Lost Magic (The Swift Codex Book 3) by Nicolette Jinks Read Free Book Online Page A

reached the limit of two dinaires it was all legal.
     
    I almost made Mordon take Anna so I could settle in the very center of the carpet, but decided last minute I didn't want him to know how chicken I was. My position ended up being just enough off-center to not be perfectly dead center. He sat down behind me, making me scoot forward. I hadn't realized that by taking dead center, I would be robbing him of a lot of space. Still, he knew me better than I'd hoped. He took me in his arms and held me as the carpet drifted away from the deck and started its descent.
     
    At first it was slow going, navigating through a twisting maze of folding stairways and hustling carpets with kids out for joyrides at top speed. I started to relax and even feel like maybe Anna was going to be safe in my care. Then the carpet came to a near standstill and peered down, and over the hump of its curve, I saw that the way down—straight down—was going to be clear in a second or two.
     
    The carpet bolted like a late businessman trying to beat the train crossing before the signal bars dropped. With respect to the baby, Mordon didn't whoop and roar, but I knew he wanted to. Plunging maneuvers were among his favorites, same with rolls, and while I was all too happy to scream out delight while he was in his dragon form, I was little short of sickened. For her part, Anna seemed to be sleeping through the narrow misses with other taxis. She didn't even know of the chink of coins as their bags tapped against a walkway after cutting it a little too close. My stomach lurched into my mouth when the carpet swung up to slow down, then glided to a dignified stop on a patch of lawn which was apparently being trimmed by a pack of peacocks. Flock of peacocks. Or whatever their group-name was called. I shook as I got to my feet.
     
    I watched as the taxi moved into the pick-up zone to rob some not-so-unsuspecting joyrider. Mordon said, “You look a little pale.”
     
    “I've told Lilly. Things that are meant to fly have wings.”
     
    “You're adorable,” Mordon said, and before I could take offense, he kissed me. It was the rough, breathtaking sort of kiss which took me off-guard and had to be because he'd had so many thrills today he couldn't help but to show his excitement. Seeing the way I wobbled when he let go, he tapped my arm and leaped back, anticipating a game of tag. I wasn't going to play, until he chanted,
     
    “Catch a tiger by a toe,
     
    Round and round we go,
     
    Who is hunter, who is prey,
     
    Who will lose the game today?”
     
    I balled up a fist of air and bopped him over the back of his head, making his eyes pop wide. He stood upright, bowed half-way at me, and joined me by my side.
     
    “Not while I'm holding a thing with a floppy neck, Drake Lord,” I said.
     
    “If you insist.” He said it formally, but I knew he was in a cuddly mood even before he nuzzled the crook of my neck and planted moist kisses there.
     
    “What is with this?” I tried—and failed—to be annoyed with him.
     
    “You're brave and clever and strong and I want you to know how happy I am to be by your side. That's all.”
     
    “So long as that's all.” I would have kissed him again, but Anna woke up, her moods as fitful as her sleep, and this time the mood was angry, or her closest approximation to it.
     
    On every side, we were surrounded by merrymakers with smiles and revelers soaked with too much wine. Music from three folk bands could be heard strumming and pouring over the lawn. One banjo band grew louder then softer as the flying carpet they were on drifted near then away. Merlyn's Market was an endless sprawl, it seemed. So far I'd been to the cemetery and to the actual market with its many layers of floating decks and doors which changed locations on the wall on a whim.
     
    Now we stood on the crest of a hill, one way sloping down to a duck pond populated with annoyed fowl pecking at flowers and screeching children who pursued the