Dragon Mage (Book 3) 8. Politically Delicate (Patreon)

Corvus spent the next few hours with the demon girl, excitedly writing out rune after rune from his private dictionary and translating them into words.

This kind of thing — discovery and research — it struck a pure note in his soul. A part of himself he hadn’t fully realized had been neglected until now.

Since the ratkin siege, he had been thrust into a place of leadership. He had risen to the challenge, yes, but he hadn’t liked it.

Grinding up his foreign language skill with the possibility of learning more runes, perhaps even an entire hidden alphabet of runes… Corvus was in his happy place.

However, he was aware that Hattie was not. Or at least, the demon girl seemed incredibly conflicted.

They slowly worked through one rune after the other. Sitting down on the bare cold stone, Corvus drew out runes from his dictionary on the parchment. Then Hattie would tell him the word in his language and he would do the same with his own.

Hattie seemed to know all the runes but frowned often and stared at Corvus with a little crease between her eyebrows. Sometimes she was slow to answer as if weighing a decision one way or another.

He wanted to ask what was wrong but didn’t have the words form what they understood of one another in their cobbled language.

The real gains were with grinding the skill.

As they were translating the last of Corvus’s medical rune — knit bone — he suddenly received an alert.

Ding!

Congratulations! Your skill, Foreign Languages, has gained a level.

New level: Beginner 5

Ding!

Since you have increased your Foreign Language skill for five consecutive levels per while studying one language, you have been awarded a new subclass. This language subclass will begin as equal to your Foreign Language subclass.

New subclass:

Foreign Language: Callif-Tongue

Beginner - 5

You now have a rudimentary understanding of Callif.

Callif?

Corvus had a moment of confusion before it hit him: Of course, Hattie’s people would hardly call themselves the demon kingdom.

He glanced at the girl and saw her staring off to space, brilliant green eyes unfocused. She must have received a similar notification.

How far would a rudimentary understanding of her language take him? Only one way to find out.

Corvus cleared his throat and asked the question that had been plaguing him all day.

“How can you read these runes? Are they… part of your language?” He asked slowly, tapping the now very cluttered parchment for emphasis.

“No,” Hattie replied in his tongue. “It is…” She made a frustrated sound and then made a rolling motion with her hand. “I need word… hide?”

“Conceal?” he asked, then added when she shook her head. “Lost? Secret?”

“No, no... much... formal.”

“Classified?” he asked in a half joking manner.

Hattie snapped her fingers. “Yes, classified. For army.”

Corvus stared at her then looked down at the parchment. “Are you telling me demons use runes for military code?”

“Send messages. Yes, yes.” She nodded and for the first time looked a little relieved.

“Then… how do you know it?” The girl was perhaps a year older than himself. Yes, he had been privy to kingdom secrets as a prince in the palace, but he highly doubted she was a Princess. As far as he remembered, the Demon king only had a son. “Also, if that’s the case why tell me? Classified information is very, very secret. Unless you’re lying, but my deception skill hasn’t…”

He trailed off, realizing he was speaking part of that aloud. Worse, she stared at him blankly, likely only catching a few words and part of the meaning.

Corvus waved her off. “Never mind. I… ask questions, often.”

“Yes,” she agreed, a bare edge of frustration seeping through.

“In any case…” he pulled a new sheet of paper out of his bag. They had more runes to go through and he was not about to waste this opportunity.

Hattie sighed. “I go… cell, now?” Corvus looked at her and she held up a hand. “Joke.”

Somehow, he got the impression that Gwen and Hattie would get along. They both did not like research.

He opened his mouth to reply when Charm broke into his thoughts.

Someone’s being stupid…

“Can you be more specific?” He muttered.

In answer, his dragon transmitted an image of what she was currently seeing and experiencing. She was aloft, high up and winging her way towards the north to spy on the incoming palace messengers.

Dragon eyes did not work the way human eyes did. For one thing, Charm saw in a variety of colors that Corvus had no name for. She also saw/sensed air-currents with sensitive scales in her muzzle that somehow translated into sight.

Linking with her was always a dizzying experience and it took Corvus a few moments to sort out what she was trying to show him.

Down below was a trail of rapidly galloping horses. The riders were low on their back, urging the beasts on.

“Who…” Corvus started to say, then frowned. “Those riders are on Mountain Heavies.” Those were the breeds of the Horse Folk clan, but he didn’t recognize any of the men and women. “Why are they? What are they doing?”

They arrived with Kale’s Horse folk but peeled off from the rest before they entered the city, Charm said. They are headed straight for the palace contingent.

She was right.

From that height, Charm got a glimpse of the far off palace men. They were several days away by normal horseback, but Mountain Heavies were an extraordinary breed.

“They’re meeting with the messengers? Why?”

How should I know? She grinned evilly through their connection. Want me to fly down and ask?

Corvus stood, startling Hattie who’d been watching him have a one-sided conversation. “I’m asking Kale what his people think they’re doing— No,” he stopped and shook his head. There were two problems with that. Firstly, he wasn’t sure these were Kale’s people. The Horse Folk clans were loosely organized with a fluid membership of clan members coming and going on a constant basis. There was a good chance Kale wouldn’t know, or mind what a splinter group did. 

Also, while their horses were more intelligent than normal beasts and seemed to have general communication with their riders they couldn’t pass messages like Charm could with him. Kale would be unable to tell his CometChaser to tell the other horses to return to the city, for example.

Corvus frowned and glanced over his shoulder back towards the direction of the dungeon. Gwen and Roan were still there. It could take them hours longer to clear the dungeon and until then they would be out of communication range.

“Come back here, I’ll ride out and talk to them.”

Charm sent back a mental shrug before she cut the connection. He sensed she would have been happy to do it, but this needed… well, not a dragon’s brand of blunt diplomacy. 

He turned to Hattie. “I must leave.”

“What wrong?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know yet. Something’s come up that has the potential to be politically delicate and… you have no idea what I’m saying, do you?”

Hattie lifted her chin. “I come.”

“Ah, no. As I said, it’s a delicate situation and didn’t you want to go back to your cell?”

She shook her head. “I come. Must… language.” She made another frustrated growl, clearly searching for the words but coming up empty. Finally, she gestured between the two of them. “Must, must have language. More. All. Must.”

He didn’t think it was his imagination. There was a real flash of fear in her eerie green eyes.

Corvus considered what he knew about the girl. She hadn’t tried to escape, hadn’t acted like a threat. She was clearly bored to tears of talking about runes but wanted to stick it out because she knew the value of leveling the language skill.

“Why?” He asked. “What do you need to tell me?”

Her lips pinched. “You prince. I… it… politically delicate.” She said the last two words very slowly as if they were twisting her tongue.

Are you a friend or a foe? He wanted to ask but was certain that would be too complex of an answer to translate now.

Well… the girl was unarmed, had shown no ability to do magic. And they both knew one word from Corvus would see her skeletal water horse be put to death.

Worst case scenario, Charm would have no problem shaking a dangerous foe off her back.

“I don’t suppose you’ve ridden a dragon before?” he asked with a smile.

Her face lit up. “Ride dragon?”