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Contents ( 50)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. PROLOGUE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  20. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  21. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  42. CHAPTER FORTY
  43. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  47. EPILOGUE
  48. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  49. Also by Liz Flanagan:
  50. COPYRIGHT

‘I didn’t want to come back till I’d made you proud.’

‘We’ve always been so proud of you,’ Nestan hugged Joe to him.

‘I’m sorry you thought I was …’ Joe couldn’t finish.

‘There was just one sighting of you after the storm … it gave us hope for a while,’ his father said, speaking into Joe’s hair, as he held him close. ‘We thought they’d been mis­taken. But you did survive, you did!’

It took a few hours to persuade them to let him out of their sight again. But by the time it grew dark, he had their blessing, and Joe felt lighter than he had in weeks. He left his parents with a warm farewell, promising to visit them as soon as he returned from finding the silverblue. Then he hurried through the tunnels and up again to join the others in Milla’s dragonhall, where she and Thom, with Winter, were getting ready for the trip.

Milla had hung a sign on the huge double doors, ordering them not to be disturbed, and it seemed to win them some privacy as they packed and planned for the journey. ‘Those eggs, Joe! They’re beautiful.’

‘Shadow dragons? Do you agree?’

‘Yes, there’s no doubt. You were right.’

Joe needed to hear that. He smiled at Milla and started helping to sort through their supplies. 131

‘And there’s something else,’ Milla said.

Joe looked up: she sounded awkward, as if there were something she wasn’t sure how to say.

‘Ah, er, it’s too late for these eggs to be given a hatching ceremony,’ she said quickly. ‘They’ve already bonded with you and Winter.’

Joe paused, hardly able to believe it. He remembered the spark under his fingertips, how strong the pull to his egg had always been. ‘I thought they had! I knew it! I always wanted the purple egg. Oh, Milla!’

He looked over to Winter. She’d obviously heard this already, and her smile was dazzling – soon, she would no longer be Dragonless …

‘Wait,’ Joe said. ‘How do you know?’

‘I just do,’ Milla mumbled.

‘Oh, tell him!’ Thom said.

‘Tell me what?’ Joe looked at his cousin uneasily. He’d always trusted her. Why was she keeping something from him now?

‘I can see it, that’s all,’ she said quickly. ‘The bond between people and dragons – I see it like a glow.’

‘That’s amazing!’ Joe said. ‘What does it look like?’

‘The colour of the dragon, usually. So the link between me and Iggie is blue; Thom and Ruby have a red one.’

‘Yes, we learned about this in dragonschool,’ Winter said. ‘About the bond between dragon and their person, and the ways to block it, using a barrier like yew wood, or a herb like lavender … But I never knew before that anyone could see it.’ 132

Joe could dream now of attending the dragonschool one day. He might finally get to learn everything he’d craved. ‘Can everyone do it? Do you learn how to see it at dragon­school?’