White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) by Donald Wigboldy Read Free Book Online Page B

keep Delanne a popular spot to stop and rest on a journey through the northeast.
    When the music began, Cheleya looked happy to see Ardost come over to ask her to dance.
    “I didn’t want to miss the opportunity or waste time asking you to dance this time,” the mage stated as he took the pretty girl in hold. The smell of her was intoxicating to the man, but he didn’t realize that was a property of what Cheleya really was.
    Her new friend’s protector must have felt Katya safe enough with the other men of his group around as he had been quick to catch Cheleya before any other man could. He had failed to try and dance with her once and been fool enough to admit it. When the girl had said that he should have been brave enough to cut in the first night, Ardost had realized that he had missed out on dancing with the prettiest woman he had ever met.
    Cheleya on the other hand found the man interesting, but was too young to fully understand the relationships of a man and woman. Being sheltered in the Academy of Mar’kal as a wizard and dragon mage, the girl had little contact of that kind. She had also not always been human.
    One of the race known as che’ther, the petite human girl had been born a blue dragoness, as humans often referred to them. An amulet had been gifted to her by the Academy to use to turn into a human. It was an essential part of how to learn to fly as a dragon mage. Che’ther didn’t have wings like the legendary dragons and were much too heavy for magically created wings to lift their bulk.
    She had only been a twenty foot long che’ther, which was about half the size of most of her people as adults; but even that was too large for the wings she could create. Then Cheleya had been betrayed by the man she had looked to as a mentor and friend. Malaketh had been a spy of the emperor and needed to cover his trail by making the girl a scapegoat. Breaking her amulet and disrupting her magic, he had thrown her from the Academy’s tower and nearly killed her in the process.
    After weeks of being hunted and trapped in this human body, she had all but given up on believing that she would ever be able to break his curse to return to her old life. Cheleya had enjoyed turning into a human once, but now it was a prison and her new permanent form. The pieces of amulet trapped inside her body could work together to still let her change into a dragon, but only for a short time as the distance between the pieces grew too much to maintain the spell.
    The perfume Ardost and all humans seemed to enjoy was a byproduct of her personality and the form she had created. Cheleya had been small as a dragon; but even for a che’ther, her personality had been decidedly sweet. Her smaller form made people want to protect her and she made friends easily as much because of her personality as from the scent she gave off.
    “Well, I can’t say that you didn’t learn your lesson then,” the girl smiled at him. She was only seventeen and a mere child in che’ther years, but Cheleya was human now and learning more about them each day. Her emotions were very human and her feelings were more natural to her every day she remained a human.
    He nodded at her verdict. “Well, I’ve been working to expand my knowledge with Sebastian after all, so I guess it’s rubbing off,” Ardost chuckled. “Learning my lessons is very important, but I would have to be a complete idiot to not ask to dance with you again.”
    Smiling at the man, Cheleya replied, “That is very flattering. It is also nice to dance with someone I already know and like. Magnus and his friend Embrell have been particularly insistent about getting a dance in during our travel together. Luckily, I have Kel’lor around also if they get to be too much.”
    The man frowned at her words. “Too much in what way? Have they been insisting on going to your room or something? That would not be very gentlemanly of them. I would help Kel’lor in putting them in their place, if