of protection she'd get if she were Kin. It occurred to her that the best way to do that was to convince them that Shana was a very valuable little girl.

'She's still a child,' Alara reminded them all, taking care to sound calm and noncommittal. She pulled her wings in, and rested her chin against the stone railing of the gazebo. 'She hasn't even begun to come into her powers yet. Of all of us, only Father Dragon knows what the halfbreeds are capable of, and I doubt he knows everything. It's hard to say what she can or can't do...we just don't know. I think she could be more important to us than she appears right now.'

'That alone is entertaining enough,' Anoa admitted, scratching at a loosening patch of skin thoughtfully. 'Watching her figure out what else she can do is like opening a puzzle-box. You never know what's coming next. I had no idea she'd be able to reach the minds of moths...nor that runner-birds could play. I don't think we ought to turn her loose on the world anytime soon. I'd hate to miss what happens as she discovers more of her abilities, and I don't think we've come to the bottom of the bag yet.'

'True enough,' Keoke acknowledged with a nod. 'All right, I suppose we should keep her around until she's a bit more seasoned. Adult size, even.' He turned to Alara, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the gathering dusk. 'But then what? You surely don't intend her to stay in the Lair for the rest of her life, do you, Alara? I think that's a bit cruel, like caging a falcon.'

'I...hadn't really thought about it,' Alara admitted reluctantly. She didn't like to think of any of her children growing up and wanting to leave. Shana was as much her child as Keman was. With the way she soaked up Alara's teaching, she was more Alara's child than Myre.

'Turn it loose, I say,' urged Orola, her scales rasping on the stone of the bench as she stirred restlessly. 'Let it know what its heritage is as soon as it's adult, take it to see what's going on out there, and give it a chance to raise a bit of trouble. Be ready to whisk it out of danger, but let it run for a bit. You don't help a young thing by keeping it from its first kill, Alara.'

'I really do think that Shana could be more important...to us, to the Kin as a whole...than that,' Alara replied carefully. 'There's something about her that's extraordinary, something I can't quite pin down. Remember what Father Dragon said when I first brought her to the Lair?'

'That she had great hamenleai,' Anoa said, after a moment's thought. 'I'd forgotten that.' The senior dragon's eyes caught the light of the rising moon and glowed a soft silver. 'You could be right; I had forgotten that.'

'I hadn't,' Alara retorted, feeling as if she had finally gotten the high spot in the thermal in this discussion. 'I've kept it in mind all the time I've been raising her. She's too important to be used for nothing more than a bit of amusement. Keoke, you said it yourself...she fits the Prophecy of the Elvenbane. Now, what if this Prophecy we've been spreading all these years is right! What if all we've done has been to keep something going that was actually a true reading of the future? And what if Shana is the Elvenbane? Don't you see what an incredible change that would make in the whole world?'

All three of them stirred restlessly; Alara sensed emotions rising around her. She'd awakened them to Shana's potential; now if they would only see her value as well...

'I can see something else, Alara,' Orola whispered, her eyes wide with surprise and unease. She chewed on the end of one of her talons, something she only did when nervous. 'And I don't know if you've considered this. You're right, we don't know what it can do...and if it's the object of a true foretelling, we don't know what it could turn out to be like, the kinds of powers it would have, or the way it would look at things. The Elvenbane of the Prophecy doesn't sound like a very pleasant creature, after all. I can see where it could be a real danger to us, and not just by betraying us to the elves. We have no idea what its powers could do to us, or how strong they could be.'

Alara's heart sank. She had hoped that particular possibility would not occur to them.

'In other words,' Keoke spoke into the silence that followed, 'she might not only be the Elvenbane, she could become a dragon bane. She could wreak havoc on us before she ever sees her real people.'

She had to head this off before they really talked themselves into getting rid of the child. 'First of all, it's only a supposition that she is the Elvenbane. You're all forgetting that. Second, even if she is, those very problems are exactly what I've been trying to prevent!' Alara exclaimed, allowing her exasperation to show. 'If I raise her with us, as one of ours, and make her feel part of the Kin...then she'll never turn her powers