I willed my mouth to stillness. I needed to keep my thoughts from thinking – Raolcan. I would think of Raolcan.
“Your dragon. Ah. Even the subconscious can betray you. Did you realize that?” Starie sounded so much older than she had before – she had grown up from the petty child whining for her own way.
Her head shot up from studying the Pipe to pin me with her hidden gaze. “Your friend Savette sees the light, doesn’t she?”
We both knew that.
“And I see the darkness,” Starie said. “Tell me, Amel, what is the night sky, but darkness? What is the universe, but deep, fathomless darkness? What is the ocean, the cavern, the heart and mind of man but endless darkness? When you stand in bright light it blinds you, but in the darkness, your eyes grow wider. You think that darkness has stunted me? What a joke! It has opened my eyes. I grow to fill the darkness, to fill the never-ending void. I am already greater than you think. Imagine what I shall become before the end.”
I shivered.
“Yes,” she said. “I see that you comprehend.”
She twisted the Pipe in her hands, but she wouldn’t be able to play it. At least I had that to comfort me. Jalla hadn’t been able to do anything with it no matter what she tried.
Only I could play the Pipe.
Starie laughed, lifted the Pipe to her lips and played three notes so crystal perfect that it was like she had been playing all her life.
Gnats swarmed into the tent, biting and filling my eyes, nose, and mouth. She played again, and they were gone, leaving me coughing and gasping for air.
I felt like I couldn’t breathe, like the world was going dark, and everything around me was being sapped of color. She couldn’t ... wouldn’t ...
“Don’t underestimate me.” Starie tucked the Pipe down the neck of her dress. “Anything you have, I can take.”
My heartbeat filled my ears, pounding, pounding, pounding until my head was swimming and my vision was dotted with bright, lightning-bug lights.
She had the Pipe.
She could control dragons.
It was all over.
“For you ... it is all over.” Her voice had a lull to it like a song for a child.
And then in the middle of my panic, a faint voice rang in my mind.
Amel?
Raolcan! He was alive.
Where are you?
I’m here! I’m here!
Read the rest of Amel’s story in Dragon School: Starie Night
Behind the Scenes:
USA Today bestselling author, Sarah K. L. Wilson loves spinning a yarn and if it paints a magical new world, twists something old into something reborn, or makes your heart pound with excitement ... all the better! Sarah hails from the rocky Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario -
learning patience and tenacity from the long months of icy cold - where she lives with her husband and two small boys. You might find her building fires in her woodstove and wishing she had a dragon handy to light them for her.
Sarah would like to thank Harold Trammel, Eugenia Kollia, and Sarah Brown for their incredible work in beta reading and proofreading this book. Without their big hearts and passion for stories, this book would not be the same.
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Dragon School Reading Order:
Dragon School: First Flight
Dragon School: Initiate
Dragon School: The Dark Prince
Dragon School: The Ruby Isles
Dragon School: Sworn
Dragon School: Dusk Covenant
Dragon School: First Message
Dragon School: Warring Promises
Dragon School: Prince of Dragons
Dragon School: Dark Night
Dragon School: Bright Hopes
Dragon School: Mark of Loyalty
Dragon School: Dire Quest
Dragon School: Ancient Allies
Dragon School: Pipe of Wings
Dragon School: Dragon Piper
Dragon School: Dust of Death
Dragon School: Troubled War
Dragon School: Bitter Darkness
Find them all on their Amazon series page.
Why Novellas?
I love watching television series. I don’t really like movies, because they’re simply too short of a story arc for me. I prefer long, drawn out stories in smaller, bite-sized episodes. Dragon School is my book version of the television dramas that I love. I’m writing the type of series I want to read – long and rich but with short episodes I can read in a single evening. I hope that you’ll enjoy this format as much as I do. I am planning approximately twenty episodes (we’re almost there!) for the first season. The first season will be a complete, self-contained story.
There is a second season planned for 2019 that will continue in the same world and timeline with a new main character and dragon. Many of the beloved characters from Dragon School will pop in and out of the story, so you won’t miss them too badly. Stay tuned for Dragon School: Chameleon!