Chapter 58 — A Nest for Thunder

Chapter 58: Chapter 58 — A Nest for Thunder

Chapter 58 — A Nest for Thunder

Christopher woke before the bell and struck his elbow against the wall.

Maps, ledgers and sealed reports crowded Christopher’s temporary room. His father’s sword leaned beside a chair buried beneath clothes, and two boxes blocked the shutters.

He sat for a moment and listened to the stronghold waking outside: someone crossed the yard carrying split wood, a child complained about cold water, and from the kitchens came the first hard knocks of Martha’s cleaver.

Dragonwatch no longer sounded abandoned.

Joan knocked once and entered with a lamp, looking at the boxes, the chair and Christopher sitting crookedly on the bed.

"Owen says the east rooms are safe," she said.

"Good morning to you too."

"It will be a better morning when I can reach your shutters."

Christopher moved one box with his foot. It scraped three inches and stopped against the wall.

Joan gave him the look she usually reserved for muddy boots. "The lord of Dragonwatch should not sleep in a room where the maid cannot turn around."

The repaired part of the inner castle had been ready for three days. Christopher had delayed moving because the roof over the adjoining hall still leaked and because every trip below the castle seemed to produce a more urgent problem. Neither reason improved the room.

"We move today," he said.

Joan nodded, satisfied. "After breakfast. Meg and Elsie have already bundled the linen."

Christopher studied her. "You planned this."

"I hoped you would agree."

Owen’s crew had repaired the roof and chimneys in the east wing of the inner castle. Four upstairs rooms and three below were dry; the floors sloped and the windows held shutters instead of glass, but the household could live there.

Owen met Christopher at the entrance with a piece of chalk behind one ear. "The marked doors stay closed. The north passage is sound until the second arch and unsafe after it. The western tower remains off limits."

"And the rooms Joan wants?"

"Safe enough that I let my sons sleep there last night."

That was a better guarantee than any speech.

The move involved half the household. Meg carried blankets, Elsie carried pillows and Bram arrived with a wooden bed frame across both shoulders.

Regular meals had filled out Meg’s face and given her strength for work and training. Elsie still guarded treats, but she had stopped watching every serving bowl with anxious eyes.

"Where do you want it?" he asked.

Joan pointed upstairs. "First room on the left. Mind the turn."

Bram reached the stair, stopped and studied the narrow corner. A month earlier he would have pushed forward until either the frame or the wall broke; this time he lowered one end, turned sideways and waited for two men to guide it.

Godfrey watched from the doorway.

"That was better," he said.

Bram smiled and nearly lifted too early. One of the men swore and caught the lower end.

"Wait means wait," Godfrey added.

Bram’s smile vanished. He set the frame down again.

Meg passed Christopher with another bundle, her steps quick but no longer careless. At the foot of the stair she shifted her weight before turning, the same movement Walter had drilled into her during morning practice.

Christopher noticed because Dragon Eyes had once shown him Gold.

"Meg," he called.

She stopped halfway up the first stair. "My lord?"

"Walter says you still train before breakfast."

Joan turned from the doorway. Meg glanced at her mother before answering. "When he has time."

"Do you still want to?"

"I still want to train."

Joan’s mouth tightened, but she let him finish.

Christopher nodded toward the yard. "Finish helping your mother. We will speak with Walter afterward."

The household moved into the repaired east wing that day, and that night Christopher and Godfrey used the surviving spatial ring to furnish the locked workrooms beside the portal. By midnight, the rooms held a table, benches, maps and Bennet’s true inventory.

The following morning, Walter continued Meg’s footwork while Godfrey taught Bram to control his strength. Christopher watched long enough to see both improve, then returned to his new chamber and opened the first copied record from the dragon nursery.

Before he woke the Lightning Dragon, he needed to understand what would wake with it.

Bennet’s copy contained more drawings than words. One showed a rider standing before a newly hatched dragon while waves pressed outward from the dragon’s body. The rider remained upright in the first image, knelt in the second and lay unconscious in the third. Only the first two continued to the next panel.

Christopher did not assume remaining upright was required. A note beside the kneeling figure used the same mark the records employed for acceptance — the test concerned endurance, not posture.

