“We need to talk when you can find the time,” Enderline said to Ardwella. She had just walked up to her living quarters door in the dragon temple and had found the King, the Queen, and her sister waiting outside. She was holding the sizeable ornate room key in her hand. Her face was a neutral mask. It was, nonetheless, lovely. She looked at the three of them as they stood together in the wide hallway.

“Now’s good, " she said. I just returned from dinner but always have time for Your Majesties. And, of course, you, too, Ronniflass. We haven’t spoken much since the day you helped me move the baby dragons.

Ardwella unlocked the door and beckoned the trio to lead the way back into her rooms. She followed after them and gestured to the seating area. Please make yourselves comfortable. Do you need anything, some refreshments perhaps? she asked, remaining standing. The three took seats on a long couch.

"No, we just ate recently ourselves," said Enderline.

"Thank you again for what you did rescuing the young dragons, Ronniflass. How is it going with Cinnabar?" Ardwella asked.

"He is well, thank you," she said, then blurted out. "King Enderline and his men did much more than I did to save the dragons!"

"I am entirely aware of the King's heroic actions and those of his brave men," said Ardwella. "We would not have even survived without them." She turned to the King and then knelt to a formal curtsey. Her rounded abdomen did not diminish the grace with which she completed it in the slightest.

Enderline flushed and the show of deference. He glanced at his wife. She had a pained look on her face. She was looking at the apparent evidence of Ardwella's pregnancy. She met his eyes, and they exchanged a meaningful look.

"It seems we got off to an abysmal start, Ardwella. I made mistakes and jumped to conclusions. I want to apologize for that." he said

The beautiful elf smiled, then shook her head and replaced the smile with a frown.

"You must be a very wise and good king to be willing to offer an apology so easily. but no, what transpired between us was entirely my fault," she said, looking at the King and Queen. "I put Esmarilla in a very difficult and confusing predicament. I was also inattentive to my husband's important and particular needs, Albarad. He can be overprotective of me, and he somehow sensed that something was not quite right with Starett. I didn't see the priest's betrayal coming at all."

She paused. "Both of you paid a very painful price for my inattention. I could give you my reasons, but ultimately, they don't really matter." She looked at Enderline. "If Vanquish had not come back with Lothinar, your queen would still be dead."

"I am so grateful for what they did," said the King with tears in his eyes. "And the priest's treachery was not foreseen by anyone!"

"It is much harder to stop the forest fire than to blow out a small match," said Ardwella. "I allowed things to get way out of hand."

"You must have thought you were doing your best," said Pricilla.

"I did, but I let the mission of saving the dragons take precedence over almost every precious thing in my life. Now, I may have lost it all because of it."

"You saved the dragons," Ronni said. "That's important."

"Leaving you to save my son Lothinar. I was not there for him when his anger and emotions took him places he should not go. You were there. You dove into the water to bring him up."

"I had ulterior motivations, I'm afraid, " the half-elf admitted.

"Things were set into motion that had powerful consequences. When I think that I actually consented to him marrying Argent's niece, I almost can't believe it. Now he is having to deal with those consequences as well."

"We could go on and on with the mistakes and misunderstandings here," said Enderline awkwardly. "I think it is important, now and going forward, that we decide to work together to try and do better."

"I would like that very much," said Ardwella. She finally moved to sit across from them. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"We are looking for information," said Enderline. "We have just learned something from my dragon bond, Night-Sky."

"The varieties of these dragons are nothing like I have ever seen," said Ardwella. "I wish I could talk to my father about how he came to have the eggs. Dragons have something we don’t. Something that I have started to call a genetic memory. These dragons are like little libraries of information. What the dragon race knew is now spread out among them. They hatched, knowing it. Each holds a part of what the dragons wanted to pass down to their children. Their dragon parents prepared them for this."

"The entire knowledge of the race!" said Enderline. "That's amazing. We can't let anything happen to any of them. They must be protected at all costs!"

"What did Night-Sky" tell you?" Ardwella asked, leaning forward.

"There were several things," said Enderline. "They may not be as big a surprise to you as they were to us."

