Hidden Dragons by Bianca D'Arc Read Free Book Online Page B

were all back in the barn except the well
camouflaged male dragon. He was on guard duty, watching from the
shadows outside Isabelle’s house. He could easily see into her
window and was reporting her movements back to the men in the
barn.
    “ I don’t like how alone she
is,” Tildeth observed, compassion in her
tone.
    “ We cannot leave her here like
this,” Growloranth stated.
    “ We also can’t force her to
go,” Robert reminded them all. “We will have to work on convincing her. She has
memories here that are obviously hard for her to let go
of.”
    “ Sometimes it’s better to leave the
memories behind and begin new ones,” Growloranth said in a subdued tone.
    Robert remembered that dragons went off on
their own to mourn, most of the time, after losing their knight.
Growloranth and Tildeth had both lost their first knights and spent
time in the mountains, grieving. They had not stayed in the Lair
where their former knights had lived and worked. In fact, when they
came back, they did not even go to that Lair, but instead, asked
for assignment to the Border Lair after choosing their new knight
partners.
    “ Dragons can be far smarter than
humans when it comes to such things,” Robert observed.
    “ This place is all she
knows,” Bear put in. “She does not think she has any alternative, and she fears
leaving the known behind for the unknown.”
    Robert was impressed with Bear’s grasp of the
situation. He nodded at his fighting partner as they settled down
for the night in the barn. Growloranth would be on watch outside in
the shadows that were his element.
    “ Maybe we can show her a little bit
of what we can offer her at the Lair,” Robert mused. “After we complete our
mission, we could invite her for a visit, if we haven’t convinced
her by then.”
    The others agreed and conversation drew to a
close for the night as Tildeth and the knights fell asleep.
Growloranth would wake them if anything happened.
     
    A few hours later, in the deepest part of the
night, Growloranth’s voice sounded in Robert’s mind, waking him
instantly.
    “ A man is coming up the path in
haste.”
    “ I’ll be there in a minute.” Robert promised, already slipping his sword and
dagger from their scabbards as he made his way through the dark
barn.
    “ He just rushed right past
me,” Growloranth reported. “Didn’t even look in my direction. He’s knocking
on Isabelle’s door.”
    Robert could hear the loud raps on the wooden
door, followed by the fellow speaking loudly enough to be heard in
the barn and beyond.
    “ Isabelle, you’ve got to come.
Mantell’s prize bull is sick something awful. Mantell’s stockman
tol’ me to come get you.”
    Robert reached the shadows by the door to the
barn in time to see Isabelle answer her door. She was wearing her
cloak and had a large bag slung across her body.
    “ I’ll come, Darel, but this is an
awful time of night to be asking favors. If the animal is so sick,
why didn’t he send for me before now?” Robert watched from the
shadows as she closed her door behind her, then glanced at the barn
while the townsman was already starting back down the path ahead of
her, grumbling. He hadn’t even glanced at the dragon.
    Robert saw Growloranth wink at Isabelle. Her
startled smile before she turned to follow the man was just the
tiniest bit mischievous.
    Robert waited for her to go down
the path a bit before he came out of the barn. “I’ll take it from here, friend,” he
told Growloranth as he passed him, already on the trail of Isabelle
and the stranger who had come for her in the night.
     
    Robert tailed the odd duo all the way to the
grand house he and Bear had discovered earlier. All the activity
seemed to be centered around the barn, which was too well lit for
him to infiltrate. However, there were windows, and the far side of
the building was bathed in darkness. And if that didn’t work out,
there was always the roof.
    Robert made his approach from the outside,