The Dragon’s Appraiser: Part Two by Viola Rivard Read Free Book Online Page A

behind Sevrrn, like a trout on his line.
    It was nearly noon when her resentment had simmered down enough to speak with him.
    “They lit fireworks for you last night. They were amazing.”
    Sevrrn kept his eyes on the forest trail. Raindrops fell steadily from the grey sky, but somehow, he remained dry.
    “The Firelight Festival?”
    Eyes widening, she picked up the pace to walk alongside of him. “You were there?”
    “If I had been awake, I would have to find you,” he said, all but glaring. “I was asleep, but I know of the festival. It used to be every year and it would last a week. It is why I made this human form.”
    “To go to the festival?”
    “In ancient times, I would bend the light around myself and watch the festival from the sky. But I was curious to know why the humans worshiped me, and so I made this body so that I could walk among them. It is how I learned their languages and some of their customs.”
    Madja realized that this was one of the only times he had ever spoken about his past with her, which in turn prompted a question. Why?
    She had always known he was old. He was one of the four original dragons—Sevrrn the golden dragon, Valdyra the red, Belphinir the green, and Kael the black. They were living legends and fabled to be as old as the world itself. In the vast expanse of his lifetime, Sevrrn must have seen and experienced so much. Yet for some reason, he seemed to live entirely in the present.
    “You never told me that,” she said.
    He said again, “It used to be every year, The Firelight Festival. Now it is one night—and that is only when they need me.”
    “If you protect Erda, they’ll be talking about it for centuries,” she said in an attempt to appeal to his ego.
    Sevrrn made a sound that was almost a laugh. “All it will take is two generations and then they will grow lax in their worship. They will forget about me until they need me again.”
    He stopped, and she realized that they had reached the summit of a hill. The trees were thinner, and as she followed the direction of his gaze, Madja could see the town of Bern and the cove.
    Under the protection of the dragon, Erda had never built up any sizable military. There was a small militia in each town and two warships in the capital, but they had nowhere near the naval might of the sprawling nations and empires that surrounded them. Without Sevrrn, the people were doomed.
    Sevrrn’s smooth voice broke through her thoughts. “You believe that if you had the same power as I, you would use it differently.”
    She gave a slight nod and he frowned in response.
    “You do not see the world as I do.” He pointed towards the cove, his eyes becoming distant. “For all your knowledge of the world, everything that you have learned in your two decades of life is a single raindrop in the ocean of my existence. I was young when the world was new, the continents were one, and only my kin and the old gods walked the land. I was already ancient when your species was only just climbing down from the trees. I have heard these humans beg for my protection a thousand times and I have saved them a thousand times, and it has all been for nothing.”
    As he spoke, Madja could see all of time reflected in his eyes. Primordial deities, land masses torn apart, volcanic explosions, and fire—so much fire. She felt the sheer magnitude of Sevrrn’s existence and it almost overwhelmed her.
    Then she blinked, and it was all gone.
    For a moment, she felt deeply unsettled. She searched his eyes, looking for some glimmer of the past, but found nothing. Only an expectant look, as though he were waiting for her to understand something. And then, she did.
    She had wondered why Sevrrn never spoke about the past, why he seemed to live only in the whims of the present. It was to protect himself. His lifetime, it was too much, maybe even for a dragon.
    She placed her cold, wet hand inside his warm, dry one and squeezed. “My mother’s family has lived on