Read Online Master of Dragons by Margaret Weis - Free Book Online Page B

and bad-tempered, and Lysira usually found him intensely
annoying. Now her heart warmed toward him. She cast the elder male a glance of
gratitude that brought beautiful memories of youth to the old dragon’s mind,
momentarily causing him to forget what he’d been talking about. He recalled
soon enough, however.
    “He is late again,”
Malfiesto continued. “I say we issue a formal reprimand—”
    “I am not sure
where Draconas is,” said Anora, and this was true enough. “I did not inform him
of the meeting. I do not want him here.”
    The assembled
dragons went silent, their colors quivering. Lysira felt her own colors go
bounding off the walls of the cavern, and she had to seize them and keep fast
hold of them, not to betray her feelings of fear and disappointment to the
others.
    “He hasn’t got
himself killed, has he?” asked Litard, a male dragon, in casual tones.
    “No,” Anora
answered. “I do not believe he is dead.”
    Lysira’s relief
was heartfelt, if short-lived.
    “I believe that he
has gone rogue. Silence!” Anora blared, her colors red and blazing. “Silence,
all of you, and listen to me. We don’t have much time and there is a great deal
that needs to be decided. Not since the Dragon Wars have we faced such a
crisis. Our lives and, what is more important, the lives of our young”—here she
looked again at Lysira, with that inexplicable sadness—”are in the most dire
peril.”
    She had their
attention, now. Their complete attention. Litard, for once, ceased grooming his
flashy green scales and exclaimed loudly in astonishment. Mantas, his colors
murky as always, was silent, unmoving, waiting for events to unfold. Jinat, who
always seemed to bear some unknown sorrow, nodded gloomily as though he’d
foreseen this all along. Arat grinned. He disliked humans and he disliked
Draconas. Malfiesto’s eyes narrowed.
    Draconas came from
the noble house ruled by Malfiesto, though you could not have told it, given
that the elder dragon was never pleased by anything Draconas did. Lysira saw
that Malfiesto was more concerned by this news than he let on. He didn’t roar
or rage, as she might have expected. He had gone extremely still and quiet.
    The seven other
rulers of the noble houses were females. Dyx-tra the Silver was near the age of
Anora and Maristara. Dyxtra had known both dragons in their youth and,
according to her, had not been shocked by Maristara’s actions in seizing and
enslaving a nation of humans. Dyxtra had never seen the need for a walker and
always refused to take part in the spell-casting that created the supreme
illusion. She snorted, as though this was only to be expected.
    Reyal was a
middle-aged dragon who, far different from most dragons, thought very highly of
her powers of creativity and conversation, and was always inflicting her dreams
on others. She did not like humans either, having once caught a human intruder
in her cave once when her children were still in the egg, as the saying went.
The human had never come near the baby dragons, but Reyal had been outraged and
to this day would go on and on about it, if encouraged.
    Alisha was also
middle-aged, but far different from Reyal, being serious, grave, introspective.
Alisha never spoke during a session, never demanded the Speaker’s Rod, never
asked a question. She listened intently and took in everything, giving no
indication of her thoughts.
    Nionan liked
humans. She had wanted to be a walker in her youth, but had not been chosen,
and it was rumored, though no one knew for certain, that she used her illusions
to lure humans to her cave for the pleasure of observing them. She was, like
Malfiesto, regarding Anora with grim suspicion.
    The last of the
rulers, Shrireth, looked half asleep. But then, she always looked that way. She
was said to have a violent temper, though Lysira found that hard to credit.
    “All of you know
that the rogue dragon, Maristara, seized the human kingdom of Seth many hundred
years ago,”