"Brown,.Mary.-.Unicorn's.Ring.4.-.1999.-.Dragonne's.Eg" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Mary)

DRAGONNE'S EG
MARY BROWN
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book
are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely
coincidental.
Copyright (c) 1999 by Mary Brown
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
ISBN: 0-671-57810-3
Cover art by Bob Eggleton
First printing, June 1999
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Typeset by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America
This is for you,
Sam,
with my special love!
Acknowledgments
My thanks as usual to my husband Peter, whose patience appears to increase as
mine decreases!
Thanks also for the support of the "Baen Family" always there if needed.
Last, but not least, as a reward for his persistent interest, I shall dedicate
this book to Sam,
my own "Beau Thai". . . .
DRAGONS HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR
The unicorn-like creature heard the roar from where he lay in the mid-morning
shadows among the bonsai trees. Ky-Lin sprang upright, thinking for a moment
that the Blue Mountain had erupted again, but recognised immediately that the
noise came from the harsh, cacophonous voices of the dragons. They were clearly
upset.
He did a quick transformation, desk-ornament size to pony size and trotted along
in the afternoon heat, his hooves throwing up little puffs of dust.
As he neared the Blue Mountain, he heard a sudden clatter of leathery wings
above. Claws seized his shoulders and he was borne upwards into the air with a
whoosh! and a sinking lurch in his stomach. He saw the plain beneath him
disappear with alarming speed.
One of the dragons had pounced on him and was carrying him higher and higher
towards the northeast, but to what purpose? Was he to be dropped from a great
height, to be smashed to smithereens? Made into a snack for the dragons' dinner?
But perhaps they had something less violent in mind.
The next moment they started to drop like stones. Beneath them the black maw of
the mountain rose up with frightening speed: a dark blot, an inky puddle, an
ebony lake—the mouth of Hell itself!
The dragon braked sharply at the last moment, then did a neat landing in the