Dragonfire Read Online Free

Dragonfire
Book: Dragonfire Read Online Free
Author: Karleen Bradford
Pages:
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Protector appeared. He beckoned to Dahl and Catryn.
    “Now. Come in.”
    They followed him. The brightness became a soft, pervasive light. The Protector had spread his cloak over the earthen floor almost at the back of the cave. Beyond them a dark pool of water glittered.
    “Sit there,” he said.
    Dahl and Catryn sank down. The Protector dipped gourds into the pool and filled them. He gave one each to Dahl and Catryn, then filled one for himself and sat down beside them. Dahl sipped, then drank in long, thirsty gulps. The water was cold enough to cause pain. There was a sharp purity to it Dahl had never tasted before.
    When they had slaked their thirst, Dahl lay back. Now that it had finally happened—the summoninghe had been waiting for all his life—he was too dazed and stunned to take it in. All he wanted to do at this moment was rest. His mind refused to go beyond that.
    The Protector also relaxed, his shoulders against the cavern wall. Not so Catryn. The water and the rest seemed to have revived her. She leaned forward, her body tense, like a cat about to spring.
    “Now,” she said. “Now, may I have an explanation? I have been half torn apart by being pulled into the most menacing and unpleasant place I have ever seen. I have been dragged up a mountainside until I am dying with weariness, and I am starving. Could one of you please tell me what is going on? What are we doing here, and where are we going?”
    “It is not for you to question,” the Protector answered. “May I remind you, you brought this all on yourself? You are a nuisance to us here, and we owe you nothing. Not even explanations.”
    Dahl made as if to speak, but Catryn forestalled him.
    “And may I remind you that it was I who saved Dahl from that terrible man at the inn? While you were away doing whatever dog thing you felt you had to do, it was I who hid him!”
    “Like a small cat, you are,” the Protector said. “A quarrelsome little cat.” Tiredness colored his voice. He folded his arms tightly across his chest and seemed to draw into himself. For the first time,Dahl wondered how much the crossing and day’s journey had cost him. “You are in Taun. This is Dahl’s true world.”
    “Dahl’s true world?” She faltered. Her eyes slid quickly around her, then fastened back onto the Protector. “We are no longer in our own world ?”
    “We are no longer in your world,” the Protector answered.
    Catryn crossed her arms and hugged herself tightly, as if for protection. Her eyes darted to the dark recesses of the cave again. “I half suspected…but I could not believe…” She drew a deep breath. “If that is true…” She made an effort to steady her voice. “How…how then did Dahl come to my world? Why did he come?”
    “Questions you do not need the answers to. It is not your business.”
    She bridled. Some of her old fire returned. “I am here, am I not? In Dahl’s world, not my own. It would seem to me very much my business.”
    The Protector closed his eyes. “I must rest now,” he said. “You would do well to rest, too, while you can. We have a long way to go.”
    “Where…?”
    Dahl caught at her arm. “Leave him,” he said. “He is right. We must sleep.”
    “But why are we here, Dahl? Why are you here? Surely, I have a right to know at least that?”
    “Because…” Dahl paused. He looked at Catryn.“Because I am the King of Taun,” he said.
    The words echoed and then lost themselves in the cavern. For once, Catryn seemed speechless. Then she managed a small whisper.
    “King? You are a king ?”
    Dahl pulled himself to a sitting position, then forced himself to his feet. His fingers rubbed absently at a pebble he had picked up off the hard-packed earthen floor. He stared down into the depths of the pool. His reflection stared back at him, dark and distorted. Then, for just a moment, it was as if the eyes looking up at him were not his own. A window was opened into another mind—a mind that was the
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