The Onyx Dragon Read Online Free Page B

Now, to business. To war.” Making his habitual ‘thinking tent’ of his fingertips, as Pip had dubbed the gesture, Kassik said, “What the histories will not tell you, is that the Academies have a further purpose–that of refuge. Many times over the years, we have found ourselves sheltering … unexpected treasures.”
    Pip ducked her head, feeling her ears heat up into red flags as Kaiatha patted her knee gently. Right. Why not just call her a savage? Yet that was not what she had heard in the Master’s voice. Far from it. No, that was cage thinking, an echo of years spent behind bars. Islands’ sakes, would she even remember the great jungles of her birthplace?
    “Master, if we fly via Sylakia–” Pip gulped back a lump the size and consistency of a lump of razor-edged obsidian “–would you support me … I want to go back to the zoo. I fear I must.”
    “Ay.”
    “Must?” Maylin and Yaethi protested in concert.
    “Ay,” Duri echoed the Master. “Such a place has power beyond bars and mortar. It shadows the very soul.”
    “Pip has no protection under Sylakian law,” Yaethi said.
    Duri snapped, “She’ll have our protection!” He blushed as Kaiatha regarded him with undisguised admiration. “What? I’m only saying what we’re all thinking, right?”
    “Mmm. I like this man.” Kaiatha curled her fingers around his left bicep, and though she kissed him decorously upon the cheek, what she managed to communicate made Durithion blush up a Fra’aniorian suns-set.
    Pip whispered, “I have to. Also, we should try to find my tribe. Master Balthion is convinced my Pygmy battle name–” she pointed to the symbols in blue runic script which ran the length of her outer left calf, trilling “–Pip’úrth’l-iòlall-Yò’oótha, has some special, mystical meaning that will be revealed in the Ceremony of Second Naming. I’m not sixteen yet, but maybe we can convince them. The revelation of my true name will, as a matter of course, unearth an astonishing magical power which will topple Marshal Re’akka’s Island into the Cloudlands abyss and swat the Shadow Dragon back to whatever existential hell spawned it in the first instance. And life will become rainbows over Islands.”
    Maylin looked scandalised at the bite of Pip’s sarcasm, but Kaiatha said, “Ay, that’s the Island of truth.”
    “I agree. Waiting here at the Academy will win us nothing,” Master Kassik said. “We can best protect our refuge from outside the walls of this volcano. Here come our friends. Let’s wait. I’ll start the briefing once we’re all assembled.”
    Pip sat cross-legged on her couch, there being no point in pretending her tiny legs could reach the floor. She turned to gaze past Kaiatha. Beyond the balcony’s edge, from the lush cliffs of the Dragons’ Roost Mountain, winged a group of Dragons that fairly took her breath away–Oyda riding her Emblazon, a young, powerful Amber Dragon, the mighty Red leader of Dragons, Blazon, shell-father of Emblazon, and Nak aboard his beautiful Blue Dragoness Shimmerith, who possessed grace unequalled amongst the Dragonkind.
    A coterie of younger Dragons swooped from the darkling skies, including Maylin’s feisty Red Emmaraz, the shy grass-green Arrabon who had paired with Yaethi, and flying more gingerly than the others as the result of a pasting recently handed out by a certain Pygmy Dragoness, Silver, he of resplendent scales worthy of a Star Dragon, spearing earthward like the flash of a gleaming blade. Pip willed her heart to stop flopping about like a river salmon feeling the sting of a fishing spear, but her innards refused to behave. Then again, judging by the spots of rose that blossomed in Kaiatha’s cheek as she spied Tazzaral swirling in to his landing on the balcony, perhaps she was not the only one. From the corner of her eye, she saw Jyoss’ forepaw creep over the back of Durithion’s couch to lay a possessive talon upon his right shoulder. Duri squeezed