Free The Dragons of Noor by Janet Lee Carey

swallowedthe candle’s glow.
The High Meer of Othlore sent them to Enness to find me!
She felt herself smiling. To be seen in a magical scrying stone. To be wanted …
    Hiding her expression, she peered over the rim of her mug at Taunier. What did he think? Was he happy for her? Taunier met her gaze with silence. His head was tilted slightly, as if seeing her for the first time. She glanced away, suddenly uncomfortable.
    Miles finished his thool in four gulps. “The High Meer said we were to bring the Dreamwalker with us.” He wiped his mouth. “You know about her dreamwalks by now, don’t you?” he asked Taunier.
    “I know. I’ve followed her more than once to bring her home.”
    “Stop it,” said Hanna, suddenly fuming. “Both of you are talking about me as if I’m not here.”
    “Sorry, sis.” Miles put his empty mug in the washtub.
    “Hanna?” Taunier scooted the wax boat across the table to her.
    She picked it up. It felt warm. Weightless. The High Meer had sent them after her, a Dreamwalker. She’d not spoken to anyone about the things she’d seen in her latest dreamwalk. She was still trying to puzzle it out.
    The door burst open. Meer Eason poked his head in. “We have brought your things aboard. Captain Kanoae said you are to bunk with her, Hanna. We slid your trunk under your berth.” He seemed to catch the tension in the room. “Well, I have to get back on deck. Miles, will you show them to their quarters when you’re done here?”
    “I will, sir.”

NINE
    THE FALCONER’S BOOK
    Wind erased their footprints
,
And the people wandered lost
.
    —T HE B OOK OF E O WEY
    M iles hurried them down the narrow passage to the captain’s quarters, lit the oil lamp, and shut the door. Hanna sat on the bed, not seeming to want to look at him or Taunier. She tugged her fingers through her tangled hair. Taunier leaned against Captain Kanoae’s map-covered table.
    “Have you dreamwalked since Shalem Wood was destroyed?” Miles asked cautiously.
    “Why do you want to know?” Hanna looked irritated. Or was that fear he was seeing?
    “Something else the High Meer said. Wherever forests are falling, people are forgetting how to dream. We’ve seen a kind of hollow look on people’s faces eversince we left Othlore, in places like Reon, and we saw it again in Brim.”
    “I know what you mean,” Taunier said with interest. “The other morning when I came through Brim looking for Hanna, the townsfolk were acting strangely. Their faces had a grayish color, and the children just stood about. None of them were playing like they usually do.”
    Miles tried not to show the anxiety he was feeling. Losing dreams was a part of this all somehow, though he didn’t know the connection yet. He’d been overjoyed to find Hanna safe tonight, but he couldn’t forget the reason the meers had gone out of their way to find her. What good would it do to bring her east, where they’d be facing certain danger, if she could no longer dream?
    Hanna went to the porthole window. “I dreamwalked after Tymm was stolen,” she said. “A week after, if you want to know precisely when. All the elder trees in Shalem Wood had fallen by then.” She peered outside at the lifting mist as she described the dreamwalk, the great black tree she’d seen, and the children climbing its branches.
    “Tymm?” Miles asked, his mouth dry. “You saw him?”
    Hanna nodded.
    “A strange dream, for sure,” said Taunier. “What do you think it means?”
    “I don’t know.” She paced the tiny room, hugging her elbows. “I just remember what it was like seeing Tymm. I thought I’d found him, you know?” She stared at the uneven lamp’s glow and shook her head. “Then I woke up, and he was gone again.”
    Miles looked into her eyes, one green and one blue. “We’ll find him, Hanna. We have to find him.” He was reassuring her, though his stomach churned, and it wasn’t from seasickness. Before he’d left for the meer school,