Dragons Lost Read Online Free PDF

clear voice cried out.
    "Do you hear
me, Cade?" It was Mercy's voice, crying out from a stony crest a few hundred
yards away. "I know you're here! I found the man you killed. I know you're in
these mountains, hiding like a rat."
    Cade remained
still, fists tight. He wanted to burst out from hiding, to shift into a dragon,
to fly toward her and burn her. He dared not. He had to live. For his family.
    "Come out,
Cade!" Mercy cried. "I only want to talk. I don't want to hurt you. I only want
to cure you. Come to me, and we'll sit down and talk, and nobody else needs to
die."
    He wanted to
believe that. Spirit, he did. This day had become a nightmare of such terror he
scarcely believed it was happening. If only he could speak to them, work things
out . . .
    But no. He knew
Mercy was lying. When chasing him in the sky, she had not wanted to talk; there
had been death in her eyes. She was here to slay him. Cade remained hidden and
silent.
    "Very well!"
Mercy said. "If you will not talk here in the mountains, come talk to me in
your village. I fly back to Favilla, and I give you an hour to meet me there.
If you don't turn yourself in, your family will pay the price. I will see you
soon, Cade Baker!"
    The forest
shook as firedrakes took flight, air from their wings blasting the trees,
sending down a hail of twigs and needles. Smoke filled the sky, and the
creatures' shrieks grew distant, finally fading.
    For long
moments, Cade remained hidden in the brush. Finally he peeked into the gorge.
They were gone.
    He leaned his head
against the boulder and closed his eyes.
    What to do?
    Cade sucked in
breath, struggling to calm himself.
    Stay calm. Stay
calm, Cade. Think. Plan.
    Mercy and the
firedrakes were heading back toward the village. If he did not return to
confront them, the paladins were likely to burn down his home. Yet if he did
return, they would capture him, imprison him, torture him, kill him.
    Stay calm.
Think.
    He left the cover
of the boulder and brush. Struggling for every breath, he climbed up the
mountainside, making his way higher. The slope was steep, forcing him to climb
on hands and knees, gripping at roots and stones. Pebbles cascaded from under
his knees and elbows, and the air thinned as he climbed. The pines tilted,
stretching out from the mountainside, trunks almost horizontal.
    Crack.
    The sound rose
behind him—a snapping twig perhaps. Cade spun his head around, staring down the
slope.
    Nothing.
    He narrowed his
eyes, scanning the landscape, but saw only the rocky slopes sliding down into
the forest. Probably an animal, he told himself, and certainly not a paladin;
if the paladins saw him here, they'd be charging toward him, not hiding in the
brush. He kept climbing.
    Finally he reached
a granite peak. He didn't like the idea of rising into the open, free from the
cover of the pines, but he decided it was a risk he needed to take. He climbed
onto the stony crest and stared down south.
    His breath died.
His insides trembled.
    He could see Favilla
in the distance, barely visible from here. The firedrakes—he counted eleven of
them—were flying toward the village. The paladins rose atop them, their banners
streaming. As Cade watched, the firedrakes swooped toward the village . . . and
blew their fire.
    "Eliana," Cade
whispered, eyes stinging. "Mother. Father."
    Terror thudded
through him.
    Mercy was killing
them.
    Cade knew what to
do. He would fly there. He would fight the paladins and their firedrakes, even
if he died in their flames.
    He leaped into the
air, shifted into a dragon, and began to fly.
    A shadow leaped
from between the trees ahead, small and slender, and Cade caught a flash of red
hair. Suddenly a firedrake, its scales orange and red and yellow, was flying
toward him. The beast roared, darted forth, and slammed into Cade with a thud.
    Cade bellowed and
blasted out dragonfire. Where had this beast come from? The creature—a wild,
untamed dragon—dodged his flaming jet. Its claws grabbed him.