Here is an excerpt from my New Book... A GATHERING OF DRAGONS!
On sale now for your Holiday entertainment...
NOW for the Teaser...
Kingdom of Jaldraak – Outside Wallington
The
fog was dense and cold. With Adrian on his back, Farloft spread his wings and
sailed quietly in for a landing outside the township of Wallington. The big
dragon sank into the muddy field up to his ankles.
“Let
me get you to drier ground before you slid off,” Farloft whispered to Adrian.
He
padded quietly out of the field, listening intently and watching for movement. The
fog was so thick he didn’t realize he had reached the road until his paws
stopped making a sucking sound each time he took a step forward.
Adrian
pulled his hood down and rose up in the stirrups of the saddle. “I can’t see
anything to get my bearing. Do you know where we are?”
Farloft
pointed with a wing. “Wallington is about a mile that way.” The big dragon
stepped off the road and headed up toward the shelter of the woods. “I will
stay here while you go in. You have the Dragoncall, if you need me.”
This
was the arrangement they had made over and over during the past month as they
travelled. They flew by night, then found a place for Farloft to wait while
Adrian went into the community with his stories and songs, but also to listen.
Even though the bard had previously brought news from Jaldraak, the old dragon
insisted on being thorough. He wanted to start in Jaldraak and work their way
south to Wallington and the source.
“Oh,
that’s not good,” Adrian said, as they walked by a tree with a posted notice on
it.
Farloft
stopped and bent his head to read. It was a wanted poster. He reached out and
tore the paper from the tree leaving deep claw marks in its place.
“One
hundred gold coins and ten parcels of land as bounty for me?” The dragon boomed.
“I am worth far more than that!” The old beast was insulted by the poster
rather than frightened.
“Well,
perhaps it is all the Crown on this side of Westridge has to offer,” Adrian
tried to soothe him. The dragon was growing so warm beneath him he could feel
it through the saddle.
“Nonetheless,”
Farloft snorted in indignation. “King Tallis offered ten times that for my head
when he ruled Baldar!”
“And
when was that?” Adrian asked.
“Hummm,”
the dragon mused, “perhaps a century ago, or maybe two.”
“Well,”
Adrian said with a lift of his brow, “times are hard these days.”
Farloft
crushed the poster in his paw and tossed it to one side. “Not an excuse for
devaluing a dragon’s worth,” he grumbled.
The
dragon huffed and extended a wing so the bard could dismount.
“If
I’m not back in three days, you come find me.”
Farloft
nudged the bard in the back with his nose. “If you are not back in three days,
I may burn the castle down after that insult,” he said nodding toward the
crumpled paper.
“Please don’t,” Adrian advised. “We were sent here to find out about a possible war, not start one.”
No comments:
Post a Comment