Free The Last Dragon Chronicles #4: The Fire Eternal by Chris D'Lacey Page A

light, she could not see their color properly, but the detail around them was quite astounding. Scales. Dozens of tiny scales, small below the eye, larger above. And she had tried to draw something in the pupil as well. Something reflected in the dragon’s vision. Some kind of star, perhaps?
    Just then, Alexa gurgled in her sleep and squeezed her empty fist against the pillow. Zanna folded up the drawing and reinserted it between the soft pink fingers. “Dream it,” she whispered, using one of Liz’s favorite expressions. She stroked a lock of hair off Alexa’s temple and was about to turn away when a pair of yellow eyes in the darkness made her jump.
    “Oh, Bonnington!” she chided. “Whatare you doing there? You gave me such a fright!”
    The cat was sitting on the dressing table, looking like something from a pharaoh’s tomb.
    “Turn back into something less spooky,” Zanna said. “I can’t see you in black. You’re not allowed up there anyway. Come on,
shoo.”
    She chased him to the floor and headed for the bathroom.
    But no sooner had she gone than Bonnington jumped onto the table again.He briefly exchanged a look with Gadzooks, but the dragon made no attempt to criticize the move, and Bonnington settled to his pose again, this time angling toward the mirror, looking not at himself, but at the moonlit reflection of the sleeping Alexa….
    The next morning, during the hubbub of breakfast, Zanna showed Alexa’s drawing to Liz.
    “Mmm,
” she mumbled, through a mouthful of toast. “Gosh,she
is
growing up. That’s amazing. How did it go last night, by the way?”
    Looking fragile in her Japanese nightgown, with her hair tied back and pale of makeup, Zanna said, “Fine.”
    Liz raised an inviting eyebrow.
    “Fine,” repeated Zanna, slapping Liz’s arm. “Stop it, you’re making me blush. He read some poetry and he was charming. Period.”
    “Mom, look harder at the drawing,” said Lucy.
    I’lltell you later,
Zanna mouthed.
    Liz smiled and cast a glance at the dragon again. “Yes. It’s very good. Those eyes are fantastic.”
    “They’re blue,” said Lucy, scooping up cereal.
    “That’s not what I meant,” Liz murmured in reply. “She’s always liked to blob colors around, but I’ve never seen her add so much detail before. That’s really impressive. Look at how she’s used this stunning shade ofgreen for the outlines of his body. So lifelike.”
    “But the eyes are
blue,”
Lucy repeated.
    “All right, we know where you’re going,” Zanna tutted, taking a yogurt out of the fridge. She ripped off the lid as if she’d like to do the same to Lucy’s head. “Blue’s her favorite color. We’re not reading anythinginto it, OK? Anyway, she’s probably just modeled it on Groyne.”
    On the countertop, Gretelwas picking the nuts and seeds out of a piece of whole grain bread. At the mention of Groyne, she coughed a huge smoke bubble and spilled her entire harvest onto the head of a very bemused Bonnington.
    Zanna frowned at her but didn’t pursue it. “What gets me is, she hasn’t had that much exposure to dragon imagery, yet here she is producing realistic-looking eyes. I mean, what’s made her draw thattriangular-shaped socket?”
    “It’s called a scalene,” said Lucy, and when Zanna and Liz both stared at her she added, “a triangle with no equal sides. We did it at school once. What’s your problem?”
    Liz glanced at the drawing again. The eye was wedge-shaped, slanted forward with a tented lid. From the back of it, Alexa had drawn three jagged extensions which helped to exaggerate the intensityof the stare. “That
is
remarkable,” Liz confessed. “Is it looking atsomething, do you think? What’s this shape she’s tried to draw inside it?”
    “I don’t know. I wondered about that,” said Zanna.
    “I think it’s a fire star,” Lucy said.
    Which made Zanna catch her breath and sigh again.
    “Well, what do
you
think it is, then?” Lucy said huffily.
    “Why