Dragon-Ridden by T.A. White Read Free Book Online Page A

that’s all it really was— a table with a sign
above it, read ‘Relics of the Past.’ She came to a stop in front of it and
stared down at the odds and ends cluttering the surface.
    “What is this?” she asked.
    “Relics, miss,” the wizened old
merchant said. He didn’t bother getting up from the chair he’d settled his old
bones in. “These were found in ancient ruins a few miles outside Aurelia.”
    She didn’t say anything, already
absorbed in the trinkets before her. Most of it was junk, just twisted metal
with strange markings on it. Her eye was drawn to a small rectangular piece, no
bigger than her palm. It was crusted with dirt, but its surface was smooth with
white shapes imprinted on it. She ran a finger over one of the shapes thinking
it was ink or paint and felt it give slightly under her touch. She recognized
it or at least thought she did.
    “How much?” she asked impulsively.
She had to have it.
    “Excuse us?” Danny took hold of her
arm and dragged her a fair distance from the stall. She stumbled after him as
irritation bubbled inside. “What are you doing?” he finally asked.
    “What business is it of yours?” she
asked arching an eyebrow and yanking her elbow from his grip.
    “For starters, real relic hunters
don’t sell their wares at an open market,” he hissed. “There’s a reason for
that. The ancients left behind some very dangerous things that tend to hurt
those curious and stupid enough to acquire them. What he is selling are either
knockoffs or dangerous. Perhaps both. Either way, you don’t want what he’s
selling.”
    “I know that,” she snapped. “I know
they’re not real.”
    He stopped. He hadn’t expected that
response, simply assuming she was one of those obsessed with the ancients.
Danny stared down at her in puzzlement. “You do? Then why-?”
    “It reminded me of something from
my past,” she mumbled. Her cheeks burned under his sympathetic gaze. Most of
the Marauder’s crew didn’t know much about her. They’d found her wandering on
an isolated spit of land. She learned incredibly fast and most had forgotten or
didn’t realize how lost and out of place she really was.
    The theories of her origin and
history had amused them for a time but were just that. Theories.
    Many nights while in her hammock,
she’d listened to the waves lap against the hull and to the men discussing her
possibilities. They covered everything from being marooned during a shipwreck,
to being a lost heiress, to being one of the odd races that abounded on the
outer edge of the empire.
    Danny settled his hands on her
shoulders and bent to stare her in the eye. “I don’t know what you’re looking
for, but I know that nothing on that table can help you find it.”
    She bit back the reply that sprung
to her lips. She wanted to rail against him, tell him it wasn’t any of his
business and get the trinket anyway. Stubborn, she held his eyes with hers.
What she saw there made her back down, and her shoulders slumped. They spoke of
kindness and a caring that had been missing for as long as she could remember.
    Danny took off again, his long
strides forcing Tate to half run to keep up. People got out of his way when
they saw his expression, and Tate trailed in his wake. He barely noticed when
she stopped, and spun around to see her standing stock still in the middle of
the road staring at something to her right.
    Her attention was focused on a
familiar trio checking out the wares at one of the blacksmith’s stalls. Weapons
hung on displays and were carefully laid out on tables.
    It was the trio from the Crow’s
Nest. Tate struggled to remember what they were called. The Keyline. Kayi. No,
the Kairi.
    She moved closer. She hadn’t gotten
a chance to meet them and now seemed like a perfect opportunity.
    Just as she was about to make her
move, the two troublemakers she’d seen earlier came into view. She watched as
the smaller one, who she mentally dubbed as Bones, sauntered past