Free Dragonbound: Blue Dragon by Rebecca Shelley

strength gave way to fevered delirium.
    He barely felt the hands of the girl as she knelt next to him and examined his wounded leg. He hardly noticed when other villagers joined her, lifted him onto a stretcher made of woven vines between two poles. He didn't come back to himself until hours later when he heard a couple of men whispering above him and realized he lay on a mat in a round house, woven of sticks and covered with thick fronds to keep the rain out.
    "It's the dragon fever," one of the voices said.
    Kanvar blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus on the faces of the men who stood over him. Their skin was gray like the girl's had been, and they too were dressed in green clothing. The man who spoke of the dragon fever was older, wrinkled, with wispy strands of gray hair.
    "I don't think so. Dragon fever is too rare. We haven't had a Naga birthed in the village for generations if you don't count Aadi, and he's a long shot," a younger man said. He had thick black hair, which hung free to his shoulders, and he wore a feathered crown on his brow. "The cut in his leg is infected. That's what is causing the fever. It will take time to heal. Then we'll see."
    "Yes, we'll see." The older man said. "And when you admit the truth, you know what must be done. We cannot keep a Naga here in the village. It would mean his death and the wrath of the Great King upon us."
    Kanvar moaned and tried to sit up. The older man already suspected he was a Naga. He had to get away before the younger one, the village leader from the looks of him, ordered Kanvar killed.
    "Easy there now." The village leader pressed a strong hand against Kanvar's chest, forcing him back down. "You need rest and food. Our healer has already cleaned and rebandaged your wound. Don't know how you cut yourself with your own sword. Mighty careless." He chuckled.
    Kanvar reached to his side and his back and cried out in alarm as he realized his weapons were missing and his armor gone from his body. "My sword? My bow?"
    "Don't fret," the old man said motioning to Kanvar's things in a pile beside his sleeping mat. "Everything is here." He patted the sword in its sheath, which lay at the top of the pile. "Dangerous sword, that. It shocked me when I touched the handle. Wouldn't let me draw it out." His eyes flashed, and his thoughts spun into Kanvar's mind.
    The old man recognized the sword. Knew it belonged to the Dragon King's Naga. And so he had no doubt that Kanvar's fever was not caused by the wound in his leg. He knew exactly what and who Kanvar was.
    "You need not fear me," the old man said, seeing Kanvar's alarm. "Come," he said to the younger man, taking his arm and leading him out of the hut. "Our young friend needs his rest, and I believe Tana has brought him some food."
    The two men ducked out of the hut, but before Kanvar could get up, dress, and try to slip away unnoticed, the girl he'd met in the jungle came in with a wooden bowl and spoon. She knelt on the mat next to Kanvar. "Father said you are awake and should eat something. Try this, you'll like it. It's cool and may help with the fever."
    She used the spoon to scoop a small amount of pinkish paste from the bowl and held it out to Kanvar's lips.
    Shaking with the effort, Kanvar forced himself to sit and take the spoon from her hand. "I may be a cripple, but I can feed myself." He gulped the paste and felt it slide smooth and cool across his tongue and down his throat. It was an odd mixture of sweet and sour. He choked when he remembered the sour scent of the snakelily in the cup his mother had given him so long ago.
    He dropped the spoon into the bowl and pushed it away. They knew he was a Naga. Of course they would try to poison him. He rolled over and grabbed his sword, drawing it from the sheath, hoping he hadn't already taken enough poison to finish him.
    "What's wrong?" the girl cried, jumping to her feet and backing away. "Did I put too much orchid nectar in? Honestly, you'd think I was trying to