Dragon Heart by Cecelia Holland Read Free Book Online Page A

gathering; they stood back to give Mervaly room.
    Leanara was shapeless, floury as a loaf, her head almost bald beneath her headcloth, which was always coming loose and hung down now over her ear. She shouted, “I can’t use that. He has no tally stick!” She thrust out one arm, pointing at the Imperials, standing in their clump in front of her stall.
    The other people around them were watching attentively, Casea saw. Aken the butcher was there, and Lumilla, the brewer’s widow, stood across the way, her elbows cocked and her fists on her hips. Mervaly bent and picked up something from the dirt.
    â€œWhat is this?” She held it out toward the Imperials.
    The tallest of them came forward, a big, square man like them all, fair skinned and rosy cheeked, straw haired and blue-eyed. Casea noticed on the front of his striped doublet was some insignia the others did not wear. He recognized the princesses: he bowed, his head bobbing, and Mervaly said impatiently, “Well?” and he straightened upright.
    â€œThat’s all I have, Princess. It’s good money. What do I need to have to buy something in this place?”
    Mervaly glanced down at her palm. “Who are you?”
    â€œI am Master Sergeant Pal Dawd, Princess. I mean no trouble.” He put out his hand for the money. “We’ll go.” In the pack behind him a soldier grunted, angry. Pal Dawd turned his head and the man quieted.
    Mervaly took the bit of metal between her thumb and forefinger and looked it over. Casea went closer to see. It was round, with a little wreathed head on one side, a gate or a house or something else square on the other. Mervaly held it out to Leanara.
    â€œIt’s pretty. Keep it. It may come to be useful. Give him the bread.”
    Leanara pressed her lips together, not liking this, but from the crowd a sigh went up, and Lumilla lowered her hands to her sides.
    Mervaly waggled the coin under Leanara’s nose. “Do it.”
    Leanara said, “Or they will just take it.” She thrust the loaf at the soldier and held out her hand to Mervaly for the coin.
    Casea stepped back, looking over the Imperial men. The tall one was dividing the loaf among them and that made them content. Leanara was right: the soldiers were easy enough now, but that could change. The new men in the castle were not so easy, and they wanted more than a loaf of bread. Mervaly turned to walk back to the cypress tree.
    â€œI’m going home,” Casea said. “I’ll see you at supper.” She patted her apron, to make sure of her work, and started off up the beach toward the rock below the castle.
    *   *   *
    The bread was delicious, and now maybe they could buy ale. Pal Dawd fingered his purse, fat with Imperial silver pennies, good everywhere in the world, and now perhaps even here. The merry Princess had gone back to her bench by the tree. He nodded to the other men.
    â€œLet’s try this again.”
    His corporal, Marwin, said, “I think these people need a lesson.”
    Dawd elbowed him. “Remember what the Archduke said—no trouble.” Dawd led his men over toward the broad porch of the brewery.
    The town fascinated him, so much different from an Imperial town with its ordered streets and square buildings; here the wooden porches and steps and little shops seemed to be spilling out of the cliff, like overflow from hidden places. On the porch of the brewery several old men were sitting on benches, cans of drink already in their hands. They watched him with piercing eyes, and the lanky woman who ran the place came to the top of the steps.
    Dawd stopped, held up a penny, and said, “How much for a cup?”
    The woman gave a little shake of her head, frowning. She came down and took the coin from him, and, like the Princess, turned it over and studied it. She shook her head again. She said, “Well, I’ll take it, since they say so. One cup