Another picture showed the eyes of the dragon and candidate reflecting different colors. The dragon could see potential just as Christopher could. Green candidates rarely appeared beyond the first panel.

Christopher touched the edge of the page.

His own color was Green.

The following panel showed a second sign surrounding one candidate’s heart and eyes. Bennet had translated it as awakened blood. That figure continued despite a low potential color.

The final sequence was less comfortable. Rider and dragon faced one another, their outlines touching at the chest and forehead, then joining through a line drawn like two twisting flames. The record described shared feeling and distant speech while each mind kept its own memories.

Christopher paused over that distinction. The dragon could feel his grief or fear, while the memories of his first life remained private.

The record said the joining required willingness from both souls. It offered no command to force agreement and no second attempt if either side rejected the bond.

A knock came at the door. Godfrey entered after Christopher answered and placed a second copied sheet on the desk.

"Food records," he said.

Christopher studied the drawings of carcasses, feeding basins and young dragons. "That’s a great deal of meat."

"It is a Rank Three creature from birth."

"A baby Rank Three creature."

"That does not make it smaller in the stomach."

The herds around the Knight castle had survived without human hunters for centuries.

He set both records together.

"Tomorrow we inspect the nursery and count what lives near it," he said. "We prepare before touching the seal."

Godfrey nodded. "And if the records say we cannot feed it?"

Christopher considered the drawing of the Green candidate surrounded by awakened blood.

"Then it sleeps longer."

The Thunder nursery had been built for something that could bite through a horse before learning its own name. Its feeding gate used black bars thicker than Christopher’s wrist, and deep scratches crossed the lower half.

"Hatchlings did that?" Walter asked.

Owen crouched beside one mark. "Unless they kept something larger in here."

Godfrey nodded toward the sealed egg chamber behind them. "The records call this a nursery."

Nobody touched the scratches.

The round nursery held a nest of smooth dark stones, two empty water basins and a feeding room with floor drains. Owen traced the dry pipes to a cracked valve and marked it for replacement.

Christopher activated Dragon Eyes. Faint blue-white energy rested inside the channels, the lines converging beneath the nest and extending toward narrow towers on the roof.

"Still active," he said.

"Purpose?" Godfrey asked.

"Probably connected to the egg. I can’t tell more."

In the adjacent archive, Bennet found a diagram showing lightning descending into carved roof spires, energy flowing through the formation around the nest.

"A Thunder-gathering formation," Bennet said after working through the label.

The roof spires, wall markings and channels beneath the nest were all parts of one magical formation. It drew power from the birth storm, spread it through the nursery and carried excess Thunder Mana into the stone below.

"Do not repair anything on the roof until we know where the power goes," Christopher said.

Owen looked offended. "I had no intention of climbing into an unknown storm formation."

They cleared the room, opened the drains and replaced the broken valve. By noon, clean water filled the basins.

The outer passage ended at a broad terrace overlooking the valley. Grass covered the lower slope, and beyond it, scattered herds moved between trees and a shallow river. Magical rhinoceroses grazed far to the east. Closer to the castle, silver-marked deer drank at the river and shaggy cattle occupied a southern meadow.

"Enough meat," Walter said.

"Enough living animals," Christopher corrected. "That changes if we kill without counting."

Godfrey marked hunting areas. One low-rank magical beast would provide the first meal, supplemented by ordinary game.

"Can it understand that after hatching?" Walter asked.

"The records say it will be able to speak and carry inherited memories," Bennet replied.

Walter looked down at the distant cattle. "Knowing rules and obeying them are different."

They returned to Dragonwatch before evening. Christopher found Meg in the lower yard repeating the four-stone pattern while Elsie sat on a barrel and counted mistakes.

"Seven," Elsie announced.

"That was not a mistake."

"Walter said your heel cannot cross."

Meg looked down. Her heel rested beyond the line between two stones.

"Seven," she admitted.

Christopher continued toward the inner castle without interrupting. He had spent the day preparing a home for a creature born stronger than Godfrey; Meg’s progress consisted of noticing where she placed one foot.

Joan found him before supper and asked about Meg’s training.

"Three mornings each week?" she asked.

"After Meg finishes helping you and Martha."

"Will she use a sword?"

"Not unless Walter decides she is ready. No weapons unless Walter approves, and we speak to you first."

