Dragons of the Watch Read Online Free PDF

highway represented something she might see in the grandest of cities. She sighed, thinking she should be on an old dirt road headed to Ragar, probably the grandest city in Chiril.
    She brushed her fingertips across the pavement. The satiny smooth surface surprised her. The odd creamy yellow looked like butter. She and her goat were the only dirty spots on the road.
    Still holding on to Tak’s collar, Ellie put her arm around his neck and leaned heavily against his side. “I’m so hungry.”
    Tak tilted his head back and rubbed his chin against her arm. Absent-mindedly, she scratched the spots around his head that gave him pleasure, behind his ears, around his ruff, and under his chin. The mist from the other side of the wall still clung to his coat. The odor wrinkled her nose, but she cuddled him anyway.
    Her clothes were damp, flecked with mud, and smeared with grass stains. Cold, wet shoes trapped her feet and made her feel like she’d crammed them into a laundry bucket. She used one foot to push a shoe off her heel, then wiggled that foot out and used it to remove the other shoe. Blue dye from the leather stained her socks. She stretched her legs out in the sun, hoping to dry a little.
    So much for elegant clothing.
    Her stomach grumbled.
    So much for eating fancy meals with her aunt and uncle in roadside taverns.
    She could have gone to sleep in the warm sun, leaning against the goat. His coat was drier than her skirt. After a time, she forced herself to straighten.
    “Well, collapsed in the road is not going to get us any closer to food.” She tied the laces of her shoes through the handle of the carpetbag and walked in the ruined socks on the smoothly paved yellow road.
    With a firm grip on Tak, she let him pull her toward the horizon lined with trees. They walked for a long time before they entered theshade of the forest. The warm breeze dried Ellie’s clothes and hair and the outside of the carpetbag.
    She had to change to Tak’s other side occasionally and shift the heavy valise to the other hand. He walked along sedately, and she finally decided to let go of his collar and sighed her relief when he didn’t bolt.
    Tired and hungry, she trudged down the middle of the road.
    “The reason this road is so nice is that no one travels on it. How could it be worn with no use? I thought we might flag a carriage for a ride, or at least pass a traveler who could tell us where we are.”
    “Maa,” Tak answered.
    Between the towering trees, they passed in and out of shadows that fell across the wide highway. Tak gave a loud bleat, darted off to the side, and tore into a bush, ripping off tender green branches and chewing contentedly.
    “I wonder if I could eat those.” Ellie followed the goat and dropped her carpetbag with a delighted exclamation. Berries grew on several bushes. One bush hid blackberries under broad leaves. Another bent under the weight of berries that looked much like the black ones, but the fruit was smaller and yellow. Ellie sat in front of the bushes and picked the berries as fast as she could put them in her mouth and swallow.
    With her mouth full and juice running down her chin, she told Tak, “I would have walked right past these. Thank you, Tak.”
    Remembering the time Gustustharinback had eaten a bushelful of fruit from their parnot trees, Ellie made herself stop as soon as she felt full. Gustus had had a stomachache for two days. She looked at her purple fingers with alarm. A glance down at her dress confirmed her fear. “I’m as messy as a pig.”
    “Maa.”
    “I am! Look at me. I
belong
in the country, not at a coronation or a royal wedding.”
    She looked around her at the lovely road, the towering trees, and her goat. “This is probably my punishment for leaving where I belong and chasing after a glittery life. Just because something sparkles, Tak, doesn’t mean it’s good for you.”
    The goat looked askance at her and then turned away, gazing down the road.
    “Maa!” He