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would have forgiven such an outburst.
    Dar seemed unconcerned. “My dragon.”
    “The beautiful one?”
    Dar grinned again. “She is something to look at, isn’t she? But vain. Don’t say too much about her being pretty when she’s around.”
    Kale nodded, agreeing to his request as if she understood all the intricacies of owning a dragon.
    “You said ‘my dragon.’ I was told that no one could own a dragon.”
    “Oh, I don’t own Merlander. I say ‘my dragon’ in the same way I would say ‘my friend’ or ‘my sister.’ She would say ‘my doneel.’ We’ve been together five years.”
    Kale gulped and almost choked on the bread. Dar came over and slapped her on the back. When she was breathing easily again, he got a heavy ceramic mug out of his pack and brought her cool water from the stream.
    “She talks? Your dragon talks?”
    “No, not like you and I. She knows my thoughts and I know hers. She told me a new dragon was coming from the east, over the Morchain Mountains. As you carried the egg closer, Merlander knew when you were tired or excited or frightened. The dragon embryo in your egg already reflects your disposition. My dragon knew what your dragon felt. When you were terrorized by the grawligs, we knew. But we couldn’t come to you when you were unconscious. We had no beacon. Then you were awake and hurting. We knew. But after a short while, you went to sleep.”
    “You knew all that?”
    “Merlander knew.”
    Dar lit the fire and cleaned the fish. He hung the brook dabbler on a metal brace he plucked out of his pack and placed over the fire.
    Kale puzzled over all the information Dar had given her. Councilman Meiger was right. She didn’t know anything.
    “So,” she asked the doneel as he slowly turned the cooking fish, “will you take me to The Hall now?”
    “No,” said Dar. “I was sent to keep you from going to The Hall.”

          5          
    N EW F RIENDS , N EW E NEMIES
    Kale stood in a panic. This little doneel was not what he seemed. Where could she run?
    She’d been told where to go by the elders of the village. To Vendela. She
must
follow their instructions. Should she go to The Goose and The Gander and look for Maye? That was what Farmer Brigg had advised. Always before, she had only to listen to instructions and do what she was told. Nothing complicated ever came her way.
    Maybe being a slave isn’t so bad. If I can just get to The Hall, I’ll be a servant. That’s enough like being a slave that all this adventure with grawligs and doneels, running from danger and battles, will just cease to exist.
    She looked at Dar and his diminutive frame. His short legs would never keep up with her. She surveyed the forest and wondered which way to run.
    A hailing cry came from the sky. Putting a hand at her brow to shield against the sun, Kale scrunched up her eyes and saw Merlander with her beautiful red wings swooping down. Again the dragon called with a round melodious tone. Dar waved a greeting. The whoosh of the last beat of Merlander’s wings ruffled Kale’s hair like a spring breeze. The dragon folded her wings against her sides.
    A young woman riding the dragon’s back threw her leg over the arching blue neck and slid down glittering scales to the ground.
    “I’m Leetu Bends,” she announced with a nod in Kale’s direction. Then she turned a scowl on the doneel. “Dar, what did you say to her?” And before he could answer, “What foolishness. How clumsy.”
    Dar dipped his head, hiding his expression. His ears drooped.
    “I’m sorry.” Leetu turned to Kale. “Dar teases, among other disreputable things. Think of him as an older brother who has no sense of decorum. Or no sense, period. Paladin has urgent need of your skill. That is why you must turn aside and leave going to The Hall until later.”
    Kale stood rigid in her confusion. This was the commanding voice she had heard as the grawligs battled—the one who said they had come to