Dragon Spear Read Online Free PDF Page A

caught sight of her bulging belly. Eggs!
    Shardas let out a bellow of laughter. “The hatching will not be for some time after, but I think you will be here when our eggs are laid.” The emotion in his voice was pride and joy, and several of the dragons around us let out bellows of their own.
    My eyes brimmed with tears again, and I ducked under Velika’s chin to hug her neck. It was a liberty I never would have dared take just last year, but I couldn’t help myself. Hatchlings, after all this time!
    Seeing the little stone huts where we were to live and the evening feast on the shore were just a blur after that. It wasn’t until later, sitting on a log by the bonfire with Luka, that I could even string more than two words together.
    “This is all so wonderful,” I said, sighing.
    “It’s the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me,” Hagen chimed in. He was holding out a long stick with a piece of yellow fruit on the end. Riss, one of Gala’s daughters, was toasting the fruit for him with a small tendril of blue dragonfire.
    Darrym came up, still bobbing his head around awkwardly. But then, I didn’t really know him all that well, and the last time we had spoken had been in the aftermath of a war. “So, you, ah, didn’t know about Velika at all?” he said.
    “Not a hint of it,” I told him. “Isn’t it thrilling?”
    “Yes,” he said. And now he added running sand compulsively between his foreclaws to his head bobbing. “It’s more than we could have hoped for. First to find the queen alive, and then for her to have children . . .” More bobbing. “Yes, it’s more than we could have hoped!” He went off into the jungle.
    “What under the Triunity is he talking about?” I turned to Riss for an explanation but she just shook her head in confusion.
    “I don’t remember him being quite so Feniul-like before,” Luka said after the green and brown dragon had disappeared into the trees.
    “Isn’t he one of the ones who was collared? In Citatie?” Hagen blew on his roasted fruit before popping it into his mouth. “That would make anyone behave strangely,” he said, talking around a mouthful of hot fruit.
    “Very true,” Luka agreed.
    “No, he’s just strange.” Riss snickered. “He doesn’t have a hoard.” She said this as though it sealed the matter in stone.
    “I didn’t think any of you had hoards, at least not yet,” Luka said.
    That reminded me that we had not yet presented Shardas with the black sand, or the other items we had brought as gifts. He had gone to escort Velika to her bed; she tired easily this close to laying her eggs.
    “We have some things,” Riss said defensively. “But he doesn’t want anything.”
    “Perhaps he was born into the collar and doesn’t have the instinct,” I said thoughtfully. “How would he know what he liked? He wouldn’t even have heard of a hoard until just last year.”
    Riss shrugged. “Strange.”
    Amacarin came then to tell her to go to bed, and Feniul and Niva settled in to hear the news from Feravel, so I pushed any thought of Darrym to the back of my mind.
    And tomorrow there would be gifts, and an entire island to explore.

Rebuilding the Hoards
    Y ou’re sure?” Gala stared at the gold gown with awe.
    “Yes, please,” I said fervently. “If you don’t take it, I think one of my apprentices might burn it. Both times I’ve worn it something bad has happened, and she told me that she sometimes has trouble sleeping, just knowing that it’s in my wardrobe across the hall.”
    Gala shook her head. “A very odd human.” She delicately lifted the stiff overskirt with a claw, studying the blue silk underneath. “So lovely! And how did you know that fancywork was my passion?”
    “I asked Velika if there was anything I could bring with me, to help you all get settled,” I told her. “And, because I’m a dressmaker, she knew that I would have something for you.”
    “The queen is ever thoughtful,” Gala said.