Authors: Sarah L. Thomson
Dragon's Egg (13 page)
But Roger hesitated, even as Owen called again, “All mount!” He was looking up at the mountain just as Gwyn had done.
“I wish Alyas had stayed,” he murmured. “It wouldn't have been safe, I know. But I wanted to say good-bye.”
Looking at the wistful expression on Roger's face, Mella thought of something to make him feel better.
“He's going to write a song about us,” she said. “He's a bard. It'll be about the rescue of the Egg. He said, with two such heroes, it should be remembered for a thousand years.”
Roger blinked. “Heroes? He said that?”
“Heroes who might learn to be a trifle less impetuous, next time,” King Astor said, riding up alongside them. The saddle skirts on his gray stallion were red velvet and golden silk, and they nearly swept the ground. “Bards do tend to exaggerate. Mount up. They're waiting.”
One of the soldiers gave Mella a quick boost into the saddle. Roger swung on unaided, while the king took his place at the head of their small party.
Mella eyed Roger's bent head, the slump of his
shoulders. He had only heard the king's reproof, she realized, not the compliment behind it.
“He just called you a hero,” she whispered loudly. “You're being stupid again!”
Roger's head came up, and she saw a startled smile cross his face as they followed the king in the path of the retreating army, heading for Dragonsford and home.
Sarah L. Thomson
is the author of three previous novels for young readers. Her most recent book is
The Secret of the Rose
, a thrilling historical mystery that the
Maine Sunday Telegram
called “a tour de force of 16
th
century London life.”
The Dragon's Son
, a retelling of the King Arthur story, was a Junior Library Guild selection and a Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year.
The Washington Post
described
The Manny
, a comedy about a boy nanny, as having “a plot worthy of Jane Austen.” A former editor with a major children's book publisher, she lives in Portland, Maine.
www.sarahlthomson.com
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This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.
DRAGON'S EGG
. Copyright © 2007 by Sarah L. Thomson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomson, Sarah L.
Dragon's egg / by Sarah L. Thomson.
p. cm.
“Greenwillow Books.”
Summary: Mella, a young girl trained as a dragon keeper, learns that the legends of old are true when she is entrusted with carrying a dragon's egg to the fabled Hatching Grounds, a dangerous journey on which she is assisted by a knight's squire.
ISBN 978-0-06-128848-7 (trade bdg.)
ISBN 978-0-06-128847-0 (lib. bdg.)
[1. DragonsâFiction. 2. EggsâFiction. 3. Voyages and
travelsâFiction. 4. Knights and knighthoodâFiction.
5. Fantasy.] I. Title.
PZ7.T378Dqt 2007 Â Â [Fic]âdc22 Â Â 2007009145
EPub Edition © January 2010 ISBN: 978-0-061-99588-0
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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