Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

burden of the strong. She is strong, Alaric. The truth will make itself known to her, and she will have the strength to carry its burden."
    If she had more to say, I didn't hear because the hall and everything in it vanished into thin air. In its place was a desert: an endless landscape of desolation that stretched as far as the eye could see. The air smelled of smoke and burnt flesh, and my stomach twisted, sickened. Death—so much death, where the agonizing cries of thousands echoed chillingly from every angle, remnants of a nightmare that had happened here. A hot sun beat down on my face, burning my eyes and parching my tongue, and I had to shield my gaze from the light so that I could see. This desert was not made of sand; this desert was comprised of the ashes of a kingdom.
    And then I noticed the box in my other hand. I'd seen this box before—in a dream. It was the box of the Pandors. The one I sought, the one that held the power to defeating my uncle, Lord Eris. But the box was supposed to bring peace. If I had found it, why had the world been destroyed?
    And then a voice came from everywhere. “See that you are prepared, for if you are not, the world around you shall dissolve into nothing and everything you cherish will die at your hand.”
    It was a voice I had heard before—words I had heard before, months ago when I'd accidentally stumbled into a fiori. The memory of those words had threatened me ever since, and hearing them again turned my insides cold.
    A figure appeared. At first I thought it was a mirage, but as I focused, I noticed the figure was approaching. Whoever it was—or whatever it was—was completely hidden beneath a black cloak. The air around the figure scintillated with power, and when the figure stopped before me, I knew who he was before he even lifted his hood.
    Eris.
    He had once been a man, but there was nothing human about the shape standing before me now. This was a wraith of a man, touched by death and filled with darkness. His face was a nightmare, and when he smiled, his thin lips seemed to curl around my heart and strangle it.
    "Thank you for your help, Daria," he said. "I could not have done any of this without you."

Chapter 3
    A Change in Plans
     
     
    I woke screaming.
    "It's all right," soothed a deep voice. Hands touched my cheeks and held my face. "It was just a dream."
    I could still see Eris's face. I could still see the cruelty in his smile and feel the vitriolic taint of evil that surrounded him.
    It was just a dream.
    No, it had been so much more than that.
    "I'm right here," he whispered, still holding my face.
    My heart finally stopped trying to beat out of my chest and my breath steadied, and I opened my eyes. Alex was watching me, his own eyes huge and worried as they stared into mine.
    "I saw…Eris." My voice trembled. "And he…"
    "Shh." He pulled me into his arms and rested his chin on top of my head. I fisted his shirt and breathed him in—a comforting blend of winter and musk and pine. Here, in his arms, I could convince myself it had been nothing more than a terrible dream. This was reality. Alex was my anchor to this world. He was solid; he was real.
    "We'll talk about it later," he continued. "Right now, you need to rest, all right?" His deep voice rumbled in his chest, soothing and hypnotizing. He pried my hands from his shirt and held them in his. "I'll be right here beside you."
    I shut my eyes and nodded, and he helped guide my head back to its pillow, and I fell back to sleep.
    The next time I woke wasn't nearly so traumatic. My lids fluttered open to a gentle golden glow, and soon that glow differentiated into various objects. I was lying against the edge of the room on some kind of thick leather mat and covered in furry blankets. The room itself looked like a giant fume hood made of rock. It was cylindrically shaped with a ceiling that narrowed and disappeared into darkness. Hot embers glowed in a pit in the center, and the horses stood peacefully