Page 168 of First Light

“There is much you do not know.” He stood and walked to her. “You have been gone from your world for two weeks. That is not enough time to learn anything.”

“I’ve learned that I can talk to a dragon.”In my mind.She tried out the new feature.

“Yes, very good.” He cocked his head. “Have you studied languages? Cartography? History? Basic saber fighting? Hand-to-hand combat? Military history and wing formations? Magic incantations and basic spell?—”

“Okay yes!” She raised a hand. “Obviously I’m not going to learn that much in two weeks. I didn’t even get a training montage.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

She rubbed her face. “You have a lot to learn too.”

“You are nêrys ddraig. It is my responsibility as your dragon to see that youare prepared to fly into battle if necessary. That you are prepared for anything this world might confront you with.”

“Why?” She crossed her legs and drew her cloak tighter. “I could go back to the Brightlands. The biggest danger I’d face there is a car accident or heart disease.”

His eye twitched.

“You really don’t like that idea, do you?”

“The gods do not grant magic to humans for no reason,” Cadell said. “You have a purpose here.”

“What?”

“That is not my place to say.”

How convenient for him. “You’re saying that I have some kind of… destiny?”

“You’re not like the cross human. He is mundane.”

She felt vaguely offended on Duncan’s behalf. “I wouldn’t say that. He forged a dragon-steel sword, didn’t he?”

“Fine.” Cadell cocked his head. “He has skills but no magic. You can speak to me. You hear the water horse. The ellyllon recognized you. The Crow Mother bargains with you.”

“What are you saying? That I’m not human?”

“Youarehuman,” he insisted. “But not like the Brightkin we know. You are more.”

“But if I go home, you’ll come with me?”

“I must. You are my nêrys.”

It was the first time that Cadell’s friendship had felt like a burden. “But you’d lose your magic in the Brightlands.”

“Yes.”

Carys thought about it carefully. “If I stayed in Scotland?—”

“You’d be closer, but it would not be your home. And I would still need to go with you.”

“Wait a minute.” She tore through her memory, shifting through the deluge of information that had been dumped on her in the past few weeks. “The fae took Lachlan.”

“Allies of his father, yes. Robb does not travel to the Brightlands.”

“Yeah, but they took him when he was out on a hike by my house.” She looked up. “Cadell, there’s a fae gate. Like, right by my house.”

Cadell’s eyes brightened. “Then I am definitely returning with you to the Brightlands. You’ll smell of the Shadow now. You’ll be marked. There will be creatures and beings from the Shadowlands who might seek you out.”

“In Baywood?”