Secret of the Dragon Egg (Dragon Riders of Avria Book 1)

by N. A. Davenport

  Downhill, between two fields of flax, a small grove of trees looked like they could be a possible hiding spot. Will drove Strider along the narrow road out to the group of trees to check, but Dancer wasn’t there.

  Still, the road he was on was a straight shot out of the stable, directly opposite the stable door. Will tried to put himself in the mind of a cormant, and he thought that if he was a scared cormant, he would choose this road to escape on. In most other directions, fences or bushes blocked the way.

  Will led Strider down the gentle slope between the fields, leaving the frantic, frightened crowd behind.

  Once he was away from the panicked bustle of the house staff, Will breathed a sigh of relief and turned his face up to the blue sky, feeling the warmth of the sun on his cheeks.

  A breeze rustled the tall grass, blowing a sweet earthy scent over him. The fluttering orange and black wings of butterflies flashed in the noonday light.

  In the distance, a group of bright-red dragons lazily circled the lake. Will watched them for a while until one tucked its wings and dropped in a steep dive, landing with a mighty splash in the water. Will’s breath caught in his throat at the sight.

  When he brought his attention back to the road, he noticed a winding creek sparkling as it flowed through the hayfield to join the river.

  Would Dancer head to the creek for a drink of water after fleeing the stable? Maybe. It seemed worth checking anyway.

  Will guided Strider down the weedy dirt road to get a closer look. When they made it to the top of the bank, sure enough, the runaway cormant was by the water lifting her dripping beak from the shallow stream.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Will brought Strider to a stop, grabbed the extra halter and lead, and made his way down the slope toward her.

  Dancer turned her head toward him and shied away, flapping her wings and slashing the ground with her talons in warning.

  Will slowed down and moved to her side, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to kick him as easily if he wasn’t right in front of her. “Take it easy, Dancer. It’s just me.” He spoke in the soft voice that always put her at ease when he was grooming her or cleaning out her bedding.

  Dancer cocked her head at him, then seemed to recognize Will as the harmless boy who brushed her feathers and gave her food every day. She relaxed, her muscles loosened, and she turned to dip her beak into the clear flowing water again.

  Will crept forward until he was close enough to place a hand softly on her side, stroking the purple feathers in front of her wings. Dancer lowered her head when he lifted the halter to strap it around her beak and readily walked back to the cart with him, eager to get back to her comfortable stall.

  On the way up the bank, Will noticed she was walking with a strange, mincing step on her right leg. He tied her to the cart and bent down to take a closer look. On the back of her right leg, a thin trickle of blood oozed from a cut in her tough orange hide.

  Will ground his teeth and scowled. Tavin did this! He was sure of it. How else would he convince Dancer to run away from her stall when she was so close to laying?

  Will ran his hand lightly along Dancer’s leg, testing her skin for heat or swelling. Dancer flinched from his touch.

  “All right, girl.” He sighed and shook his head. “Let me clean the blood and dirt off before we go back.”

  He left Dancer at the cart and returned to the stream to scoop some cold water into his hands, then carefully walked it back to Dancer and poured it over the cut.

  Most of the fresh blood rinsed away, but a little dirt remained, so he returned to the stream for more water. As he was climbing the bank, hands cupping sloshing water, his foot slipped and Will fell to the ground. The water splashed into the dirt.

  Dancer and Strider squawked in surprise.

  “Ugh. Ow!” Will sat up and gripped his injured foot. The fall had pulled at the still-healing flesh, sending a stab of pain through the arch.

  Gingerly, he stood and carefully put weight on his aching foot.

  He was about to turn back to the stream to get more water when he noticed a glint, like gold, peeking through the dirt where his foot had slipped.

  He crouched down to examine it, spreading the overgrown weeds and grass with his hands to see it better.

  In the spot where his shoe had slipped, a thin crust of dirt had scraped away, revealing a golden metallic surface, lightly textured like a well-worn river stone.

  Will ripped up the weeds and scraped away more dirt with his hands, revealing more of the shining object.

