Dragonquest - Donita K. Paul [133]
“Mother?”
Lyll opened her eyes, and a tired smile traced her lips.
Gymn came out of his pocket-den and hopped onto Lyll’s chest. Kale put one hand on the little dragon, and the other held her mother’s hand.
“I have something to give you, my child.” Lyll fumbled in her bedclothes and pulled out a disk on a chain. “I thought for a minute this afternoon that I had been foolhardy enough to lose my life. If that were to happen, you would be an orphan again. It is my hope that we might rescue Kemry. Take this disk. It will help you identify your father lest Risto try to trick you.”
“I have a disk like that.”
“You do?” The surprise in her mother’s weak voice made Kale smile.
“Granny Noon gave it to me, but she didn’t tell me how it works.”
“Do you have it now? I can show you how it works.”
Kale let go of her mother’s hand and pulled the thong around her neck, lifting the red pouch from beneath the nightgown she still wore. She emptied the coinlike piece of silver into her palm.
Lyll held out her hand. “Give it to me and watch what happens.”
Kale placed the notched disk into Lyll’s palm. At first, nothing happened. Then the shine of the metal grew brighter. As she continued to watch, one of the notches foamed at the cut edges and closed together. When the shine diminished, the coin had only one notch.
Lyll Allerion opened Kale’s fist by gently prying on her clamped fingers. She put the coin back in her daughter’s hand. “When you find your father, the other notch will heal.”
Kale stared at the one-notched disk and slowly closed her fingers over it. She looked up at the tired old woman in the bed.
“You really are my mother,” she whispered.
“Yes, I am. How do you feel about that?”
Tears rolled down Kale’s cheeks. “I don’t know.”
“Are you sorry I am not as beautiful as the other mother you found?”
She shook her head. “No, I always liked you better.”
“Do you think you could love me?”
Kale nodded and threw herself into her mother’s arms. She sobbed for a moment, but a jolt of energy passing through the circle of healing made her jump back. Still holding onto her mother’s arms, Kale looked into the young face of Lyll Allerion.
She giggled. “You’re young again.”
Lyll laughed. “Yes, that was a mighty potent healing. Now I must get up and get dressed. Bardon has been telling me Regidor is having problems. Shall we go see about our friend?”
Kale saw the morning sun peeking through the tent flap. She’d been up all night. But her mother was right. They must talk to Regidor.
“What color should I wear today?” asked Lyll. “Yellow or blue?”
“Yellow,” said Kale. “It’s going to be a bright day.”
“Is it, dear? I predict problems, and thus, yellow is the perfect choice.” She nodded at the dress slung over a chair. “Yellow!” Lyll examined her daughter’s attire. “I do believe you could use a dress as well.”
55
TREACHERY
Lyll’s prediction of trouble was validated as soon as they walked out of the tent. Dar and Bardon stood with Wizard Cam. Toopka hovered at their heels. All of them looked as though someone had died.
Cam stepped forward. “In the hour before daylight, all the dragons aligned with our camp took flight. It is reported that they headed north.”
“Which would take them to the enemy,” added Dar. “It seems our dragons have gone over to Risto’s camp.”
Bardon looked at Kale only. “And Regidor is nowhere to be found.”
She blinked. “He and Gilda persuaded the dragons to defect?”
“Subterfuge is Gilda’s specialty,” said Cam with a sigh. “I’m afraid her brand of persuasion was too much for Regidor to resist. Remember, Risto enhanced her natural abilities. Once Regidor was converted, the two of them must have been a formidable pair against our dragons’ trusting dispositions.”
“All the dragons?” Kale realized the magnitude of the treason. “Celisse? Merlander?”
Bardon nodded. “All the dragons.”
Kale felt the pressure of Metta’s claws in her shoulder. “Not the minor dragons,” she said. “The minor dragons are still here.”
“Yes,” said Cam, “but the minor dragons cannot carry soldiers into