A Memory of Fire (The Dragon War, Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

them,
and gestured for them to follow. They climbed the Maiden's waist,
moving between boulders, mint bushes, and rustling pines. Frogs
trilled and herons flew overhead. The waterfall sang in the
distance.
    When they reached the hilltop
and saw the southern sea, Bantis stopped walking and stretched out
his arms. "Here! Here is my army. Meet them! Meet them!"
    Valien looked around and saw
only the trees, the frogs, and the birds. He grumbled and heaved the
longest sigh of his life.
    "Not skeletons," he
muttered to Kaelyn, who stood by his side, chewing her lip and
searching the trees. "Not ghosts either. He led us to an army
of frogs."
    She grinned and leaned against
him. "I suppose we could unleash them in the capital. We'll
teach them to swarm the emperor and give him warts."
    Valien grunted, wiped sweat from
his brow, and hefted his pack across his shoulders. "Come on.
Let's go back."
    He had taken two steps downhill
when the forest leaped at him.
    A hundred people or more sprang
from the trees. They wore clothes of grass, leaves filled their
hair, and mud smeared their faces. They bore what looked like
miniature cannons mounted upon wooden shafts.
    "Capture them!" spoke
one, a tall man with blue eyes peering from a painted face. "Take
them alive."
    Valien growled, shifted into a
dragon, and soared.
    He shot through the trees.
Kaelyn flew beside him, a green dragon, her wings bending the trees
below.
    A boom tore through the air.
    Smoke blasted from one of the
men's sticks. Fire blazed out. A projectile whizzed by Valien's
head.
    "I said alive!"
shouted the tall man below.
    Valien beat his wings, rising
higher, and growled. At his side, Kaelyn sucked in her breath, and
flames crackled between her teeth. She rose, then turned and assumed
a swooping position, prepared to blast her fire downward.
    "Kaelyn, no!" Valien
shouted, flew toward her, and knocked her aside. Her flames cascaded
down the hillside, missing the men. "They're refugees. They're
frightened. They're—"
    Metal creaked below upon the
hill.
    Men covered in leaves and mud
raised metallic tubes and pulled levers. Grapples shot skyward,
dragging chains behind them. Valien banked, but two grapples swung
across him, then tugged down. Chains wrapped around him, and one
grapple dug into his leg. He howled and dipped in the sky.
    At his side, chains swung around
Kaelyn too. She howled and drew more fire into her maw. When she
blasted the flames downward, the men scattered and vanished between
the trees. The fire crashed down against boulders. From the canopy,
more grapples flew.
    Chains encased the two dragons.
They beat their wings, struggling to rise, but the chains tugged
downward, and Valien glimpsed men turning winches.
    Valien and Kaelyn, dragons of
Requiem, crashed against the hillside. A dozen chains swung from the
trees and crashed down atop them. Men cheered.
    "Cursed be Requiem!"
cried one man.
    "For the glory of Tiranor!"
cried another.
    Men leaped onto their backs, and
Valien howled and tried to shake them off, but the chains held him
down. Arms reached across his head, fastening a muzzle over his
mouth. He growled and blasted fire from his nostrils, but he
couldn't free himself—not without killing the men, which he wasn't
prepared to do. From the corner of his eye, he saw a dozen men
muzzling Kaelyn too as she flailed.
    "Death to Requiem!"
they cried. "The dragons are ours!"

 
 
LERESY

    He pulled her along the beach.
    "Come on," he said and
rolled his eyes. "Will you stop leaning down to collect
seashells?"
    Crouched in the sand, Erry
glared up at him. Leresy held her hand, trying to tug her along.
With her other hand, she lifted a large pink shell.
    "This is a conch ,
you fool," she said. "This isn't an ordinary seashell.
It's rare and— Ow! Stop pulling me."
    He kept walking, squeezing her
hand, forcing her to trail behind. She glared and spat and kicked
sand.
    "It looks like a damn
seashell to me," he said. "Do you want to collect