A Sending of Dragons Read Online Free PDF

cell.”
    A picture of the man who called himself Number One exploded with an orange-red ferocity that startled Jakkin because Akki rarely sent anything that strong. One minute the rebel leader was there in Jakkin’s mind, his mustache a parenthesis around a slash of mouth, the next he was gone into a million blood red pieces all shaped like tears.
    Jakkin stood and shook his head vigorously to clear it. “Akki, that doesn’t make sense. We’ve been out here for months and too many things will have changed for the rebels. No one will remember you or care.”
    â€œIt may seem long to us, but Number One is the sort of man who’d pick at his own scab to keep a wound fresh. And you and I are the only ones who could identify him as the real bomber.”
    Jakkin looked over at her, his eyes wide. “There were other members of Number One’s cell besides you, Akki.”
    Her answering smile was grim. “Do you honestly think they’re still alive? That wasn’t his way. He thought we would die in the pit. If he found out we’d survived that, he’d check until he heard how we ‘died’ on the mountainside. He’d want to be sure.”
    Jakkin thought a minute. “Someone must have come back and found . . . they must have discovered Heart’s Blood’s . . . they must have seen her . . .”
    Akki came over and put her hand on his shoulder. “Say it, Jakkin. Say it and be done with it. If you never say it, it’s not real. Say
Heart’s Blood’s bones.
Someone must have found her bones and not found ours. Say it.”
    â€œI don’t have to say it to know it.”
    â€œSay it so you can be done with grieving. And done with the guilt.”
    He moved away from her touch. “I’m not grieving. I’m not feeling guilty.” But his mind betrayed him again, for the pictures were all of red dragons lying in horrible bloody parts and a boy with a bloody knife standing beside her. Knowing the sending had reached her, Jakkin turned away and spoke in a low voice. “I didn’t cry when my father died under the claws of a feral dragon, though I was just a child when it happened. And I didn’t cry a year later when my mother died of overwork and loneliness. I didn’t cry when my friend, your father, Sarkkhan, was blown up in the Rokk Pit when it should have been me. And I won’t cry now.” But his sending turned gray
and was shot through with blue tears, speaking a different truth.
    Akki used the same quieting tone she used with the hatchlings. “It’s all right. It’s all right to cry, Jakkin.”
    He shook his head. “We don’t have time for tears. We have to think. Someone knows we’re alive and is looking for us.”
    â€œThey may know we’re alive, but they don’t know everything,” Akki said. “They don’t know how we’ve changed. How we can see and hear with dragons’ eyes and ears. How we can talk to dragons and each other with sendings. How we can survive the cold of Dark-After.”
    Jakkin nodded slowly.
    â€œAnd they don’t know that we’re living here!” Akki said triumphantly.
    â€œHere
is where we shouldn’t be. Fewmets, Akki, why didn’t we see that before? It’s been crazy to stay so close . . . so close . . .” His voice stuttered off again, though his mind sent a picture of the mountain landscape broken into shards, the pieces looking remarkably like the bones of a dragon.
    â€œYou’re right,” Akki said. “If they look
in Golden’s Cave or the Lookout or here . . . why, there’s no way anyone is going to believe dragons made those cups.” She gestured toward the cave.
    â€œOr the braided vines,” Jakkin added. “Or the mattresses.” He looked out over the mountain pass, now hidden by the darkness. Once he’d seen it as a