Light flooded her room as her dad flipped on the switch and pulled the cord on the mini blind It’s time to go Paley squinted against the brightness as she scrabbled at the keyboard Can’t Got to finish So close Paley he said shut down the game Just a second she screeched sounding way too goblin even to herself Her dad picked up the potato chip wrapper It crinkled as he threw it in the trash The car is loaded I have to finish this quest We have to drop your brother off at his friend’s house and hit the road He leaned over and turned off the computer Paley roared more cave troll rumble than goblin shriek this time You can’t do that I can and I did It’s time to go he repeated plucking the headphones off her head She slammed the mouse on the desk and refused to look at him He watched her without speaking for a long time She glared at the blank screen You agreed to this Only because it was better than stupid basket ball camp 3
Her dad’s eyes narrowed and his nose pinched together like he’d stumbled into a stench pit in the Misery Marshes We’ve been through this Paley You can’t stay in this dark room playing video games forever You’ve got to make an effort She spun her desk chair around so she wouldn’t have to look at him Moving from Los Angeles to Denver right before starting middle school had been awful Her parents thought she hadn’t tried to make friends but she had At least at first But all the kids already knew one another from fifth grade and were into stuff like skiing and cyclocross It didn’t help that she was one of the only black kids at school The Blue Elf had better things to do than suck up to a bunch of obnoxious brats and it wasn’t like she expected seventh grade to be any better Right now all Paley wanted was the summer The whole summer To lose herself in the world of Dragonfyre the place where she could accomplish anything Hey you two Paley’s mom leaned into the room her smile as forced as her cheery tone Horses are waiting 4
Maybe you should go to camp then Paley muttered Her parents exchanged a worried glance Paley wished she was a snot-dripping cave troll so she could toss them out of the way and get back to finding those fox hairs As far as Paley could tell the only good thing about getting banished to a horse ranch in the middle of nowhere for six weeks was that she wouldn’t have to listen to her parents lecture her about reaching out and finding new interests The Blue Elf wouldn’t let anyone push her around like this but Paley Dixon wasn’t the Blue Elf and her parents were pulling the plug Paley made a point of not speaking for the entire drive from Denver to Quartz Creek Ranch With every mile the dragon’s egg slipped further out of reach The stupid camp they were sending her to didn’t allow technology It was practically child abuse In the front seat her parents tuned in country music In the back Paley alternated between glow ering out the window and studying the big glossy book of game art from Dragonfyre cradled in her lap 5
As they left the city and the suburbs far behind and began to climb into the mountains Paley lingered on the pages with horses Armored stallions stamped their gilded hooves and the vampire horses dripped blood from their sharp fangs Best of all were the winged mares that shot through the sky like comets If the Blue Elf couldn’t have a dragon Paley wanted one of those especially if it breathed fire It was nearly lunchtime by the time they drove through the town of Quartz Creek Paley closed the book and stared at the cutesy shops that lined Main Street A sign in the window of the local rock shop read Rock My World The candy store proclaimed Taffy Making on Fridays Paley felt like she was in a cautionary after-school TV special Troubled kid from LA goes to horse camp and everything turns out roses and cupcakes Her stomach growled If only she could conjure a cupcake A few blocks down the road she spied a comic book shop That was promising If they ever let her into town Main Street was so short that five minutes later they had passed all the way through town It seemed 6
