Read The Dragondain for Free Online Page B

propping the doors open.”
    Jasper fought back a smile. “These, Your Majesty, are quarterstaffs,” he said admiringly.
    “Call them what you will, I still think—”
    No sooner had Jasper’s hand touched one of the staffs than a horrible wave of dread flowed through him. He broke into a cold sweat, and a series of painful jolts lanced through his forearm. Every time he tried to let go, his grip tightened painfully, as though he were being electrocuted. A scream rose in his throat, bursting out in strangled gasps. He closed his eyes and a dark ill suffused his body. He felt his head go light. When he opened his eyes, he was shocked to see both hands firmly gripping the shaft. The pain crept past his elbows, and dim voices echoed in the corners of his mind, but the growing pain drowned them out. With every passing second, the staff became heavier—either that, or he was growing weaker.
    The next thing Jasper knew, he was sitting on the ground, the pain clearing from his head and arms. The quarterstaff was no longer in his grip, and Nimlinn’s face was close, her thick paw raised as though she had just struck something out of his hands. He remembered a clattering sound, an iron tip rolling across stone, Nimlinn roaring.
    “Leave it!” said Nimlinn to Twizbang, who had raced over to the staff and was about to pick it up.
    Jasper’s vision cleared. Nimlinn lowered her paw and gave him a tentative sniff.
    “Are you well?” she asked.
    Still feeling a little dazed, Jasper looked down at his crooked fingers. They were stiff, and he had to press them against themselves and his chest to make them flex. The feeling of dread had passed, but in its place remained an unpleasant sickness, as though he had just thrown up. He looked into Nimlinn’s enormous eyes.
    “I d- d- don’t think I’ll be needing one of those after all,” he said in a quaking voice.
    “Good,” she answered briskly. “Then if you require nothing else, I believe we are finished here.”
    Snerliff and Twizbang helped Jasper to his feet. He was a little wobbly at first, and his knotted forearms could have used a good massage.
    “I’m all right,” he said. “You can let go.” Jasper looked up to Nimlinn. “If it’s all right with you, Your Majesty, I’ll be departing from here.”
    “It is not all right!” snapped Nimlinn.
    Jasper looked confused. “What?”
    “If you were to be separated from that coin, and someone else were to use it, someone dangerous, to return to—”
    “They would appear in this room!” blurted Jasper, recognition dawning on his face.
    “That is correct.”
    “Of course, how stupid of me. From where, then?”
    “Someplace safe to both of us. I will take you.”
    Nimlinn sped Jasper up the long stairwell, through the Palace Keep, and onto the lower ramparts, stopping just outside the Ridgegate.
    “There is always a watch here. I will instruct the guards to be on the lookout for you or Lily and to conduct you safely to the Palace on your return.”
    “And if someone else should come into possession of the coin?”
    “Then they will be ready for that, too. Delivering a single soul, even a powerful one, to our very doorstep is a risk I’m willing to take to guard your safety.”
    Jasper unbuttoned his new vest and drew out the pendant, palmed it, and flipped the fob that restrained the pincers. The little ring of gold moons shimmered a silvery white.
    “Do you have a plan, Jasper?” asked Nimlinn.
    “I need to follow in Lily’s footsteps, to see what she’s seen. Finding our uncle is priority one. He alone has all the answers.”
    “You could be heading into danger. Dain is a dangerous moon.”
    “Lily would have warned me if she thought I might be in danger.”
    “Things change.”
    “It hasn’t been very long. Besides, I can’t let worry make my decisions for me. I’ll be on my guard.”
    Nimlinn smiled. “May your shadows be few, and your pads be silent.”
    “Thank you, Your Majesty, for all