#nilith

“There are two whom Isildur considers our most likely recruits.” Lioska was watching Aridatha, she could tell – evaluating how much information had slipped past the clan’s leader, how reliable she really was. It made Aridatha tense, defensively, though if there was one dragon she could admit her exhaustion to, it should have been Lioska. Or Nessa, but Lioska was more likely to have useful advice and not just sympathy. “One is Boolean, a nocturne. She is flightless, but travels Sornieth on foot, buying and selling as she wanders.”

“On foot?” Aridatha frowned. “Wouldn’t it take her ages to get to and from the market?”

Lioska shrugged. “The question does occur, but you will have to ask it to Boolean herself.”

“All right. Who’s the other one?”

“Nilith. Isildur provided little information about them, which is … uncharacteristic. They – and it’s they, not she – have offered to escort spare familiars to market.”

“Something we badly need, if Geras’ reports – and increasingly strained voice – are anything to go by.”

“Yes.” Something in Lioska’s tone suggested that she had more to say, but she fell silent instead, and by the time Aridatha finished considering whether to ask her to elaborate, they had arrived.

Isildur perched delicately in the branches of a sparkling Starwood tree. Under the tree curled a pink ridgeback, head tilted back to peer up at the skydancer, while an orange nocturne sat beside a small, overstuffed wheeled cart. That was probably Boolean – that cart didn’t look like it’d make it into the air, and her wings were disproportionately small, unable to support her weight.

“Howdy!” the ridgeback said. For some reason, this greeting made Isildur narrow her eyes. “The name’s Nilith. You’re the big bug round here, yeah? I hear y’all’ve a hankering for somebody to run some varmints up to market.”

For a moment there was totally silence, broken only by muffled giggling from the nocturne, Boolean, who had pressed a callused fore-talon to her face. Aridatha looked at Isildur, then at Lioska, and finally back to Nilith.

“What?”

“I said – ”

“We heard what you said,” Isildur inserted, her voice tight with annoyance. “But no one here knows what those words mean.”

“Isildur … ” Aridatha trailed off, unsure how to phrase the many things she wanted to ask. Or, at least, unsure how to frame them without offending Nilith. Truly, the ridgeback’s existence and dialect filled Aridatha with more general confusion than any coherent questions. Isildur had to have known they communicated like this, didn’t she, if she’d recruited them by letter? Then she had no one but herself to blame for the colorful phrasing she’d just sat through. And yet she seemed considerably vexed.

Lioska, meanwhile, had gone stony-faced, so much so that even Aridatha, who knew her best, couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

Aridatha decided to set aside the question – the many questions – of Nilith for now. She could at least give herself some time to think. “Thank you. As I understand it, you’re here to deal with our familiars. That issue is a little more complex than moving inanimate objects, so I’d like to deal with Boolean first, if you’d be kind enough to wait.”

“Sounds fine as gravy cream to me. I don’t mind hanging fire for a bit.” Nilith looked at Boolean, who at least seemed to have mastered her sense of humor. “Here’s hoping you make a mash, you winsome trat. I know I’d be all-overish going first.”

“Thank you?” Boolean said, only the slightest note of question in her voice. Clearly, she was struggling to figure out whether she ought to be insulted. Aridatha felt a similar confusion but she could only assume that Nilith had indicated assent and move on.

“Boolean, I don’t want to insult you, but wouldn’t not being able to fly considerably hinder you in traveling Sornieth?”

“I can see how you would think that.” Boolean’s stunted wings waved gently as she spoke. “And it’s true: I’m not that fast. But I didn’t get the impression that you were in a particular hurry. And, by walking instead of flying, I can drag with me far greater loads than a dragon of my size would be able to carry in the air.”

Isildur broke in. “Boolean’s records do show a remarkably efficient profit, despite her increased transit time. She appears quite adept at bargaining to receive optimal prices for her goods. Of course, these records could be falsified, but if I thought her mendacious, I would not have summoned her here.”

“Well, if Isildur speaks for you, I trust her judgment. Unless Lioska has any other concerns?” Aridatha turned to her friend, but Lioska appeared lost in thought and didn’t immediately respond. “Lioska?”

“Sorry.” The wildclaw shook her head, refocused, and examined Boolean closely for a moment. “Ah, yes. While I see no signs of ill intentions from you specifically, I have some doubts about entrusting any stranger with our clan’s goods and funds.”

“Reasonable, but I’m not sure what I can give you, beyond my word.” Boolean shrugged. “I sent Isildur my references. And, considering that I don’t move that fast – and tend to stick out, being flightless – I’m sure that if I did run off with your stuff, you could track me down pretty easily.”

“True.” Lioska looked at Aridatha. “Boolean seems quite qualified to me. And admirably level-headed.”

