Dragon Charmers: #1 Mountains of Fire

by Linda McNabb

CHAPTER THREE - A SUMMONS

  Logan woke up leaning against a tree trunk. Alyxa was pressing a cool, wet cloth against his forehead and there was a lot of yelling nearby. For a second Logan couldn’t remember exactly where he was or what he was doing there. When with a lurch of nausea he remembered, he paled as he realised he was sitting in the shadow of the tree. Leaping up, and startling Alyxa, he threw himself out into the harsh sunlight.

  ‘He can’t be gone, he can’t be gone,’ the king was repeating, over and over. He looked confused and upset, and was searching the sky as if he expected his son to drop back to the ground at any second.

  ‘Send your dragons after him!’ Prince Myles wasn’t confused; he was angry, and he was yelling at the dragon farmer.

  ‘We don’t have any dragons fast enough to follow, Your Highness. We’ve tried before, but the red dragons are much quicker than greens or yellows.’ The dragon farmer was nervous and worried. It was clear he thought the king would blame this all on him.

  The dragonets were slowly coming back from the far end of the farm where they had run off to, and, after a quick look to make sure the sky was clear, they settled back down to their midday slumber. The prince’s newly charmed blue flew back into the enclosure and landed meekly right where it had torn its tether loose.

  Myles noticed that Logan was awake and came storming over to him. He stopped right in front of him and glared furiously. ‘Why did you bring my brother here?’

  ‘I didn’t,’ Logan answered honestly. He pointed to the young prince’s blue dragon who had settled down to resume its nap. ‘He came here on his own.’

  ‘And you just stood there and let the dragon take him away?’ Prince Myles accused bluntly.

  Logan didn’t have time to defend himself — as Alyxa had stepped in to help. She pushed her way between them and pointed at Logan’s cuts and scrapes and then at the splintered branch he was still holding.

  ‘I’d say he did the best anyone could. Would you take on a fully grown red dragon?’ Alyxa’s fury shone in her eyes as she endeavoured to keep her voice at a normal level. ‘I didn’t see you rushing out here to save your brother.’

  ‘If I had known Erik was here—’ Myles retorted, but the king had gathered his wits and came striding over.

  ‘Enough!’ he spat angrily. He glared from Alyxa to Logan and then turned to the dragon farmer. ‘We must mount a rescue to fetch Erik.’

  ‘Nobody knows where the red dragons live, Your Majesty,’ the dragon farmer replied hesitantly. ‘We think they come from the mountains. We have asked many times for a search party...’

  The dragon farmer let the rest of his answer fade away as the king frowned at him. Many times people had petitioned the king, requesting blue dragons to go in search of missing children, but the king had denied their requests every time. King Aemon considered the loss of a few peasants not enough reason to risk the lives of his precious blue dragons.

  ‘Come, Myles, we will return to the castle. A search is to be made as soon as possible. We must find the red dragons.’ The king’s face set into a stony, emotionless expression. ‘Bring Erik’s dragon.’

  The king strode over to the newly charmed blue dragon, untied its reins from the stake and threw himself onto its back. With a jerk of the leather straps that wrapped around the dragon’s throat, the blue leapt into the sky, almost as quickly as the red dragon had done.

  A heavy silence followed as the prince fetched his younger brother’s dragon and mounted it. He glared angrily at Logan, obviously convinced that it was all his fault, then jerked cruelly on the riding straps. The smaller blue dragon leapt obediently into the air and flew quickly off towards the city.

  ‘I should be going,’ Logan said quietly to Alyxa as the dragon farmer watched the two blue dragons flying off. ‘Come see me later.’

  Logan began to walk off slowly, hoping the dragon farmer would not think to ask why he had been there in the first place, but Alyxa’s father spun around and frowned at him.

  ‘I’ve told you before not to come into the farm,’ he said bluntly.

  ‘I... umm...’ Logan tried to come up with a reason that the farmer would believe, but his mind was blank.

  ‘Get out of my farm! I don’t want to see you near here ever again,’ the farmer snapped. When he turned to his daughter, the threat of more trouble was clear in his voice. ‘We’ll talk back at the house.’

  Logan shot a sympathetic look at his friend and backed quickly out of the farm. He wanted to run away from there as fast as he could, but it was too hot and his legs still felt a little unsteady. He couldn’t help brief glances skyward even though he knew that the red dragons never returned the same day. Today had been far too close. He wondered where the dragon had taken the young prince. It should have been him;; he owed the prince his life, but he would never get to repay that debt. Nobody ever came back once the red dragons took them.

  The crunch of his thin-soled boots on the salted path made Logan blink back to the present, and he saw the slightly bent figure of the old wizard through the open door. Zared’s long white hair was swept back tidily and he was smiling as he walked toward Logan. He was carrying a broom and he shook his head in confusion.

  ‘How did so much salt get spilt out here?’ Zared mused, not looking as though he expected an answer as he began to sweep the salt off the path. ‘Oh, I cleaned up a little mess in the workroom. Did you have a spell go wrong today?’

  ‘Yeah, it was supposed to be a white rose,’ Logan said with a small smile. There was no point in reminding the old man what had happened earlier, he wouldn’t remember in an hour or two anyway. The wizard seemed quite lucid right now and his eyes were clear and bright. Logan bit his tongue to stop himself telling what had just happened at the dragon farm. There was no point in upsetting the wizard. They didn’t discuss dragons — ever — and Logan had come to realise long ago that it was one of the things that triggered off the old man’s lapses.

  ‘I’ll show you how to do it later if you like,’ Zared offered, then began to whistle as he swept.

  Logan didn’t reply, as something on the edge of his vision had caught his attention. Off in the distance, way over above the city, he saw half a dozen blue dragons lifting off in a group. They headed towards the white-capped mountains at a speed that confirmed they were off hunting the red dragons. Maybe now that the king knew what it was like to lose a child to the red beasts he would make sure they didn’t take any more. An image of the dimple-faced youth sprang to mind and Logan sighed. He almost wished he had been taken instead — the young prince didn’t deserve to pay so dearly for his bravery.