Dragonlove Read Online Free PDF Page A

direction.
    “Thy song hath beguiled my Dragon hearts, o brother,” she sang, shamefully misusing a line from Dragons of Yore.
    “And thy song hath animated mine,” he adlibbed in tuneful response.
    That was no line from a song. Bands of iron gripped her chest. Oh, by the great volcano itself! Wheezing unmusically, Hualiama managed to gasp, “And wilt thou sing again, with me?”
    “Aye, my sister. I will sing … forever!”
    In realisation of what she already knew, Ari’s crescendo struck a prodigious note. The word ‘forever’ reverberated around the Palace, alarming birds in the gardens and making the Dragonets squeal in amazement.
    Queen Shyana’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh, Ari–oh, my precious son. You spoke!”
    Lia wept.
    * * * *
    Jade would wax to fullness in three days. Hualiama spent two of those days trying to determine a course of action which would not lead to her exile on a remote boulder somewhere in the Cloudlands. Echoes of the past, brought into sharp relief. Six years before, with the help of a Dragon and a dragonet, she had rescued her family from exile. And what did her impossible-to-please father make of her endeavours? Disgraceful. Difficult. Ungrateful foundling. An inferior creature compared to her royal-born siblings.
    Would she sacrifice her future for an Ancient Dragon?
    In a word, aye. Such was the cost of friendship.
    Inconspicuously, during that second day, Hualiama began to gather the necessary items. That evening, she dressed in a dark green Helyon silk outfit crafted by her friend Inniora, which had a cunningly split long skirt to allow ease of movement, and a modified tunic top which concealed an arsenal of unusual implements and weapons. Soft, flexible black shoes minimised any sound she might make. She hung a matched pair of Immadian forked daggers at her belt. Lia’s Nuyallith blades, freed from their customary double-sheath upon her back, bounced against her right thigh beneath her skirts. Armoured wristlets sported hidden slots for a half-dozen throwing knives and a set of lock picks. Lia secreted a fifty-foot length of climbing rope in her backpack. She braided her platinum hair and tucked it away beneath a black headscarf. Over all this, she donned her ordinary evening clothes.
    Lia walked to the door, cracked it open and saw her mother’s eye regarding her sternly. “Mother!”
    “Going somewhere, daughter?”
    Wishing her heart would leap back into her chest, Hualiama muttered, “What makes you think that?”
    Shyana pushed her way into Lia’s chambers and thumped the door shut behind her. “Petal, you aren’t running away, are you?”
    “No.” No, because she refused to give Zalcion the satisfaction. “Just a short trip, and before you begin the lecture, Mom, I will not tell father and I do not expect him to approve.”
    “Hush, petal. Is this truly important? Life and death?”
    Pursing her lips, Lia nodded.
    “It’s not about Flicker?”
    “No.”
    “Something to do with the Dragons?”
    Hualiama examined her toes, knowing that whatever she answered, her mother understood her so well she’d guess the rest.
    Shyana touched Lia’s chin. “Look at me, my precious fireflower.”
    “Mother! Oh … I do love you.”
    With a gentle yet infuriating smile, the Queen said, “What would you say if I told you I had your Dragonship checked and refuelled today?” Lia collected her jaw from somewhere in the region of her toes. “Aye, petal. We’re about to take an urgent trip–Elki and I, and a nameless piece of baggage which may or may not resemble someone called Hualiama, who also happens to be the most rascally Princess ever to walk this Island.”
    Hualiama hugged her mother Dragon-fiercely.
    * * * *
    Queen Shyana won past the guards by the simple expedient of sending them off to collect various items she had conveniently forgotten. Sickness in the Palace, she said. She urgently needed fresh supplies of herbs. Lia hid in the bottom of the