Last Dragon Rider

Luke Aylen

Description

'With a plucky, compelling heroine, a novel steampunk-styled device, and a dragon, of course, this may well be the best book of the three!' - Bob Hartman, author and performance storytellerStreet-smart Anavah lives a tough life on the crime-ridden streets of northern Presadia. But when a mysterious tinker gives her a curious set of crystal goggles, she discovers a powerful magic that will change her life forever.Drawn into an adventure that stretches across time and space, she learns about the legendary dragon riders and is caught up in events that will transform Presadias history.The question is: what part will Anavah play? Her life to date has taught her to trust no one, but that instinct may have devastating consequencesEnter Presadia one more time to experience a third dazzling adventure. Meet friends old and new, and learn of the trust, betrayal, fear, bravery, greed, and sacrifice of individuals that lead to a struggle for Presadias very existence.

Sujets

• Children's

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781782643166
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

T HE L AST D RAGON R IDER
A moving story of a broken child on a dragon-flight to hope and healing. Reminiscent of Narnia but with lots more dragons!
- Julia Golding , author of The Tigers in the Tower , The Curious Crime , and the Cat Royal series
With a plucky, compelling heroine, a novel steampunk-styled device, and a dragon, of course, this may well be the best book of the three!
- Bob Hartman , author and performance storyteller

A N A DVENTURE IN P RESADIA S ERIES
The Mirror and the Mountain The Forgotten Palace The Last Dragon Rider
Text copyright 2020 Luke Aylen This edition copyright 2020 Lion Hudson IP Limited
The right of Luke Aylen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Lion Hudson Limited Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Business Park Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England www.lionhudson.com
ISBN 978 1 78264 315 9 eISBN 978 1 78264 316 6
First edition 2020
Cover image acknowledgments
Dragon eye Refluo/shutterstock.com
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
For Mum, Dad, the Knells (especially Matt), and Lisselle, who have been my biggest supporters in writing this series
C ONTENTS
1 Cows, Crabs, and a Scary Hippopotamus
2 The Man in the Junkyard
3 The Tinkerer
4 The Crystal Goggles
5 Visions
6 The Order of Dragons
7 The Tree-Worm
8 The Withered Tree
9 Karagnoord
10 Squiggly Time
11 The Palace
12 The King s Letter
13 Whispers in the Dark
14 Dragon Snores
15 Fire and Tears
16 Flight
17 Training
18 The Chase
19 Restday
20 The Room of Many Trinkets
21 Kalithor
22 The Happy Centaur
23 Betrayal
24 Khoree s Anger
25 The King
26 Tenth Bell
27 Stolen Power
28 Capture
29 The Dragon Riders
30 The Spy
31 A Thief in the Night
32 The Dumb Waiter
33 The Order Complete
34 Dragon Slayer
35 Dolostone s Honour
36 The Aftermath
37 A Matter of Head and Heart
38 The Last Dragon Rider

1
C OWS , C RABS, AND A S CARY H IPPOPOTAMUS

These annals are to be kept in the palace library and updated as required to record the history of The King s Order of Dragons for future generations.
Preface to The Annals of the Order of Dragons , undated

