Chapter 8 Help Wanted
~ brEN ~
In the end, it was too risky to approach Hanson’s herd.
Donavyn and I waited miles away with Akhane, while Kgosi flew in under the cloak of night to find Benji.
He took a wide, spiraling flight path, slowly narrowing on the clearing where I’d fled, watching for Carnage and Ruin, and Hanson, as well as Benji.
But in the end, Akhane, with ears pricked and relief in her tone, reassured me.
‘He’s found little Lionheart,’ she said quietly. ‘No sign of the other men, or Carnage. The dragons are unsettled by him, so he’ll land some way off and let Benji come to him. The boy is unhurt.’
Thank God. It was another half hour before Kgosi reached us, Benji clinging to his back until the landing, then losing his seat and swinging on the safety strap until Kgosi came to a halt next to Akhane.
Donavyn and I rushed forward, but Benji was bright-eyed about the flight and gushing gratitude to Kgosi.
He used leverage from pushing off Kgosi’s neck to get the safety strap swinging, then grasped the mounting strap and clambered high enough on Kgosi’s shoulder to unclip himself, babbling the entire time. I was stunned.
Not only was he unhurt, he appeared thrilled.
He dropped to the ground at Kgosi’s side—my pride wounded because it hadn’t seemed to cause him any trouble at all to climb Kgosi’s mounting strap, or back down, though Kgosi settled onto the ground to give him less distance.
Only when he’d landed on the hard ground and patted Kgosi one last time, did he turn.
And the moment his eyes landed on me, his face went dark.
“Benji,” I said quietly. “I’m so sorry—”
“You forgot me!”
“I never meant to—”
Donavyn cleared his throat and Benji tensed as he looked at Donavyn warily, but it was clear he was angry. And I couldn’t blame him. I was so relieved that he was safe.
Strangely, Donavyn had folded his arms and stood over Benji looking stern. “Report, soldier,” Donavyn said in a gruff, brisk tone.
Benji frowned, but stood up straight and raised his chin.
“The dragons are real dragons. They were led by a blue, but he’s been gone for a while, and they don’t know why.”
“What is his name?”
Benji’s brow furrowed. “These dragons are different to ours, sir. They speak in pictures, not words. And they’re… I don’t know how to say it. But they make decisions with their hearts.” He frowned like the words weren’t right.
“Their instincts?” Donavyn asked carefully.
Benji brightened. “Yes! They… they are led, so they move. But they’re very strange. Their minds are in boxes.”
Donavyn frowned. “Boxes? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know how to say it. It’s like there are parts of their minds that are closed off.”
“That’s normal, son. Dragons won’t trust you with all of themselves—”
“No, no. I mean, parts of their minds that are closed off, even to them.”
“What?” I gasped.
Benji shot me a dark look, but turned back to Donavyn before he’d spoken. “I don’t really understand it. They will start to talk to me, then stop. They’ll trust me for a minute or two, then hurry away like they’re scared. I need to spend more time with them, sir.”
“I’m not sure that’s going to be possible, Benji. We’ve learned a great deal tonight, and not all of it good. It may not be safe to return to this herd.”
“But you said we were coming to find dragons to add to our herd, and some of these might go if they got to know us. They don’t seem to have bonded riders, or mates. None of them!”
Donavyn’s expression was confused. “None of them? How many of them were there?”
Benji bit his lip. “I don’t do good with numbers. But I think I counted twenty more than two times—and that was just the males. There are more females, but they’re in a different place, so I couldn’t count them.”
Donavyn’s head snapped back. “Fifty or more dragons, and none are bonded?”
Benji shook his head emphatically. “If I had more time, I could understand more. It’s just hard to be sure what they mean with the pictures, sometimes. I have to listen with my feelings. And sometimes those aren’t clear.”
Donavyn looked at me. In the bond, he felt as stunned as me.
They didn’t speak with words? None of them had bonds?
“Where did they come from?” Donavyn asked.
“That’s part of what I didn’t understand. They just showed me pictures when I asked. Places I don’t know. A few showed me long flights, so I think they came from a long way away. But I don’t know.”
Donavyn clawed a hand through his hair. “You’ve done well, Benji. Very well. You were faced with unexpected trials, and you didn’t lose focus. Well done.”
“Thank you, sir,” he said, and even in the dark, I could see his cheeks flush.
“What about Hanson. Did you see him?”
Benji tensed when I spoke. He didn’t turn to face me, just shot me a look from the side and spoke sullenly. “The black-haired Lord? No. I didn’t see him after you left.”
