Read Online Redheart (Leland Dragon Series) by Jackie Gamber - Free Book Online

has been rushing east to west, scaling down the mountainside with a message I cannot hear. My human ears try, but they cannot hear.”
    “But the stone—“
    “The message is for you, Kallon Redheart. Made for your ears.” Orman’s eyes opened. “I called for a dream to help me understand, and I dreamed of your mother’s linking stone. This stone.”
    Kallon poked a claw at the top of the crystal where it jutted up from Orman’s hands. “Where did you find it?”
    “In the boughs of a Dandria.”
    Kallon blinked. “A wishing tree? There have been no wishing trees in our woods since before I was born. Not since the Great Fire.”
    “There is one now.” Orman narrowed one eye, and craned his wobbly neck toward Kallon’s snout. “How long since you visited your parent’s graves?”
    His words were a fist to Kallon’s gut. Kallon winced.
    “If you had been recently, you would have found the tree for yourself. It grows wild and strong from your mother’s grave.”
    The emotions he’d fought to control threatened once more. How could he visit when the very thought of doing so shuddered his scales and wrenched itself like a spear through his ribs? He stared at the ground, unable to face Orman’s heavy gaze.
    “How it came to be in the boughs, I don’t know,” Orman continued. “Except to guess that it lay near the ground so long without being discovered that your mother took it upon herself to try to reclaim it. Only Dandrias grow so quickly, and so tall. The cord was wrapped around a fist of a branch, as though pushing it toward the sky for your mother to reach.”
    “Stop it!” Kallon snapped out his wings, unable to hear any more about his mother as though she were still alive, still thinking and feeling. “A tree grows where it will with no help from anyone. She is dead, Orman.” He thrust out his claw to snatch the stone from the wizard. “Send no more birds to me. Unless you intend me to snack.” With that, he plunged off the side of the mountain, swerved up and away, and left Orman and the memories far below.

Chapter Eleven
     
    Go take these mugs to Jaspar. He’s been complaining for a month we’ve got too many leakin’.” Rusic slid a basket of wooden cups into Riza’s arms.
    She bumped open the kitchen door with her backside, and carried the basket toward the bar. “Jaspar, I’ve got some new mugs.”
    Jaspar startled, and spun to face her. “Thanks. Just put ‘em there.”
    She squinched up an eye at the bartender. “What’s that behind your back?”
    “This? Oh, I was just testing one of the leaky ones.” He set a mug down hard, and ale sloshed onto his hand. “It seems fine after all.”
    “I don’t know about that. Looks like some ale leaked onto your mouth. You’ve got a little foam, just there.” She pointed toward his top lip.
    He scowled, and batted his thumb at it. “A man gets thirsty, ye know!”
    She grinned. “Well, now that you have new mugs, you ought to stop going through so much more ale than usual. Unless, of course, the keg starts giving you trouble.” She leaned toward the ale keg and poked at the spigot. “Looks sturdy, but you never can tell.”
    Jaspar snapped his bar rag at her. She squealed, and hopped back, just missing a sting to her thigh. “Haven’t ye got some potatoes to peel, or something?” he asked, but he was smiling.
    “Peeled and boiled,” said Rusic, as he squeezed his girth through the kitchen door. “Soup’s hot. And the whole kitchen’s gleamin’ like I haven’t seen since I bought the place.” He pointed at Riza. “How long ye been workin’ here now?”
    “A little over a week,” she said.
    “That so?” Rusic scratched his orange-red chin stubble. “Seems I haven’t seen ye leave the place. Not that I’m complaining, mind ye. Ye’ve worked harder ‘n I can afford to pay ye for.”
    “I like to stay busy. I don’t mind.”
    “Still. If ye don’t get out every now and again, the stale air poisons ye. Look