"I'm listening." said the beautiful elf.

"All the young dragons that wish to bond with males have probably already done so," said Pricilla. "The rest want females. Since Argent's troops are all male, we must decide where the females with access to them will come from."

"Would you let the regular townspeople visit with the remaining unbonded dragons? That should help. I always thought that it was more about an individual and their personality than the sex that they were that mattered to the dragons. I do have to admit that I don't know as much as I should about that. Not many of the bondings I witnessed were what you would call naturally occurring."

"Did that have anything to do with Crimson?" asked the King.

"Unfortunately, yes. As you have surmised, it created some problems that we are still dealing with until this very day. Esmarilla's anger was a good example of that. She resented me for it. I understand how wrong it was now, but that was how it was sometimes done. Times were desperate."

"That brings me to another point, I suppose," said Enderline. Please don't take this the wrong way..."

"They hate us, don't they? The little dragons don't like elves," said Ardwella.

Enderline nodded.

Ardwella sighed. "I'm not surprised."

"It wasn't so much the forcing them to bond, but I'm sure that didn't help. It was the war itself, I am assuming," said Enderline. Elves were killing them in the most horrible ways."

"They know it wasn't all elves, just Argent's magicians, right? I need to remind them of that!"

"Night-Sky said that they were disappointed that elves, in general, didn't try to stop the extermination." said the King.

"A huge lie spread that Dragons were attacking towns and eating humans. Unfortunately, a lot of elves believed it," said Ardwella. My Grandfather stood up for the truth, and he was killed for it."

"Night-Sky mentioned your family specifically as one of the few that helped," said Pricilla. My father's first wife also fought for the dragons. She, too, was killed. That's why my father fled to Sivantra."

"What was her name?” Asked Ardwella.

"Her name was Cantabell," said Pricilla. "I never did meet her, though."

"She died here," said Ronni. Our father was almost crushed with grief. Our human mother stepped in to console him much later."

"I don't remember her from back then, but that's an interesting name," said Ardwella. She had an intrigued look on her face. "I will have to look into that."

"Now we find ourselves at the half-elf problem," said Enderline.

Pricilla's face fell.

"He told us that Half-Elves like my sister and I will never be able to have children. That we are sterile," said Ronniflass. "My father never mentioned this when we were growing up. Is it true?"

"If you don't mind, tell me how long you were married to McDonald," Ardwella asked.

"Fifteen years," she answered. "But McDonald told me that he couldn't have children. He had a bad fever when he was a young man."

"Unfortunately, we can not confirm that," said Ardwella. "You were reasonably sexually active with him?"

"Yes," said Ronni. "Yes, we were." Then she blushed.

"Don't be embarrassed. These things must be discussed if we are to have a clear answer to your concerns," said Ardwella. She turned her eyes to the royal couple. "I know that you two have an active relationship, having been born witness to such things when I walked in..."

"Ahem. Yes. I had almost forgotten about that." said Enderline. "Pricilla and I were very enthusiastic about her being returned to me. The timing could have been better..."

"So I can assume that it is the same for you two, and that type of display is more or less a regular occurrence?"

"I would hardly call it a display!" protested the Queen. "We were in our rooms!"

"Yes, sorry again for walking in on you like that," said Ardwella. I'm afraid I had dragon eggs on my mind at the time. No high fevers?" she asked, looking specifically at the King.

"No, and we have been married for about five years. Plenty of time to conceive, I would think," said Enderline.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Yes, that doesn't seem promising," said Ardwella. Pricilla began to look once again crestfallen. "But there is a possibility that you may have not fully considered."

"What is that? Pricilla asked.

"You were dead," said Ardwella, looking at her.

"Somehow, I don't think that is going to help with a conception problem," said Enderline.

Somehow, Ardwella managed to laugh.

"It's not the dying; it's the work that was done to bring you back!" she said. A lot of things may have been fixed. That doesn't happen every day around here, you know."

"I suppose not," said Pricilla.

"But I wasn't dead, " Ronniflass said. "Up until just right now, I thought that was a good thing."