  What could it be? His first thought was that he’d discovered an enormous piece of gold. Could he sell it so his family could leave Elder Madoc’s estate? Could they use it to pay a dragon rider to look for his uncle and get them home?

  As he dug around the curve of the object, he noticed that the material felt hard, but not like metal, more like bone or dense wood. And the more he revealed, the more amazed he grew. It wasn’t a discarded chunk of shiny material, or a natural mineral at all.

  He lifted the object out of the hole, gently rinsed it in the river, and set it in a tuft of grass to examine what he’d found.

  It was an egg. Unmistakably, unquestionably an egg. Much bigger than the shells of cormant eggs on display in the stable, this egg looked large enough for a cat to curl up inside. Its perfect shell gleamed in shades of metallic gold, blue, and green.

  Will ran his fingers over the surface, feeling the texture of it. The shell was cold to the touch, the same temperature as the icy stream rushing past. How long had it been buried in the mud? Was it possible that the creature inside was still alive?

  He shook his head with a frown. Impossible. How could any living thing survive being buried for so long? However it had ended up underground, it had obviously been there for a long time with the earth packed in hard around it and weeds growing over the top of it.

  He carried the egg to the cart and gently nestled it into the wool cormant blankets, making sure it wouldn’t jostle when the cart moved. Though the shell felt hard and dense, he didn’t want to risk cracking it.

  Will finished rinsing off Dancer’s leg and did a quick search of the area to be sure she hadn’t laid her own egg anywhere. It was pretty clear she hadn’t. Gellan had told him cormants didn’t leave their eggs unguarded. She wouldn’t have let him walk her back to the cart if she had.

  He climbed back into the cart and drove back to the stable, his mind a whirl of activity.

  He couldn’t believe it. He’d actually found a dragon egg!

  He wasn’t sure what it would mean to him or his family, since it was so cold and probably dead, but he felt sure that somehow everything was about to change.

  Chapter Ten

  When the stable came into view over the hills, most of Elder Madoc’s staff was still searching for Dancer, wandering the fields and roads, calling and whistling.

  As soon as Strider pulled the cart over the crest of the hill, one of them spotted Will and shouted to the others. A crowd quickly rushed over to the cart, exclaiming in surprise and amazement that Will had found Dancer so quickly and brought her back safely all on his own.

  Gellan pushed his way to the front and immediately noticed the cut on the cormant’s leg. He grabbed her lead and quickly led her back to her stall to treat it with medicine while the rest of the crowd stayed to ask Will questions, help him with the cart, and congratulate him on his success. Will could barely get a word in edge-wise while everyone clambered around him on his way to the barn.

  “Where did you find her?” one footman asked.

  “All the way out at the creek in—”

  “I wonder why she ran so far!” a housemaid cut in.

  “I think someone made her go. The cut on her leg—”

  “You think someone beat her? Who would do such a thing?”

  “Well, I don’t know for sure—”

  “By the white dragon! What is this?”

  The last voice came from the back of the cart whe
re a young footman had climbed up to clear away the blankets.

  The others gathered around to look. When everyone saw what the footman had found, the commotion died down to complete silence.

  Will pushed his way through the closely packed bodies until he stood at the side of the cart, gazing at the dragon egg with the rest of them.

  “It’s . . . a dragon egg. Isn’t it?” Will asked.

  A hushed murmur of agreement from the crowd confirmed it was, indeed, a dragon egg.

  “But look at it,” an old woman said. “I’ve never seen one that color before.”

  The young man in the cart touched it gently, then drew his hand back. “It’s cold. Aren’t they supposed to be warm?”

  The barn doors opened, and Gellan joined them. He frowned at the crowd. “What’s all this about?”

  “Will’s found a dragon egg,” several voices chimed at once.

  The young footman jumped down from the cart, and the crowd parted to allow Gellan to approach. They were all still murmuring to one another in amazement.

