The Lost Lands by Jessica Khoury

Author:Jessica Khoury [Khoury, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

D’Mara supervised the forging closely, watching every movement the smith made. Melding dragon scales together was a delicate process, even more so when the scales were still attached to a live dragon. It had to hurt quite a lot, but Valkea bore it silently, her eyes shut and her only sign of pain a thin tendril of smoke that curled from her nostrils. D’Mara was impressed by the dragon’s fortitude.

The smith embedded the Silver scale in the center of Valkea’s forehead, where Tamra said the ancient Raptors had borne theirs. To fit it, the smith first had to pull out one of the Valkea’s own scales, and a trickle of dark blood ran down the Red’s snout from the procedure. But not once did Valkea grumble or complain.

“There,” said the smith at last. He was a brawny man with a large black beard and a bald head, but despite towering over D’Mara, he quivered at her approach. “Mistress Lennix, if you’re pleased with my work, perhaps you’d consider freeing my family now? I beg you.”

D’Mara almost snapped at him to shut up but bit her tongue. “If this scale works,” she said, “and the Lost Lands are opened to us at last, then of course your family will be returned to you.”

She had no idea what state the man’s family was in. For all she knew, they’d already been made into Raptor snacks. But it didn’t matter. Nothing in this world would matter once she reached the Lost Lands. She might well never return here again.

But the smith’s work was admirable. The Silver scale looked as if it had grown there on Valkea’s skin. It was held in place by small points all around it where the smith had welded the metal of her other scales to it. The only way it would ever be removed would be if half the scales on Valkea’s face were pulled out by their roots.

D’Mara laid her hand on the Silver scale, and Valkea let her. She shut her eyes and tried to feel its power, but it only felt cold.

“We will return to the fortress,” she said. “And then you, Valkea, will lead the First Flight into the Lost Lands.”

“Somarla lessa,” said Valkea. Let it be so.

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