Dragon Tamer

Chapter 17

This one is dedicated to my mum, who has always had my back and supports everything I do. Love you, Mum. 

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Just as Cadence had instructed, I hadn't sparred for a couple of days, but that didn't stop me from helping around the village. Camden and I worked with Spence and Kain to rebuild the dragonling pen. My brothers helped out when they could as well, tired of the dragonlings tearing up our yard. Elesor and their mothers tried their best to keep the young dragons in order, but they were getting riled up, stuck in a small space for a few days. They'd recently discovered if they flew, they had full reign over where they went. All I could ask for was that the mothers kept the dragonlings away from the house. It was my one sanctuary away from the crumbling village. Thankfully, the repairs were going well, most families had a roof over their head again; only the ones whose houses completely burned down still had no place to call home. They'd been living with other families in the meantime.

I was in the middle of holding two joists over my head, ignoring the angry throb in my side, while Spence hammered everything into place, when I caught sight of a star-white blonde head making her way over. Spence finished up and I groaned in relief as my hands dropped to my sides.

The weather had been on our side since the attack, the sun high with only a few clouds to stand between us and its warmth. Today was particularly hot out, and a vicious sweat worked on my back. Cadence wasn't sweating at all in her light green dress. It must have been a new dress, because I'd never seen her wear an ounce of green in her life; she stuck to blues and grays to match her eyes. Her hair was smooth and shimmery in the sunlight; I might have mistaken her for a princess, she looked so gorgeous today.

She grimaced at my sweaty, filthy state then looked around the nearly complete pen. It was just the top of the cage that had to be closed off. At the rate we were going, the dragonlings could spend the night in here. "Where's the prince?" she asked. It was always the first thing she said when she stopped by to "check up on me." What really happened, though, was that she'd change my bandages and, without looking me over, declare I was fine then she'd find Camden and talk to him for hours while I "recovered."

Reluctantly, I pointed to the top of the cage where Camden and Kain had climbed to close the hole off on the top. It was a solid fifty feet and as precarious as it looked from down here.

She gasped. "What's he doing up there? He could fall! He's a prince, you know! What if he dies?"

I rolled my eyes. "Normally, I would be up there, but since you haven't cleared me for intense physical activities, he volunteered to go up there. Relax," I added to her horrified expression, "he's wearing a harness. It'll catch him if he falls."

She glared at me, as if I'd somehow coaxed the prince to climb to deadly heights. "When will he be done? I want to go for a walk."

"I don't know," I lied. From the looks of it, he was nearly finished hammering the plank in place. He and Kain should be down any minute. So it was time I got rid of Cadence before she dug her talons in him. We'd put his training on hold too long, I wanted to at least do something productive with him today. Also, the idea of him taking a gallant stroll through the meadow with Cadence didn't sit right with me. "Aren't you supposed to change my bandages or something?" I said it to annoy her more than anything. I honestly didn't care if she healed me today, I just wanted to get rid of her.

She sighed irritably and dug through her satchel. "Yes, fine, all right. Where can we do it?"

I gestured to the shed beside the pen where we stored toys and equipment for the dragonlings. She followed me inside and instructed me to take my top off. It would have been easier before Amelia had hemmed my shirts to fit me properly, but I looked too good to care how much it hurt to take them off. The bruises had gone down to a light blue and had shrunk to half their size. It made my other scars visible again, and Cadence grimaced at the stab wound where a horn had caught my hip, before she lathered up the bandages in the wart root paste. Ignoring her looks of disgust, I lifted my arms above my head and let her wrap my torso.