Joan nodded, but did not leave. "Why her?"

"She asked to train. Walter says she returns even when nobody praises her."

"Other children have asked to train."

"The older children may join the basic exercise if their families agree. Walter will watch their progress."

Joan studied him. "But you think she could be one."

Christopher chose his answer carefully. "I think she deserves the chance to find out."

"You can end the training," he said. "Meg can end it. Walter can end it if she refuses instruction. Nobody will charge you for what she has already learned."

Joan turned toward the kitchen. "And if she is good?"

"Then the decision becomes more serious later."

"She starts after the morning household work," Joan said. "Not before. Martha needs help."

"Walter will complain."

"Walter does not run the kitchen."

Christopher agreed.

The next expedition into the small plane left at dawn. Godfrey, Walter and Mabel accompanied Christopher to the valley while Owen and Bennet remained at the castle. They followed the river south until Walter found tracks from the silver-marked deer.

The herd contained eleven adults and four young. Godfrey selected an older injured male and killed it with one strike before it reached the trees. Its Prestige was only that of a low Tier One magical beast; death released a faint silver light from its markings. Mabel collected blood and examined the organs while Walter dressed the carcass.

The meat carried more energy than ordinary venison.

"How fresh must it be?" Christopher asked.

"Fresh," Godfrey said.

"That’s not a measure."

"Then ask the dragon."

They stored the prepared carcass in the cold room beside the nursery.

Christopher examined the meat laid across the stone table.

"Should we cook it?" he asked.

Walter stopped washing his knife.

Godfrey eyed the carcass, then Christopher. "For a dragon?"

"It can speak. Being able to speak does not mean it wants its first meal bleeding."

"The nursery records show whole animals," Bennet said from the doorway.

Christopher turned. "Alive or dead?"

Bennet considered the drawings. "Dead in the feeding rooms. Occasionally alive in the training grounds."

"Raw, then," Godfrey said. "If it objects, you can cook the next one."

Christopher suspected this would become his responsibility simply because he had asked.

They filled both basins, removed loose tools and left the outer gate open toward the empty terrace. Owen replaced the cracked nest stones with intact ones from the western dragon hall.

In the afternoon, Bennet translated the final preparation plate.

"The shell is food," he said.

Christopher looked at him.

"The hatchling consumes part or all of it after emerging. The shell contains stored Mana and something the record calls birth mineral."

"So we do not clear it away."

"Not unless the dragon leaves it."

They left the shell tray in place and kept the carcass ready.

They checked the short route between the egg chamber and nursery. The records showed two handlers carrying the released egg in a padded sling.

Godfrey tested the surviving sling and tore one strap with his hands.

Owen made a new one from layered leather and cloth brought through the portal. It required four carrying loops, although Christopher doubted they would allow four people inside on hatching day.

"We can carry it together," Godfrey said.

"How heavy?"

"We find out when the seal releases."

Only Christopher and Godfrey would remain in the nursery. Walter, Mabel, Owen and Bennet had helped prepare it, but more people meant more targets if the hatchling released uncontrolled Prestige or lightning. Mabel would wait in the outer command room with medical supplies. Walter would guard the lower stair. Owen and Bennet would remain beyond the second door.

Walter paused before the sealed chamber, then took his assigned position, the anticipation in his face sitting close to fear.

At the end of the day, Christopher stood over the sealed Thunder egg. Its dark shell carried pale branching lines that brightened when he approached.

Through Dragon Eyes, the formation looked stable, energy from the small plane moving around it in slow circles.

He could leave it sleeping and spend months learning more.

Godfrey stood beside him. "The nursery is ready."

"As ready as six people who have never seen a living dragon can make it."

"That’s more preparation than the egg had yesterday."

Godfrey’s voice remained steady, though his eyes stayed on the shell. Christopher had seen him face armed men without hesitation; here, even the Silver Knight measured every movement. They were not preparing to tame a beast. They were waiting for one of the plane’s greatest predators to wake.

Christopher placed one hand above the seal without touching it. The lines in the shell answered with a faint pulse.

Tomorrow he would open the formation.

Tonight, the Lightning Dragon remained asleep, its first meal waiting in the next room and a storm tower standing silent above its empty nest.