"Do you want to have children with my son Lothinar, Ronniflass?" Ardwella asked with a smile.

Ronni blushed. "Yes, I do. As many as I can!" she said enthusiastically.

"Then you should ask him about it." said Ardwella. "I could endorse that. I like you much better than Ardwynn already."

"I am glad to hear that." Ronniflass said blushing.

"Do you think the Blue dragon knows anything?" asked Pricilla hopefully.

"We don't know for sure yet." said Ardwella, but these little dragons don't know everything. They were not even hatched until after all that unpleasantness was over. Half-Elf's are exceedingly rare. I had never seen one before I met Ronni, and I've been around for a long time. If it's true that they are originally infertile, it might be fixable with dragon magic."

"Do you think she will actually know?" asked Pricilla.

"There is only one way to find out. I believe that Vanquish is over at your sister's dairy right now. Perhaps we should take a walk over there and find out!"

"It's getting pretty late." said Pricilla. "Perhaps we should do this in the morning."

"Let's go now." said Ardwella. "You will probably sleep better with some answers." The four of them left her room and walked over. The stars were shining. It was a beautiful night.

When they reached the dairy, though things were in turmoil. Vanador was pacing up and down and the blue dragon Vanquish was gone.

"What is going on Vanador?" asked Ardwella.

"Candasar just flew in here like she was on fire. She said something about Ardwynn somehow getting a hold of Lothinar's sword Crimson. That obviously got Vanquish very upset. They both took off out of here at high speed. They are headed to Sivantra!"

"Oh no!" said Ardwella. You might think that one of them would have told me. I might have been able to help if they had let me come along."

"Well that's going to be a big problem" said Enderline.

"I'll say," said Vanador. "How am I going to take care of all these baby dragons by myself!"

”I was talking about Lothar’s problem” said the king. “The baby dragons with bonds already already have help. Highly motivated help. We just need to give them the resources and the proper training.”

”And the other half?” Asked Vanador. “There are almost a hundred that have refused to bond."

”We will open the dairy gates and let the townspeople in." said Enderline. "The rest of the dragons have been waiting for females as I'm sure you already know. Once that happens the dragons will probably find all the highly motivated help that they need from the human women.

”Vanquish has been hoping you didn’t find out about that.” Vanador said. "She really wants all the dragons to be free."

“Why don’t we let the baby dragons decide what is best for them. Nobody is going to make them bond if they don’t want to.” Said Enderline. “You know that the Crimson sword is in Sivantra right now.”

”I know that sword made it possible to defeat Argent” said Vanador but it still creeps me out. If anyone but Lothinar had it I would be very concerned. Actually that’s exactly why Vanquish and Candasar just left in such a hurry.”

"I am actually very surprised that Lothinar could still contact Candasar from that far away" said Ardwella. "His powers must still be growing."

"Although I am also very interested in what's going on in my Capitol and home and how that all turns out, it isn't going to help solve our problems here today." said Enderline.

”How about while we are both still sure that no one is being influenced we get some nice human ladies over here.” Said Ardwella. "Starting tomorrow."

She had been standing there watching the King talk to Vanador. While she had been waiting a very small dragon of an unusual color had been wandering around near her. It wasn’t exactly grey. Nor was it the deep black of Night-Sky. Now it was just sitting there sedately staring at Ardwella. She hadn’t really even seemed to notice it at first. It wasn't jumping about like most of the other young dragons tended to do.

“No! Absolutely not!” Ardwella suddenly shouted. She whirled, turning to address the silver colored dragon. Enderline observed another few seconds of silence. Ardwella's face clearly indicated that she was not happy. She turned back to Vanador. She had a strange and desperate look.

”Vanador! can you stop her?”

Vanador looked confused for a moment and then suddenly began staring at the little silvery grey. A few moments passed.

“Where have you been hiding little one?” He suddenly asked.

”What’s going on!?” Asked Enderline. “Not being telepathic can really be difficult at times like these!”

