Shadow by Mark Robson Read Free Book Online Page A

are safe. They are right behind us.’
    ‘Thank you,’
she replied, feeling guilty. Nolita had been so caught up in her own predicament that she had not spared a thought for her companions. Tears of relief replaced
those caused by the smoke. She twisted her head to dash them from her cheeks with her shoulder. Letting go of the pommel to wipe them away with her hand was still beyond her.
    With a final hacking cough she cleared her throat. ‘I felt that weapon hit you, Fire,’ she said aloud. ‘Are you all right?’
    ‘I’m fine, Nolita,’
he replied, clearly touched by her concern.
‘It stings a little, but it did not penetrate my scales.’
    ‘Good,’ she said. And to her amazement, she found that she meant it. It was barely more than a week ago that Elian and Kira had tied her to Aurora’s saddle and whisked into
this quest. Revulsion and terror had been her dominant emotions then, but now she cared about this great, fire-breathing beast. Its appearance still frightened her. Its ability to communicate
directly with her mind still felt alien and uncomfortable, but despite everything she was developing positive feelings for him that she would never have believed possible just a short time ago.
    She looked around. As they climbed, the predawn light was increasing. The silhouette of Aurora’s sleek form was clearly visible a little behind and to the right. She could see no sign of
Fang and Kira, but that was not unusual. Fang’s camouflage made him totally invisible in this light, and Kira’s slim form was not easy to see.
    ‘We’re going to keep climbing,’
Fire informed her.
‘Aside from being safer, the dawn will come more quickly the higher we get.’
    ‘Really?’
Nolita replied.
‘Why’s that? Surely the sun isn’t affected by our flying.’
    ‘No,’
Fire chuckled.
‘Dragons have many abilities, but we cannot move the sun. Would that we could, for then Aurora’s dawn window would be easy to meet. No,
it’s all to do with angles. I’ll explain it to you sometime
if you like.’
    ‘Angles? Thank you, no. My brother, Balard, tried to explain angles to me last year, Fire. I developed a headache faster than you’d believe possible. I don’t think I have
the right sort of mind for clever stuff like that.’
    ‘I think you might be surprised at what you can learn if you try, Nolita, now that your mind is less clouded by fear. There are many things that you could excel at if you put your mind
to them.’
    ‘Really?’
she said, wondering what sorts of things the dragon felt she might be good at. The strange mental bridge that linked their minds drew her. She had shied away from
it until now, choosing to shout across the link rather than explore it. But the bridge between their minds was not going to go away. It was another of the boundaries marking the edge of her comfort
zone. Could she direct her thoughts across the bridge? What would she find on the other side? Would she be able to read Firestorm’s thoughts?
    The last few days had taught her some of the benefits of confronting her fears. With a sense of trepidation, she probed the bond with tentative exploratory thought. It felt strange to touch the
link in this way – uncomfortable, but sort of exciting. It reminded her of when she had secretly searched the house for midwinter gifts as a little girl. The delicious mixture of excitement
and the danger of being caught by her parents was unforgettable. She had never discovered where her mother concealed the gifts, but the thrill of the search had stayed with her.
    Her experience this time was different. Where she had failed in her goal as a child, this time she succeeded. Her gentle tendril of thought crossed the bridge into Firestorm’s mind. With a
gasp, she withdrew it immediately.
    It took a moment for her to understand what she had seen. The sensation in that alien environment had been one of vastness, like the Chamber of the Sun’s Steps, but much, much bigger.
More, there