Read Online The Dragon's Prize by Sophie Park - Free Book Online Page A

so normal.  The ash and rubble from the dragon’s attack had been cleared, the courtyard swept, so the only remaining evidence of the morning’s events was some broken masonry high up on the keep’s wall.
    The two women took a nostalgic look around the bailey one more time before Sandra urged Lightning forward and through the castle gate.  Mira made a noise of surprise, but managed to stay on as Annie followed.  Sandra looked back to make sure Mira was okay and noticed that Annie was listing from side to side and stopping occasionally so she had to hurry to catch up to Lightning.
    “Mira?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Don’t grip her so tight.  She doesn’t like it.”
    “I… oh.”  Mira looked sheepish.
    Annie immediately perked up when the pressure was lifted and she understood what she was supposed to do again.  The horse stepped a few paces closer to Lightning, then happily trailed him, keeping up with his longer gait with no problem.  It helped that she didn’t have hundreds of extra pounds of armor to carry like he did.
    The castle sat on the top of a small hill at the edge of a river.  The Riprock mountains lay two weeks’ travel to the west, one ferry journey and a long wilderness trek away.  The road from the castle proper into the capital wound down the side of the hill, switching back and forth to keep the grade reasonable for cart traffic, before reaching the sprawling slums and warehouses of the dock district.  A cluster of noble estates and villas clung to the edges of the road, where they would obscure most of the women’s view, but from up here they could see the entire city spread out before them.
    “This is what we’re trying to save…”  Mira’s eyes were misting up at the edges.
    “Gives you some perspective…”
    “Can the queen really raise a hundred thousand gold if we fail?”
    “I don’t know.”  Sandra shrugged.  She wasn’t an accountant, and on a guard’s salary she’d barely ever had more than ten gold to rub together at a time.  “It seems impossible, but I guess she can take out loans from other kingdoms.  Maybe she just has it lying around in the treasury?”
    “Maybe…”
    “Don’t worry.  If we fail, we won’t be around to worry about the financial situation of the kingdom.”
    “Comforting.”
    “Wasn’t it?  I’m here to help.  I’m a helper.”
    “You sure are.”
    Sandra gave Lightning a nudge forward and he started walking down the road.  They would reach the ferry in less than an hour, and once they were across the river their journey would really begin.  The eastern half of the kingdom was well-populated: filled with industry, farms and villages.  The western half was a dark, impenetrable forest pierced by only a few roads and populated by only a few intrepid logging towns.  There were too many creatures in the west for civilization to make a real dent on its wild darkness: goblins, orcs, owlbears, trolls and worse.  Dragons.
    Sandra and Mira were not prepared for the welcome they received as they turned the first switchback into a square surrounded by massive villas.  The crowd was mostly obscured by the bulk of the estates so that Sandra didn’t see it until she and Mira were almost upon it.
    When they appeared, the crowd lit up with wild cheering.  People threw handkerchiefs, flowers and other favors.  Women held children high so that they could see Sandra better, and people were climbing all over the exteriors of the estates to get a better view.
    Sandra looked back at Mira, who had a patently panicked expression at the site of so may people making so much noise.
    “My fellow citizens!”  Sandra raised her voice and shouted over the crowd.  People quieted enough that she could be heard.  “I promise we will find and destroy this foul beast!”
    Sandra drew one of her many swords and held it high in the air.  With a subtle nudge of her knees, Lightning reared back in the air and kicked with his hooves, whinnying defiance