A Dragon in the Palace by William King

Author:William King [King, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
Google: h8WfDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07TRHHNJZ
Goodreads: 46680596
Publisher: Typhon Press
Published: 2019-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

After that night I got better rapidly. Master Lucas pronounced my fever broken. Mistress Iliana continued to regard the dragonling with suspicion but nothing untoward happened after that. Red was noticeably heavier when he lay across my chest now. He seemed to have put on several pounds. And he was longer, by at least the length of my hand. His scales were becoming deeper and glossier red.

“I think we are going to be all right, boy,” I said to him. He nodded his head as if he agreed.

My appetite returned and I could eat. At first it was a struggle to do so without throwing it up into the bowl the servant boy held for me. But I managed to get some nourishment.

Slowly the elixir was tapered off. I got headaches. I felt shaky as if the absence of the drug was doing something to my body. I felt a craving for it in a way that I never had before. I wanted just to feel the taste of it on my tongue. Master Lucas never offered me any more and when I asked about the elixir, he looked at me with narrowed eyes and spoke with his suspicion in his voice.

“You have already had more of that potion than is good for you,” he said. “Your body has developed a dependency on it and you’re going to feel bad for a few days after it is withdrawn.”

“I have already felt bad for a few weeks,” I said. “It hardly seems fair.”

“That’s life for you,” Master Lucas said jovially. It was easy for him to say. He was not the one who was sick.

For distraction, I had many visitors among them Ghoran and Jay. Lady Alysia continued to visit me every day and I was delighted to see her although there were always other people present so we could not talk without restraint.

Frater Jonas showed up bearing books and a wax tablet. He and the servant helped prop me up in bed and the tablet was set in front of me. Jonas said, “I’m glad to see that you have recovered. Some people did not expect you to pull through.”

I said, “I’m sorry to disappoint them.”

“They are all happy that you are well,” he said. “As am I. I invested a lot of time in teaching you and I would hate to think it had gone to waste.”

He smiled to let me know he was joking but I sensed there was some truth behind his words.

We began to talk. It seemed that he had been familiarising himself with more of the Palace and he talked with great animation about the Duke’s collection and things he had seen there. He seemed particularly enthusiastic about the armour of the angels preserved in the Glass Wing. He was hardly less enthusiastic about some of the paintings. The library also gave him joy. He enumerated the virtues of many of the volumes. And then he said, “and soon, hopefully, you will be able to read them.

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