Dragon Master Read Online Free PDF

hers and that seemed to relax her. Once we were in place, Boe let go of the girl and introduced her to me as Laciann, from his neighborhood in Chialaa Valley. She smiled and shook my hand, and then went back to telling Daija her story. Daija looked over at me and lifted her hand in greeting with a sheepish smile on her face. I waved and nodded at her. Why not? I was in a good mood.
    Everyone was in a good mood. We were excited for the Stoneflame.
    The sky began to change color. It was so gradual that at first I wasn’t sure if I was seeing it, but with the change the crowd shifted to hushed tones and then complete silence. It had been a mostly clear blue sky, with only a few huge puffy clouds accenting the horizon. It was definitely more of a purple hue now, and the white clouds were turning orange and then shades of red, as if they were catching fire. From the next bench over, a four-year old Stone Soul recruit cried out with an eep of delight which was followed by a chorus of hushing from the adults around him. The sky continued to darken and shift from purple to a crimson red. People were pointing up toward the sun and I looked up to see that the sun was no longer visible. Where he should have been, Flame loomed, reigning supreme. She was ringed by impressive flares that radiated and curled out from around her. Though she usually glowed like an ember in the night sky, she appeared dark as blackwood at her core in contrast to the brightly lit circle of fire that she was now casting out.
    I looked around me. This was my third Stoneflame, and I had some idea what to expect. Still, it had been five years between each one and I was noticing new details this time around. The clouds weren’t a steady red color, but instead kept pulsing and cycling through various fiery hues. The circle of fire around Flame wasn’t uniformly lit, and as I stared up at her I could see subtle shifts in color and brightness. This was far more impressive than any light show a wizard could produce, and even the wild beasts and birds of the forests seemed to fall silent in wonder. I thought again of Kamelia in the Watch tower, hoped that she was seeing this, hoped that Master Walker wasn’t actually in her chambers at this very moment.
    The silence was broken by a uniform gasp from the gathered crowd as a shooting star erupted across the maroon sky, its bright green tail brilliantly defying Flame’s attempt to consume everything in the light of her fire. It burned out after a moment. Where the green trail had been my eyes now traced an unnaturally red afterglow in the sky, as if Flame were getting revenge for her stolen spotlight.
    Boe released a barely audible gasp that sounded like “woah.”
    I just watched inaudibly with my mouth open. The shooting star was something that I’d never experienced before, and from the mutterings of the crowd around me I gathered that they hadn’t been expecting it either. For the next couple minutes as I stared at Flame, I wondered what the shooting star could mean. Slowly and eventually, though, I forgot about it. We were silent again. Flame still had us all rapt in her magnificent dance.
    I looked away as the blinding light of the sun suddenly shone out from behind Flame. We had been warned that watching this part of the Stoneflame could leave us permanently blind, and I didn’t want to take that risk. I looked around at the crowd again. Daija was also looking around, though thankfully not in my direction, Laciann was examining her fingernails in the returning light, and Boe was still staring up at Flame. I gave him a jab with my elbow and he tore his gaze away. I looked down at the ground for the first time and noticed that our shadows were unnaturally crisp, as if there were these people made of shadows gathered on the ground beneath us. It was unnerving. For a moment I began to imagine that the shadow people might be connected to the green shooting star, but Boe leaned over to say something to Laciann and