The Witch's Daughter (Lamb & Castle Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

undergrowth as they rolled over it; to the slimy, sucking noises of the two giant snails. Around them, the gentle breeze whispered continuously through the trees, all of springtime’s little songbirds chirping and whistling.
    “Rustling?” Amelia tried. “B-birdsong?”
    “Not so much a rustling, as a clicking… Oh!” Meg ducked, just as a flash of something whizzed over her head, bright as liquid sunshine. Amelia ducked too, although it had been far above her. The whirring noise lingered, droning in the dappled shadows beneath the trees, drawing close, then receding, then close again. Like a wasp . Amelia felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in alarm. If such things as seven foot high snails really existed, then why not giant wasps, too? And that thing had been as big as a hawk, at least…
    Nevertheless, Meg stayed clinging to her precarious perch on the side of the tower, still trying to get a glimpse of the mysterious creature. “Perce, fetch me that cage!” she ordered, just as the thing came swooping back at head height. “Ooh, you little beast!” she cried, as the thing snatched at the curls of her straw-coloured hair. When the swooping, glittering pest came back for another dive, Meg lashed out, smacking the creature smartly into the wall of the snailcastletank. It bounced off and circled drunkenly until it ventured close enough for Meg to hit it again. It narrowly missed Amelia on the way down, and hit the driver’s seat with a clang. Warily looking closer, Amelia saw that the thing was a little dragon, gleaming gold and ever so pretty in the sunlight shining through the trees. Only on close inspection could she see that it didn’t appear to be a living creature at all, but a painstakingly detailed construction of metal, with gemstone eyes. Its gears whirred and it made a pitiful noise as it tried to get up.
    Percival came out to the driver’s seat with a ridiculously delicate-looking gilt birdcage, and scooped the dragonette up in his armoured hand.
    “Oh, poor little thing,” said Amelia, as Percival deposited it in the gilt cage.
    “ ‘Poor little thing?’ ” Meg climbed back down, grimacing as she examined her bruised hand. “Did you see the way it went for me?”
    Amelia had to admit that she’d be nervous of the delicate little creature still, if it weren’t for the cage. The dragonette’s curved golden talons looked as sharp as a cat’s claws. But it was so dainty, and so pretty…
    “What’s it for, do you suppose?” asked Percival. “Do you think it’s a spy?”
    “If I had any sense, I’d take it apart and find out exactly what it’s for,” Meg mused, peering at her troublesome captive. Regaining its senses, the clockwork dragonette got up unsteadily, hopping about the cage.
    “Oh, no!” Mechanical or not, Amelia couldn’t bear the thought of seeing such a beautiful thing destroyed.
    “‘Course, I’ve always been too sentimental for my own good. And I reckon I already know what it is,” Meg added.
    “It’s a lovely piece of work,” said Percival, sounding worried that it might be necessary to dismantle the dragonette in spite of sentimentalism.
    “Yes, almost too pretty to be just a spying device. But perhaps that’s what they want us to think.” She snorted in amusement. “Listen to me; I’m getting as bad as you, Perce.”
    “Who are ‘they’ ?” asked Amelia, but Meg and Percival were too concerned with their little captive.
    “We can’t let it free again if it might be a spy,” said Percival. “Who knows how long it’s been following us, how much it might have heard. Aren’t you worried it might be able to send messages by magical means, even from the cage? What are you going to do with it?”
    “I should say it’s safe enough where it is,” said Meg. “Look here, Amelia.” She took Amelia by the arm and directed her attention to a set of marks engraved on a plate on the front of the cage. “Wherever you see this mark on