  “A dragon egg?” Gellan rubbed his prickly chin with his hand as he eyed the egg nestled in blankets. Then he glanced around at the crowd before turning to Will with a slightly hurt expression. “I didn’t know you were searching, Will. Is this why you wanted to go yourself to find Dancer?”

  Will blinked. “No . . . no! I was only looking for Dancer. I found the egg by accident. I slipped and fell and . . . there it was.”

  Gellan raised his bushy eyebrows incredulously. Then he chuckled and shook his head. “Well, I never would’ve—”

  Whatever he was about to say was drowned out in the sudden roar of Elder Madoc shouting his name. “Gellan! Where is that boy of yours?”

  The whole crowd jumped and turned at the sound.

  Before Elder Madoc stepped into view, Gellan snatched a leather bag off the equipment wall, the kind usually buckled to the inside of a cart for carrying small tools and supplies that might fall through the guardrails, and slid the egg inside.

  “A gift for your journey,” he muttered, handing the bag to Will.

  Will wasn’t sure what to say, or what was going on, but then Elder Madoc came barreling around the corner and spotted them.

  “So, the boy found my cormant? And I’d like to know how he found it so quickly!” He didn’t slow down when he entered the barn, marching toward the crowd with his eyes sharply on Will.

  The others shrank back at his approach, leaving Will out front to face the elder alone.

  “You were the last one in the stable before she escaped, isn’t that right?” he demanded, coming to a stop right in front of Will with his fists planted on his hips. “And you just happen to be the only one who could find her, too. I’m starting to think you’re the one behind all this!”

  “I didn’t do it,” Will said, seething. He clutched the leather bag, holding the dragon egg to his chest. Something about the elder’s aggressive posture made him feel like he should protect the egg.

  “If it wasn’t you, who else could it have been? You were the last in the stable. That makes you responsible!”

  “That’s why I went out to find her! But I’m not the one who let her out. It was Tavin . . .” Will stopped and gulped nervously, taking a step back. He hadn’t meant to mention Tavin by name, and the look on Elder Madoc’s face told him it would have been better if he hadn’t.

  “Do you really expect me to believe . . .”

  Will backed farther away from the force of Elder Madoc's stare. Instinctively, Will wrapped his arms around the dragon egg to shield it. Elder Madoc noticed. He glared at the bag in Will’s arms and jabbed one of his thick fingers toward it.

  “What is that you’re holding?” he snapped.

  Will tensed, but he knew it would be better to show Elder Madoc than try to hide the egg. With all these witnesses present, he wouldn’t dare try to hurt it, would he?

  Slowly, he loosened his grip on the bag and let the top fall open, revealing the shining gold eggshell within.

  The elder stepped closer and pulled the lip of the bag open more. He stared in silence while a range of emotions flashed across his face. First, he looked amazed, then irritated, then suspicious. Finally, he went back to looking furious, but it was a different kind of anger than before. He’d come into the barn burning with rage. Now his anger felt cold, hard, and calculating.

  “Come with me, boy.” He spoke quietly, but his voice was a seething snarl that sent shivers down Will’s spine. He turned and stormed out of the stable.

  Will glanced at the worried faces of the rest of the staff. Gellan nodded once, telling Will to do as he was told.

  Fighting the urge to run away, Will gave Gellan a quick nod and trotted after Elder Madoc to catch up.

  The elder led Will through the main doors of the manor, and for the first time, Will got to see the splendor of the wealthy man’s house. Thick woven wool rugs covered the floor. The walls were polished dark wood. A wide staircase curved up to the mezzanine above. Bright copper oil lamps and chandeliers illuminated everything. Will suddenly felt underdressed and dirty in his stable boy outfit.

  Elder Madoc led him up the stairs, down a hall past several stone-faced footmen, and into a room with cushioned chairs, a carved wooden desk, and shelves filled with musty leather-bound books. A map mounted to the wall behind the desk caught Will’s attention, showing a large island with cities, forests, and mountains labeled. One city, near the southern coast, was labeled Aldlake.

  Will stared at the map in amazement while Elder Madoc stomped over to his desk and poured a glass of blood-red wine. The elder took a gulp and sighed. Then he fixed Will in his stare.

