he had no control over.
“You have to move into the tower,” Falka said. “Give up your work for General Landa and split your time between teaching the sky recruits and training the hatchling.”
“You want me to rejoin the guard,” Tauran said.
“That would be necessary.”
Tauran looked away. The thought alone was enough to shake him. He would have to wear the uniform he had worn when he lost it all. When he lost her. “And if I say no?”
“Then I’ll take the baby back to the tower. Our team will raise her and I will train her myself. She’ll want for nothing.”
Tauran looked through the window. Would they make her wear the wing straps? Would she spend her nights alone, or would someone sleep with her and hold her close? Falka was a good man and an excellent rider, but he valued efficiency and obedience above all else, and already this tiny dragon had a personality like a wild thing. The guard was stretched thin.
Tauran swallowed against a sudden tightness in his throat. When he looked up, Falka was watching him closely. “Will you excuse me for a moment?” Tauran asked.
Falka nodded.
Tauran tried to ignore the people still waiting in the main room as he made his way to the stairs, steadying his gait as much as he could. When he reached the top, he found Kalai on the bed. He sat with his legs outstretched, letting the dragon clamber over them with little flaps of her wings. When Kalai heard his approach, he looked up. There was a sadness in his eyes.
Before Tauran could ask if he was all right, Kalai said, “He asked you to train her.”
Tauran nodded. He sank onto the bed. The baby turned to him, puffed herself up, then leaped at his boots.
“What did you say?” Kalai reached for him and Tauran took his hand. The hopefulness in Kalai’s eyes for once didn’t loosen the knot in Tauran’s chest.
“Nothing yet.”
“Do you want to?”
“Do you want me to?”
Kalai parted his lips, then hesitated. He rolled his jaw, glancing at the baby trying valiantly to chew her way through the tip of Tauran’s boot. “It’s your decision.”
Tauran released a breath and looked down. He knew it wasn’t what Kalai really wanted to say. It took him several attempts to get the words past the lump in his throat. “I’m scared,” he admitted.
“Of what?” Kalai’s voice was soft.
“Of...” Tauran waved his hands in the air. “Of failing the guard. Failing myself. Failing her.” He swallowed. “Losing her.”
Kalai was quiet for a long moment. Then he shifted closer. “I can’t tell you what the future holds,” he said. “But I can tell you that if you choose to do this, I will be right there with you.”
Tauran gazed into Kalai’s eyes, those beautiful eyes, so dark they were nearly black. The last time he’d been this afraid, Kalai had been there, too. They’d known each other for only a few weeks. Had it been anyone else, Tauran would have scolded them for putting such complete trust in a person they’d known so briefly. And yet here he was, stepping off a cliff and trusting Kalai to catch him. “All right,” he said, “I’ll do it.”
Kalai’s face lit up with a smile.
CHAPTER 19
“You should name her,” Kalai said. He sat cross-legged on the floor, picking bits of raw chicken from a bowl and tossing them to the baby dragon between them. She was gaining control of her limbs faster than Tauran had anticipated, already confidently strutting back and forth on stiff little legs. The dietitian had given them a detailed list of when and how much to feed her. Tauran had tossed the list in the trash and declared they should simply feed her when she looked hungry and until she was full.
“I don’t know.” Tauran watched the baby stagger forward. She wiggled her tail, then pounced on a piece of chicken on the floor. “Maybe her rider should be the one to name her.”
“She won’t be ready to ride for another ten months,” Kalai reminded him. “Do you really want her to be nameless that long?”
Tauran groaned. “I guess not.”
Kalai smiled at him gently, raising the bowl out of the baby’s reach when she stretched toward it. “If you’re worried about growing too attached, I think you’re a little beyond that.”
“True.” Tauran rubbed his brow. “Any suggestions?”
Kalai hummed, letting another piece of chicken drop straight into the baby’s open maw. “Chickenbane?”
Tauran chuckled. “Maybe a Sharoani name? My old drag—” He