Read Online The Emerald Forge (Pilgrennon's Children) by Manda Benson - Free Book Online Page B

—it looked like a short plump man beneath the leather jacket — switched off the engine and kicked down a lever to prop up the bike before dismounting. Nothing of his face could be seen beneath his helmet, and he had his arm hooked through a second helmet. He began to walk towards the rhododendron bush. Surely he won’t look in here? Dana tensed and laid her hand on the wyvern’s flank, under the wing joint.
    The figure was bending over and reaching out to draw aside the leaves. He was going to look in the rhododendron. “Are you there?” said a familiar voice, and the visor snapped up to reveal the eyes of a boy, behind thick-framed glasses.
    “ Eric !” Dana was both relieved and annoyed. The wyvern’s head jerked up.
    “Is it all right?” Eric held out the helmet. “Here, you’d better put this on.”
    “I think so. Aren’t you too young to ride on a motorbike?”
    “It’s a moped. You’re supposed to be sixteen to ride it on the road.”
    “And how old are you?”
    “Fourteen. But the school’s private property, so it doesn’t count as a road.”
    “You must have driven it on the road to get here, unless you rode it on the pavement!”
    “Well, ya. But it’s not like I speed or ride like a prat or anything. If we’re going to go to the hospital, we’ll need transportation. The buses round here are rubbish.”
    Dana looked at the moped and thought about Jananin’s katana, and when she’d hijacked a police horse, and how Ivor had stolen a helicopter. It wasn’t like riding a moped was going to hurt anyone. The helmet was lined with padded material with a furry surface, like car upholstery. It pressed snugly against the sides of her face.
    “ Do you like Stratovarius?” Eric asked as she came out of the rhododendron.
    “Someone else gave it to me.” Dana realised he was commenting on the jacket. “Stratovarius are all right, though.”
    “Have you ridden pillion before?” Eric’s words were muffled through the helmet.
    “What? Oh, you mean on the back of a bike? No.”
    “OK. Just get on behind me and hang on to my jacket.”
    Dana climbed astride the moped behind Eric. She held onto the leather belt at the bottom of the jacket. “Do you know where the hospital is?”
    “I think so. I’ll go slowly up to the gate so you can get used to it. Put your feet up on the footrests.”
    Eric started the engine, and Dana watched the road go by through the visor. Eric turned right at the gates and began to accelerate. The moped felt unstable, and wind roared past her helmet. Not much of the road ahead was visible, as Eric’s shoulders were in the way. A car overtook them and the bike wobbled in its slipstream. Dana pressed her knees into the saddle.
    The hospital was busy, with ambulances passing back and forth from the main entrance to a depot near the entrance of the main building. Eric steered into the car park and parked the moped in an area with railings containing other bikes. Dana pulled her helmet off and handed it back to Eric. Up at the hospital entrance, two paramedics burst from the back of an ambulance. They pulled out a stretcher bearing a middle-aged woman with an oxygen mask over her face. Legs unfolded from under the stretcher to meet the tarmac as it left the vehicle. That must be how she had arrived the last time she had been here, she thought. She remembered nothing of the moments between the school lavatories and the arrival at the hospital, because Graeme said she’d had a fit and the paramedics had to sedate her to stop her from hurting herself.
    “Let’s hurry,” she said, and set off at a brisk pace.
    “Who is this bloke we’re looking for?” Eric asked.
    “His name’s Dr Osric. He’s some sort of a scientist.”
    Dana pushed open the door to the hospital reception. People were seated around the waiting room on plastic chairs, not unlike the ones in school. There was a woman behind the desk and two men, porters, in blue shifts, standing by the doors to the