Page 21 of Consorting with Dragons

“No, which is why I have a call in to the chief trainer. Maybe he can give me some idea of what to do. In the meantime, I brought the hatchling here to you in hopes it would settle him down.”

“I’m glad you did,” I said, still petting his head.

He came closer and extended his hand to me. “Won’t you get back up on the bed, please? You’ll get a chill down there.”

“I’m fine where I am,” I said, ignoring his hand. “It’s not as if you’ve cared overly much for my comfort during this entire thing. Why start now?”

He had the good grace at least to look down at the floor and neither of us said anything for a long time. Then he sighed. “Ah, I see more of your memories have come back.”

“Yes, they have. I know that you arrested me in that warehouse and threw me in that jail cell in your ship, for example.”

He sighed. “Rylan, it wasn’t a jail cell. I’ve already explained that it was a crewman’s quarters. Now please get up and get back in bed.”

I got back up to my feet, again ignoring his outstretched hand, and I carried the dragon baby over to a chair by the window, instead of the bed, so we could sit together. “I’ll sit here. I don’t need to be in bed anymore. I guess I need to toughen up anyway for when I go to your jail.”

“I’m not sending you to any jail.”

“Why not? You said you were arresting me back on Lycanus 3. You called me a thief and said awful things to me.”

He came to sit in the chair across from me. “Please listen to me…I’m sorry for all that’s happened. It’s been a big misunderstanding right from the start.”

“Hmm. Well, I probably don’t have any rights here, but I’d like it if you contacted my parents and let them know where I am. That I’m still alive. I assume that prisoners on your moon have at leastsomerights, don’t they?”

“You’re not a prisoner, and I’ve already sent a message to your parents to let them know where you are. Like I told you I would. And I told them about the attack and your injuries. Everything. They know all about the incident on Lycanus 3, too, and I believe your omak is already on his way here now to see you. They mentioned some of your other relatives too.”

“Did they mention Blake?” I asked. “Oh, if it’s him, then you’re in for it.”

“They didn’t give me any names. Will you let me try to explain things to you?”

“I didn’t stealanything,you know.And neither did my father. He simply bought the egg from the king of Thalios as a gift for my omak.”

“I know. I’d like to tell you what we know, if you’ll let me. I meant to tell you on the ship, but…with all that happened, I haven’t had a chance.”

I sniffed and turned my head away, but I couldn’t stay mad at him—not exactly. I wasn’t sure why. I wanted to hear what he had to say, and it wasn’t just because he was so big and so good looking, and he was sitting there looking at me with those beautiful, jade green eyes, though that was probably a big part of it.

“Well go ahead then. Try to explain it to me, if you can.”

“The king of Thalios only had a vetami egg in the first place because his father, who used to live on Horvath, left here long ago with some breeding pairs of the animals. He shouldn’t have,and he knew it, though it wasn’t strictly illegal at the time. He took the vetamis to Thalios, when he married their queen, and he bred the Golden vetami. Vetamis are usually red or green. We’d like to know how long this has been going on, and if there are more Goldens like this one. We’ve asked the Axis leader, King Davos, to open an investigation into it.”

“I see. And you must see that my father would have had no way of knowing any of this.”

“Yes, of course. I’m sure we can exonerate him completely, though that will be up to King Davos.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem then. And my father paid a lot for this egg, you know. Will you give him his money back?”

“I don’t have his money. He’ll need to take that up with the Thalian king. Or Davos.”

“Oh. I suppose you’re right. I’ll talk to my grandfather about it.”

He gave me a puzzled look. “And what does your grandfather have to do with any of this?”

I looked at him oddly. “My grandfatherisKing Davos, of course.”

He fell back in his chair like he was thunderstruck.

“W-what did you say? What are you talking about?”

“Davos is my grandfather on my omak’s side. My omak is Prince Vannos of Tygeria, son of King Davos. Didn’t you know that?”

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