Page 54 of First Light
She didn’t know how the connection with Cadell had formed so immediately and completely; but she could feel his emotions almost as if they were an extension of her own.
Did he feel the same about her? How?
She trusted him. Completely. But she’d just found out her sister had been murdered and Cadell had been off duty at the time.
So she had questions for him too.
Carys, Duncan, and Cadell walked out of the castle and into the courtyard through the door where they had entered, the guards stepping back and clicking their heels as they spotted Cadell.
“You’re like a knight,” she murmured.
Cadell heard her. “Your knight. I answer only to you, Lady Carys.”
“Please just call me Carys.”
“I answer to you, but you do not command me, Lady Carys.”
“I’m not a lady.”
“You are to him.” Duncan came to walk next to her. “The bond between a dragon and their nêr is like that.”
“Nêr?”
“Nêrys is the female form of the address. Your uncle is a nêr ddraig, a dragon lord. You are a nêrys.”
“But what does thatmean?” Carys kept her voice low as they crossed the courtyard, every eye on them, from the weird little man to the laundress hanging clothes in the grassy common to the blacksmith who paused at his forge to watch them and nod at Duncan. “No one will explain what any of this means.”
“Patience.” Duncan sounded exasperated.
Carys wanted to hit him. “And how is my uncle getting hereso quickly?” She asked the question that had been brimming in her mind. “Do dragon lordsridedragons?”
Cadell stopped dead in his tracks and turned to her, his stern gaze rocketing between confusion, irritation, and something that hinted at embarrassment.
Duncan cleared his throat and tried to hide a smile.
“Does a nêrys ddraigridea dragon?” Cadell’s eyebrows drew together. “No, Lady Carys. A dragon is neverridden.”
Okay, so clearly that was a foot-in-mouth situation. “I… I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to offend you.”
Duncan cleared his throat again. “She asks because the popular tales and dramas in the Brightlands tell stories of humans riding dragons. There are plays, movies, books?—”
“Do I look like a horse?” Cadell stared at Duncan.
“No.” Carys was quick to jump in. “Again, I am so sorry. But from the way people talk, it seems like dragons definitely do help some people move faster. So I was just wondering… how?”
Cadell, seemingly mollified, started walking again, his massive boots squelching in the mud of the courtyard. “When you fly with me, you will ride in a coracle of course.”
As far as Carys knew, a coracle was a small round Welsh boat used in rivers and calm seas. “How?—”
“It’s a little like an air carriage,” Duncan tried to explain. “Round on the bottom, high sides, large center post with a grip the dragon can carry as it flies. They’re designed to tip as they land so the dragon lord and whatever warriors are with him can run into battle.”
“There are royal coracles as well,” Cadell said. “For peacetime, which all dragons prefer.” He looked down at Carys. “Unlike wolves, we do not seek war.”
They left the castle gates with not a single guard stopping them. It looked to Carys like once she had a dragon at her side, no one was really worried about her security.
Had that been Seren’s mistake?
“Cadell, tell me about Seren’s death.” She glanced at Duncan. “Unless you think Duncan might have…”