A Birthright of Blood (The Dragon War, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

trained birds. Leresy would have gone mad.
    A woman ran naked toward him,
holding a jug of wine. He grabbed the jug, drank deeply, and slapped
the woman's backside to send her scurrying off.
    This, he thought, is more
like a fort for a prince.
    Soon he was lying across a
tabletop, pouring wine from a jug, aiming for his mouth but mostly
splattering his face. His scar blazed—it was only days old—but
Leresy didn't care. Pain was good. Pain made him forget.
    Wine poured. Men sang. Memory
faded into numbness.
    Leresy's eyelids fluttered and
he smiled.
    A shriek tore across the hall.
    "What is the meaning of
this!"
    The singing died at once.
Silence fell across the fort.
    Lying upon the tabletop, Leresy
pushed himself up onto his elbows. He squinted toward the hall
doors. A figure stood there, blurred and shadowed. Leresy shook his
head and blinked, struggling to bring it into focus.
    "Shari?" he asked,
squinting.
    She came marching down the hall
toward him, clutching her sword. Leresy rubbed his eyes, and finally
she came into focus.
    Shari was ten years older than
him, and as a child, Leresy had always feared her. A sadistic youth,
Shari had delighted in torturing him—cutting his flesh with her
knives, burning his hands upon coals, and once even locking him in a
coffin for a day. Today Leresy was a grown man, but Shari still
frightened him. She was a tall woman, the tallest he'd ever known,
and her body was as strong as any man's; Leresy could see that even
through her black armor.
    And today she was furious. Her
dark, curly hair bounced, her eyes flashed, and her lips peeled back,
revealing sharp teeth that had bitten him many times.
    "Leresy!" she shouted.
"What have you done to this place?"
    Leresy shook his head to clear
it. Still lying upon the tabletop, he managed a grin.
    "Hello, sister!" he
said and raised a random mug in salute. "Would you care for
some wine, some food, or perhaps a lady of the night?"
    She marched toward him. Her
gloved hand reached out, grabbed his hair, and tugged. Leresy
yowled. Snarling, Shari dragged him across the tabletop by the hair,
then slammed him down onto the floor. His hip blazed with pain.
    "Ow!" he said and
struggled to rise. "Stars bloody dammit, Shari, you—"
    She backhanded him. White light
blazed. Pain flared across his cheek.
    "You will not mention the
old gods," Shari hissed and clutched his throat. "You are
a son of Cadigus. You serve the red spiral. You—"
    "Shari, why are you here?"
He shook himself free. He leaned against the tabletop, feigning
nonchalance; in truth he was hiding his wobbling knees. "Don't
you have any prisoners to torture, puppies to eat, or Father's arse
to kiss?"
    She grabbed his collar, twisted
it, and began dragging him across the hall.
    "It's you who'll be begging
to kiss it tonight," Shari said. "He demands to speak with
you. I would be less comical, Leresy, and more afraid. Very
afraid."
    He stumbled behind her, his
wobbly legs struggling to keep up. Mugs and bones clattered around
his feet. She kept dragging him, marching toward the doors.
    "Shari!" he said.
"Let go, damn it."
    He reached for his sword but
found it missing. Stars damn it! He must have left it at the
brothel again. He wanted to go back and fetch it. He wanted to lie
in the bed upstairs again, to make love to Dawn and Dusk, to sleep,
to drink, to forget. To do anything but see his sister and father.
    I
want to see you again, Nairi, he thought, and tears stung his eyes. I
want to die and fly with you through the halls of afterlife.
    But
Shari would not release him. She dragged him outside into the night.
    "Shari, let me go—"
    "Be silent or I'll cut out
your tongue, then feed it to you."
    She tossed him back, growled,
and shifted into a dragon.
    Blue scales clattered across
her. Her body ballooned, her claws scratched the cobblestones, and
her tail flailed. Flames churned behind her fangs like a smelter,
and her eyes blazed like molten steel. Her wings spread out in