#DRAGON KEEPER CAROLE WILKINSON FREE DOWNLOAD PATCH#

The patch of light beneath the grate now seemed bright. Master Lan had forbidden such a waste of lamp oil. She shuffled forward, wishing she could bring a lamp. The girl moved out of the square of pale, banded light beneath the grate and into the darkness. It had been a long time since the pit had been cleaned. It was dark and smelt of urine and rotting straw. Different to the farm animals she cared for and, as far as she could see, of no use to anyone. Even though they were big and had sharp teeth and claws, she wasn’t afraid of them. It wasn’t the creatures that lived in the pit that unsettled her. The pit always had that effect on her, as if there were something waiting in the darkness-something dangerous and frightening. There was something else that she couldn’t put a name to that made her uneasy. Not because of the smell of stale air that came up to meet her from the dungeon. She slid a latch across, lifted the grate and went down a staircase cut into the rock. She looked into the pit, but could see nothing in the darkness below. An icy wind blew across the courtyard and straight through the worn fabric-even at the front where the edges overlapped and wrapped around her. The slave girl wore trousers that were patched on the knees and too short for her, and a threadbare jacket with many mends. The only entrance to this pit was a hinged grate, not made of bamboo, like the other animal enclosures, but of bronze. It was a pit in the ground, a dungeon hewn from the raw rock of Huangling. In the farthest corner of the farthest palace in the empire, behind the servants’ quarters, at the back of the stables and sheds, there was another animal enclosure. It wasn’t the oxen, mooing sadly in their stalls. It wasn’t the goat that she was going to feed though. Even the goat had a better home than the slave girl. The fire burned all through winter and a clever system of pipes carried the heat to warm his bed. There was a rug on the earth floor and on the wall hung a painting of a dragon on a length of blue silk. He grumbled about the wasted space, the unused bed chambers, the cloth-draped furniture, while he had to sleep in his humble house with one room and a roof that leaked.Ĭompared to the corner of the ox shed, where the slave girl slept on a pile of straw, Master Lan’s house was luxurious. He went into the palace from time to time, but he always came back angry. Master Lan said he would beat her if she ever went in there. The palace’s graceful halls and sitting rooms, its gardens and pavilions were always empty. In all the slave girl’s time at Huangling, there had never been an imperial visit. The animal pens, the stores and the servants’ houses were squashed together in the remaining quarter. The Emperor’s residence occupied more than three-quarters of the palace grounds. In the eastern wall was the entrance gate.

The palace was surrounded by a high wall of rammed earth. Unfortunately it was so far from anywhere that few people ever saw it. The Emperor’s father had built a palace in this faraway place so that the world would know how vast his empire was. In the summer the air was so hot it was like breathing in flames. Throughout winter it was waist deep in snow and blasted by freezing winds. Huangling Mountain was a barren hill in a range of many barren hills that marked the western boundary of the Han empire. As she could only count to ten, she didn’t know how old that made her now. The previous summer, Lan had shouted that she was thickheaded for a girl of ten years. She had lived at Huangling Palace since her parents had sold her to Lan when she was a small child. The slave girl didn’t have a name she didn’t know how old she was. Snow crunched beneath the slave girl’s straw shoes as she hurried towards the animal pens. She slipped out of her master’s house as an empty wine jar flew towards the door. The only time he smiled was when he was laughing at her stupidity. Lan scowled at her with the distaste he reserved for rats, spiders and maggoty meat. Her master slumped back onto his bed, exhausted by the effort of throwing the bowl. She was very experienced at dodging flying objects-from ink stones to chicken bones.

Reserved for rats, spiders and maggoty meat.Ī bamboo bowl flew through the air, aimed at the slave girl’s head. HAN EMPIRE AT THE TIME OF THE DRAGONKEEPER They carry with them a mysterious stone that must be protected.ĭragonkeeper is the story of a girl who believes she is not worthy even of a name, but finds within herself the strength and courage to make this perilous journey – and do what must be done. Pursued by a ruthless dragon hunter, the girl and the dragon begin an epic journey across China. A slave girl saves the life of an ageing dragon and escapes her brutal master.

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