Earth's Magic by Pamela F. Service Read Free Book Online Page A

been eating well. I hope he’ll be content now with discarded turnips from the kitchen.” As they hurried on, Merlin glanced down at Goldie and Rus, who were running around in circles chasing each others’ tails. “That little dragon’s grown too. Amazing—from kitten-size to cat-size in only a few hours.”
    “Yes. There’s hardly a rat or mouse safe in the manor anymore, not between her and Red.”
    “And Sil will keep the weeds down,” he sighed.
    They walked past a field where a dozen boys and girls of assorted ages were kicking a leather ball back and forth. At the sight of two miniature dragons, the children let the ball roll away and hurriedly gathered around, questions and exclamations pouring out in a torrent.
    Merlin wanted to hurry on, but the wonder he saw shining in the surrounding faces stopped him. Here these children were seeing two dragons, living creatures out of myth. Sil tried to escape attention by crawling under Merlin’s cloak. Goldie allowed curious hands to stroke her scales until a pair of small boys started yanking on Rus’s two tails. Hissing suddenly, Goldie spun around and defended her friend by spraying the offenders with a shower of sparks. After that, the crowd respectfully receded, and Heather and Merlin continued on to the King’s manor.
    As they walked, with Goldie and Rus bounding ahead, Sil paced along the short length of Merlin’s shoulder. Suddenly hesnaked his head around and stared into Merlin’s face. “Go too?” he squeaked.
    Startled, Merlin said, “You want to play with them? Sure. Go ahead.” Then he turned to Heather. “Do dragons talk this soon?”
    She laughed. “I did read a lot of books in the Llandoylan School library. But I must have missed the section on baby dragon care.”
    People walking along the street watched with mingled awe and amusement as the whirlwind of mutie dog and two baby dragons swept by. Then those same people had to flatten themselves against the walls as a horseman clattered down the street from the other direction.
    “Sil, Goldie, come back!” Merlin ordered. The silver dragon streaked back to his perch, as Goldie astride Rus dashed back to Heather.
    The rider, looking travel-worn and haggard, pulled his exhausted horse to a halt and called to Merlin. “You, boy, I have a message for the High King. Where do I find him?”
    Smiling wryly, Merlin pointed his staff toward the gates of the manor. The rider swung his horse about and clattered off into the courtyard.
    Merlin sighed. “It seems that this ‘boy’ had better find the King as well. I have a feeling that whatever message that fellow has for Arthur may also relate to what I have to tell him.”
    The guards at the gate nodded to them as they entered. Those men had been with Arthur long enough to become accustomed to the magic workers, but they still flinched slightly as the young dragons swept by. Merlin asked and was told where he’d find the King, but Heather said she’d join them after she’d taken the ever-hungry dragons to the kitchen for some scraps.
    Merlin found Arthur, Margaret, and Otto in the manor’ssmall library, where they had been studying maps when the messenger had been shown in. Now the newcomer too was seated at the table as the others listened to his report. The young man stopped talking and glowered at Merlin as he entered. Arthur smiled slightly and said, “Ah, Merlin, come in. News—grim news, I’m afraid.”
    The messenger’s glower turned to a look of surprise, which he politely tried to mask as Arthur continued. “Brendon here comes from Duke Geoffrey of Cheshire, sent to give his news directly. Brendon himself has been one of Geoffrey’s spies in the Manchester court for some time.”
    Queen Margaret had been trying to lure the red dragonlet off the spread-out maps by dangling one of her earrings in front of it. It pounced, grabbed the shiny glass beads, and then, spying the other one still on her ear, clambered up to her shoulder and