Read Online The Dragon of Trelian by Michelle Knudsen - Free Book Online Page A

whatever had tripped him. After a second he saw it. Stupid rock.
    Meg was smirking at him again. “You might want to try walking with your eyes open,” she suggested innocently. “Sometimes that can help.”
    Calen just looked at her until she turned away, laughing. He shook his head. She certainly did seem to find him amusing. But somehow it didn’t bother him so much today.
    They had come to the outer line of trees. The grassy field gave way to forest floor. Calen tried to keep an eye on his feet, not wanting to give any rocks or bulging tree roots a chance to trip him. Meg seemed a lot quieter than she’d been yesterday. Maybe she was just thinking about her secret. He hoped that was it, and not that she was getting bored with him already.
    “How was the big dinner last night?” he asked her.
    “Hmm? Oh, it was wonderful,” she said. “Prince Ryant seems almost as perfect as Maerlie’s made him out to be, and I think everyone had a good time.”
    “Did you talk to anyone interesting? Like that guard with the scar?”
    “Jorn? No, I didn’t get to talk to him. But I sat next to one of the other guards, Richton. I think you’d like him — he told great stories. He had all of us caught up in tales most of the evening. And I met the son of King Ryllin’s chief advisor. His name is Wilem.” She stopped and looked as if she were deciding what to say next. Then she suddenly looked startled and grabbed his arm. “Oh, and I can’t believe I almost forgot — I also sat next to Serek!”
    “What? He was there?”
    She nodded. “He sat next to me after having a mysterious private word with my parents, which unfortunately I wasn’t close enough to overhear. I didn’t even realize he’d be at the feast until I saw him come in.”
    “Me neither,” Calen said. “I mean, I knew he went off to talk to your parents, but not that he’d be staying for the dinner.”
    “Do you know why he wanted to talk to them? They didn’t say a word to us about it.”
    “Yes,” Calen began, then stopped, suddenly feeling like an idiot again. He’d been so preoccupied with his anger at Serek’s dismissal of his abilities that somehow he hadn’t given further thought to what his reading of the cards had already suggested. Even with Serek’s refusal to explain anything to him, it was obvious that bad things were involved. Bad things that were going to be happening to Trelian. And of course Meg would want to know that. He should have thought to tell her right away. Except — he didn’t know what to tell her, exactly. That terrible yet vague dangers were on their way — look out?
    Something in his face must have reflected his thoughts. Meg stopped walking, her eyes wide and concerned.
    “Well, what? What is it, Calen?”
    He shook his head. “I don’t really know.”
    She poked a finger at him angrily. “Don’t do that,” she said. “You do too know, and you’re going to tell me.” She poked him again, harder. “Right now.”
    Calen rubbed his chest. Did she always have to be so violent? “No, you don’t understand. I want to tell you, it’s just that it’s — it’s complicated.”
    Meg folded her arms across her chest and stood there, staring at him. He sighed. Then he explained about the cards, and the reading, and how Serek refused to tell him anything more about it.
    “So even I can see it’s about something bad,” he said finally. “But I just don’t know what.” He thought back to the card with the grinning skull, and shuddered.
    They started walking again. “Well, I can’t pretend I’m not concerned,” Meg said after a minute, “but I think it’s too soon to get too upset over this. For one thing, you don’t know for certain what the cards meant.” She looked up at him apologetically. “I mean, you are just starting with divination — you said it yourself.”
    He shrugged. “Well, yeah, that’s true.”
    “For another, it sounds like some of the bad images you saw were balanced out