Read Online Dragon's Egg by Sarah L. Thomson - Free Book Online Page B

were in this man’s power. But even if they could somehow manage to escape, it would be too late. The Egg would be dead.
    Roger looked apologetically at Mella. I tried, his eyes said.
    After dropping Roger’s woolen cloak across the boy’s lap, Alain went back to his wagon. With his own cloak and two blankets, he made himself a comfortable bed near the fire. He set the box with the Egg next to him, and beside it he laid a sword in its sheath, ready to his hand. “I sleep lightly,” he warned them. “If you’re wise, you’ll try to get some sleep yourselves. We’ve a long journey tomorrow to a place where I can stow you safely before I begin my bargaining.”
    For a time, Mella thought she could see glints of light from his half-open eyes. But finally she dared to believe that he was actually asleep.
    â€œWhat will we do?” she whispered at Roger.
    â€œI don’t know.” He was back to working on the knots with his teeth. “He won’t kill us, at any rate.”
    â€œBut the Egg—it’ll get cold!”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œWell, then?”
    â€œWell, what?”
    â€œWe have to—I don’t know—we have to do something !”
    â€œWhat, exactly, do you think we should do?” Roger asked patiently.
    Mella found his calmness too exasperating to bear. “It’s not my fault we’re here,” she hissed angrily.
    â€œSo it’s mine?”
    â€œ My father’s not the rich one! No one would hold me for ransom. And it’s all very fine for you to say he won’t kill us. You mean he won’t kill you. ”
    Roger didn’t speak. Mella felt a little ashamed of her temper, until she realized that the reason Roger had not answered was because he was not listening. Instead, he was staring at something over her shoulder.
    â€œWhat’s—” He swallowed. “What’s that?”
    Mella turned to look.

Chapter Nine
    E yes. There were eyes in the tangled darkness between the trees, yellow spots of light a foot or so off the ground. They shifted and blinked and seemed to be creeping closer.
    Dragons. Wild dragons.
    One, bolder than the rest, was slinking quietly across the grass. Long neck stretched out, belly close to the ground, it crept toward the fire where Alain was sleeping.
    â€œIs it going to…eat him?” Roger whispered, horrified.
    â€œIt’s the Egg,” Mella whispered back. “They want the Egg.”
    The dragon stopped. It sniffed around the boxholding the Egg and backed cautiously away from the fire, settling down in the grass with its nose toward the Egg.
    Something brushed against Mella’s side. She jumped, stifling a yelp that surely would have awakened Alain. A small brown dragon, a female, crept out from under the cart. It bared its fangs at Roger, who squirmed as far away as his bonds would allow.
    â€œHush,” Mella breathed, hoping to soothe the creature. “Hush, all’s well….” Which it wasn’t. More dragons were creeping in from the trees, closer to the fire and the Egg. If Alain slept as lightly as he claimed, any minute now the soft sighs and hissing, the rustle of clawed feet and long tails through grass and fallen leaves, might awaken him. And then? Mella couldn’t imagine.
    The little dragon beside Mella was quivering with urgency, her whole body pointing toward the Egg like a hunting dog on a scent. Without thinking, Mella put her bound hands out to scratch behind the dragon’s ears, exactly as she wouldhave done to one of her own herd. And she thought of an idea.
    She laid her fingers against the dragon’s neck and tried to make her mind very quiet and still.
    Help, she thought. Help me.
    Nothing. Or did the dragon press a bit closer to Mella’s side?
    Help me, Mella urged.
    Was she imagining it, or did she sense something of the dragon’s mind? It wasn’t as clear as a word or a thought. But