I leaned back in my seat. In the cloud of dancers, I recognized no fewer than five woman who had begged Shamino to escort them—and I had only seen the women who had hounded Shamino in the afternoons. “I don’t blame him. Women hunt him.”
“Because he hides. He’s made himself mysterious. If he was out more, the ladies would get used to—I better go.”
She fled before I had time to react. When I saw Jerroth at the crowd’s edge, I understood why. He came straight to me.
“Adara, go back and apologize.”
His commanding tone made me feel like a child. I stayed seated. “She’s not apologizing to me. And she started it.”
Blessed rain, I sound like a child.
“I’m serious. You can mend this if you go to her.”
Most of the time, Jerroth kept to the side, aloof and watching. Right now, though, his ice-blue eyes had melted with concern.
I softened my tone. “I will apologize. Just… not right now.”
He made an exasperated sound and took Paige’s former chair. “If you say you’re sorry now, in front of everyone, it will all be as before. Yes, Tressa didn’t behave properly, but you don’t know what happened in the past.”
“Paige just told me. She regrets what happened.”
“That may be, but the consequences are still affecting Tressa.”
A server of champagne approached. Jerroth waved him away without even looking at him. The gesture struck me. Mother had been like that, invisible and insignificant in the dramas of the nobles’ world. Until one man looked at her…
I swallowed and forced myself to think of my own drama. “Tressa’s anger affects Paige still. Can I not be friends with both of them?”
By Jerroth’s confused look? No.
The music changed and a new dance began. The previous music had been upbeat, but this song was sweeping and slow. Almost mournful. Almost.
Jerroth’s eyes pierced me. “She’s your friend. Isn’t that worth something?”
A friend who uses me.
My eyes became hot. “I’m tired of questioning everything she does. Like tonight. Tressa offered me her earrings, but she didn’t do it in private, she offered so everyone could hear how the rich, generous Lady was helping her poor friend.”
“That’s what’s bothering you? Adara, what else is friendship?”
I tried to hide my disbelief by staring at my hands. The farming calluses had faded; new ones from the Dragon Quarters were forming.
He truly sees no issue with such a friendship. Will Paige be any different? Paige still thought in terms of the court, for all she seemed to dislike it. The way she’d spoken of Shamino’s past, her tone full of judgment for his blindness and determination, it bothered me.
Jerroth stood. “I don’t know what else to say. Tressa has shown you great favor and kindness. Apologize, if not to repair the friendship, then to at least show gratitude for what she’s done for you thus far.”
This is my world now. Carefree giggles with peasant girls, that was gone. Stoneyfield was gone. Most of all, Jerroth was right. Just because I didn’t understand the rules didn’t mean that, from their perspective, they hadn’t been well meaning. Even Paige had said Tressa loved me as a friend.
As I stood to go with Jerroth, the music stopped. A magically enhanced voice boomed over the crowd:
“INCOMING WOUNDED.”
Chapter Sixteen
Tressa would have to wait.
By the time I changed my clothes and made my way to the Infirmary in the Dragon Quarters, it already seethed with activity. Three sets of double doors opened to a moonless night, and unknown mages lined the platforms with Lights. Other mages, some still in their ball attire, sent Light after Light to the smoothed ceiling of the massive cavern.
Dragons worked, too. Ten rock beds filled the cavern, but Raul hurriedly relocated the piles, pushing them closer together. An unknown dragon dropped two clawfuls of rocks on the ground and loped back outside.
My stomach dropped. More than ten wounded. Can Shamino even heal ten?
Shamino stood in the churning mass, wearing a sleeveless tunic and torn breeches—clothing he could destroy later. He consulted a red journal as he directed Byron, the other mage who worked the Dragon Quarters with Sylvia and me. The middle-aged man used his Gift to load massive carts with bandages, splints, needles, pliers, anything that might be needed for healing.
“What can I do?” I asked.
Shamino looked up from his book. “You can help…” His words died as he watched Byron.
I have no Gift. Bandages for dragons were too bulky and heavy to wrestle on my own. I followed Shamino’s gaze as he surveyed the Infirmary. Lights? Moving rocks? Another dragon entered and started breathing fire on beds. I couldn’t help with that, either, which was unfortunate because dragons could only sustain short bursts of fire.
“I can help Sylvia?” I suggested as I spotted the woman beside shelves of herbs.
Shamino shook his head. “She needs to handle the herbs personally to enhance them in the potions. Once she makes the potions, you can administer them, but…”
For now, I’m useless.
“Pick a dragon,” Shamino decided. “Any of the unbonded, an aggressive but cooperative one. The two of you can subdue any unruly dragons or mages.”
“Subdue?”
“We had a problem last time,” Shamino said. He waved Byron past, who was now pushing a heaping cart, again with his Gift. “I need the dragons calm. If they’re too distressed, they can’t lower the barrier and my magic won’t work. Any mage who harasses anyone has to leave.”
‘Subduing’ a mage sounded as impossible as using my Gift. “How am I supposed to make them do anything? If they use magic—”
“That’s why you need a dragon, to shield you. A dragon can restrain a patient, too, if it becomes upset when its mage leaves.”
This just sounded better and better.
“Adara.” Shamino set the book on a cart and put his hands on my shoulders. “I need someone I can trust. You’re not bonded, but you get along with dragons, and I know you’ll do
