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
to Paley that a single city block in LA could swallow all of dinky old Quartz Creek Colorado After just a few more minutes her dad turned onto a dirt road and they were passing under a metal arch that read QUARTZ CREEK RANCH Paley wished she could teleport back to LA Still she couldn’t help plastering her face against the car window A stream tumbled alongside the dirt road Velvety-green horse pastures rolled away into the hills on either side And oh the horses Even a cave troll could get excited about animals like these White ones like cloud fluff A gray one spotted with stars Brown ones that looked like cinnamon and caramel and chocolate and every thing good Her dad parked the car next to a big ranch house with a wide front porch and huge windows facing the mountains to the west That felt right to Paley When she played Dragonfyre she always remembered to face west when spell-casting Ignoring the cardinal directions on the game map always caused magic to backfire Paley got out of the car and stretched The smell of newly cut grass and the sound of birds enveloped her The heavy horrible weight of the last year at school 7
felt a little lighter Maybe she could stop being a cave troll after all Paley frowned It was a classic Dragonfyre trap Just when you thought that you were home free the goblins always came roaring down on you No one was going to catch her with her guard down Paley squinted against the sun and scrutinized the ranch Near the big house were two little cabins with porches A split-rail fence ran along the edge of the gravel parking area Horses dotted the pasture On the other side of the creek was a big barn and an outdoor riding arena filled with kids and horses Paley had almost forgotten that there would be other kids here She couldn’t believe her parents thought she belonged with a bunch of troublemakers Being a gamer wasn’t a problem No it’s not her mom had said But being online every waking moment is Paley kicked her toes in the gravel Up on the porch her parents were talking in that super-serious worried-parent way with an older couple Paley ignored them and climbed up one rung of the fence to look at the horses Three of them grazed placidly They were lovely but definitely not fierce If she was going to learn how to joust this summer she needed a much bigger mount 8
