Excerpt from THE DRAGON PRINCE
by Vicki Blum
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Ember awoke to the flicker of fire on black, pitted walls and the spicy odor of human food bubbling in a pot. She gazed lazily around through half-closed lids at what could only be a dragon’s lair — bare as wind-bleached bones but for a pile of tuff-grass in one corner and a clutter of odd but possibly useful objects in another. That dragons hoarded gold and gems plundered from wealthy humans was a story as old and many-layered as a heap of discarded skins. Most dragons saw the wrong in stealing, and those who didn’t only took what could be eaten or put to some use. Of course, there were exceptions to every rule and it was from these rare exceptions that the tales had been sprung.
Ember lifted her lids a little higher and was immediately sorry. Her head began pounding with the intensity of waves breaking on rock, and her bleary eyes tried to focus on a scene that didn’t make sense. It wasn’t likely, in the world she knew, for dragons and humans to be found within the same set of cave walls. Quickly she closed her eyes and willed her churning stomach to settle.
The brief glimpse, which could not be trusted, had shown her Brand resting in one corner (to be expected), the human child sleeping (not surprising), an extremely old black dragon (doubtful), and three ugly humans with furry faces (impossible). She collected her thoughts and tried to imagine fields of grassy green, teeming with meadow mice too fat to run.
“You might as well open them,” said Brand’s mocking voice, breaking into her thoughts. “You saw right the first time.”
She almost shrieked when the scene refocused. All three humans had moved nearer and were clustered about her head, peering down. They were even uglier up close.
She sucked in air and lurched to her feet. These weren’t children like the boy she had just saved, but dangerous, full-grown men. Instinctively the heat rose in her throat and her chest tightened for the blast. The humans scuttled like rats to the shadows.
“Wait!” came a rumbling protest. It swept the thoughts from Ember’s muddled brain like the helpless tumbling of leaves before a storm. Her eyes met those of the great old dragon and were trapped in his fiery golden gaze.
“Those aren’t your enemies, young one,” he bellowed, “but humans who share my mountain home. They are my friends, and yours as well, if you’ll only give them the chance. Take care not to offend.”
From The Dragon Prince. Copyright © 2005 by Vicki Blum.
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