"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 2 - Dragon Token" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

The pair of them were smiling at her, and she realized what her father had done in making a joke of it. Still, it was irksome to be the target of his humor, even if Meath was the beneficiary.

So she returned them to the real subject. "How did you guess what she was doing? Nobody else had any idea."

"It was something I saw at Stronghold tonight. I used the last sunlight to take a look. It was still burning as if the Fire had only just started. I ought to have put it all together before this."

"How could you have known? How could any of us? None of us sensed what she was doing. Not even you, Meath."

"Elisel did," Chayla murmured. "She knew something was wrong."

"Sioned didn't greet her, didn't talk to her," Meath said."The faradhi part of her wasЧelsewhere. But how did she do it?"

"I think I know," Chayla answered. "She was in shock. Calling Fire was the last thing she did at Stronghold, and possibly the last thing she clearly remembers. I've been hearing stories about her all my life. I just never knew how powerful she is before now."

"We know something much more important, my lady," Meath said softly. "She wants to live after all."

Startled for a moment, Chayla could only stare at him. But her father was nodding agreement.

"I see what you mean. She could have let you continue, knowing what it would do to her."

"Yes. She could have chosen to die."

"Oh, Meath," Chayla said, putting a hand on his arm. "It would've killed you long before it killed her."

He shrugged and glanced away. Maarken spared him the awkward silence. "Will she sleep now?"

"The longer the better," Chayla said, back on familiar ground. "And you, tooЧboth of you. Consider it an order from your physician."

A tiny smile quirked the older man's mouth. "Crystal and silk, you say? Maarken, this one was birthed from a dragon's shell."

*

It was difficult to see the dragon, now that Stronghold no longer burned to illumine the night sky. But he could hear the terrible keening wails as the beast flew above

the castle, and kept track of it that way as he mounted the gatehouse's stone steps. Within, he was rewarded once more: though not a princely weapon, the bow was a fine one.

Two quivers of arrows slung over his shoulders, he hesitated only a moment at the top of the stairs. It would be tricky, and if he failed in the full sight of his army all would be lost. But he had been waiting for just such a chance. The Father of Wind and Rain had provided it. He would not fail.

One dragon was dead. Now it was time to kill another. Not the sonЧnot yet. He could wait. But this one, with wings and talons and teeth like daggers, this one would die tonight.

The little rivulet of fire was still burning in the tunnel. He strode directly onto it, smashing the weak flames with his boots. In the defile he paused once more, listening for the dragon. The cries echoed through the tunnel, distorting his perception. The creature must be lured to the open sand so that all could watch it die.

Wing-wind blew suddenly at his back, startling him and dousing the makeshift torch. He dropped it at once and fumbled for an arrow, infuriated that his treacherous hands still shook in obedience to foolish terror. Commanding them to his mind's will and not his emotions, he nocked and drew and let fly at a darker darkness overhead.

A shriek of pain shattered the air, sent pebbles shivering down the canyon walls. He laughed aloud, all fear gone now, and ran to follow the sound. The Desert spread out before him, tents and cookfires dotting what had been a battlefield. To a man, his warriors cowered on their knees before the Devil Dragon whose single glance could rip their spirits out through their eyes. They would learn otherwise tonight.

The fires, hundreds of them, lit the dragon's pale gray underwings. He pulled the bowstring once more, missed, shot another arrow and yet another. Only a female, he realized with a pang of disappointment. But she would do, she would do. Favoring one wing, she circled, seek-

ing an updraft to carry her. He loosed another arrow. It found her hide next to the first, near the juncture of shoulder and rib, and she screamed again.