I opened my mouth, but Donavyn shot me caution through the bond. ‘He doesn’t know all the threads at play here. Better he doesn’t understand. He’s less likely to say something that could put you in danger.’
I closed my mouth, but my stomach panged because it was clear Benji was angry with me. And I could hardly blame him. Yet, I was sure, if he understood, he’d forgive me.
“Benji,” I started quietly.
“Sir, I need to speak with you. Alone,” Benji blurted.
Donavyn’s brows shot up. Then he looked at me. I shrugged. Donavyn scratched the back of his neck. “I’m reluctant to leave Bren here alone, Benji. A gentleman always makes sure the women are safe—”
“We can just go far enough to talk where she can’t hear,” Benji replied sullenly.
I told Donavyn to go, tamping down the fear that wanted to rise. He wouldn’t be out of sight.
I’d had a shock with Ruin, but we knew he wasn’t here—Kgosi would have sensed Carnage, who was technically still a part of his herd. I just needed to do what needed to be done and remember my purpose. That was all.
‘You have done well, Little Flame,’ Akhane sent me generously.
‘I left a child here in the dark, by himself, and didn’t even remember I’d done it.’
‘Your mind was full of other, more pressing things.’
‘I don’t think Benji sees it that way.’
‘Lionheart is yet a child. He will grow. And when he does, he’ll understand.’
I sighed and walked to her side. She eased down to the ground, still tired and somewhat shaky herself.
But Kgosi rumbled to her and they curled together, Akhane’s head resting on his back legs, her tail curled around his shoulder.
She lifted one wing and invited me under it as Donavyn, with an apologetic look, walked a short distance away with Benji.
I thought the fear would overwhelm me when I had to watch his back. I thought the memories would intrude on my thoughts again. But nearly the moment I sat down in the curl of Akhane’s foreleg, my eyes dragged closed and I slept to the sound of two dragons breathing and crooning to each other.
~ DONAVYN ~
When we were far enough away that Bren couldn’t hear our lowered voices, I stopped walking and beckoned Benji to stand with me.
“What is it, son?” I asked quietly, so Bren wouldn’t hear. Though the dragons would be able to. I prayed Benji wouldn’t remember that. I didn’t want to move far enough away to block them and leave Bren.
Benji’s lips twisted and pursed. He looked nervous for the first time since Kgosi landed with him.
Kgosi flew with him…
The thought still made me shake my head. I knew I had nothing to be jealous about, that my dragon offered to pick the boy up. He was still a child!
‘He stands on the cusp of manhood, Donavyn. And he admires you. He watches closely. Take care with your words and your advice,’ Kgosi rumbled in my head.
“I have to tell you something and I don’t think you’ll like it,” Benji said quietly, looking up at me without raising his head.
I frowned. “Well, I give you permission to say anything that’s true.”
Benji nodded, chewing the inside of his lip, but his eyes darted back towards the dragons and that sullen expression overtook his small face again.
“Benji?”
“I just… I don’t like that she’s here, sir. She’s tricky.”
“Her? You mean, Bren?”
“Yes.”
“Benji, if you’re going to work with the Furymaster and the dragons, you’re going to work with many different kinds of people, many different shapes and sizes, and personalities. If you take an exception to Bren because she’s a woman, that won’t bode well for your—”
“It’s not that! At least, not really,” he grumbled, his expression turning dark at another glance in her direction. “I just… I thought she was with you.”
My head spun. “You mean tonight? When she left? Or when she came to get you? Bren has duties, just like you do—”
“No, sir…” Benji sighed heavily. “I mean… I thought she was with you.” He widened his eyes, and I finally caught his drift.
“Ah. You mean our relationship outside of Commander and Furyknight?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you’re right, Benji. We are together. Our dragons are mates, and we’re mates also.”
“Then why was she letting another man touch her?” he said bitterly, his forehead pinched to lines of stress and anger that seemed very deep and dark for such a young man.
A small pang jangled through my chest—I didn’t want another man touching her either! But in this case, I knew he meant Hanson, and their flying here and… Bren had already told me the Lord had been very eager and taking every opportunity to touch her arms and cup her thigh.
I sighed and nodded. “I know it’s hard to see, Benji. But sometimes the work we’re doing… it isn’t always as… straightforward as patrolling borders or—”
“Sir… She let the man touch her, and she told him he couldn’t tell you that she came out here with him. She’s a liar.”
Oh God. The tension of the entire day—having to let Bren go with Hanson, Ruin’s appearance, losing Ruin, Bren now sitting over there with her dragon, shaking and fearful—it was all more than I wanted to deal with. But now, to have to explain to a child that I wasn’t being cuckolded?