Dragon Dreamer by S. G. Ricketts (ereader for android .TXT) 📕

But the—I think you called them stellenas—” He paused to gaze out across the ocean. “Anyway, they couldn’t carry you all the way in. I swam out to help get you in.” He frowned. “You were out for hours. What woke you up?” He pushed himself up onto one elbow, the white sand even whiter against the tan. Solis was slowly setting, and it cast a reddish tint onto everything.
Embarrassed, she brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “Oh, that? Umm…” She let her sentence hang, unable to think of an answer.
Abruptly, Bryan started to laugh. “Oh, did I wake you?” he teased. At her shocked expression, he laughed harder, tears running down his young, handsome face. Finally, he was able to gasp out, “Did you forget that Bomarth still talks to me? He can tell how you are feeling through your dragon.”
Steephi muttered, “Her name is Talarth!” but he continued more seriously.
“Talarth didn’t seem to mind waking up next to her mentor, though.” Steephi blushed, and started to mutter something when gentle, harness-worn fingers lifted her chin. Anxiety had filled the blue eyes, and Bryan seemed to be staring into her soul. “You were told you couldn’t ride her yet. Why were you?” She tried to turn her head away from the pain in his eyes. She didn’t want to see that. “You could have hurt yourself worse than you did, and even more important, you could have hurt Siani’s only queen. How would you be able to live with that?”
Finally, Steephi was able to rip her head away from his grasp. “It wasn’t her fault. She is a wonderful flyer. And she’s strong. She’s been flying so well for ages now!” Quickly, she covered her mouth, wanting to shove her words back down her throat. “I mean, alone she has.”
But Bryan didn’t stand up and shake her and beat her like her stepfather would have done. He just sat there on the sands. Turning around, she looked down at him, her blue eyes wide with fear. Yet his only looked sad. “You chose me to be your mentor. Why can’t I be allowed to mentor you?” Shaking the sand off of himself, he stood up next to her, taller by a foot or so. Steephi was confused, and he must have seen it in her face. “You said I could help you. I’m supposed to train you to be the best queen rider you could be, but you won’t listen to me,” he gently explained, looking much older than he was. “Why didn’t you listen?” Shaking his head, he let out a shrill whistle, and Bomarth stood up and walked over to the pair. “You will ride with me, and Talarth shall take her direction from me.” He put his hand out to help her, but she was too angry to take it. Bomarth held his forearm out for her to get up, and she swung herself onto the broad bronze back. Sighing heavily, Bryan got on, too. “We shall have to talk with Johua about this, you know?” When she didn’t respond, he shook his head and his face smoothed. Steephi could tell he was talking to the great bronze. Then, the dragon sprang upward and blinked into beyond

.


Chapter Four


The cold of beyond

seeped into Steephi’s bones. Wrapping her arms around herself, she realized that she didn’t have her riding gear. And she had made it all by herself, too! We had to remove it from you after your fall so that you wouldn’t drown

, Bomarth’s voice explained. She still wasn’t used to having him talk to her. It felt so weird. First, having Talarth speaking to her, even though that was wonderful, then having Bomarth speak to her. It was all so confusing, even if the bronze had been speaking to her for so long. It was difficult to finally put a name to the voice she had been hearing, and even more difficult to admit that she could hear him. Don’t worry. You’ll understand later, the bronze dragon reassured.
Nodding, she wrapped her arms around her tighter. The cold didn’t leave her, but it felt good to be able to feel her arms around herself when she could feel nothing else. A sight flashed before her eyes. A black building, almost like the castle at Sol, reached its obsidian finger into a sky of a menacing green. The black, glass-like surface of the building reflected the odd light, making it appear evil, and something like a snake twisted lazily around the finger.
Steephi shuddered and shut her eyes tight, determined to forget the horrid picture. Why was it taking so long? It didn’t take this long for them before. Just as she began to run out of breath, they burst out into the air above the Siani Dragon City. Moher’s Interth bugled a greeting, and Bomarth responded. Then, he swiveled his big head around, his eyes beginning to whirl with fear, the black pupils dilating with a sudden fear. Turning to follow his gaze, Steephi turned to see Talarth pop out of beyond

, her mouth open in a silent scream. Pain seared across Steephi’s mind, and she screamed as Talarth’s cry was finally voiced. Talarth’s terror filled her, and she grabbed onto the bronze rider behind her, her nails digging into the soft wher-hide of his jacket. “Don’t let her die, Bryan! Don’t let her die!” she sobbed, falling against him. Talarth screamed, her wings limply outstretched in a feeble attempt to slow down. Below them, the dragons of the City were bugling in alarm as their queen fell from the sky, their bodies packing the ridge as they watched. Suddenly, a new terror enveloped her, one of surprised shock and fear. Lifting tear-streaked eyes towards her dragon, she saw the golden queen being slowly lowered to the ground. Talarth writhed from an invisible attacker, her eyes spinning almost purely white, her pupils mere slits. Before Bomarth had touched the ground, she ripped herself away from Bryan’s restraining grip and slid off the huge beast. “Talarth! Are you okay?”
At the sound of her voice, the queen began to relax, but Steephi could still feel the panic coming off of her, bouncing from her dragon in waves. It was horrible!

