They came back into the dining hall and found Amos finishing another of his tall tales, to the delight of Ghuda and Nicholas. Ryana seemed perplexed, and Harry oblivious to it, as he was completely enraptured by her.
Pug called for coffee and a fortified wine, and the discussion turned again to mundane matters of common gossip in Krondor. After a short while, yawns gave evidence that the guests were ready to retire.
Pug bade his guests good night and gave his hand to the Lady Ryana, whom he escorted from the hall. Nicholas and his companions rose and made their way back to their own rooms. Nicholas discovered the bedding turned down and candles lit upon the night tables. Across the foot of the bed a nightshirt had been provided for his comfort.
Nicholas turned in and had just fallen asleep when a hand shook him. He came awake with his heart pounding, to find Harry leaning over him. The boy was wearing a nightshirt similar to his own.
‘What?’ he asked groggily.
‘You won’t believe this. Come on!’
Nicholas jumped out of bed and followed Harry back to his own room at the far end of the hallway. Harry said, ‘I was almost asleep when I heard a strange sound.’
He motioned for Nicholas to come to the window and said, ‘Be quiet.’
Nicholas looked out Harry’s window and saw the Lady Ryana standing in the distant meadow. Harry said, ‘She was making these really strange noises, like chanting or singing, but not quite.’ There was no mistaking the golden hair, almost aglow in the light from two of Midkemia’s moons. Nicholas’s mouth almost fell open. ‘She’s nude!’
Harry stared. ‘She had clothes on a moment ago, honestly!’ The lady was indeed without clothing and seemed in some sort of a trance. Harry whistled softly. ‘What’s she doing?’
Nicholas suppressed a shiver. Despite the astonishing beauty of the woman in the meadow, there was nothing remotely titillating or erotic about her appearance. He felt uneasy. Not only did he feel as if he was intruding, he felt a sense of danger.
Harry said, ‘I’ve heard tales of witches mating with demons in the moonlight.’
Nicholas said, ‘Look!’
A golden nimbus of light gathered around the woman and soon became blinding. The boys were forced to avert their eyes as the light grew in intensity. For long moments the night seemed broken by a beam of sunlight, then it started to fade. They looked again and the light had expanded to many times the size of the woman. As large as a house, then as large as Amos’s ship, the envelope of light grew, and inside, something took shape. Then the light faded, and where the Lady Ryana had stood, now a mighty creature of legend spread wings a hundred yards across. Golden scales gleamed with silver highlights in the moons’ light, and a long neck with silver crest extended, as the reptilian head looked skyward. Then with a leap, a snap of the giant wings, and a small blast of flame, the dragon lifted into the sky.
Harry gripped Nicholas hard enough to raise a bruise, but neither boy could move. When she had vanished into the sky, the boys turned to regard each other. Both had tears running down their faces, in mixed fear and awe. The great dragons were not real. There were smaller flying reptiles called dragons, but they were merely flying wyverns with no intelligence. None lived in the Western Realm, but rumor had them common in the western mountains of Kesh. But the golden dragons who could speak and work magic did not exist. They were creatures of myth, yet there, in the moonlight, the boys had seen a woman they had dined with transform herself into the most majestic creature to fly the skies of Midkemia.
Nicholas could not stop the tears, so moved was he by the sight. Harry at last gathered his wits and said, ‘Should we wake Amos?’
Nicholas shook his head. ‘Never tell anyone. Do you understand?’
Harry nodded, with no hint of his usual braggadocio, looking like nothing more than a scared little boy. ‘I won’t.’
Nicholas left his friend and returned to his own room. He entered and his heart almost seized up as he discovered Pug sitting upon his bed.
‘Close the door.’
Nicholas complied and Pug said, ‘Ryana could not long live on the meager food she could eat at supper and maintain her pretense. She will hunt for the next few hours.’
Nicholas’s face was pale. For the first time in his life he felt far from home and the comfort of his father’s protection and his mother’s love. He knew Pug was considered a family member, but he was also a magician of mighty arts, and Nicholas had seen something not meant for him to see. ‘I won’t say anything,’ he whispered.
Pug smiled. ‘I know. Sit down.’
Nicholas sat down next to Pug on the bed, and Pug said, ‘Give me your foot.’
Nicholas didn’t have to ask which one and lifted his left leg so that Pug could examine the deformed foot. Pug studied it for several moments, then said, ‘Years ago, your father asked me if I could mend your foot. Did he tell you?’
Nicholas shook his head. He still was frightened enough by what he had just witnessed that he didn’t trust his voice not to break if he spoke.
Pug studied the boy. ‘At the time I had heard of this deformity, and of the efforts to correct it.’
Nicholas whispered, ‘Many tried.’
‘I know.’ Pug stood and walked to the window, looking out at the clear night brilliant with stars. Turning back toward Nicholas, he said, ‘I told Arutha that I could not. That was not true.’
Nicholas asked, ‘Why?’
Pug said, ‘Because no matter how much your father loves you, Nicholas – and Arutha loves his children deeply, no matter how difficult it is for him to show it – no parent has the right to change a child’s nature.’
Nicholas said, ‘I’m not sure I understand.’ The fear within was subsiding, and the boy asked, ‘Why would healing me be wrong?’
Pug said, ‘I don’t know if I can make you understand yet, Nicholas.’ He returned and sat next to the boy. ‘We each of us have it within to make ourselves over, if we choose to do so. Most of us not only do not try, but don’t even acknowledge that ability to ourselves.
‘By any understanding of magic I possess, the healing used upon you when you were young should have worked. Something prevented those spells from being effective.’
Nicholas frowned. ‘I don’t understand. Are you saying I wasn’t letting them heal me?’
Pug nodded. ‘Something like that. But it’s not quite so simple.’
Nicholas said, ‘I would give anything to be normal.’
Pug stood. ‘Would you?’
Nicholas was silent for a long moment, then said, ‘I think I would.’
Pug smiled, his manner reassuring. ‘Go to sleep, Nicholas.’ He withdrew something from a large pocket in his robe and placed it upon the night table. ‘This amulet is a gift. It is much like one I gave your father. Should you need me for anything, grip it tightly in your right hand while you wear it, and say my name three times. I will come.’
Nicholas picked up the amulet and saw it bore the symbol of the three dolphins he had seen in the fountains around the magician’s estate. ‘Why?’
Pug’s smile broadened. ‘Because I’m a cousin, and a friend. And in days to come, you may need both. And because I’m letting you and your friend keep a trust.’
‘The Lady Ryana.’
‘She is very young, and foolish to be seen so. In her race, the first stages of life are spent with little more thought than that of common animals. Every ten years the dragon hides in a cave to shed its skin, emerging a different color each time. Not a few perish during