DragonKnight - Donita K. Paul [10]
N’Rae rushed to the table, taking his arm and giving it a little squeeze. He liked the warmth the contact gave him. The young emerlindian radiated friendliness, and the joy in her expression thawed a spot in his heart.
She nodded to the creature on the table. “This is Jue Seeno. She’s a minneken from the Isle of Kye.”
Isle of Kye? Bardon’s eyebrows shot upward. How could anyone be from an inaccessible island? And didn’t that granny say her name is Granny Kye? He made a concerted effort to tame the surprise he felt.
“How do you do, Mistress Jue Seeno?”
He heard a squeak.
N’Rae tugged at his sleeve. “You’ll have to get closer to understand her words.”
Bardon knelt beside the table as if he were kneeling before a sovereign of one of the many provinces of Amara.
“I am well. Thank you,” said Mistress Seeno with a nod of her head.
Her high-pitched voice barely reached his ears. He leaned forward slightly and cocked his head.
The minneken smiled. “And you?”
Bardon blinked, and a grin spread across his face. “Pardon me, Mistress, but I am trying to remember every bit of geography, history, and folklore of the Isle of Kye. Until this moment, I thought Kye was the name of an inaccessible island.”
“It is mostly inaccessible.” Her small, twinkling black eyes moved to Granny Kye. When the minneken smiled, a row of tiny white teeth gleamed between thin lips. The front two were quite a bit larger than the rest. “There have always been members of the Kye family who fly in on the strongest dragons. The air currents are as treacherous as the pounding surf battering our sheer cliffs.”
“Am I right in assuming that Granny Kye is a member of that family and has visited the Isle?”
“Partially. She is a Kye of Kye Island but was born on the mainland. I don’t think she has ever ventured out to our little paradise.”
Granny Kye shook her head and placed a hand on her chest. “Oh dear, no. Never.”
Jue Seeno tapped her fingertips together, then folded her hands in her lap. “Very rarely does one of the minnekens leave the isle.” She preened a bit, one small gray hand touching the collar of her cape. “I believe I’m the first in over five hundred years.” Her beady eyes turned back to stare earnestly at the squire. “Most of what you had categorized as folklore, you may now move under history. In talking to N’Rae, who is a woefully ignorant child due to her upbringing, though we’re rectifying that”—she smiled briefly at N’Rae—“I’ve discovered that the folktales among the seven high races concerning the minnekens are based mostly in fact.”
Bardon’s ears perked up. “That raises a question often debated at The Hall, Mistress Seeno. Wulder created the seven high races, yet no mention is made of how other races came into being. The dragons are intelligent and could be said to be a race. And now that I know minnekens are more than just fable, I wonder how this race came to be.”
The tiny lady tilted her head and looked quizzically at the young man kneeling before her.
“Wulder is the Creator of all,” she said.
“I agree.”
“The books He has given to guide and instruct deal with this land. There is no reason why they would mention the creation of life in other places.”
“What other places, Mistress Seeno?”
“Places too far to imagine.” She smoothed her shiny gray fur with tiny hands. “And this is a conversation for after dinner over a cup of tea, under a starlit sky in summer, or by the hearth in winter.”
N’Rae stirred beside him. “Now that you are accustomed to her voice, your ears should be able to make out her words from a greater distance.”
Bardon stood and faced her. “How great a distance?”
She grinned. “Four, maybe five feet.” Then she scowled. “I’m not so totally ignorant.”
“I’m sure you aren’t.”
“My mother and I lived with a band of ropma for many years. My mother educated me. We didn’t have books to read, but she told me everything she could remember.”
He looked at her gentle face and asked, “You lived with ropma?”
“Yes, I liked them. But after Mother died, they became afraid that I would endanger their band by being with them.”