Talarth shrank back at the thoughts, and her voice was hoarse and quiet, filled with terror and a terrible frenzy of thoughts as the gold shied away from whatever had happened. I must have gone back in time or something…

She flinched as Steephi laid a warm hand on her hide. She tilted her head down towards her rider, and Steephi nodded for her to continue. I—I came out in a city of black, with a green sky. There were creatures that looked like us—

Steephi assumed like the dragons, and Talarth continued. – except that they were longer and thinner.

The queen shivered compulsively and continued, her mind voice faltering here and there. They were circling a big tower, and then they saw me. They hated me because I was in they’re lands, and they--They attacked me!

The dragon let out a little trickle of a squeak at the memory, and Steephi shuddered as she remembered, too, the sight she had seen. She must have seen it through Talarth’s mind, she figured. So you have seen it, too? That was before I came. I did not see them like that. While they attacked, I went

beyond to get away, but it took forever to get back here.

Steephi let her fingers caress the shivering body. “You’re okay now, Love. We’ll let Rosealee look over you. She’s a good healer. Maybe she can give you something to help calm you down. Surely it was just a dream…” She looked into her dragon’s eyes, but the white had not dimmed a bit, and it looked almost unnatural in her dragon’s usually placid eyes. “Calm down, Talarth. You will only hurt yourself more if you—Oh!” She turned to her hand. She reeled away from the sight. A long, red line scored her dragon’s flawless golden hide. Her fingers had lingered there, and she could still feel the cold of beyond

that lingered. Green ichor from the wound stuck to Steephi’s hand, and she knew that Talarth wasn’t lying. But she did not want to see the thing that had attacked her dragon. “Of all the stars above!” she breathed, and sank to her knees as she stared at the gash. “Look what has happened to my dragon,” she whispered, her hand covering her mouth as the other lingered over the gashes, the dragon blood soaking her sleeve up to the elbow. Again, tears sprang to her eyes. And Talarth was just six months old! Breaking down again, she started sobbing, cries raking her slender frame. Gentle arms encircled her, and she looked up through her tears to see Terevoor’s kind face. “Where’s—where’s Bryan? Why isn’t he helping?” The young man nodded towards the entrance to the weyr with a slightly sour expression on his face, where a small figure could be seen running inside. It had to be Bryan. She looked back to her dragon and steeled herself. Blinking back the tears, she counted the marks. Ten all together. How had she gotten there? How had she gotten back?
Terevoor gently pulled her away from Talarth’s wounds and underneath the great beast’s neck so that Talarth could rest her head on her rider’s lap. Still crying softly, Steephi patted the gold’s head comfortingly. Breathing deeply, she suddenly smelt the burning smell of sulfurous gases, which she had studied briefly. “Talarth, you stink!” she exclaimed, and the little dragon hiccuped lightly. “What did you do?”
Move!

the gold suddenly commanded, and she raised her head and her body away from Steephi to belch a little flame from her mouth. Hiccuping again, she laid her head back onto the Dragon Lady’s lap and closed her eyes. I had to defend myself, and I hurt some of the serpents. I don’t think they will mess with us much more.

Steephi almost laughed at her dragon’s bold words. Then, an evil laugh floated to her on the wind.
“That shows you what a good queen that one will make!” a man chortled behind her. Terevoor’s hold, which she had forgotten, tightened on her, and she buried her face deeper into the comforting smell of his riding leathers. Moher snorted again and said louder, “and my Interth tells me she was swimming at the beach and nearly got her rider killed. Some queen!” Terevoor tightened again as Steephi struggled to get out, her anger growing. “What was the Dragon Lady doing riding her dragon now anyway? She shouldn’t be riding so soon. Queen riders don’t ride for at least a year after the Hatching,” he sneered, and some other dragonmen laughed at his jokes.
Finally, she wriggled out of the bronze rider’s hold. Or maybe he had let her go. She didn’t care. Talarth raised her head in