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Tri-sss s eyes that Auricle was no longer falling but clinging to a rocky
outjut, though water was steadily pounding around her. There was no sign of
the hatchling.
As if on a signal, Sssargon and Sssasha dashed into the falls at the same
moment, emerging again with the drenched Auricle in their claws. Once free of
the water, they dropped her. She fell like a stone, tumbling end over end in
the glistening air.
She doesn t know how to fly, screamed Akki. She s ..
Even though they couldn t hear her, Sssasha and Sssargon had come to the same
conclusion. Sssargon swept his wings back hard against his sides and followed
Auricle in a long, perilous stoop, diving headfirst toward the ground. Passing
Auricle, he flipped over, snapped his wings open once he was below her, and
readied himself to cushion her fall.
: If she hits him& Akki began.
She ll kill them both, Jakkin said, his voice flat. He closed his eyes, but
Tri-sss s unrelenting sendings denied him any relief.
Just fifty feet from the ground, as if the air itself had ripped them open,
Auricle s wings spread, fluttered, and caught an updraft that sent her into an
off-balance soar.
Surprised, Sssargon almost fell to the ground anyway. At the last moment he
turned and pumped his wings, scraping one on a large rock. Then he sailed up
to Auricle s right. Sssasha banked and flew down to her left, sending a
bemused thought into Jakkin s mind:
No splat!
No splat indeed, Jakkin whispered. He threw his arms around Akki, unashamed
of the tears running
down his cheeks.
A horrible thought hit them both at the same time, though it was Akki who said
it aloud.
The hatchling!
Already aware of the danger, the triplets were broadcasting simultaneous
signals of distress: flashes of haunch and head as the little dragon tumbled
head over heels through the water all the way down the treacherous falls.
chapter 45
IT TOOK JAKKIN and Akki nearly an hour to scramble down the cliffside, but
when they got to the bottom, where the falls puddled into several rocky pools
before fanning out into five small fingerlike rivers, there were the triplets
and Sssasha, Sssargon, and Auricle, all standing over the dragonling.
Akki screamed, You didn t tell us! You let us think she was dead. She ran
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over and grabbed up the hatchling, who wriggled delightedly in her arms.
A splash of chuckles ran through Jakkin s head. No splat, no splat, no
splat.
Akki turned to him, her eyes full of laughter. Jakkin, don t you see-proof
positive that they re not just animals. Animals couldn t play a practical
joke. She nuzzled the hatchling.
Jakkin nodded. But what really happened? he asked, letting his mind send the
question to them.
It took many minutes of patchworked sendings before he and Akki really
understood the whole thing.
Each dragon added a part or contradicted another. But finally the story came
clear. The hatchling, being so small, had tumbled easily and landed in the
pooling water at the bottom of the falls without hitting any rocks along the
way. She was hardly the worse for her hazardous trip and, in fact, had rather
enjoyed it all.
If dragons could smile, they smiled.
Without her medkit Akki couldn t do much for the scratches and bruises.
Sssasha had torn her secundum while carrying Auricle, and the endpiece of
Sssargon s left wing was ripped. Auricle was missing some scales in both wings
and there was blood on her nose. None of it was serious. Only the hatchling
seemed unbruised, though its eggskin was peeling off more quickly than was
natural.
We ll have to be careful with her, Akki cautioned, or she ll get sunbumed
on her new scales.
The dragons licked their wounds and Akki reminded Jakkin that that was, after
all, the best medicine for them, since there was something in the saliva that
promoted healing.
What really worries me, though, Akki said later, gesturing to Auricle, are
her eggs. She s taken quite a beating these last few hours. It may not show on
the outside but. She let the sentence dangle.
Even if she loses this clutch, Jakkin said, it won t be so bad. She ll be
able to have another. And at least she s alive.
Alive-and lost. Just like the rest of us, Akki said.
Sssasha, who d been listening in on their thoughts, intruded a sending.
What pain?
No pain, Jakkin sent back.
Yes, pain, Sssasha said, coming over to stick her nose against Jakkin s
chest.
We re lost, Sssasha, Akki sent.
Not lost. Trust me.
Jakkin looked at Akki and they burst out laughing at the same time. Sssasha
joined in with tiny, popping, rainbow-colored bubbles that seemed to march
across a vast sandy plain.
chapter 46
EXHAUSTED, THEY SLEPT away the rest of the morning in a tight circle of
dragons and humans.
Akki woke before Jakkin, then shook him furiously.
Sssasha and Sssargon are gone, she said.
Jakkin opened an eye, for a moment stunned by the sun s glare. He yawned and
stretched, surprised at how stiff his body was, and remembered only slowly why
his left hand was cramped and aching. Jakkin, wake up. Sssasha and Sssargon
are gone.
They re probably just off grazing, Akki. He rubbed his left hand slowly.
There s enough grazing right here, Akki said, her sweeping hand taking in
all the land around the fingerlike rivulets.
Jakkin nodded. The grass was rich and thick, and in the drier places bumwort
and blisterweed were both growing in abundance, the red stalks a sign of
healthy plants. Smoke ghosts swirled over the patches of wort and weed,
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signaling they were almost ready to leaf out.
And I can t hear them, Akki said.
You re worrying too much, Akki.
I can t hear them, but I do hear something else, she said. Listen! 9,
Shrugging, he listened. He could hear the pop-pop of the dragons breath as
Auricle and the triplets slept easily. He could hear the dull roar of the
falls and beyond that a kind of echo that might have been the river. Nearer
were the swish-swash sounds of the five streams lazing between banks. He could [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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