Desolation (Dragonlands Book 4) by Megg Jensen Page A

and rustled through it. He pulled out a glass jar with two slimy black creatures inside. Red horns jutted from their heads. "I won't be cutting you. The leeches will pull it from you."
    Fi shrank back. "That's not a normal leech."
    "A normal leech cannot pull the dragon out. It takes a horned leech." Donovan uncorked the jar. He held two fingers over the top. The leeches danced and squiggled their way up the sides and onto his fingers.
    "Have you done this before?" Tressa asked. Her stomach recoiled at the sight of the creatures. Their red eyes bugged out of their heads, rolling around as they surveyed the tent. They seemed more aware of their surroundings than normal slugs. Tressa had played with them as a child, poking leeches with sticks at the edge of the pond in Hutton's Bridge. The physic, Adam, also Bastian's uncle, would occasionally use them when a villager was sick. He would scold Tressa, Connor, and Bastian for disturbing his assistants, as he liked to refer to them.
    Donovan approached Fi and Tressa, one horned leech in each hand. "Do not take this lightly," he said to them. "These leeches will not survive the bloodletting. They are giving their lives for you. No one will be able to steal the dragon blood for their own purposes. Are you ready?"
    Tressa nodded. Fi just grunted.
    Donovan laid the first leech on Tressa's arm. A cold wetness spread over her skin. A series of sharp sensations pricked her arm as the creature latched on. Warmth spread around the area as it began sucking. Tressa gasped. "This feels..." but she couldn't finish her sentence.
    A dark cloud spread over her eyes. Shapes floated in her vision. Bastian. Jarrett. Connor. Her cottage. Granna. The fog. Nerak, the owl. She wanted to reach out to them, but they dissipated like fog slipping through her fingertips. Memories flooded her mind, almost too fast for her to comprehend. Leo! He'd taught her to disguise herself and fight. She watched him die all over again. Tears choked her.
    To her right, Fi screamed, but Tressa couldn't go to her. She was trapped in her own nightmare. Tressa’s life continued to flash by until she was at the battle on the Isle of Repose. Bastian! No, Bastian, don't! He was gone. Dead on the ground in front of Jarrett. The rest flew by until she again found herself in the tent in Desolation again.
    Sweat poured down her face as she looked blearily up at Donovan.
    "It is done." He peeled the horned leech off of Tressa's arm. "You did well."
    "That was..."
    Fi screamed again, her arms flailing and her legs shaking. Donovan placed a hand on Tressa's shoulder. "She is fine. You did the same."
    "I did?" Tressa asked. She didn't recall moving. There were just the thoughts. The memories. The sadness.
    Then Fi slumped over. The horned leech fell off her arm, bloated and dead.
    "Fi, are you okay?" Tressa asked. She kneeled next to her dear friend, the woman she called sister.
    Fi's eyes slowly opened. She glared at Donovan. "If I never get my dragon back, I will kill you."
    "I expect nothing less," he said. "Now, we truly begin our journey."
    As her strength slowly returned, Tressa gathered her things and stuffed them in her pack. The memories didn’t fade. Bastian. Leo. The two men she'd loved so deeply and lost in the horror of battle. She would never forget either, and she swore she'd never stop loving them.
     

     
     

Chapter Ten
     
    Donovan collapsed the tent, rolled it up, and shoved it in his pack. Tressa had never seen anything so large get so small so fast. Donovan tried to explain that there were special worms found in Desolation that could produce a silk far finer than anything in the Dragonlands. A little bit of magic added to the threads and Donovan had his tent.
    Tressa shouldered her pack and followed Donovan across the barren landscape. Fi stalked behind her, clearly still angry with Donovan. Fi had been a dragon her whole life. Tressa couldn't even imagine how upset she was. For Tressa, it had been only a few