Read Online Talker 25 by Joshua McCune - Free Book Online Page A

. . .
    “I want to learn,” I tell James.
    “Keith doesn’t want you involved in this. Anyway, you’re injured. You need to rest.”
    “If I rest, I’m gonna go crazy,” I say. He starts to argue. “Please. It’s the least you could do after kidnapping me.”
    He smiles at that, eventually nods. “Tomorrow morning, if you’re better.” On his way out, he pauses. “Hope you’re not afraid of heights.”
    “Why?” I say, sure I won’t like the answer.
    “Before you can really talk to a dragon, you’ve got to fly one.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
    HarperCollins Publishers
    ..................................................................
11
    Icy Pegasi flap through my dreams, the cold cutting into me with insistent sharpness until I wake. When I open my eyes, there’s a silver dragon at the foot of my cot, its head crammed halfway into the crate. Crystalline blue eyes regard me with eagerness. Ice drips from the thing’s snout onto the blanket.
    Squinting against its brightness, shivering against its chill, and praying it doesn’t think I’m breakfast, I scramble to the rear wall of the crate. I shoo it verbally and mentally, but either it doesn’t understand or doesn’t care. It just sniffs the air, perhaps trying to decide whether I’m edible.
    “She wanted to see you,” James says. With the quickest glance, I see that he’s crouched in the crate corner.
    “Call it off,” I plead.
    “You can’t be scared of them, Melissa.”
    Perhaps emboldened by his words, the Silver stretches its neck forward until it’s but a foot from me. Frost collects on my arms.
    “Get away!”
    The Silver retreats with a tremendous lurch, bursting through the crate. Fragments of wood fountain everywhere. I cover my head. James throws himself over me. As I grimace against the pain in my shoulder, I hear him give a couple of muffled grunts. I think he’s hurt, maybe stabbed by a big splinter, but then I realize the lunatic’s laughing.
    I shove him away. Half of the crate’s obliterated. The Silver, looking quite proud of itself, has withdrawn to a spot between two slumbering reds on the other side of the cave. People hurry toward us, concern shifting to amusement when they see we’re all right. They disperse, several of them clapping; somebody requests an encore.
    James flourishes a bow I might find endearing if my shoulder weren’t throbbing—never mind the fact that I’m sprinkled in glitter made of sawdust and ice. He turns to me with a sheepish smile. “That didn’t go as expected. You okay?”
    Breathing warmth into my fingers, I stare at him like he’s a few neurons short. “What exactly did you expect? Who the hell wakes somebody up with a dragon?”
    “She really wanted to see you.” He surveys the destructionwith pursed lips and gives a mock sigh of disappointment. “Children.”
    “The thing needs to be on a leash.”
    “You’ll hurt her feelings,” James says.
    “Good. Maybe she’ll learn boundaries.”
    “She doesn’t understand stuff like that yet. You should be thrilled, Melissa. She likes you.”
    “You and I have far different definitions for thrilled. I’m thrilled she didn’t eat me, if that counts for anything.”
    “You’ve got to stop looking at them like that,” James says. “They’re as foreign as foreign can be, and at first glance, terrifying. I understand.”
    “If you understand, maybe you should have eased me into it.”
    “I believe in the deep-end approach.”
    “Throw me in, see if I can swim? Seriously?”
    He waves a hand at what used to be the crate wall. “Think about it. After this, flying one won’t seem so bad.”
    I can’t help but laugh. “Asshole.”
    “On my good days.” He gives me a once-over that reminds me I’m in a flimsy hospital gown. “As much as I like the ensemble, I think we might want to get you into something a little warmer for your first flight.”
    “My shoulder’s too stiff,” I say as he clears debris