tracey
west
P
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P
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F
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E
D
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G
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N
O F
T H E
O F
T H E
by
Tracey West
illustrated
by
Graham Howells
Read All the Books
1
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2
4
HOLD YOUR FIRE!
. . . .
. . . . . .
. . . .
. .
THE DRAGON SHOW
. .
. . . .
. . . .
. . .
WHAT ABOUT WORM?
. .
. . . .
. . .
A WIZARD FOR A BABYSITTER
. .
BEHOLD, THE DRAGONS!
. . .
. . . . .
TROUBLE IN THE TOWER
. . .
. . . .
GUARDING THE CASTLE
.
. . . . . . .
THE HYDRA
.
. . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . . . . . .
MALDRED'S PLAN
. . .
.
. .
. . . . . . . . .
RORI TO THE RESCUE
. .
. . . .
. . . .
THE RED DRAGON STONE!
. .. . . .
POOF!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .
. . . .
. . . . . .
THE QUEEN'S SURPRISE
. . .
. . . . . .
A NEW DRAGON?
.
. .
.
. . . . .
. . . . .
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Text copyright ©
2015 by Tracey West
Interior illustrations copyright ©
2015 by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.,
Publishers since 1920
.
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,
branches
,
and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for
author or third-party websites or their content.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in
or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether
electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission
of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions
Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
West, Tracey, 1965- author.
Power of the fire dragon / by Tracey West ; illustrated by Graham Howells.
pages cm. — (Dragon masters ; 4)
Summary: When the king decides to take the dragons to Arkwood to visit Queen Rose,
Rori, Drake and their dragons are left behind — so when the evil wizard Maldred attacks the castle
riding a giant four-headed dragon that spits poison, the two young dragon masters
and their dragons are forced to defend the castle by themselves.
ISBN 0-545-64631-6 (pbk.) — ISBN 0-545-64632-4 (hardcover) — ISBN 0-545-64636-7 (ebook) — ISBN
0-545-75484-4 (eba ebook) 1. Dragons — Juvenile fiction. 2. Wizards — Juvenile fiction. 3. Magic — Juvenile
fiction. 4. Adventure stories. [1. Dragons — Fiction. 2. Wizards — Fiction. 3. Magic — Fiction. 4. Adventure
and adventurers — Fiction.] I. Howells, Graham, illustrator. II. Title. III. Series: West, Tracey, 1965- Dragon
Masters ; 4.
PZ7.W51937Pntp 2015
813.54 — dc23
[Fic] 2014033958
e-ISBN 978-0-545-64636-9
F
irst edition, August 2015
Illustrated by Graham Howells
Edited by Katie Carella
Book design by Jessica Meltzer
FO
r
My neph
eW
S dAniel And COLin
,
who would be excellent Dragon Masters. –TW
V
ulcan, no!” Rori yelled.
Her big, red dragon shot fire from his
mouth. The fire hit a bush. The bush burst
into flames.
“Shu, quickly!” Bo called out.
HOLd yOuR fiRe!
A blue dragon darted through the
air. A stream of water flowed from her
mouth onto the fire.
“Thank you, Shu,” said Bo, petting his
Water Dragon.
“Vulcan,” Rori said to her dragon. “I said
to hold your fire!”
“Maybe he only heard
fire
,” said Drake,
trying to be helpful.
Drake was eight years old, and a Dragon
Master. His friends Rori, Bo, and Ana were
Dragon Masters, too. A magic stone called
the Dragon Stone had chosen them. And each
of them had a dragon to care for and train.
Today all four Dragon Masters and their
dragons were in the Valley of Clouds behind
King Roland’s castle. They were getting
ready for a special event.
“Rori, you must keep Vulcan under control,”
warned Griffith, the wizard who trained the
Dragon Masters. He turned to the others. “King
Roland will be here soon. He wants to see what
your dragons can do.”
“Is he really going to take us — and our
dragons
—
; to the Kingdom of Arkwood?”
asked Ana. Her dark eyes were shining. “I've
heard that
ueen Rose’s summer festival is
wonderful.”
“Yes,” Griffith replied. “The king plans to
show off the dragons at the festival.”
“Then the dragons won’t be a secret any
longer!” said Drake. “We can finally tell our
families about them.”
“And everyone will see what an amazing
dragon Vulcan is!” Rori added.
Griffith looked worried.
“What’s wrong, Griffith?” asked Ana.
“I do not know if it is safe to bring the
dragons out,” he replied. “I tried to tell King
Roland about Maldred the dark wizard. I
told him that Maldred might be planning to
attack. The king just laughed and said he was
not afraid of any old wizard.”
“But Maldred is dangerous!” Drake said. “He
spied on us! His dark magic made Kepri sick!
And
he almost stole the Dragon Stone!”
Griffith nodded. “I know.”
Rori balled up her fists. “If Maldred attacks,
Vulcan and I will stop him! Vulcan is the
strongest dragon ever!”
Bo looked at Drake and shook his head. Rori
was always bragging about Vulcan.
“You are brave, Rori,” said Griffith. “But you
and Vulcan have not made a connection yet.
Until you do, you must be careful.”
Rori’s face got red, and she looked away.
Each of the Dragon Masters wore a piece of
the magical Dragon Stone. When they were
connecting with their dragons, their stone
glowed green.
Drake
—
like Bo and Ana
—
could hear his
dragon’s voice inside his head. But this had
not happened to Rori yet. And Drake knew
it bugged her to be last.
