Read Online Dragon Spear by Jessica Day George - Free Book Online Page B

staples of an alchemist’s practice. The only extra ingredients he needed to transform a half dozen of our large, brightly hued friends into the small, dull, forest-blending enemy dragons were scales.
    “There are plenty of those,” Feniul said, and raised one foreclaw to his neck. “How many do you require?”
    “I’m afraid that I need scales from these brown and green dragons,” Leontes clarified. “In order to get the look right. We’ll have to sneak down off the mountain and get a few.”
    “How many?” Luka and I asked at the same time.
    “At least three, and from different dragons,” Leontes said. “So that our spies don’t all look precisely the same.”
    “All right,” I said. “We’ll wait until dark, and then someone can fly us down to the shore. Luka and I can scrounge up some scales and you can make the potion.”
    “It’s a paste,” Leontes corrected me. “Niva is the darkest, and might appear the closest in color to the dragons we’ve seen, if she stays in the shadow of the trees. Feniul’s green scales are rather . . . bright.”
    “I want to come, too,” Hagen said.
    “No.” I folded my arms. “Absolutely not.”
    “If you’re going, I’m going,” he insisted.
    “I’m used to this type of danger,” I began.
    “I’m older than you were when you fought in the First Dragon War,” Hagen interrupted.
    Leontes’s eyes twinkled as he broke in, stopping me from replying. “I could use some assistance in preparing the paste,” he told Hagen. “A pair of human hands would be welcome.”
    Hagen hesitated, torn between his desire to be included in what he no doubt saw as an adventure and helping an honest-to-Caxon alchemist prepare one of his secret recipes. “All right,” he said finally.
    “There are some hours still until dark,” Shardas said. “And my scales are even brighter than Feniul’s.” He heaved a sigh. “We should find a place to make camp where we can all be concealed.”
    In the end we located a small island a few leagues offshore, just large enough for our army to encamp. It was craggy enough that the dragons could hide in the crevices during the brightest parts of the day, and far enough from the mainland that Velika’s captors would have a hard time seeing us anyway.
    Still, Shardas ordered everyone to avoid flying or flaming unless completely necessary, and for as many as possible of us to stay on the seaward side of the island. It was not a luxurious spot, but it would have to do.
    “I’m not expecting to be here long,” Shardas said as I settled on a rock to work on my wedding gown until nightfall. Luka had obligingly gone to fish with Amacarin so that he wouldn’t see it. “We’ll find Velika in the next day or so, get her out, and go home.”
    My only answer was a nod. Seeing this vast country, so thickly covered by forests and mountains, I didn’t know how we could possibly succeed. Velika could be anywhere, and she was so near to laying her eggs that I had a constant knot in my stomach over that alone.
    A sudden roaring distracted me from my grim thoughts, and I stuffed my gown into the basket and jumped to my feet. The dragons were all supposed to stay quiet, but I could discern more than one voice crying out. Shardas was just rising into the air to go toward the sound—which seemed to come from the other side of the island—when the water in front of us fountained upward.
    I shielded my face against the spray, and when I could look I saw Niva floating in the water, looking triumphant. She had the draglines of a fishing net in her foreclaws, and tangled within the net was a small, gray dragon with only one pair of horns, like a cow.
    A rebel.
    “It seems that Luka and Creel will not need to go for-aging for scales tonight after all,” she said, preening. “True, we will look somewhat the same, but . . .”
    “But it is a small price to pay,” Shardas agreed, his eyes gleaming, “to avoid endangering ourselves. And, we will be