The Onyx Dragon Read Online Free Page A

stopped. His lips moved–reading?
    Convulsively, she tore her scrutiny from the Master to focus on the rug beneath her feet. It was new. Hand-stitched, with a message that read, ‘Pip’s Personal Place of Penance.’ She stared at it for endless seconds, uncomprehending. Then the soft gulp of Kaiatha’s horror–guilty horror–speared such fire into her gut, Pip imagined she had been struck again by Telisia’s paralysing poison. They had even smuggled an embroidered rug into the Master’s office as part of this prank? Rotten agitators! She trembled from head to toe, such a crimson rage washing over her vision that she knew it was wrong; no, not wrong, but a product of draconic emotions. She must withhold. Please …
    Kassik’s laughter flayed her scattered emotions. Pip could not have been more shocked. Mouth agape, she gaily invited flies to investigate her tongue. His laughter was rough, offensive, frantic for release. A scream might have been less brutal. No one else laughed. Chuckling with forced jollity, the Master extracted the sorry tale from the embarrassed students. After that, he ushered them to the seats closest to the broad windows, plush couches arranged in an area that could comfortably seat forty persons.
    Come inside, Jyoss, he invited the Dragoness. I suspect that balcony is about to become mighty busy.
    Turning to Pip, Kaiatha, Durithion, Maylin and Yaethi, he added curtly, “You youngsters remind me that to face the grimmest of circumstances with laughter, is a gift.”
    “How so, Master?” asked Yaethi.
    He said, “If you have paid any attention at all in your History classes, you will know that this Academy was founded by none other than Hualiama Dragonfriend and her Tourmaline Dragon, Grandion. You know its official tenets–to foster good relations between Dragons, Shapeshifters and Humans, to train Dragon Riders, and to become a focal point for the lore and practice of Dragon Riding that would lead to peace across the Islands. The Dragon Riders were never meant to function as a weapon. Instead, this place served as a beacon of hope. When the Dragons withdrew to Gi’ishior, the Academy reached out. In times of strife, we act as mediators and peacekeepers. When the Great Plagues swept over the Islands seven decades ago, the Dragons and Riders transported medicines and medical personnel between Islands and strictly enforced the quarantine, sparing countless thousands of lives.”
    “We Shapeshifters are Hualiama’s legacy, Pip,” he said, pinning her with a smile that somehow conveyed the impression of a Dragon’s fang-filled grin, “or at least–Yaethi? A question?”
    The Helyon Islander straightened her back even more than usual. “How can there be so many Shapeshifters all over the Island-World, Master? And spontaneous occurrences, moreover, such as our Pip,? They cannot surely be the progeny of one woman?”
    “The poor, overworked wretch,” Maylin put in.
    Kaiatha said primly, “I’ll thank you to speak respectfully of the legends, Maylin.”
    “But a most insightful question,” said Master Kassik, unexpectedly animated. “And that is exactly why we are about to jump into the proverbial Dragon’s jaws, and travel to the Crescent Islands to find out about the ultra-secretive Order of Onyx. The lore-scrolls fail to answer this point. We suspect redaction.”
    “First code brown, now red action?” asked Pip.
    Yaethi clucked her tongue in annoyance. “ Redaction. It’s one word. As in, something has been cut out. Edited. Deliberately removed.”
    “For example, ‘Pip redacted the truth’,” Maylin suggested.
    “Shall my Dragoness redact half of your brain?” Pip inquired sweetly.
    “There’s a functional half?” Yaethi teased, earning herself a malign growl from her friend. “Ah … and I’m chained to the beast. So, Master, why the alert?”
    He said, “I’m considering a new Academy policy whereby we chain the most troublesome students together. Permanently.