Read The Dragon’s Appraiser: Part Two for Free Online

us?”
    “Please,” their father said. “If you don’t mind waiting for me to finish up here, it would be my honor to show you the best view in town.”

6
    T he streets emptied out just before midnight. The elderly or the very young had long since shuffled home, while the other denizens of Bern had made their way down to the pier for the fireworks show.
    After Yoren, as he’d later introduced himself, finished closing up his shop, he led Madja and the girls through a maze of residential areas. Moonlight brightened their path through the dusty streets of the working class, while bright lanterns illuminated the wide, paved roads that ran through the upscale areas.
    The home they stopped at was situated on a small hill and looked to be the finest residence in the town. It was four stories high and appeared to be constructed with a combination of white rock and marble.
    “Is this where you live?” Madja asked. Having grown up in a house twice its size, she was no stranger to affluence, but it was surprising to see such a nice house in a small port town like Bern.
    “Perhaps in my dreams,” Yoren said. He was carrying a sleepy Ana in one arm, while Cella held onto his free hand. “This is the mayor’s house. I know for a fact that he and his staff are out right now. The whole town will be watching the fireworks from the pier, but the view from the rooftop is like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
    Grinning, Madja followed him past the unlocked gate and into the yard. There was a chimneysweep’s ladder attached to the back of the house, which led all the way up to the roof. Madja was hoisting Cella up from the ladder when the first bang sounded from afar.
    They took a seat near the weathervane and stared in the direction of the cove. Yoren was right, the view was spectacular. Trails of fire shot into the air, combusting into an explosion of shapes and colors. There were starbursts of red, great white rings, and spheres of azure.
    For a while, Madja forgot who and where she was. It was a pleasant and much-needed escape, but as they always did, her thoughts wandered back to Sevrrn.
    “This is all for him,” she whispered, eyes transfixed on the sky.
    “You mean the dragon?” Yoren asked. “Do you think he’ll see them?”
    Madja smiled inwardly. She knew that Sevrrn was fast asleep and even if the fireworks managed to wrest him from his coma, they would only serve to annoy him.
    “I don’t know,” she said. “But I’m sure he’ll protect us, when the time comes.”
    Despite the limited success she’d had at convincing him to protect the island, she truly did feel that he would come around. If not because it was the right thing to do, then because she planned on nagging him relentlessly.
    “I never believed in him when I was younger,” Yoren said. “I guess I was like all kids. I just thought the dragon was something parents made up to scare us into behaving.”
    “But you believe in him now?”
    Yoren looked down at the girls. After seeing her fill of fireworks, Ana had nodded off in Madja’s lap. Cella was still awake, but was resting her head against her father’s arm, barely clinging to consciousness.
    “I don’t have any other choice,” he said. “I can’t protect them on my own, so I have to believe that he will. Otherwise…I suppose I’d lose my mind.”
    Madja cast him a sympathetic look. She knew what it was like to feel powerless to protect the people she loved.
    “Do you have children?” he asked.
    Not a strange question, considering she was supposed to be a widow.
    “No, not yet.”
    “You will make a great mother someday.”
    “Thank you,” she said, feeling a twinge of remorse as she said the words.
    The fireworks show was still playing across the sky when they climbed down from the rooftop. Both girls were now sound asleep and Yoren decided it would be best if they left before the fireworks ended, so as to avoid the mayor or any of his staff that returned home early.
    “You must