Forged In Flame (In Her Name: The First Empress, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Ayan-Dar, and stood for a moment, transfixed, as he whirled around her like a sword-bearing tornado. His blade was barely visible, so fast did it move in his old but powerful hand, hacking and stabbing their enemies.
    A warrior on a magthep charged her. She feinted to one side, then deftly whirled to the other as the warrior’s blade flashed down. Her own blade cut through his upper thigh, and with a scream he fell from his mount.
    Another warrior lunged at her, and she parried his blade. He was far larger and more powerful, and quickly drove her back, separating her from Ayan-Dar. Glancing behind her, she saw other warriors, on foot now, moving in. 
    The big warrior made a sweeping overhand cut aimed at her head. She knocked it to the side with her left gauntlet, then made a lightning swift lunge with her sword, driving it into his abdomen just below his breastplate. She shoved the gasping warrior backward, twisting her sword free with both hands as he fell. 
    Looking around, she saw that she was completely surrounded. Gathering her courage, she charged the nearest warriors.
    But her blade found only a spray of blood. The torn bodies, some of them cut in two, collapsed before her. Ayan-Dar stood there, sword in hand and covered in the blood of his enemies. 
    In Keel-Tath’s eyes he was the vision of a war god from the ancient days, the stuff of legend, and she ran to him.
    “It is time for us to leave, child,” Ayan-Dar shouted as a solid ring of warriors closed in. “Take hold of my belt!”
    As she did as he ordered, she turned to the warriors, now rushing toward her and Ayan-Dar, fearing they would escape. “Let the blood we spilled here be a message for your honorless queen!” 
    Then there was only darkness.

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER THREE
    Coming Of Age
     
    “The priestess will no doubt be upset with me for placing you in such danger, but she will be very pleased with you, child.” Ayan-Dar’s smile was gruesome, with blood smeared over not only his face, but his lips and teeth, as well. He hawked and spat. “You did well, and I may take some small measure of satisfaction in your training.” After flicking most of the blood from his sword, he withdrew a soft cloth from a pouch on his belt and wiped the blade clean before replacing it in his scabbard. “And I suspect the Dark Queen will be most upset with those tasked with guarding Keel-A’ar.”
    Keel-Tath, still shaking with the rush of fire through her veins, took out her own cloth and cleaned her sword, her movements a reflection of those of the priest. She had expected him to return them to the temple, but she was confronted with unfamiliar surroundings. They were in a small clearing among trees the likes of which she had never before seen. They were huge, twice as tall as the trees of the forests in the lowlands beyond the temple, with widely spaced leaves that were as large as Ayan-Dar. One end of the clearing was bare of the enormous trees, but she could not tell what lay beyond; the ground seemed to open onto the sky. She heard a deep rhythmic sound coming from that end of the clearing. She had never heard such a sound before, but found it very relaxing. She also noticed that the temperature was somewhat cooler than it had been in the lowlands of Keel-A’ar, and the air was more humid. “Where are we?”
    “We are at the southernmost tip of the island continent of Ural-Murir, in the kingdom of Ku’ar-Amir,” he told her. “I was born in a village not far from here, and used to spend my free time in this place.”
    “But you are Desh-Ka!” Looking around them, she could not understand why he would want to spend his precious free time here, in the middle of a forest of strange trees. “I thought you were born on T’lar-Gol.”
    “Yes, my bloodline is pure Desh-Ka, but the seed of that great tree long ago spread across the world. I was born of porters of water here, and after I left the kazha as a warrior, my liege lord took me north to