Dragon Lord Read Free Page A

when she tried to shake her head.
    “I have a potion for that. Father ordered another potion but the wizard couldn’t read his writing so he sent the wrong one. I have money you can have. I’ll visit and make sure you have everything you need. Anything. Give me some terms and I’ll meet them. I can even teach you to read.”
    “What do I want with reading? I get along without it.”
    “You get along, but you don’t get anywhere. The ones who run things need to know how to read. To truly be your own master you must learn.”
    “I can’t cross Rhone. He’ll kill me.”
    “He won’t have to know. Leave the dragon at the house and go back to him. Tell him there was someone in here all night. You waited for them to come out but they didn’t. Anything. Just save the dragon for me,” Edana pleaded.
    “Why? What’s so special about him?”
    “He touched my mind. He knows he’s doomed. It was like a butterfly wing brushing me. He looked at me with his silver eyes and I knew he was begging me for help. No words, just emotions. If he touched your mind you’d do anything to help him too.”
    “That’s a myth. Dragon’s can’t mind-read or mind-talk. They’d tell us off for the way we treat them if they could. They have to be plain stupid not to rebel against us for keeping them like slaves. They’re animals. Like a horse or dog.”
    “I’ll show you. Let me up and I’ll show you.”
    Fen’s eyes narrowed. “I let you up. You show me. If the dragon can’t do what you say then you give me the blood oath and let me walk out of here with him. If he does what you say then I take him to your spirit house.”
    “Deal,” Edana said. “But you have to give him time. Ten minutes at least. He’s only a baby.”
    Fen nodded once. His hands let her go and he stood. He picked up his woollen cap, hit it against his leg to remove the straw and pulled it back on. He watched Edana take the grey dragon from the pen and struggle over to him with it. She placed the dragon on the ground in front of him.
    “Please touch his mind. Like you did to me. He won’t save you unless you do. Please. You asked me to save you. This is all I can come up with. I sat with you every night the past week trying to think of something. And every minute during the day when I can escape my tutors. This is it.” Edana stroked the dragon’s head. The scales smooth, the ridge down the centre of his head rough. Edana’s eyes glittered in the lamplight. “I know he’s not much to look at, a bit scrawny, but he’s all I can find.”
    “I haven’t got all night,” Fen said sharply, annoyed by her last comment.
    “You gave him ten minutes. They’re not up yet.” Edana turned back to the dragon who watched her solemnly. That was all he did. He watched and listened. There were no butterfly touches. Even when Edana made Fen kneel beside the dragon and touch him and look him in the eye. Nothing. Exactly what Fen had expected.
    “It’s well past your ten minutes.” Fen guessed it must be by the frantic tone in Edana’s voice. “I told you dragons are just another animal. Come on, Eddie. Give up. Let me have my oath back. You made a deal. And the hanky.”
    Edana shoved the parchment and handkerchief at him. “You’re cruel and heartless. I hope you rot in hell.”
    She turned away as Fen bent to pick up the dragon before he moved into the next room. He let the metal door close softly behind him and put the dragon down on one of the raised areas. Even though there were no eggs here, there was still a heat stone. He stared wistfully at it and then at the door to outside.
    He shoved his blood oath and the handkerchief into the pouch that hung at his rope belt and looked around for something to wrap the dragon in. He couldn’t walk the streets with his arms filled by a dragon. People would notice. Seeing folded blankets in a corner he grabbed one. It was soft and thick so he picked up another. It’d keep the damp off him until he reached