DragonLight by Donita K. Paul Read Free Book Online Page A

imagination, and sometimes when people talk about things, I pretend they happened to me. And when I remember what they said, I pretend I was there.”
    Kale pondered Toopka’s too-earnest expression. She tried to peek at her thoughts, but as she often found, the doneel’s thinking lurked behind a hazy, noisy, and confusing curtain. Add to that the precautions Wizard Namee had made, and Kale didn’t have a chance of deciphering Toopka’s thoughts.
    “All right, Toopka. I understand what you are telling me. Now, understand what I tell you.”
    Toopka’s ears drooped, her whiskers quivered, and she dropped her gaze to the floor. Kale continued. “Misrepresenting the truth is lying. Pretending, when the listener doesn’t know it is pretense, is lying.”
    Toopka nodded harder. Kale continued, even though she knew she had delivered this exact lecture many times before.
    “If you lie to yourself, you can’t help lying to others.”
    By now Toopka’s head bobbed hard enough to rattle her poor brain. Kale wondered how much of this compliance was sincere.
    “No lie will ever stand against even the slightest examination by Wulder. Explaining to Wulder why you chose to lie would be a very, very hard thing.”
    The doneel’s head stilled, and a tear trickled down her cheek.
    Kale turned away, exasperated with herself that even after all these years she still distrusted the little doneel girl and allowed her to unsettle her. Toopka presented a mystery she often ignored, but at moments like this, all the oddities of Toopka jumped to her attention. Where did the child come from? How old was she? Was she cunning or guileless? Why couldn’t Kale penetrate Toopka’s thoughts as easily as she did others’?
    Bardon signaled for her to join him. An elegant coach had arrived to carry them the short distance to the castle.
    “Come, Toopka.” Kale removed the moonbeam cape and draped it over her arm as she strolled toward her husband. The minor dragons flew in a kaleidoscope of bright colors. “Someday we’ll talk, Toopka, and you’ll surprise me by giving me honest answers.” She avoided looking at the girl’s face, knowing the innocent expression that would be fixed there. And also knowing Toopka’s childlike air would annoy her.
    Bardon handed them into the waiting vehicle as the horses stamped their eagerness to follow the winding road up to the castle. Torchlights flamed along the way, and whimsical orchestra music drifted through the air.
    Through the window in the coach, Kale admired the lighting of the drive Namee had designed. A small river stairstepped down a cliff, making a broken waterfall. Each segment gleamed with a different colored light. The display piqued her curiosity as a light wizard. She sighed with satisfaction as she untangled the spell in her mind and identified how it worked.
    She started to share the discovery with Bardon but stopped short when she saw that Toopka had captivated his attention. At this moment the doneel’s enthusiasm for her surroundings appeared to be genuine. Her large eyes sparkled, her ears perked forward, her whiskers twitched, and rather than the endless stream of nattering, Toopka let out soft gasps of astonishment. Kale’s heart softened. If only she could get past the inscrutable veil that disguised this enthralling child, Kale was sure she could love Toopka without reservation.
    She doesn’t trust me with whatever she holds as her important, oh-so-carefully guarded secrets. I resent not being trusted. After all, haven’t I always offered good and not evil toward this ward of mine?
    She almost laughed when she remembered a plaintive line quoting Wulder and reported in the Tomes.
“Why should my creation accuse me of desiring their destruction? Why doubt the words I give them that would secure their happiness?”
    Wulder sounded as confused and aggravated as she did, yet Kale knew the great Creator was never puzzled. Bardon had explained that these quotes were given so