Dragon Haven Read Online Free PDF Page B

voice, and Thymara was jolted to feel, beneath Sintara’s anger, her fear. An instant later, Sintara added in a low hiss. “Hurry. I can feel it moving. It’s trying to dig deeper into me. To hide inside my body.”
    “Sa save us all!” Thymara exclaimed. Her gorge rose in revulsion, and she tried to recall how her father had said one got rid of a little rasp snake. “Not fire, no. They dig deeper if you put fire to them. There was something else.” She searched her memory desperately, and then had it. “Whisky. I have to go see if Captain Leftrin has whisky. Don’t move.”
    “Hurry,” Sintara pleaded.
    Thymara ran toward the barge, then caught sight of the captain and Alise strolling together. She changed her course and raced toward them, shouting, “Captain Leftrin! Captain Leftrin, I need your help!”
    At her cries, both the captain and Alise turned and hurried toward her. She was out of breath by the time they reached eachother, and to Leftrin’s worried, “What’s wrong, girl?” she could only reply, “Rasp snake. On Sintara. Biggest I’ve ever seen. Going into her chest, under her wing.”
    “Those damned things!” he exclaimed, and Thymara could only feel gratitude that she didn’t have to explain it.
    She caught a gasping breath. “My father used liquor to make them back out.”
    “Yes, well, tereben oil works better. Trust me on that. Had to get one out of my own leg once. Come on, girl. I’ve got some on board. Alise! If one dragon has a rasp snake, chances are the others do, too. Tell the keepers to check their animals. And that brown one, the one that’s down? Check her, too. Look on her underbelly. They’ll go for a soft place for an easy bite and then dig in.”
    Alise felt a surge of purpose as Leftrin turned away from her and headed back toward the barge. She hastened down the beach, going from keeper to keeper, giving the warning. Greft almost immediately found one dangling from Kalo’s belly, concealed by one of his hind legs. There were three fastened to Sestican;she’d thought for a moment that his keeper, Lecter, was going to faint when he discovered three short ends of snakes poking out from his dragon’s nether regions. She spoke to him sharply to jolt him from his panic, directing him to take his dragon over to where Sintara was and to wait for Leftrin there. The boy seemed shocked that she could speak so severely. He gave a gulp, recovered himself, and obeyed her.
    She swallowed her own shock at that and hurried on. When she came to Sylve and the golden dragon guarding the dirty brown one, she had to pause and rebuild her courage for a moment. She did not want to confront him;she wanted nothing more than to turn and hasten away. It took her a moment to convince herself that what she felt was not her own cowardice, but the dragon’s efforts to repulse her. She squared her shoulders and marched up to him and his keeper.
    “I’m here to check the brown dragon for parasites. Some of the other dragons have been attacked by rasp snakes. Your keeper should check you over while I look at the brown dragon.”
    For a time the gold just stared at her. How could solid black eyes glitter so bleakly?
    “Rasp snakes?”
    “A parasitic burrowing creature. Thymara says she knows of them from the canopy. But these, she thinks, come from the river. They are much larger. It’s a snake that bites and eats its way in, to live off your flesh.”
    “Disgusting!” Mercor declared. The gold immediately stood and spread his wings. “It makes me itch to think of it. Sylve, check me for those creatures immediately.”
    “I groomed you completely today, Mercor. I do not think I would have missed such a thing. But I will check you.”
    “And I must look at the brown dragon to see if she has any,” Alise asserted firmly.
    She had expected Mercor to oppose her. Instead, he seemed completely distracted by the thought that he himself might have such a parasite.
    Alise ventured toward the