Ardwella grunted and grabbed her abdomen. She began to totter and sway. Enderline grabbed her before she dropped to the ground. She looked into his eyes just before her own rolled up in her head. The king swept her up and held her in a princess carry. She was heavier than she looked.

”It is done” said the silvery dragon. She walked up to Enderline who was still holding Ardwella. “You are going to want to find somewhere comfortable to put her down.” The dragon said. Her voice was melodic and every bit as clear and polished as Night-sky’s.

”I guess that I can take her back to her room” Enderline said, looking at the little dragon in surprise. “Men! I’m going to probably need some help here!” He shouted.

Ross and another soldier the king didn’t know personally ran over to help. The three of them juggled a bit with the unconscious elf before settling on a system of carrying her that seemed to work. Meanwhile Ronni had run off quickly and had returned with a small flat cart.

“Put her down on this. Gently please.” She ordered. “Watch out! Be careful now!”

They complied looking obviously relieved. "Good thinking Ronni." said the King.

Ronni looked at the third man. The soldier that Enderline didn’t know.

“Are you bonded?” She asked him.

He smiled and nodded.

”Yes, Ronniflass. My little dragon Murgatroid picked me two days ago.”

”Murgatroid?” She asked.

He nodded

”Heavens! Some of these names are quite strange.” She said. “What is your name soldier?”

”Gustolf ma’am. But most folks just call me Gus.”

”Well Gus, you’re going to be fine since you’re bonded. You too Ross. But you are going to need to go carefully get a bar of soap and go over and jump in the lake. Wash yourselves and all the clothes you are wearing very thoroughly. Don’t let anybody touch you or your clothes before you do that. Do you understand me?”

”Whoops!” Said Enderline. “Me too I guess.” That was really stupid of me.

"You could hardly let her fall in her condition" said Pricilla.

Ross and Gus had continued to look puzzled.

Enderline looked at his men. He explained.

“This elf, Ardwella is rather unique. She secretes a chemical from her skin that can cause males of either race to become obsessed with her. They fall helplessly in love in fact. You very likely came into contact with that chemical when you tried to help me carry her.”

"For those times when being outrageously beautiful is not enough I guess." said Gus.

"I've seen her around, but she usually keeps to herself. I guess that's probably why" said Ross.

"Down boys!" said Ronni. This elf is married. She is also very pregnant. "The dragon bond is supposed to protect you from the effect of her pheromones."

"Not everyone is bonded. That's why she told you to wash yourselves and your clothes." said Enderline. "Also don't touch anyone. This lady has enough problems right now.!"

He turned back to the cart to see Ardwella sitting up and looking at him. She looked angry. He flinched. She must have heard the exchange between him and his men. Then he looked at where her eyes were actually focused. It was somewhere over his shoulder. He spun to see the sliver grey dragon looking back at Ardwella.

"I can't believe you did that!" she said to the dragon. I definitely told you no."

"I definitely heard a yes." said the silver dragon."

"Wait! Did this little silver dragon just bond with you Ardwella?" asked Enderline with surprise.

"She's not silver" said Ardwella. "She is Platinum. That is her color and her name. It's a very rare type. One is a million actually. She's dragon Royalty."

"Well," said the King. "That's quite an honor for you I suppose. Being chosen by a Platinum Queen dragon."

"Oh, she didn't choose me." said Ardwella. "She just bonded with my unborn daughter!"

----------------------------

Siophra looked at Tundor. He was pacing back and forth. He was wearing a path into the grass of the pasture just outside the barn.

“You probably should try to calm down.” She said.

”It’s just that last night when Candasar got that message from Lothinar she and I talked about this.”

”It must not have been a long conversation because she was out of here in like five minutes.” Said Siophra.

”It is just that she was gone for almost a month last time she made that trip and now these eggs are pretty close to hatching. I think she is going to miss it. I like Lothinar but motherhood has always been Candy’s dream. It bothers me that she is going away now of all times.”

Siophra stepped over and stepped directly in front of Tundor halting his pacing. She stepped up on tip toes and grabbed his neck hugging him.

”You are going to be an excellent father Tundor. I am still here. We are going to do this together. Candasar still may make it back in time as well. I’ll tell you a little secret.”

