Dragon Master by Alan Carr Read Free Book Online Page A

looked like another person. I looked over at the training grounds, expecting to see the festival still set up as it had been, but instead I was shocked to see that a crew had apparently spent the entire night tearing it down. There were still dozens of people scurrying around, carrying wooden beams and tent poles purposefully in every direction.
    “I’ll be right in,” I promised Tahlor, and then I turned and ran.
    I moved as quickly as I could back to my bunk, riding a surge of adrenaline. I searched my Stoneflame ceremonial pants pockets and found what I was looking for, then took off running again toward the training grounds. Commander Hawk was there, already preparing to rouse the Stone Souls to begin our final months of training. I didn’t want to run into him, so I changed course and ran around the outskirts of the row of Stone Soul bunk houses to approach the training grounds as far from the commander as I could get. I searched frantically through everybody, trying to get my bearings, but between the lack of sleep, the unfamiliar angle I’d approached from, and the general sense of disarray from all the people in motion I couldn’t find what I was looking for.
    I was beginning to seriously worry about having to admit defeat when I finally caught a glimpse of red and silver and could see that a young boy was carrying it in a sack on his back. After making sure that Commander Hawk wasn’t looking my way, I followed the boy down a small service road that had been worn into the ground during the festival. His destination was an oversized wagon, piled high with sacks similar to the one he was carrying. There was an older woman holding a steaming mug, directing the flow of people and sacks. I recognized her. She was the prize lady! I jumped in the air when I saw her and then sprinted right up to her, waving my prize voucher in the air for her to see.
    “You’re a little late, boy,” she said. I didn’t even care that she’d called me a boy. I supposed that, after all, I was behaving like one. I handed her the ticket and she entertained me by accepting it. She pulled out a worn rounded piece of glass, holding it above the voucher and inspecting each of the stamps. “Well, congratulations,” she said, “you would have had your pick of prizes with this.”
    I stared at her and my face fell. “Would have had?” I asked, hoping that I was misinterpreting her words.
    She chuckled and looked at the mound of sacks piled into the wagon. “Sorry, kid, nothing we can do about it now, is there?” She handed the voucher back to me and I reluctantly accepted it.
    I took a step back and scanned the sacks, trying to pick out the one that the boy had been carrying, the one with the edge of a tapestry just barely hanging out the back of the sack. It took a long minute with the old woman watching me, bemused, but then I caught sight of it and pointed. “There, the tapestry,” I said, “that’s what I want.”
    The woman seemed less amused now and looked between me and the sack, which was near the top of the stack, off to one side. I could tell that she had no intention of getting the sack down, and I didn’t think she would let me climb all over her wagon to try to reach it myself.
    “Maybe a … wizard?” I was thinking out loud about the benches and the log ride, and how I could be lifted up to the sack where I could retrieve the tapestry.
    The old woman just shook her head sadly at me and patted me on the shoulder. “Try again in five years, okay, kid?” She took a sip from her mug and then looked away from me, ready to start directing people again.
    I sat down on the road, looking up at the sack. At the tapestry. Why hadn’t I thought of this last night? Why were they tearing down the festival so quickly? Why did Daija have to leave? Why did I have to stay? That question gave me pause.
    I thought of Commander Hawk, of training, of long days of running and fighting and studying. All so that I could be sent off to