Spark the Fire by Melissa McShane

Author:Melissa McShane [McShane, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Night Harbor Publishing

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lamprophyre crouched as low as she could, coiling her tail around her left flank and furling her wings close along her back. With her eyes closed, she counted aloud, “…forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty! I hope you hid better than last time, because I’m coming for you!” She rose to her full height and stomped out of the embassy’s back door, making plenty of noise so the giggles were drowned out. She already knew where all the children were, but finding them immediately would spoil the game.

She made a show of scanning the rear of the embassy, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand rather than closing the nictitating membranes. Ohar crouched inside one of the unoccupied servants’ houses; she clearly heard him think she’ll find Rojital first, he’s too little to hide well. Lamprophyre controlled a smile. Ohar was in for a surprise.

She stomped away from the little houses—let Ohar think his ploy was working—and passed the kitchen where Rojital hid under one of the tables. There really weren’t many hiding places around the embassy, but Lamprophyre had promised the children’s parents they wouldn’t stray far from home. Varnak had gone to ground outside the kitchen, on its far side, and Anamika—she was clever; once Lamprophyre left by the back door, she’d moved from her exposed position by the entrance to hide inside the embassy itself, behind one of the slates propped against the wall. If Lamprophyre hadn’t already decided to let Rojital win, she might have given the honor to Anamika.

As it was, she decided to worry Anamika some by passing through the embassy slowly, making a great show of sniffing. The children believed it was how she found them, and she saw no reason to reveal the truth. She went out the back door, still sniffing, and walked slowly along the row of houses, bent over to peer inside.

“I’ve got you!” she exclaimed, throwing the door open and revealing Ohar.

Ohar groaned. “No fair,” he said. “I bathed!”

“And now you smell sweet and clean,” Lamprophyre said. Ohar scowled.

She “found” Varnak and then Anamika, then made a big show of searching for Rojital. Finally, she said, “I give up. Where are you, Rojital?”

“I’m here!” Rojital exclaimed, popping up from his hiding place. Lamprophyre laughed.

“I guess I’m too tall to see down there,” she said. “Though you have a wonderful scent.” She brought her face close to Rojital’s belly and drew in a long breath. Rojital giggled.

“Let’s do it again,” Anamika said.

“All right,” Lamprophyre said, “one more time.” She sniffed Rojital to make him laugh again. He did smell like a human that had had a bath recently, of the sweet, crisp scent of the soap his mother used, but also of dirt—Rojital got dirty faster than any human Lamprophyre knew—and, more distantly…but that wasn’t Rojital.

Lamprophyre lifted her head and scented the air. Wood smoke, dark and bitter and not far away. Something big was on fire nearby.

“Stay here, children,” she said, and took to the sky.

She saw it immediately: a column of dark smoke rising into the air about a dozen dragonlengths away.

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