Elvenbane

Alara considered the relatively light injuries the bully had taken. Rovy had one broken rib, a gash over his eye, and a concussion. Shana could have hit him in the head with any of those larger rocks, and he would have been dead. Not even a dragon could survive a blow to the skull with something that size, especially not if Shana had placed it just right. She could have taken his eye out with that rock that gashed him. The broken rib wasn't even on the side she hit...it was on the side he had fallen on. He had probably broken it when he fell. Fire and Rain, if she had been really cruel, she could have just as easily broken his wings with those rocks, and he would have been flightless for months.

'That rabid animal broke my child's rib,' Lori shrilled for at least the hundredth time. Her voice echoed off the cavern ceiling, making those nearest her wince. Alara noted with hope that even Lori's supporters were beginning to look bored. 'He's going to be abed for a week, at least! I'm telling you, it's gone mad, and if you don't kill it, I will!'

Her voice was finally getting hoarse, the din had died down considerably, and Alara decided that now was the best time to speak. She had chosen a position atop one of the rock formations, but had been reclining on it, with the result that she was relatively inconspicuous. As she raised her head and mantled her wings, heads swiveled in her direction.

'Your precious child...who is not a child by the definition of the Kin...was assaulting Shana's foster brother, who is still a child by that same definition,' she said coldly and clearly, trumpeting her own accusation out over the general hubbub. Silence descended immediately; even Lori was caught off-guard, and stared with her mouth open in surprise. 'Keman will not be flying for several weeks, thanks to Rovylern, and he walks only with pain. I suggest you consider that, Kin! Rovylern instigated the trouble...Shana only came to her foster brother's rescue.'

'But...' Lori cried weakly.

Alara spoke right over her, trying to make her words sound calm and reasoned. 'Keman weighs a third less than Rovy. Shana weighs...perhaps!...a hundredth of what Rovylern does. Do those odds sound, fair to you?'

'But...but that thing has magic!' Lori squawked. 'It used magic on Rovy! It could have killed him! Even you don't know what it can do! It's a halfblood, and no one knows what they can do, and you can't claim otherwise!'

Alara nodded. 'Yes, she does have the halfblood powers of magic. No, I do not know what she can do with them. But I think, given the situation, she showed admirable restraint.'

Lori subsided sullenly and the cavern held a silence so profound it hurt the ears. Keoke spoke into the silence, breaking it gently. 'The problem is, Alara, we don't know whether it was restraint, or accident. We have only the halfblood's word that her weapons were aimed, and did not hit random targets. That simply isn't good enough.'

Orola followed his speech, clearing her throat. All eyes went to her, she took advantage of the attention by standing up and towering over the rest. 'Lori, your son got exactly what he deserved,' the Elder said firmly. 'I'll have you know that I was winging in to thrash him myself. I may yet, if he shows no sign of learning his lesson. I heard most of what he said, and he should by rights be punished for it. No dragon calls another 'Master.' We left all that behind us, and I will not tolerate anyone bringing it back again.'

Elated by this unexpected support from the most senior dragon in the Lair, Alara's hopes for getting Shana out of this predicament lifted.

But those hopes were dashed by Orola's next words.

'But Keoke is right, Alara,' she continued, turning her soft gold eyes on her. 'I know you're fond of the halfblood, and I know Keman considers it his foster sister, but it isn't one of the Kin and we both know it. The real problem is that what we do not know if whether it really did aim its power as it claims. If it's telling the truth, well and good; it showed restraint that was utterly admirable. But if not...the next time it's angered, it could kill. We can't take that chance, Alara. We simply cannot.'

No...no, this wasn't right, it wasn't fair...

'Kill it!' Lori snarled. 'It's a rabid beast!' She flexed her claws against the stone with a scraping sound everyone in the cavern heard clearly.

Anoa interrupted before Alara could reply to that. 'Killing is out of the question,' she said flatly, as the other two seniors nodded agreement. 'No matter what you, Lori...and some of the rest...may think, the child is not a beast. I've taken the form of the elven lords and their human slaves and walked about in their world, as has Alara, often enough to know. Lori, you and those backing you have not and will not. You either haven't the skill or the inclination...and no one who has not been there has any basis for making a judgment.'

The dragons who did take other forms nodded vigorously. Lori glowered; the rest looked elsewhere.

Anoa waited, then continued, her voice soft and rational. 'I speak from experience. The humans are as intelligent...or as stupid...as the best and the worst of the Kin. They are not animals. The elves are formidable, more than you imagine, and the reason for the unwritten Law against revealing our existence to them is that they could destroy us if they chose. Yet history tells us that the Halfbloods came very near to destroying them.' Anoa paused, allowing her statements to have their full impact. 'No, Lori, that potential for destruction is not found among animals. But you are right in this: That very potential is terribly dangerous, and I think the child has gone past our ability to control her.'

Heads nodding all around the meeting put an end to Alara's hopes of gaining support for her position. They were going to throw Shana out, into a world she knew nothing about, into the hands of those who would kill the child if they discovered what Shana was. What could she do? What could she possibly do?

Keoke stood as Anoa lay back down. 'Alara, I think that you are going to have to rid us of that danger, by ridding us of the child.' Alara surged to her feet, her spinal crest a-bristle, but Keoke stared her down. She settled herself again, but unwillingly, her wings mantling. 'I do not mean that you should kill her, but she simply cannot stay here, or even in the vicinity of the Lair. You're going to have to allow us to turn her out into the world. If she is half as remarkable as you claim she is, she'll be fine.'

But she isn't ready! Alara wanted to exclaim. I haven't told her anything about that world! She doesn't even know that there are any real two-leggers alive except herself!

But she said none of this. There was more at stake than just Shana's fate...if she protested, she would lose face with many of the Kin. And that would cost her dearly in respect as a shaman. And in the end, it would gain Shana nothing. The Kin were determined to exile the child...no matter what she said or did in the girl's defense.

She held in her anger, but it was harder to rein in her despair...

'Father Dragon said when you brought her to us that she had great hamenleai' Keoke continued, his tail lashing restlessly, so that those nearest him moved out of range. 'You rightly reminded us of that not long ago. We will give her a chance to prove that. I think we should take her out to the desert, near the caravan trails, and leave her there. I know the Law, but I don't feel that anything she tells the humans will matter. When she is found by humans, if she is, they will take anything she says about the Kin as the ravings of a creature with sun-sickness. She has the ability to find water. If she is more than simply a bright animal, she will be able to save herself, and her potential for making changes occur will be well exercised among the humans.'

'And if she is the 'animal' that Lori claims she is,' Anoa interjected dryly, 'she won't save herself, and there is no harm done.'

'Shouldn't I do this?' Alara asked desperately, looking frantically for a single chance to give Shana the information she needed before she was abandoned to her fate, whatever that might be. And her death, Alara thought bleakly, if they recognized her for what she was...

'No!' Lori shouted, before someone buffeted her with a wing to shut her up.

Keoke shook his head, and light rippled down his neck in liquid waves. 'Lori's right in this much, Alara,' he told the shaman. 'You've spent more than enough time with this halfblood as it is. An inordinate amount of time, really, considering all your duties. You have functions and responsibilities, and there are those