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

that seemed almost inspired.
    â€œYou can’t have her,” she shouted to the ceiling.“She’s mine!”
    â€œWhat has happened?” asked Lady Olivia, stepping back, afraid now to come near her.
    â€œAnother memory,” I guessed. “The medicine hasn’t taken hold yet.”
    The queen screamed, “Get away from my witch pyre, dragon!” She raised her leg as if mounting a horse, and rode off in her mind, her body jiggling up and down in an imagined gallop. “Bring back that witch. Witches have to burn! Tanya has to burn! Riders, go after that thief of a dragon and bring the witch back to me!”
    The queen’s body tottered and I was afraid she would fall. “Help me with her,” I said.
    Lady Olivia moaned and crumpled to the queen’s bed, gathering the blankets to herself and hiding her face in them. I’d never seen her so affected by the queen’s distress.
    â€œYour Majesty,” I said, speaking softly. “This is only a dream.” My eyes were drawn to a painting on the bedside wall of a dragon breathing fire as he flew over the trees. If this painting brought on Her Majesty’s current nightmare . . . I took it down and turned it to face the wall.
    â€œBring Tanya back, you thief!” the queen cried.
    I inched up to her right side, put my arms about her, and held her. Until at last her body quieted to a series of trembles so strong I felt the quaking in my own.
    She cried a little. “Where is—?” She shuddered, turning her head to me. “I am so tired, Uma,” she whispered.
    She gripped my double-belted waist as I led her back toward her bed.
    Lady Olivia still hugged the blankets, shaking. It took some coaxing on my part to get her to release them. “I am sorry, Uma,” she said, her breath catching as we tucked Her Majesty in. “I . . .” She looked like a stunned woman pulled out of the wreckage.
    â€œIt’s all right. You were overcome.” I felt the same, but I did not say so. The Adan was never shaken. He was reserved, proud. The queen relied on me to treat her as competently as my father would. It unnerved me to be so undone.
    â€œI’m thirsty,” the queen said, sitting up. “What are you doing here, Uma?” she asked as Lady Olivia fetched her cup.
    â€œYou were having trouble sleeping, Your Majesty.”
    â€œI see,” she said, yawning. “Well, I can sleep now.” She drank to the dregs and lay down again, her dark hair spreading out like wet seaweed around her head.
    We watched her eyes close, her face serene now in the candlelight.
    Lady Olivia sighed and glanced up. “It is over, I think. Thank you, Uma.”
    â€œWe both worked together.”
    She shook her head. “It was you and your potent medicine put her back to sleep,” she whispered.
    â€œMy father’s medicine.”
    â€œYou must learn to take a compliment, Uma. He is not here. You are the one who serves Her Majesty now.”
    And I’m the one she will burn if I fail,
I thought, looking down at the queen. The queen’s eyelids fluttered, pale as moths. I remembered Father’s warning:
If we both die here, who will free our tribe?
Already the Adan was in the grave. Did I have the skills to give Her Highness the child she wanted? What if the elders back home were right? What if a woman did not have the ability to become a true healer? I didn’t move, sat poised as rock hoping Lady Olivia could not read my fear as I broke into a cold sweat.

Chapter Nine
    Pendragon Summer Castle, Dragon’s Keep
    Egret Moon
    August 1210
    T HE QUEEN WAS in the walled garden the next morning, playing ball with a little curly dark-haired boy of two or three, and her lapdog, Pippin. I came up to Lady Olivia as the boy raced after the red ball, squealing, “Mine!” Pippin reached it first and caught it in his mouth, his tail wagging