Free Dragon's Heart by Jane Yolen Page B

beach, then clouted him gently with a paw.
    He grinned at her. "
Nothing
," he sent to her, "
is as important as breakfast
." His sending was bright and full of oval balloons, like giant eggs.
    Akki laughed out loud, and the others—thinking she was laughing belatedly at Kkarina's blow to Jakkin's head—laughed with her.
    ***
    AFTER BREAKFAST, and after checking the chores list, Akki called Jakkin to the side door.
    "We really have to stop our sendings," she warned quietly. "Or we're going to make them all suspicious."
    "They're
already
suspicious," he whispered back.
    "They're suspicious that we've pair-bonded. Likkarn probably told someone about that kiss. Wouldn't you be suspicious of two people off together for a year, keeping 'warm' in caves?"
    He shrugged, smiling at the memory.
    "And one of them going walkabout at night. Where
were
you? We can't afford to let them suspect that we..."
    "...communicate without words or can go outside during Dark-After?"
    She turned away from him, sending, "
You really are ex-asperating.
"
    "Wait a minute." His hand was on her shoulder. "You're the one who keeps sending. Not me."
    "I know, I know. I said '
We.
' It's just so easy." She shrugged off his hand. "
See
," she sent, "
we can both shrug
," and opened the door, looking out into the glaring light. "I think Slakk is already guessing."
    "Not Slakk. He's not that smart. He's just jealous of me, that's all. Errikkin's too angry about something else to be guessing anything. The rest don't know either of us well enough. Except..."
    She spun around. "Except?"
    "Old Likkarn, of course."
    She glared daggers at him. "
I
can handle him. You're the one who has problems dealing with him. I wish I knew why. He's really all hough and no harm." That was something nursery folk said about male dragons.
    Jakkin's face scrunched up, the way it did when he was going to say something hurtful. "Maybe he never harmed
you,
" he began, "but there's not a boy in the nursery who hasn't felt his heavy hand. He thinks a bang on the head or arm or back is a good teaching tool."
    "He's only treating you the way dragon studs treat the young males," Akki said. "That's all."
    "And me worse than all the others combined."
    "Sometimes," Akki told him, "boys whine too much." She turned and walked out the door.
    He raced after her. "Where are you going?"
    "To the incubarn, to check on Auricle and the hatchling." She kept walking, a fast, long stride.
    "She was fine last night. And if there's a change, we'd know because Auricle would have sent to me. Or you."
    Akki stopped suddenly, looked at him over her shoulder, glaring. "Auricle is a dragon, not a doctor." She resumed walking.
    "You're not a doctor either, Akki," he shot back cuttingly. "Not a
real
one."
    That was too close to the bone. Too close to what she feared the most. Akki rounded on him angrily. It was easier getting mad at him than getting mad at the world. "I'm the nearest
almost real
doctor this place has. That's why visiting the quarantined dragons is on
my
list of chores, not yours." She felt taut, like stretched wire. "Likkarn and the men know that I'm the one they have to go to for medical knowledge—especially now, with the embargo. Likkarn says that though medical ships are allowed through, few have actually come."
    "I didn't mean—"
    She suspected
that
at least was true, but couldn't stop herself from saying, "You never do."
    He put his hand out beseechingly, as if he wanted to touch her. Instead he said, "We never fought out there." He gestured vaguely toward the mountains.
    Her anger ebbed, her face softened. She took a deep breath. "We fought all the time out there, Jakkin."
    He shook his head. "Not really. Not fought—we argued. But we always agreed on the important things. The life-or-death matters. And there were a lot of those." A soft breeze touched Jakkin's face, lifting the hair on his forehead, then letting it fall again, almost obscuring his eyes. Watching him, Akki