Read Online In the Time of Dragon Moon by Janet Lee Carey - Free Book Online

size of a coin.
    â€œI nearly burned Desmond tonight over that,” he said, looking down at his scaly arm. “Not my scales, but my sister’s. He insulted Tabitha. He called her neck scales repulsive in the middle of the feast, loud enough for everyone to hear. She ran from the table in tears.” He swiped a hand through his hair, a swift, hard pass as a man skins an animal with a sharp blade. “He’s the same callous bastard he’s always been.”
    I tasted the words
callous bastard,
liking the sound. The callous bastard had shed the blood of my people, the callous bastard whipped me and my father, the callous bastard slobbered on my neck, reached up the front of my dress.
    Jackrun was on the move again, this time walking to the shore. Water hissed up to our feet, touched his boots and my bare toes. I pointed across the sea at the dragon flying under the stars, black as a torn piece of night. It might be Jackrun’s dragon, Babak, or Lord Kahlil. Too far away to tell. Dragons combine earth, wind, and fire in their bodies. They have a power like the sun. Jackrun had this same life force in him.
    â€œYou are the only one who can do what they do with fire.”
    Jackrun’s mouth tightened. He hooked his thumb around the jeweled dagger at his belt.
    â€œYou don’t understand. It’s dangerous. I’m dangerous.”
    â€œYou didn’t harm Prince Desmond tonight,” I said. “You ran outside before you burned him.”
    â€œHe deserved to burn.” His body was rigid. He glared down at me. I kept his gaze.
    â€œYes. He does.”
Had I spoken the words out loud?
For a moment his fire had released me.
    â€œUma Quarteney.” Jackrun’s gaze softened. Then he crouched to fill his hands with seawater and rinse his face. Water ran down his cheeks and chin, his wrists and arm scales. He looked calmer when he stood again. “You remind me of someone,” he said. “Someone I lost years ago.”
    I waited for him to explain, taking in his thoughtful mouth, the weight of sorrow around it. But he never told me who he was thinking of. We circled the beach, gathering firewood. Jackrun broke a longer branch across his knee with a loud crack.
    â€œYou still haven’t given me an answer, Uma.”
    I paused, cradling my driftwood. Time in the water had made the wood’s surface smooth as skin. What would Jackrun’s scales feel like? Thick and leathery? Rough as bark? “I’ll keep what I saw to myself if you will do something for me.”
    He gave a wary sigh as he faced me. “Of course there is a price. What is it?”
    â€œI need the key to my tower room. The servant would not let me have it.”
    Jackrun’s shoulders eased. He stepped closer, stretching his hand over mine a moment like a hovering bird, then took my branches and added them to his stack to carry for me.
    â€œKey it is,” he said.

Chapter Eight
    Pendragon Summer Castle, Dragon’s Keep
    Egret Moon
    August 1210
    J ACKRUN ’ S MOTHER , THE duchess Tess Pendragon, waylaid us in the castle hall, parting us as soon as we came in as a tiny island parts a river. She asked Jackrun to step into the family presence chamber with her and called a servant to carry my firewood upstairs. As soon as the gangly boy stacked the wood and left the tower, I shoved the wardrobe in front of the door—one way to keep Prince Desmond out until I had the key—then opened the windows and cleaned the room by torchlight, chasing dust and shadows until I sat alone exhausted on the bed.
    The ropes below the straw mattress creaked under my weight. I knew I should rise, set out the four sacred elements, offer myself to Creator, and pray to the Holy Ones. Father would have done that, grateful to arrive safely on a new island without accident or injury. But I was too tired. I felt a strange rocking motion in my body as if I were still aboard the ship. I decided to rest