  “I suppose you’re going to tell me that thing is a dragon’s egg,” he rumbled.

  Will’s eyes snapped away from the map. “Yes, it is.” He lifted his chin, trying not to feel intimidated.

  “Where did you find it?”

  “I found it after I found Dancer by the creek.”

  Madoc started pacing behind his desk. “You can’t keep it. You’ll put it back tomorrow so someone else can find it.”

  Will clenched his teeth. “Why? So you can tell Tavin where it is? I won’t do it. It’s mine!”

  “Swarms, boy!” Madoc slapped his hands down on the desk. “Do you know what finding a dragon egg means?”

  “It means you have to let me go to the hatching ground, doesn’t it? It means I could become a dragon rider.”

  This seemed to surprise Elder Madoc. He pushed away from the desk and paced to the wall, running his fingers through his beard. After a moment, he turned and glared at Will again. “I don’t have to let you do anything. There is obviously something wrong with that egg. It isn’t even alive. I know what dragon eggs look like. They’re not supposed to look like that!” He jabbed a finger at Will’s bag.

  “But the law says you have to—”

  “I tell you that egg is dead!”

  “Does the law say the egg has to be alive?” Will asked, raising his chin in challenge. He could feel his cheeks heating and his palms sweating.

  Elder Madoc turned away, waved his hand with a disgusted grunt, and started pacing again.

  “Then you have to let me go, don’t you?”

  Elder Madoc stopped and stared at the shelves of books on his wall. “So this is the thanks I get for saving you? Taking your family in? Treating your injured foot with my own medicine? For giving you to Gellan to be trained as a stable hand?”

  Will’s anger fizzled a little when he heard this. It was true. Elder Madoc might not be the kindest or most understanding person he’d ever met, but he had helped his family when they needed it.

  “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” the elder said. “I’m taking you to the master bard of Aldlake, we’ll show him this dead egg, and that will be the end of it.”

  “What does some bard have to do with anything?” Will asked, relaxing his grip on his bag a little. In his mind, bards were traveling musicians
, not people important enough to have authority over someone like Elder Madoc.

  “When it comes to dragon law, everything.” Elder Madoc turned and gripped the back of his chair. “We’ll go at first light. Be ready. Now leave.” He waved his hand toward a servant’s door in the back of the room, designed so much to look like part of the wall it was barely visible.

  Will clutched his egg and crossed the room to the door. As he pushed it open, entering the dark, narrow hallway, he heard Elder Madoc grumbling about dead eggs and swarming nuisances.

  He breathed a sigh of relief as he made his way downstairs to the dining hall for dinner. Even though it still seemed like he was in trouble, at least Elder Madoc had forgotten about blaming Will for Dancer’s escape.

  When he arrived in the dining hall, all the attention was instantly on him. Everyone from the groundskeepers to Madoc’s steward, who usually took his meals in his quarters, gathered around to examine the egg and ask Will about it. How did he find it? Had he been looking for a dragon egg all along? Was he secretly on an egg-hunting team? What type of dragon was he hoping to bond with? It bothered Will a little that he didn’t know how to answer most of their questions.

  His finding a dragon egg seemed to be an event of such magnitude that it pushed Dancer’s escape from their minds. Nobody seemed worried about the runaway cormant anymore. Will was beginning to understand how important the traditions around dragons and dragon riders were to the people of Avria.

  What bothered him most of all was how often everyone claimed that his egg must be dead.

  “Oh, look at that shell! It’s too bad you didn’t find a live egg.”

  “You found it buried in the ground? I wonder how long it’s been there.”

  “Cold as ice. Aren’t they usually warm? Well, never mind that. You can still take it up Fire Mountain.”

  “Don’t worry, boy, there will be plenty of live eggs on the hatching ground if you make it on time. One of those hatchlings might choose you.”

  When Will joined his parents in their loft that night, they already knew about his egg. It seemed like everyone knew about it. It was all anyone was talking about.