A Sky of Spells (Book #9 in the Sorcerer's Ring) Read Online Free PDF Page B

a time, they all disintegrated before Argon’s eyes, each falling into
a mound of ashes. Soon the battlefield was littered with thousands of mounds,
all that remained of Rafi’s evil spells.
    Alistair surveyed the
battlefield and saw there was only one battle left to wage: across the
clearing, her brother, Thorgrin, was already facing off with their father,
Andronicus. She knew that in the battle to come, one of these determined men
would lose their lives: her brother or her father. She prayed that it was her
brother who came out alive.
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    Luanda lay on the ground at
Romulus’ feet, watching in horror as thousands of Empire soldiers flooded the
bridge, screaming with triumph as they crossed into the Ring. They were
invading her homeland, and there was nothing she could do but sit there,
helpless, and watch, and wonder if it was somehow all her fault. She could not
help but feel as if she was somehow responsible for the Shield’s lowering.
    Luanda turned and looked out
at the horizon, saw the endless Empire ships, and she knew that soon it would
be millions of Empire troops flooding in. Her people were finished; the Ring was
finished. It was all over now.
    Luanda closed her eyes and
shook her head, again and again. There was a time when she had been so angry with
Gwendolyn, with her father, and would have been glad to witness the destruction
of the Ring. But her mind had changed, ever since Andronicus’ betrayal and
treatment of her, ever since his shaving her head, his beating her in front of
his people. It made her realize how wrong, how naïve, she had been in her own
quest for power. Now, she would give anything for her old life back. All she
wanted now was a life of peace and contentment. She no longer craved ambition
or power; now, she just wanted to survive, to make wrongs right.
    But as she watched, Luanda
realized it was too late. Now her beloved homeland was on its way to destruction,
and there was nothing she could do.
    Luanda heard an awful noise,
laughter mixed with a snarl, and she looked up and saw Romulus standing there,
hands on his hips, watching it all, a huge contended smile on his face, his
long jagged teeth showing. He threw back his head and laughed and laughed, elated.
    Luanda  yearned to kill him;
if she had a dagger in hand, she would run it through his heart. But knowing
him, how thick he was built, how impervious he was to everything, the dagger
probably wouldn’t even pierce it.
    Romulus looked down at her,
and his smile turned to a grimace.
    “Now,” he said, “it’s time
to kill you slowly.”
    Luanda heard a distinctive
clang and watched Romulus draw a weapon from his waist. It looked like a short
sword, except tapered to a long narrow point. It was an evil weapon, one clearly
designed for torture.
    “You are going to suffer
very, very much,” he said.
    As he lowered his weapon,
Luanda raised her hands to her face, as if to block it all out. She closed her
eyes and shrieked.
    That was when the strangest
thing happened: as Luanda shrieked, her shriek was echoed by an even greater
shriek. It was the shriek of an animal. A monster. A primordial roar, one louder
and more resonant than anything she’d ever heard in her life. It was like
thunder, tearing the skies apart.
    Luanda opened her eyes and looked
up to the heavens, wondering if she had imagined it. It sounded as if it had
been the shriek of God himself.
    Romulus, also stunned,
looked up to the skies, baffled. By his expression, Luanda could tell that it had
really happened; she had not imagined it.
    It came again, a second shriek,
even worse than the first, with such ferocity, such power, Luanda realized it could
only be one thing:
    A dragon.
    As the skies parted, Luanda
was awe-struck to watch two immense dragons soar overhead, the largest and
scariest creatures she had ever seen, blotting out the sun, turning day to
night as they cast a shadow over all of them.
    Romulus’ weapon fell from
his hands, his