Ever the Twain

"Has Master Ruart recommended you to the Healer and Harper Halls?" Orla asked. "I get to go to Fort Hold, as apprentice to Master Elaine. But not until the leaves turn. Master Elaine designed that gorgeous brocade pattern our family's working on right now."

"Father wants to marry Nian off to a farmer on the North Shore," Neru said with some perturbation. He glanced at his sister to see her reaction.

She shrugged. Her mother had been making remarks lately about how good it was to start a new life in one's own place, but Nian tried not to listen.

"We're keeping an eye open for fire lizard clutches," she said. "So we can be apart without really being separated." The fire lizards, distant cousins to the much larger dragons, were good companions and useful for delivering messages. It had been Neru's idea that if they both had fire lizards, they would at least be able to communicate with each other over distance, thus making their imminent physical separation more bearable.

"How soon will Clidith's clutch be ready for Impression?" Orla asked. "This could be your big chance, Ru."

"First I have to be Searched, you know," Ru said with a diffident shrug.

"Don't try to fool me, Ru," Orla said firmly. "Not that every lad doesn't hope to be a dragonrider. I think you'd make a good one. Especially since you are so good a brother. And I hear that one of the eggs is a queen egg." She turned excitedly to Nian. "You could become a dragonrider, too, Nian!"

"Who would want a Ninny for a rider?" Nian asked scornfully.

"You shouldn't call yourself that, Ni," Ru said with a fierce scowl. "A ninny you're not. Don't even think it of yourself."

Nian glanced gratefully at her brother.

"You can't let the teasing of a dimwit like Flamel get to you," Orla said with equal severity. "As we used to say, 'Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names can never hurt you.' "

Nian gave a snort and wished she could shake off such jibes as easily, but she didn't have that kind of confidence. No one ever teased Orla. Orla was self-assured and pretty, with very curly black hair that framed her oval face. Her nose was straight and small, her mouth wide and friendly. Orla had all the feminine qualities that Nian did not see in herself. She didn't consider herself even marginally attractive.

While Nian, Neru, and Orla had been strolling in a leisurely way as they talked, the rest of the children of Lado Hold were making their way down the hill toward the Harper's small Hall. Their nemesis, Flamel, tall for his age yet still carrying some baby flab, was visible in the group. He immediately edged closer to the twins to begin teasing.

"You been Searched yet, Ru?" was Flamel's snide query. Singling out her brother was unfair, anyway, Nian thought, because so many of the other boys in the Hold desperately wished to become dragonriders and escape the less glamorous adult occupations waiting for them. But Neru's dream was well known, and she thought that Flamel chose his targets carefully, knowing exactly how to insult and injure.

Ru ignored the question and Nian was proud of him. Her mother had constantly told them to ignore such taunts.

"Well, you're still here, aren't you. Neru? We're all waiting for the dragons to come take you away."

Neru shook his shoulders as if he could dislodge the verbal darts sent his way. But Nian was provoked into angry responses.

"He will be Searched, you just wait and see!" Nian brandished her fist at the flabby son of the Journeyman Smith, who merely snorted at her. "They sure won't give you even a sniff, Flamel."

"You scare me," Flamel said, pretending to quiver and knocking his knees together.

"Stop it, Flamel," said Orla. "You really are pathetic, you know. Leave the twins alone. Just for a change."

"Or?" Flamel replied.

"Or I might just tell everyone here the real reasons why you pick on the twins so much. I might just tell them all that you're really—"

"Really what?" Flamel interrupted her quickly. Orla was not the only one to notice that the color in his cheeks was rising to a pinkish blush.

"Shall we see?" Orla asked in her sweetest tone.

Flamel gave her a long stare, but he began to walk faster, putting distance between him and Orla, as well as Nian and Neru. Nian smiled her thanks at Orla, who sketched an airy salute.

"My pleasure. He gives me a headache with his nonsense. I hope his father does send him to the Smithhold at Telgar. They'll sort him out soon enough."