”Why do you have a secret? What happened to that total honesty arrangement we made with each other?” He asked.

”Well, it’s not so much a secret as a surprise” she said smiling at him.

”Hmph!” he grunted. “Isn’t that a convenient subtle distinction. I’ll be sure to use that on you sometime.”

”It’s going to cheer you up big guy!” She said. “Unless you don’t want cheering up and want to continue ruining the grass.”

”Fine!” He sulked. “Tell me your surprise, but it better be a good one.”

Siophra walked back into the barn. Tundor followed her. She stopped and looked down at the three eggs in the nest.

"Have you taken a real good look at these eggs Tundor?" she asked.

"Of course I have. I am the father after all!" he said.

Siophra reached gently into the nest and picked up the largest egg. It was the one with the golden hue. She placed the side of the egg up to her ear.

"Well, obviously I haven't done that." said Tundor. "I don't have hands like yours, or ears like that."

"Are you making fun of my ears Tundor?" the beautiful blonde elf asked. But she was smiling. Her eyes were closed and she had a strange gentle look on her face."

"What are you listening too?" asked Tundor. His voice was a dragon whisper. A strange combination of exhaled air with vocalization.

"I hear humming." she said. "A beautiful melody in fact. It is the song of a Golden Dragon."

Tundor tried to put his very large head next to the egg that Siophra was still holding up. It was an awkward position for him. She pulled the egg away from her own ear and very carefully held it out and up to him. Finally he managed to get into position.

"I hear it too!" he exclaimed. "Wow! Hey what about the other ones?"

"Well, they are not humming but they are very healthy. Sometimes I can hear movement inside them." said Siophra. "They will probably be hatching pretty soon, just like you suspected."

"So Candasar might miss it." he said sadly. But then he brightened. "The other one is different?"

"I'm not an actual expert on them. They are extremely rare. But I've heard that they take quite a bit longer to go full term. Weeks longer."

"So Candasar will probably make it for that one." said Tundor. "I'm glad. At least she will have that."

"What is so special about a Gold dragon?" asked Tundor. "What can they do?"

"Everything. Anything. Actually nobody knows. It's a bit of a puzzle actually and obviously we have nobody to ask. I have even heard rumors that they can actually teleport!"

"What's that?" asked Tundor.

"I think it's where the dragon puts it in his mind where he wants to go and does something magical. Then he just appears there."

"That's impossible!" said Tundor. "Anywhere? He could go to Sivantra to see Lothinar right away?"

"Just saying that I heard that. We will obviously have to see." said Siophra.

"A little dragon like that might be hard to keep track of." said Tundor. "It would be much worse than when Firestorm ran away from the nest."

"Perhaps he will be wise enough not to do anything rash." said Siophra. She gently set the egg back down into the soft hay of the nest.

"Are you really sure it's a gold? How could regular dragons like Candasar and me have an egg that is a gold?"

"Didn't you tell me that she put years worth of magic into her ovaries and eggs? Even when she was still living in the lake?"

"She was very committed to them yes. She was just waiting for a dragon like me." he said. "You heard how she rescued me."

"I have access to most of your memories through our bond Tundor. I sometimes feel like I was there for most of it." she said. "I also know how angry you are with Ardwynn and how it must be so frustrating that Candasar and Lothinar are still having to deal with her." she said.

"When I look at these eggs, though, "Said Tundor. "It helps me to understand why Lothinar would want to take care of his unborn child. Even if it is going to be with Ardwynn."

"I'm glad that you can understand that. Tundor. Not every dragon would. That means you are exceptional. That's another obvious reason why you are the father of this gold dragon."

"Thank you." he said. "I'm glad to have your help and that you are here."

She smiled.

"And it's probably hard to raise the well bucket with just your teeth." she said.

"Oh yes, by the way. Before she left on that long flight Candasar wanted to get a last good drink. You are going to have to replace the crank handle." said Tundor.

"Yes. I noticed." said Siophra.

"Surprise!" said Tundor.

----------------------