The Princess's Dragon Read Online Free Page B

Sondra couldn’t help laughing out loud at the exaggerated relief on his face as they turned, he taking her other hand, and they again swept down the line of dancers. The pain in her stomach eased and a new feeling replaced it as she looked up into the face of the man she adored. One thing she recognized was that she was finally starting to enjoy herself, bantering with a long-time friend who knew the girl behind the mask and still seemed to like her.

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    CHAPTER 3
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    Fourteen cycles after the annual summer party, Sondra struggled with her sketch of an Asterix lily, the logical-looking diagram failing to capture the beauty of the gently curling petals, or the unique brindled coloration within the center of the snowy fl ower. Her lady’s maid, Liliana, and her escort guard suff ered other concerns, their eyes drawn to the boiling, charcoal-colored storm front and the curtain of rain that rolled over the mountains in the north, specifi cally the dreaded Th under Mountain.
    While the afternoon sun still shone brightly upon the three of them and their increasingly nervous horses in the wind-whipped meadow, the crack of thunder grew ever closer as the front advanced with terrifying speed. Th ough they were
    not far from the castle walls, the closest shelter from the storm lay within the Woods, a place neither the guard nor the maid intended to brave no matter what threatened them. Th
    ey would rather chance being struck by skyfi re than risk encountering the shadowy denizens of that haunted place.
    A fierce wind snapped Sondra’s page and her pen stuttered across the parchment, leaving ugly blots of ink behind. Frustrated, she stuffed the mess back into her workbox and stood, shaking out her skirts, only then noticing the advancing storm. She stopped for a moment, awed as always by the power and beauty of the deadly storm, a primal excitement uncurling deep within her. Someday she planned to travel to the north and solve the mystery of why the most ferocious storms always rolled down from that direction. For the moment she simply drank in the sight of the clouds creeping forward like a hunting predator waiting to break upon the unsuspecting valley with all the ferocity of a wild beast.
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    The neighing of her horse interrupted her meditation and she turned to find her guard struggling to hold on to all three mounts as they danced skittishly. Liliana stood huddled and miserable, casting frightened looks north, and Sondra sighed. She hated always requiring an escort. Had she been alone, she would far prefer finding a place where she could watch the storm break over her to experience a touch of its rage before seeking shelter, but she couldn’t penalize her keepers who’d committed no sin greater than seeking gainful employment at the castle, and suffered her as punishment.
    She turned to the horses as Liliana grabbed gratefully for the workbox to follow her, but as usual the girl couldn’t lift the heavy box and the guard still struggled with the rearing horses. Self-consciously Sondra returned, easily hoisted the box with one hand, and strode back to the horses to strap it to her mount. She knew her strength surprised people since it better suited a peasant wife laboring in the field than a delicate princess, so she went to great lengths to avoid revealing it. However, when it came to her workbox, she had little choice. Outside of her study chamber, it was the container for all of her sketches, specimen jars, and tools for logical research.
    They mounted up and raced back to the castle just before the storm broke over the meadow, ripping the head off the Asterix lily in its rage.
    Sondra rushed into the castle after handing off her horse to the stable boy and shook the rain off her coatdress and out of her riding hat. Her sister and brother intercepted her the moment she entered the great hall flanked by stairs to both residential wings of the castle. They had been waiting