Dragon's Egg by Sarah L. Thomson Read Free Book Online Page B

pleased.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œHe thought it was foolishness, taking an oath to keep the kingdom safe from dragons. He saysthe Defenders are a relic, out of date. He said I made the family look ridiculous and I should join a military order, too. Get myself killed, like Aliard.”
    Mella felt another yawn forcing its way up her throat. Her eyelids were getting heavy. Roger’s voice was gentle and sad.
    Mella lay down on her side, wrapping herself in her cloak, staring into the fire, now settling itself into a small heap of red orange coals with the Egg glowing black at its heart. She was sorry about Roger’s brother. She thought she should tell him so, but she fell asleep instead.

Chapter Seven
    I n her dreams, Mella was missing something.
    Gran?
    No, not her grandmother. Someone else. There was a gap, like an ache in the air, where something had been taken.
    What was it? It was hard for her to say. It was as if someone had stolen her liver or her kidney, something that had always been inside her, so much a part of her that she never thought about it at all. Now it was gone and nothing would be right with her until whatever was gone had returned.
    Restless, she squirmed in her sleep, twisting her cloak around herself. But the wrongness couldn’tbe solved that way. With something other than her ears she heard a whimper and a long, low, hungry howl that shivered its way down into her bones.
    When Mella woke, still tired, her cloak was damp with dew. Her nose felt like a frozen lump clinging to her face, and her tears made her cheeks even colder.
    It had been no dream. She had felt her dragons missing her.
    A herd was always restless without its keeper. Oh, Tilda would feed them and keep an eye out for injuries or sickness. But they’d pine for Mella the way Lady had pined for Gran.
    Gran had never left the herd, not even for a day. Other keepers did, when trips to the market or the city had to be made. There were even itinerant keepers with no herds of their own who made their way from town to town, offering to care for dragons so that their keepers could rest or travel.
    Poor, pitiful things, Gran had called those gypsy keepers. Wastrels and wanderers. She wouldn’t trust her dragons to one of them for a day. Akeeper with no herd of her own was no true keeper.
    But Gran had left her dragons after all. And now Mella had done the same. No. Not the same. She would be back. But how could you tell a dragon that? How could she have let her herd know that she was not abandoning them for good?
    But what else could she have done, caught between a promise to her dying grandmother and a promise to a dying dragon?
    The Egg!
    The thought of it pulled Mella bolt upright. Careless, she reached a bare hand into the ashes of the fire and snatched it back a second later. Sucking her burned finger, she sighed with relief. The Egg had not cooled.
    Roger was stirring. Before he could wake entirely, Mella retreated into the woods to take care of her own most pressing need. When she returned she found that Roger had gotten up too. Kneeling by the fire, he had a spruce twig thick with needles in his hand and had brushed awaythe coals and ashes that Mella had heaped over the Egg. Now it was half exposed to the chilly morning air.
    â€œWhat are you doing ?”
    Roger turned to look up at Mella, surprised. “Just…checking on it. It’s all right, it hasn’t cooled, see—”
    â€œIt’ll get cold! What are you thinking?”
    â€œIt’s still in the fire.”
    â€œIt needs to be covered!” Snatching up her gloves, Mella hurriedly packed the Egg away in the metal box, cushioning it with ashes that would hold in its natural heat until she could put it in a fire once more.
    â€œI only wanted—” Roger started to say.
    â€œWell, don’t,” Mella answered tartly as she latched the lid of the box. “I’m the keeper. I’ll look after the Egg. You