Gloria Oliver Read Online Free PDF

meant, she decided she’d been there long enough and quickly retreated down the nearest set of stairs.
    Not far from there, on the first floor, she found the dining hall. The room was huge, extending almost half the length of one of the building’s shorter sides. Massive tables filled the room, each lined with heavy benches. Only one table in the room possessed actual chairs, and it was slightly set apart from the others.
    The chair at the far end of that table was also slightly larger than the rest, with gold trim along the top.
    As Talia stepped inside, she found the room currently empty, yet muffled sounds echoed inside it from four doors set close at the far end. Trying to remember the map over her bed, she was pretty sure that must be the kitchens. Suddenly, she itched to go over there, to look at the people who worked and lived here up close, but didn’t dare. Walking between the tables, she picked a place to sit along the back. She wasn’t there long before a group of kids about her own age stormed into the room.
    She watched as fifteen children talked animatedly to one another and chose a table somewhere in the middle. She stared somewhat longingly at them but with no real idea of how to approach them. She didn’t consider herself to be shy, and many of the people back at Queegam often said she didn’t know what the word meant, but for the first time, she found herself hesitant to introduce herself to strangers. These people were foreign to her in a way none had ever been. She didn’t know what she should say or do with them.
    As she watched, full of indecision, one of the boys at the table spotted her and pointed her out to a number of the others. Feeling suddenly conspicuous, she looked away, and hoped they didn’t know she’d been staring.
    Next thing she knew, one of the girls was making her way over to her table.
    “Hi! My name is Mandee.” The light-skinned girl gave her a bright smile. “You’re new, aren’t you?”
    “Y-Yes.” She couldn’t help but gawk, not having seen such curly, red hair before. “My, my name’s Talia.”
    “Pleased to meet you.” Mandee gave her a light curtsey. “Did you just come in this afternoon?”
    Talia nodded. “Yes, with Kel and Clarence.”
    Mandee made a face. “Oh, yeah, Clarence. I’m still not over that ride and it was over six months ago.”
    She laughed. It was an easy sound. “I’ll tell you now other dragons don’t fly like him. I was actually worried about it for a while.” She laughed again. “Say, why don’t you come join us? We normally get here a little early and we’ve already collected some of the other kids who’ll be in your class.”
    Talia nodded quickly, welcoming the invitation as well as Mandee’s friendly demeanor. “Thanks.”
    At the other table, introductions passed quickly around. Of the fifteen kids there, she learned three of them were new, the same as her. And as she was quickly informed, each of them possessed experience as one of Clarence’s victims. Mandee shoved over a couple of the others and got Talia to sit in the middle with her.
    “Is Kel a Dragon Knight?” Talia asked.
    A couple of the boys laughed out loud.
    “No,” Mandee answered, “he’s a squire. And he’s been one for a long time.”
    Someone else snickered.
    Talia frowned. “Is that a bad thing?”
    “Well, once you’ve got a dragon you’re supposed to pass a test together to become an official knight,” a girl with dark brown skin and a serious expression explained. “He just can’t seem to pass it. So they made him a squire and all he gets to do is run errands on Clarence.”
    Talia’s stomach knotted inside her. She tried to imagine going through the horrid ride she’d been on day after day; it made her feel ill. She was sure she would rather be dead. It must be incredibly frustrating for Kel as well.
    More students entered the dining hall. They sat down randomly, some staying as a group with their classmates while others