Dragonbound: Blue Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page A

raiding a Great Red dragon's lair. He'd killed the dragon and paraded through the streets of Daro, holding the flashing red dragonstone high above his head while thousands of adoring people thronged him, shouting their admiration. So many voices raised in a jumble that Kanvar could not make out the words. So many people crowded around that little Kanvar had been pressed up against his father and smothered. He might have died if his father hadn't lifted him up onto his strong shoulders.
    The same sensation of indecipherable voices and a pressing throng leapt into Kanvar's mind now. Not the press of human bodies and voices, but those of dragons, all the camdors in the stable, the kitrats that ran along through the sewage ditches, the jewel dragonflies in the fields, the serpents that slithered along the jungle floor, the black monkey's that swung from tree to tree, and lesser green dragons, hungry, cunning and hunting. And beyond them a press of minds ancient and thoughtful. A flash of something that reminded Kanvar of the feeling of sitting at home by the fireplace on his father's lap. And then, shattering all the rest of the thoughts, those of the crazed camdor that reared up in front of Kanvar, screaming and clawing. Kanvar felt the searing pain in the camdor's side and the poison that maddened it.
    "It's all right," Kanvar whispered, holding a soothing hand out to the Camdor. From the creature's tortured mind, Kanvar knew it didn't understand his words, but his intent to help it trickled through. That's what it wanted, help. Why wouldn't the humans help it?
    "I'm going to help you," Kanvar said. "Just stay calm. Stay right there."
    The camdor sank down on its haunches, whimpering. Kanvar eased around it and went to the tack room where the grooming equipment and saddles were kept. His side hurt like someone had shot a crossbow dart into him. No, not his side, the camdor's. Poor creature. Kanvar opened Chandran's tack box and pulled out a pair of long-nosed tweezers.
    He limped back over to the trembling camdor and rubbed his hand down the creature's smooth scales. "I'm going to help you, but you have to hold still. Hold still and let me help."
    The camdor let out a piteous wail but remained sitting.
    Kanvar stuck the nose of the tweezers up under the scales near the lump on the creatures left side. He squeezed the tweezers closed and gave a sharp tug.
    The camdor shrieked and bolted away, leaving Kanvar holding an engorged razor beetle that had somehow worked its way up under the camdor's scales and latched on, pinching, sucking, and spreading its poison through the camdor.
    The camdor moaned, staggered into the remains of a stall, and lay down on a pile of straw.
    Kanvar pulled his mind away from it. The sudden silence in his head was deafening, and a feeling of lonely emptiness swept over him. Kanvar shuddered and fell to his knees, shaking, still holding the ghastly beetle in the tip of the tweezers.
    That's how Chandran, Pachai, and the keeper found him when they rushed in after hearing the sudden silence in the stable.
    "A razor beetle," Sadiq exclaimed. "No wonder."
    "My poor camdor," Pachai said. "He'll need medicine to counteract the poison."
    Sadiq rushed to the tack room and came back with a thick paste to put over the wound. The camdor lay still and let him apply it now that the razor-sharp pain in his side was gone.
    "I guess you were right, Chandran," Sadiq said. "The boy is a natural. I'll take him as my apprentice as we agreed. Good work, lad."
    Kanvar dragged himself to his feet. "I-I don't understand."
    Chandran gave him a wide smile. "I know you like working with the camdors. I just apprenticed you to Sadiq. It's an honorable position, much better than someone like you could ever hope to attain."
    "But I . . . at sunset, my indenture is over. I'm going to—"
    "No. You are not going out into that jungle. I could never live with myself if I let you do that. The papers are already signed. You are now Sadiq's