Dragons of War Read Online Free PDF

the clever Cunfshon-made key. Inside were a few papers, a joint will for himself and the dragon, a bag of gold and silver coins, his medals, including the lustrous Legion Star, and a few keepsakes from Tummuz Orgmeen. Here he put the silver-backed comb that Miranswa had given him. As he did so, he kissed it and whispered her name.
    Then he went down to the quartermaster stores and obtained a regulationary comb, a crude thing of wood, manufactured in Kadein.
    Then he brought water and refilled Bazil's water tank and checked that the dragon still slept.
    Sitting there with nothing to do but polish bits of equipment for the next unit parade, he quickly grew bored. After a while Relkin rose and flung himself out of the Dragon House. He headed out the gate into the fairgrounds again, but ignoring the roar of the crowd from the dragon bouts, instead meandered down the road to the town.
    At the rear of the Sand Pie Inn, he loitered and was rewarded after a while by the appearance of a girl emptying a box of ashes from the kitchens.
    "'Hullo, Dacy," he said, and took the box from her hands.
    Her eyes lit up at the sight of him, and she smiled coyly.
    "Why, it's my dashing dragoneer, Relkin of the 109th."
    "The very same."
    He hauled the heavy box over to the ash heap, dumped it out, then gave it back to her.
    "And would my angel of the Sand Pie Inn have a moment or two to dally with me?"
    Dacy was in a playful mood. His hopes rose.
    "I might, if I knew who the dashing dragoneer was going to take to the end-of-games dance. I might very well stay and dally a moment."
    "What a coincidence! I was just going to ask if you would care to go to the dance with me."
    Dacy smiled, and leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
    He reached out to take her hand, but she withdrew it quickly and rolled her eyes.
    "But first I need to know if you're old enough for me. How old are you, Relkin?"
    He swallowed. Dacy was barely sixteen. This he was sure of. He'd found out by bribing her youngest sibling, a boy of seven who was partial to rock candy. He was older than she by a year, but he was still barely old enough for some strange, irrational reason. He who had lain with Miranswa Zudeina in the Temple of the Goddess Gingo-La. He who had fought in battles up and down the continent, he was unsure about this subject more than anything, and it left him feeling inadequate.
    "Seventeen, I think."
    "You think?"
    "Well, I could be more, maybe even eighteen; it's hard to say."
    Her eyebrows had narrowed. "What do you mean?"
    "Well," he began, "I don't really know when I was born. I was raised in the orphanage, like all the dragonboys."
    She smiled wickedly.
    "Well, not quite all, Dragoneer Manuel has a family. Quite distinguished, really."
    So Manuel had been playing up to Dacy, too. Relkin was furious, but glad to have the information.
    "So will you be coming with me to the dance, then?"
    She looked away into the distance.
    "Well, perhaps. I'll think about it."
    "Go on, say yes, Dacy. I can do all the new dances."
    "Mmm, so you say. I'll have to think about it."
    Piqued, he stepped down. "Well, in that case, it sounds like I'll have to ask someone else to the dance."
    Her eyebrows rose. "You do that and I'll never go anywhere with you again."
    "This hardly seems fair."
    He never got her response to that because the door opened and a tall lout named Dert Waller lurched out and crashed down the steps. He noted Relkin's uniform.
    "Hey, dragonboy, guess what I saw today over at Fresham Landing?"
    Relkin did not really want to know. Damn, now Dacy was looking at hulking Dert instead of at her ardent dragoneer. The moment was wasting away.
    "Trader there by the name of Dook, he's got a wild dragon he captured up on Mt. Ulmo along with two little ones, a whole damn family. All in cages on the dock. Rare angry beasts they are, I can tell you."
    "What's he want with a wild dragon?" Relkin was instinctively hostile to anything involving mistreatment of dragons.