Chapter 4

“There,” Cante said, “she’ll live, but she needs lots of rest.  And we are done talking until all of us have cleaned up.  Bier was it?  There’s a spare room down the hall on your right.  We will talk in an hour.  Just the three of us.”

Two hours later Bier walked out of the conference room.  He was wearing his black cloak and was clad in freshly polished dragon scale armor.  He looked tired.

“Why don’t you tell me how it went while I give you a tour?”  Elizabeth inquired, coming up from behind him and directing him towards the kitchen; the first stop during every tour.

“I’m not sure,” he said, “they didn’t give me a straight answer.  Your mother seemed to like the idea of training me quite a bit, but your father was hesitant.  They said they’d talk it over and let me know at dinner, which they invited me to.”

“They’ll let you know at lunch,” Elizabeth said, “but they’ll announce their decision to everybody, including all those damn suitors, at dinner.”

“You really don’t like these suitors,” he asked, “do you?”

“Not really,” she said as they walked out into the courtyard, “I never wanted this, but being the heir to my father’s title doomed me,” they sat down on a bench by a fountain.  “This is the courtyard, SUITORS AREN’T ALLOWED HERE!  Sorry about that, it’s just that I know Tom was in the area.  He runs once he’s been discovered though.”

“Why do you dislike this Tom so much?” Bier ventured.

“He used to be my best friend and only my best friend.  Then he told me that he was the most promising suitor I’d ever encounter and that I should marry him.  I had actually had a crush on him, and would have been thrilled beyond belief if he had asked me out instead of naming himself as a suitor.  You see, my whole life I’ve had to deal with suitors and I hate it.  Mom and dad have tried talking to Cecil about it, but there’s nothing he can do.  Everybody wants their son to be married to the next Elemental Lord and be part of the Royal Family.  It’s disgusting really.  Anyway, Tom was just Tom, and even when he named himself a suitor I didn’t think much of it.  But then his mother, Pita, came to visit.  I overheard her arguing with my parents, saying how her son was the only person I should even consider.  And Tom agreed, spouting on and on about how only a Highwind should be allowed to marry the Heir of the Elemental Lord.  I though Tom had been more real than that.  I was crushed.  Mom knew how I felt because she had liked Tom before he started spouting all that Highwind crap.  She was upset because I was upset, so she took it upon herself to teach me the ways of the assassin.  I’m nowhere near as good as her, but it really did help me get over myself.”

“I knew a young dragon like that,” Bier said, “she insisted that I was her mate, thus making me off-limits for everybody else, including my best friends.  I tried explaining to her that I could only fall in love with a human, but she insisted that I’d fall in love with her once she grew her wings.  Thankfully Lady Arian found me before she could be proven wrong.”

“Sounds like she’d get along fabulously with Kain’s brother,” Elizabeth giggled.

“Oh she does.  When I was training under Kain his brother came to visit, and she was carrying him.  I explained everything to Kain, and he gave me the week off while his brother was in town.  Kain told me later that she was a real pain.”
They continued talking in the courtyard, while Elizabeth’s parents watched.  

“Elizabeth seems to like him,” Cante said.

“I don’t blame her,” Cariad replied, “he’s quite the looker and he was raised by dragons.  As a little girl Elizabeth would proclaim her love for ‘Dragon Boy’ every time she heard of him.”

“That's what worries me,” Cante said, “that she’ll fall in love with him.”

“What’s wrong with that,” Cariad demanded, “he seems like a really nice guy.  And he’s been trained by everyone we know, so he’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself and Elizabeth.”

“It’s not that,” he said, “I’d like her to marry someone like him.  It’s just that he’s here for training, no as a suitor.  And I know that if we name him a suitor Elizabeth will shun him along with everybody else.  I don’t know how she’d handle another good friend being named a suitor.”

“Who says he has to be named a suitor?”

“He gave us gifts.  That is universally accepted as a sign that the giver is a suitor.  And he gave Elizabeth his old cloak.  The gifts he gave us can be passed off as a request to be trained under us, but his gift to Elizabeth cannot be passed off in such a manner.”

“Well, who says everybody else has to know?  I don’t think he’s aware that he named himself as a suitor upon giving her his cloak.  We can write it down, to make it official, but we don’t have to tell anybody else.”

“And if she ends up falling for him?  What do we do then?”

“We tell them that we announced it, but that they don’t remember,” she said this with a gleam in her eyes that told Cante she meant to make them believe whatever she said.

“We can’t control their minds, Cariad.”

“I never said we would,” she countered, “I’d only suggest to them that they missed the announcement.  They would have no idea I’m doing anything.  Humans aren’t’ mind-sensitive like we are.  How many times was my father able to control Kain without his knowing?”

“And when Cecil finds out?”

“I’ll talk to him when he does.  He’s more receptive to me than he is to you.”

“Very well, we shall follow your plan.  Though I’m not very fond of it.”