Dragon's Heart Read Online Free Page A

Jakkin thought, "
as longingly as a dragon can look.
"
    Akki sent a bright orange warning. "
No more sendings, not when we're close enough to speak. We might make people suspicious
." The color was flame-shaped. "
You look different when you're sending to me. Your eyes get all squinty and you stare at me with great concentration. I bet I do the same
."
    Jakkin nodded. He tried not to stare, hoping that it looked as if he were simply agreeing to take the hatchling, which he was. But he was also nodding to Akki about the sendings. Not that Golden, Kkarina, Likkarn, and the rest of them could know that. After all, they couldn't hear the sendings or see the colors. "Yes," Jakkin said aloud. "
No more sendings
," he added in a sending, looking away so he didn't stare at Akki. "
Not this close.
"
    Golden took Jakkin and Akki by the arms and pulled them aside, giving them a hug. "Better to say too little than too much until I've figured out the ramifications of your rescue."
    "Ramifications?" Jakkin asked.
    "To us or to you?" Akki added.
    "To Austar, of course," Golden said. Then he stepped back from them and waved his hands vaguely, as if he were campaigning for something.
    Kkarina turned to Golden. "You'll be staying to dinner, of course?" She twinkled at him.
    He smiled regretfully. "You're my favorite cook, Kay, but I've too much work back in the city. There's a senate race going on in The Rokk. I've got competition this time." He turned and ran back up the steps to the copter.
    "Flatterer," Kkarina called back, and then Golden was gone, through the copter door, and moments later, the rotors started up. Kkarina turned to Akki and enveloped her again, as if determined to shelter Akki from the sand and grit the copter was throwing around, as if she could shelter her from the world.
    Over Akki's head, Kkarina said to Jakkin, "Tell us what you want. What you need. You must be exhausted. A year! A year! And now you're home, where you belong. Who would believe it?" She began to sniffle loudly, as she led Akki away into the bondhouse.
    The door snicked shut behind them.

2
    AKKI FOLLOWED the chattering Kkarina as if she didn't know the way. Kkarina was a gossip, though there was nothing mean about her. She just liked to talk. And talk. And talk. Akki was too tired to talk back, tired from the last weeks in the trog caves, from their escape through the cold underground river, the copter ride. And from the arrival home. After a year with just Jakkin—and a few weeks with the brutal, silent trogs—so much talking overwhelmed her.
    "Let me get you something to eat," Kkarina said, turning to Akki. "You must be starving. What can there be out there in the wild? Leaves? Mushrooms?"
    Akki
had
to answer. "Yes, and berries, boil, teas, flikka soups."
    Kkarina looked positively ill. "
Flikka
soup? No, really—it's a wonder you didn't starve." She always thought people were starving.
    "Shower first, Kkarina," Akki said, almost pleading. "Then we can have food talk after."
    "I can bring something into the shower room for you." Kkarina's little eyes were like berries in a huge white pudding. "A good cup of hot takk at least? It's always been your favorite."
    Akki couldn't help herself; she shuddered, and her stomach turned over. "No thanks, I need that shower right now. I can't begin to explain how dirty I am. After that, bread and cheese. And a small glass of chikkar."
    "You remember where the shower room is?"
    Akki put her hands on Kkarina's. "I've only been gone a year, Kay. Unless you've moved the shower."
    Kkarina laughed. "Not since this morning."
    "I'll need a towel, and soap."
    "Soap in the shower dish. I'll find you towels. You'll need one for your hair, too. Your poor hair. It used to be so lovely. How well I remember brushing it when you were a child, and braiding it, and..." She wandered off, still adrift in reminiscences.
    Akki walked down the hall to the shower room, thinking,
That went all right. At least she didn't ask