Dragon Tears Read Online Free Page B

great!”
    Larkin followed Redwing to the edge of the council area. A sharp cliff fell one hundred feet below them. They were surrounded by other dragonets that were practicing their take-offs and landings.
    “Now watch me,” Redwing said.
    She spread her wings, each scale on her body glowing like a finely cut ruby in the early morning sun. The young dragon then crouched into a squat, bunching up her body like a tightly coiled spring. “See how low to the ground I am?” she asked, turning her head toward Larkin.
    “Yes.”
    “That’s so you can use your legs to help you push off.”
    “I see.”
    “When you are as low as you can go, you then push your legs as hard as you can against the ground and jump up as high as you can.”
    “Okay.”
    “At the same time you jump, you push your wings down and then up very quickly.” She demonstrated the technique and was instantly airborne. Redwing circled once around the council area, and then performed a neat landing next to Larkin.
    “Okay, now you try.”
    Larkin’s forked tongue snaked out between his jaws. He licked his upper snout as he considered her challenge. Gathering up his courage, he finally said, “Okay.”
    “Remember to scrunch down as low as you can.”
    He did.
    “Good, now spread your wings.”
    He did that too.
    “Excellent. Now push down, jump and flap all at the same time.”
    A thrill of amazement turned his yellow eyes gold in the morning sun as Larkin found himself in the air.
    “Wow,” he hollered down to Redwing. “That was terrific.”
    “Come back down here, and we’ll try it again,” she yelled back at him.
    His landing was his usual bump and scrape, but Redwing ignored it. They practiced take-offs until the ruby dragon finally said, “Okay, now I’ll teach you to soar.”
    ∞
    Wizard Allard stood in the center of the cabin’s front room. Patrik waited well out of the way behind a chair piled high with scrolls and parchments. Outside, the sun was just beginning to rise. Inside, Rat looked up from her bowl of milk and growled at the magician showing her displeasure at his leaving.
    Allard raised his arms and began his incantation. He moved in rhythm to his words, his robes waving back and forth like laundry drying in a stiff breeze. When his voice went up, so did his arms, and when his voice dropped to a whisper, his arms fell to his sides. He moved round and around in a circle that only he could see. Slowly going around the outside of the invisible circle, he gathered the magic energies he needed to transport himself to the royal city.
    The gathered magical energies raised the hair on the back of Patrik’s neck. It felt like the air before a lightning storm, full of power waiting to be released. Knowing what was going to happen next, he grabbed hold of the chair, his hands turning white as he clung to it with all his strength. An invisible wind sucked at him, pulling him and the chair toward the wizard. The scrolls and parchments whirled around the wizard’s feet like leaves in a whirlwind. Patrik reached for the doorframe and clung to it as the chair began skittering toward the magician.
    A ball of light grew, shimmering and lighting up the whole room. Patrik raised a hand to cover his eyes as the brightness grew stronger and stronger. Even though he had been through this before, he feared getting pulled into the wizard’s spell. His fingers began to slip and his clothes felt as if they were being ripped off his body. The light flared more brilliant than the noonday sun and disappeared, taking the wizard with it.
    ∞
    Larkin flapped like a duck trying to land, only the little dragon wasn’t trying to land, he was trying to stay afloat. Redwing flew at his side, her wings spread wide, gliding with ease on the morning breeze.
    “Turn your head into the wind,” she called, “and feel which way it’s coming from.”
    He lifted his snout up and down, trying to follow her instructions.
    “Do you feel it?” she asked.
    “I