The End of Time Read Online Free PDF Page B

and ears were covered by a leather hood with long flaps down the sides. On the parts of his face that Hap could see, and across his bare arms, metallic scales had been painted or tattooed.
    Hap remembered reading in one of Umber’s books about a legendary being. The name sprang to mind: the Dragon Lord.
    The man looked at the cage with Jewel inside. His lips pulled back in a snarl, and he called out in a fierce, strangely accented voice, “Who commands you?”
    All eyes went to Umber, who stood unsteadily, looking bewildered as he gaped at the dragons. He didn’t seem to hear the question.
    “This is my ship,” Sandar said in a quavering voice, from the helm.
    Balfour cleared his throat and stepped forward. “But this is my mission. We are here to return something that belongs to you. Are you . . . are you the Dragon Lord?”
    Hap saw Umber mouth the words: Dragon Lord . His fingers twitched against his lips.
    The Dragon Lord ignored the question. He pointed at Jewel’s cage with a gloved hand. “How did you come to possess that?”
    Balfour glanced at Umber, perhaps hoping that Umber was ready to join the conversation. “It was stolen from you,” Balfour said. “And we took it back so we could return it. But that’s not all. We have also brought back your stolen eggs.”
    The Dragon Lord reached up to cradle the copper dragon’s great jaw in his arm, and he sang softly into its ear. The creature rumbled and snorted, and a puff of smoke shot from each nostril. Hap gulped. He saw Hameron try to edge away, but Oates held him by the sleeve. Hameron’s bottom lip trembled, and his head moved in tiny sideways shakes.
    Balfour’s voice cracked as he called out the side of his mouth. “Perhaps someone could fetch the eggs?”
    “I’ll go,” Hap said. As he ran by, he tugged Sophie’s arm. “Help me,” he said, and he breathed a little easier when she followed him into the lower deck, out of reach of the dragon’s toothy jaws.
    “Stay below,” he told her when they’d made it down the first flight of stairs.
    “I will not,” she replied, and ran ahead of him, down into the hold. But he darted past her, picked up the chest before she arrived, and bounded back up the stairs as fast as his powerful legs would take him. When he arrived on the top deck again, it didn’t seem as if any more words had been exchanged. The Dragon Lord stood like a sculpture with his fists on his hips. Jewel was out of her cage and clung to his shoulder with her tail wrapped tight around his arm. The golden dragon had slithered farther down the mast, spiraling around the beam as it descended, until its snout was just over Oates’s head. Hameron ducked behind the bigger man.
    Hap felt Sophie’s hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go,” she whispered, “before we lose our nerve.”
    They passed Umber, who stood with his mouth agape, blinking up at the dragon on the mast. “Are you all right?” Hap asked, but Umber didn’t respond.
    With Sophie gripping the back of his shirt, Hap edged slowly forward until he was two strides from the Dragon Lord. “The eggs are in here, sir,” Hap said, and he lowered the chest to the deck.
    The Dragon Lord’s pale eyes narrowed in the shadow of the hood. “Open it.”
    Balfour cleared his throat. “I have the key.” He came forward with tiny, hesitant steps and opened the lock with a shaky hand. The lid yawned. Inside, the crystalline eggs gleamed. The Dragon Lord stepped up to the box, and the copper dragon slid up beside him with fluid grace. Hap felt its breath on his head, like the heat of a furnace.
    The Dragon Lord kneeled and counted the eggs. He stood with one in each hand. “Ten and six were stolen from us. Here are ten and one .”
    Balfour opened his mouth again, but no words came out. Hap gulped, and his voice squeaked as he answered. “The infant dragon hatched from one. Four were . . . killed in a barbaric game in a distant land. But the men who killed the dragons died