“That’s settled, then,” Aridatha said. “Boolean, you’ll be working with Isildur here – she’ll have all the inventories of what’s salable and so on. If you’d like to go ahead and meet some of the clan, take a look at the hoard, whatever, the lair’s that way, between the ridges. You can’t miss it. Isildur, maybe you should show her the way. You could even get started.”

Isildur was the expert on the clan’s stock, but she seemed to have already taken a dislike to Nilith, so perhaps it would be best if she were absent for this interview. Though, since Nilith would be working with Isildur, that animosity alone might disqualify them … But Isildur shook her head. “I would prefer to remain. I’m certain Boolean can find her way to the lair without me. As you say, it is rather difficult to overlook.”

Boolean glanced between Aridatha and Nilith. If she had to guess, Aridatha would have said that she was considering whether it was worth sticking around for the entertainment value of Nilith’s colorful speech. But she apparently concluded no – or that she’d have plenty of time for that later – for she took up her cart, thanked Aridatha, and trundled off into the woods.

Well, now there was nothing else for it. Aridatha took a deep breath and turned to face Nilith, who sat expectantly, bright-eyed, under the tree. They were Arcane, Aridatha noticed, though this fact didn’t seem significant to their behavior.

“You done?” the ridgeback said. “Phew! Nothing against y’all, but what a load of wobbling jaws. Now, I ain’t no bunko artist, I ain’t looking to chisel you, but I can set with it if y’all want to copper your bets here. I don’t care a continental how y’all satisfy yourselves that I’m sound on the goose, but let’s bobtail her and fill her with meat, yeah? I’m played out just listening to y’all.”

Another moment of baffled silence: Nilith seemed quite adapt at eliciting those. But how well would they really be able to work with the clan – or bargain at market – if no one could understand what they were saying?

“Nilith, I’m sorry, but we find your speech … mystifying – at least I do,” Aridatha said. Lioska and Isildur nodded in agreement. “And I’m not sure how we can entrust you with our clan’s resources if we don’t know what you’re talking about most of the time.”

Nilith’s face fell. They opened their mouth, then closed it, obviously unsure what to say. Aridatha felt sorry for them; she hadn’t expected them to look so sad when she pointed out their impenetrable vocabulary. Surely they knew how they came across? Surely someone had told them before; surely they realized that most dragons had no idea what these phrases meant.

“I’ll level with y’all,” Nilith said finally. “I love being all yeehaw and Simon pure, but if I have to throw up the sponge, I can shoot – er, talk – straight with the rest of y’all.”

Aridatha didn’t know what to say to that, but Isildur muttered, “Better,” in a begrudging tone.

“I will take your animals to market, I will get good prices for them, and I will bring y’all back the money. Not sure what I can say plainer than that.” Nilith looked between Aridatha and Lioska. “Ask me any questions you need to, and I’ll do my level best to answer ‘em.”

“It does strike me that, if Nilith were to abscond with our beasts, we would scarcely be any worse off than we are now,” Lioska said. “We gain nothing by not selling, but if they are stolen, at least we don’t have to feed and house them anymore.”

“I ain’t going to shin out – er, run off – with your stock or your actu – treasure.” Sounding anxious, almost unnerved, Nilith looked up at Isildur. “I known you ain’t cottoned to me much, but I can only pray I haven’t woke the wrong passenger here. I’ll acknowledge the corn: I’m not of the first water, but I’ll die standing up and go through the mill as well as any shave tail.”

Isildur sighed at this sincere-sounding, if still incomprehensible, confession. “Worse.”

“There’s not many who can speak for me, and I’m no flannel mouth, but I’ll get afly – uh, I’ll learn – and I’m a bang-up dickerer – I mean, a good bargainer. I may be at sea, but I do need this job something dreadful. Not exactly flush right now, if you know what I mean.”

“I really don’t,” Aridatha began, and Nilith raised two claws and rubbed them together in the apparently universal sign for money. “Ah. Well, I see no reason we shouldn’t at least give you a chance, but this shouldn’t be a unilateral decision.”

Aridatha turned to Lioska and Isildur. Lioska raised her head, giving Nilith a skeptical look, but said only, “I would like to get this resolved and the actual sales started. If that means taking a potentially imperfect candidate … ”

Isildur sighed again. “Fine. I will accept Nilith as a clan-mate and co-worker on one condition.”

“What is it?” Nilith said hopefully.

Isildur fluttered down off her branch to land before Nilith’s eyes, staring into them. “Don’t talk like that before me. Out on the road I don’t care how many ‘y’alls’ and ‘ain’ts’ you feel the need to employ, but in my hoard, we speak with respectable syntax.”

Was Nilith nervously avoiding Isildur’s gaze? Aridatha couldn’t tell from where she sat. “All right … caporal.”