Circles of Seven Read Online Free

and lifted into the air as one. Bonnie used her own wings to help herself balance on Hartanna’s scaly back. As their flying forms again painted shadows on the ocean surface, Bonnie wondered what would greet her on the other side of this massive sea. Even the dragons had not seen the British coast in many years. Would they know how to avoid detection and how to find shelter? Their caves had likely been searched out dozens of times since they last flew these skies. Would they have homes at all?
    Bonnie hugged Hartanna’s protruding spine, keeping her head low to duck under the jet stream of cold, wet air. With her gloved fingers gripping the plate-like skin, she wondered what it must be like to be a full-fledged dragon. Surely her mother must have longed to return to her dragon’s domain. It wouldn’t be the same, though. The days of Arthur were long gone. The night Merlin changed her into the lovely Irene would stand as the last night she would know as a dragon princess. Her future as the chosen Queen of all dragons had been shaken by the slayers of old as they hunted dragons to near extinction. But in a single moment, a miraculous transformation from dragon to human had ended her plans, and those of the dragon race, forever.
    Bonnie had only recently learned that Hartanna was once betrothed to Clefspeare. They had begun a period of separation from each other to prepare for their eventual union. The transformation ended their dreams. They gave up a kingdom—one they realized would be short-lived—to become human. When they began sailing once again over familiar lands, would sad memories or regret come to mind? As they lay alone in separate caves, would they lament, wondering what might have been? Or would lying on a bejeweled bed in the splendor of a regeneracy dome heal their spiritual wounds as the bouncing light massaged away their regrets?
    After daydreaming for a while, Bonnie lifted her head into a stiff breeze. Now, instead of endless ocean, lights appeared in the distance. “Is that England?” she asked.
    “Yes,” Clefspeare replied. “If the stars have not changed significantly, that is the southwest peninsula. We will be at the rendezvous point soon.”
    The dim coastline slowly took shape, moving closer with each flap of Hartanna’s wings. The dragons were flying faster than before. Bonnie knew they had slowed their pace for her when she was flying solo, and now they seemed to rocket through the air like scaly eagles, rising in altitude as they approached the misty shore.
    A bank of clouds greeted them a few miles inland, and the dragons skimmed just above the puffy gray tops. Every once in a while Clefspeare dove below the bank to get a look at what lay below, searching for landmarks that would guide their way.
    “I can barely see the great tor on the horizon,” he finally announced, “so the hill underneath us is likely to be Camelot’s resting place. But there is a problem. I sense danger when I fly at the lower levels.”
    “I felt something, too,” Hartanna said. “Just a faint impression.” The scales on the she-dragon’s long neck caught the moon’s glowing disk, reflecting a dozen, fiery replicas. “Clefspeare,” she said, “Bonnie must fly with you to the meeting place. I will stay out of sight. If danger presents itself, I will be able to attack with stealth.”
    Clefspeare straightened his wings in a horizontal spread and slowly descended. “Very well. Keep watch and judge what you must do according to the Maker’s guidance.”
    Hartanna nodded. “May His light guide you.”
    Clefspeare’s body dipped below the cloud surface, his head still poking up. “Come child,” he said, before disappearing into the mist.
    Bonnie lifted her wings into the passing flow, filling out her leather-like canopies as she elevated inch by inch over Hartanna’s back. Now flying freely, Bonnie forced a confident smile, and with a quick good-bye wave dove headfirst into the cloudbank. As soon as