Free DragonSpell by Donita K. Paul

sometimes run smack into walls. That druddum probably scared itself spitless by running into you.”
    Reassured by Dar’s words, Kale nonetheless stayed close behind him.
    “How far until we reach the gateway?” she asked.
    “I’ve never been to this gateway, so I don’t know.”
    “Dar, do you read my mind?”
    “Nah, I don’t have the talent.”
    “Not at all?”
    “Not even a whisper.”
    Kale concentrated, staring at the back of Dar’s head. Again she heard no thoughts but felt his general excitement and knew he was eager to go through the gateway and begin the quest for the meech egg.
    “Dar, can you block me from reading your mind?”
    “No, but doneels are harder to read than mariones.” He looked back and flashed her another wide grin. “It’s the thick heads.” With a wink, he turned back to follow the others. “After you’ve been in training for a time, you’ll be reading my mind and telling me what to do, just like Leetu Bends.”
    “Oh, I don’t think so.” Kale couldn’t imagine ordering anyone about, and certainly not with the audacity of the young emerlindian.
    Dar quickened his pace. Kale scurried to keep up. It amazed her how quickly the doneel moved on his short legs. He never stumbled either. All her muscles were tired. She wanted to crawl back into the comfy bed at Granny Noon’s.
    It was exciting to get up before dawn and have Granny Noon talk to me and just me. But now I wish I’d slept more. And my muscles are sore again. I’ve done more climbing, running, falling, hiking…more everything!…than I ever did in River Away. I thought I worked hard as a village slave, but at least I got to sit and peel vegetables once a day. I even got to sit when I milked cows. Don’t these people ever sit down and rest?
    Her hand went to the pouch that again lay under her blouse. Fumbling with the cord, she pulled it out to hold as she walked. Just before they left Granny Noon’s, Kale had slipped her special egg, the first one she’d found, back into the pouch Mistress Meiger had given her. The egg belonged there, not in any pocket. Its presence comforted her, hanging around her neck, sometimes bouncing against her chest. In the pocket of the cape she couldn’t feel it, and sometimes she wanted to feel it.
    Like now.
    She clasped the egg in the pouch and felt strength returning to her legs and energy pumping through her body. She soon felt she could follow for another day if she had to.
    Granny Noon had explained how the magic of the egg worked to heal her. Kale thought over the words carefully. Granny Noon talked a lot about Wulder, and she always talked in a tone of voice that gave Kale the shivers. A nice kind of shivers.
    The old emerlindian spoke of a great mystery, one revered for ages and ages by people Kale had never heard of. She knew the things Granny Noon said were true, but they didn’t seem to have anything to do with a slave girl turned servant. She thought the words Granny Noon used must have come out of distant places and wondrous times.
    When the storytellers and minstrels tell of legends in the tavern on a Saturday night, they use words like “long ago and far away.” But Granny Noon talks as if that “long ago and far away” is here and now.
    Kale clutched the rock-hard egg in its pouch and felt the dragon within respond with a steady thrum. She kept her hand there and tightened her grip with a jerk every time they encountered one of the hasty druddums. She did manage to keep from squealing as the lightning-quick hairy bundles barreled around the corners. But when they careened off her legs or came in groups of a dozen or more, she plastered herself against the wall and called out to Dar.
    “Come on,” he urged. “If we stop for you to recover every time we meet something unpleasant, we might as well give up the quest now.”
    Kale bit back a response.
Well, Master Dar, I didn’t really ask to be included in this quest. I had a destiny, and that destiny was to