“We may not have connected yet,” Rori
said. “But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t fight
Maldred if he attacked!”
Just then, a soldier walked into the valley.
“All welcome King Roland the Bold!”
K
ing Roland marched across the grass. He
was a big man with red hair and a bushy beard.
Six guards marched behind him.
“The dragons are looking fine, wizard,” he
said in his booming voice. He nodded at Worm.
“Even that brown one.”
TH
e DRagON ShOW
The king has never seemed to like Worm,
Drake thought.
So what if he looks like a big,
brown worm? He is a powerful Earth Dragon!
“I'm glad that you are pleased, Your Majesty,”
said Griffith.
“I am not pleased yet!” the king said. “I need
to see what these beasts can do. This is the first
time that I will show my dragon army to the
world. When we march into the Kingdom of
Arkwood, everyone will be amazed!”
Ana stepped forward. “They’re not an army!
They’re just dragons.”
A guard glared at Ana. “Silence, girl!” he
barked.
“They are more than just dragons,” said the
king. “When word gets out that my kingdom
is protected by dragons, nobody will dare
attack us.”
Maldred might attack us,
Drake thought.
But he did not say that out loud.
If the king
didn’t listen to Griffith’s warning, he won’t
listen to mine.
Griffith clapped his hands. “Dragon Masters,
let us show King Roland what you can do.
Please line up!”
The Dragon Masters had practiced for days.
Drake felt excited. He couldn’t wait for King
Roland to see Worm's powers!
Griffith turned to the king. “First, I would
like to present Bo and Shu, his Water Dragon.”
Bo stepped forward and bowed. Then he
waved his hand at Shu.
Shu floated in the air above them. Her
blue scales shimmered. She opened her mouth
and a stream of water came out. It flowed in a
circle around them all. Then the water turned
into misty droplets and fell to the ground.
King Roland nodded, smiling.
“And now, I present Ana and Kepri, her Sun
Dragon,” Griffith announced.
Ana climbed onto Kepri and sat in the
saddle. She patted her neck. Then the slim,
white dragon flew up into the sky.
Kepri did what she did best: She swirled
and looped in the air. On her way down, Shu
sprayed misty water into the air. Kepri sent
a sunbeam out of her mouth. Together, they
made a rainbow.
“Ooohhhhh,”
said the guards. Even King
Roland was staring in wonder.
“Rori and her Fire Dragon are next,” said
Griffith, pointing.
Drake was nervous. It would be his and
Worm’s turn soon. First, Vulcan would shoot
fire in the air, where it couldn’t hurt anything.
Then Worm would use his mind powers to lift
all three dragons in the air!
He watched as Rori and Vulcan flew up,
up, up.
“Vulcan, fire!” Rori yelled.
Vulcan didn’t listen. He flew down to the
ground. When he landed, he let out a loud roar.
Whooosh!
A stream of fire shot from his
mouth! Then a strong wind blew through
the valley.
“No, Vulcan!” Rori yelled.
The flame charged right at King Roland!
17
T
he fire rode the wind, closing in on King
Roland. Scared, his guards all jumped back.
Suddenly, an invisible force knocked King
Roland out of the fire’s path. Drake looked at
Worm. His dragon was glowing green. Drake
knew that Worm had used his mind powers
to save the king!
What ABOut WOrM?
The fire swept past the king and died out.
Two guards helped King Roland to his feet.
“I am fine,” he said, brushing them away.
Then he pointed at Vulcan. “No thanks to
this
dragon!”
“But it was the wind!” Rori protested.
“Silence!” yelled King Roland. “I cannot have
this dragon setting
ueen Rose’s castle on fire.”
He nodded toward Shu and Kepri. “I’ll take
these two.”
“What about Worm?” Drake piped up. “He
just saved you!”
“Saved me? I think not. One of my guards
pushed me out of the way,” the king said.
He looked at his guards. They all nodded.
“It wasn’t a guard,” Drake insisted.
He looked over at Ana and Bo. He could
see they felt bad for him. Rori still looked mad
about Vulcan.
“Drake speaks the truth, Your Majesty,”
Griffith said. “Worm moved you with the
power of his mind.”
“Impossible!” the king said. “This plain, brown
dragon could not have such
strange powers.
Kepri and Shu will be the only dragons going
to the Kingdom of Arkwood tomorrow.”
The king turned and stomped away. His
guards marched behind him.
Drake sighed, patting his dragon. “It’s not
fair,” he said to Worm. “I know how great you
are! Why won’t the king believe us?”
S
top pushing me!” Rori shouted.
“I’m not pushing you!” Drake said, moving
away from her on the bench.
It was the next morning. Griffith had asked
Rori and Drake to sit quietly in the Training
Room while the others got ready.
a WizaRd
fOR
a babySitteR
“Stop bickering, you two!” he said. “Stay
out of trouble until Diego gets here. I will not
leave for the Kingdom of Arkwood without
another wizard here to watch over the castle.”
Then Griffith went to help Bo and Ana
with their dragons.
Sitting on the bench was boring. Drake kept
squirming. And Rori kept complaining.
“Why does Diego have to come watch us?”
she asked. “We don’t need a babysitter.”
“Well, maybe Griffith just wants to make
sure that Vulcan doesn’t set the castle on fire,”
Drake said. He knew it was kind of a mean
thing to say. But Rori was really bugging him.
Rori’s green eyes flared. “It was the wind!”
“Maybe, but Vulcan was supposed to shoot