T hief!
The market trader s angry bellow echoed around the narrow street, drowning out even the loud hubbub of the morning shoppers and the rumbling thunder. That thunder had almost become a constant feature. It wasn t even raining but still the evil-looking sky growled at them like an angry dog.
Anavah dropped the stolen fizzfruit into a pocket designed specifically for the purpose. Tall buildings lined the street, each one different from the next and soaring up four or five storeys. Between them, the crowded marketplace was crammed with densely packed stalls and bustling people with crates and baskets, some eager to buy food and goods from the recently docked ships, others trying to sell their wares.
Stop that girl!
Of course, there were also many like Anavah who didn t have money or goods to buy and sell. They had to acquire things a different way. Thieves, pickpockets, and other questionable characters were common in Peresea. It was Presadia s biggest port town, after all. With so many ships and traders there were rich pickings on offer.
Fortunately, few people took notice of the indignant market trader with so much noise around them. Still, Anavah needed to get away quickly. She darted through the crowd, as sleek and street-smart as a feral cat.
She had acquired plenty of practice in the five years since she had first arrived there. In fact, it felt as though she had been in Peresea her whole life. Yet there had been another life - another world - beforehand. She didn t know what it was called but it certainly hadn t been anywhere in Presadia. It was hazy and dreamlike these days, but things had been very different there
No. Don t think about that.
She had been eight when she arrived. Around five years had passed since then, though sometimes it felt like only yesterday.
It s in the past. It s gone. It doesn t exist.
Anavah looked back. The angry market trader was trying to follow her, his face more purple than the fizzfruits he was selling. He had no chance of catching her though. She was a cat and he was an old pregnant cow. He lumbered from side to side, clumsy and slow, his big belly hindering him as he tried to squeeze through the tightly packed crowd.
He shook his pudgy fist at her. You come back here!
Anavah poked out her tongue at the cow man, feeling smug. Everyone was like an animal if she looked hard enough. A tall, ungainly person might be a giraffe, while a small, shy person was more likely to be a tortoise. Anavah preferred animals to people. Animals seemed to like her.
When she had first arrived, Anavah had discovered that there were all kinds of creatures that had never existed where she came from. A few lived right here in Peresea and along the surrounding coastline. Snap-lizards sunbathed on the quayside, their mouths open like unfurled flowers. Unsuspecting insects would land there and get eaten right up. There were water-worms: stubby, blind, scaled things that seemed to do little other than lie on the bottom of the seabed. Although they were big, they were too tough and chewy for even the poorest and hungriest of people to eat.
When she wasn t stealing food to survive, Anavah liked to listen to the sailors telling of their exotic adventures. They hung around in gaggles by the ships or outside inns to brag about the wonders they had seen and the adventures they had been on. Anavah didn t believe the tales of their heroic exploits. She was sure they were exaggerated or made up. What captivated her were stories of weird and wonderful animals; creatures like gruffle-worts, magma-worms, griffins, and even dragons!
Guards, stop that child! the cow-like trader mooed again, pointing.
Anavah knew that she stood out. Peresea was filled with all sorts of people, but few had dark skin and frizzy hair like hers. She slid under a cartload of coal, almost tripping up the northern dwarf overseeing the human slaves who were busy pulling it. Poor things! That s why Anavah didn t ever want to get caught. Criminals were sold to the northern dwarves as slaves to work in their mines and factories; a practice she hadn t known existed until she arrived in Peresea. There were supposedly other dwarves to the south who refused to use slaves, but the dwarves in Peresea never hesitated to snatch beggars right off the street. She made sure to dart quickly away from this dwarf in case he made a grab for her.
She squeezed past a tattooed elf. They were less common in Peresea, but she had seen a few around. It was said that they could talk to animals and even trees! If only she could talk to animals.
As she passed the elf a heavy hand grabbed her shoulder. She turned to face a stiff wall of chain mail and scarlet cloak. Anavah didn t need to look up to know that it was a guard. This was the last person she wanted to crash into!
If Anavah were a wildcat and the fizzfruit merchant a pregnant cow, this guard was a hippopotamus. Hippos were not as friendly as people thought. They could outrun a sprinting grown-up and were actually one of the most dangerous animals alive. At least, they certainly were where she had come from. Anavah had yet to meet anyone who had heard of a hippo here. This was another of the strange things about Peresea that she had grown used to. Of course, even she had never seen a hippo in the flesh; she had only read about them in her old life. It was her mum who had taught her to read
No. Don t think about her.
The hippo guard turned out to be a ginormous woman, who towered over the rest of the crowd. She stood there, as solid and calm as a stone wall, but radiating a dangerous aura.
Guard, catch that girl! She s a thief! The merchant s bovine bellow carried right down the street.
The iron hand tightened its grip. You re not going anywhere, little lady.
Anavah glared up at the guard s merciless face.
Scapwollop! she shouted. It was the rudest word she could think of, and it had the desired effect. The guard s eyebrows shot up in shock. Anavah instinctively sagged, her entire body going floppy. The guard, who had expected her captive to run, was caught by surprise as Anavah collapsed into a heap onto the cobbled road. The hippo dived for the wildcat, but in the tightly packed street the belly flop only caused her to crash into other people.
A slender man balancing a large basket on his head was knocked right over by the guard, and the contents of his basket - hundreds of live crabs - came raining down on the heads of all the unsuspecting shoppers. Utter pandemonium ensued as those nearby found themselves showered in wriggling, pinching crustaceans.
An elegant lady, regal and beautiful just moments earlier, was reduced to a squawking crow, screaming and batting her hands as she tried to untangle a persistent crab from her hair. A plump man, who Anavah thought looked like a potato - not actually an animal but accurate nonetheless - waved his arms in distress, pleading with those around him to help extract a crab that had somehow managed to hook its pincers on to his pudgy nose. A street urchin laughed in delight as she gathered up some of the spilled critters for a free supper.
People started pressing in, trying to see what was going on. For a moment Anavah was dumbstruck, awed by the scale of the drama she had unintentionally caused. Fortunately, the guard was suitably distracted. Anavah regained her wits and slipped between the stout hippopotamus leg