Knightswrath (The Dragonkin Trilogy Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

cleared. The smell of rain filled the air, along with a faint mist that made the plains appear to be steaming in the afternoon sun. Rowen’s spirits rose. But they did not ride far before he was forced to call a halt. Already, something else had replaced the fresh smell of rain. He scowled at the western sky, noting a dark smear on the horizon. He turned to Jalist. “Is that what I think it is?”
    “If you mean the dark chariots of Fohl, come to carry off our enemies, probably not.” Jalist touched the shaft of his long axe. “If you mean smoke, yes.”
    Rowen turned to Silwren, remembering stories about the famed sight and hearing of Sylvs. “I don’t have a spyglass, and your eyes are better than ours. What do you see?”
    Silwren was quiet for a moment. Instead of leaning forward in the saddle as Rowen and Jalist had done, she closed her eyes. When she opened them a moment later, she stared straight ahead. “A city, burning.”
    Jalist swore. “Hesod?”
    “If that’s what you call it.”
    “Is it under siege?” Rowen touched his sword hilt, resisting the urge to ask if and how she would be able to answer his question.
    “The siege is finished. I see smoke pouring over the walls. In front of the city, I see… hundreds of people stripped naked, mostly women, impaled on spears.” Despite her dispassionate tone, Silwren trembled.
    Rowen and Jalist exchanged worried looks.
    Jalist said, “Sounds like our old friends from the north, all right.”
    Rowen stared at the horizon for a moment. “We’ll have to go southwest,” he said finally. “We’ll avoid the Dhargots then reach the Wytchforest by skirting the Noshan Valley. Won’t delay us more than a few days.”
    Jalist’s dark eyes narrowed. “Unless we get our skulls axed in! Nosh isn’t the friendliest place on Ruun, you know.”
    Rowen scratched his beard. Even though he’d never been to Nosh—including Atheion, its famous City-on-the-Sea—he’d heard a little about it during his travels. “Noshans are sailors and goatherds. They won’t trouble us.”
    “I’m not talking about the Noshans who live around Atheion. I’m talking about those damn wildmen who live in the mountains. Supposed to be as mad as dragonpriests and as cruel as Dhargots.”
    Rowen scratched at his beard. “A few thousand Dhargots or a few hundred barbarians…” And behind us, Shel’ai and Isle Knights! Gods, how did I get so many enemies?
    “Welcome to Ruun,” Jalist snorted.
    “I can get us past the Dhargots,” Silwren offered.
    Jalist tapped the shaft of his long axe. “How’s that?”
    Silwren faced Rowen. “I can blind them to our passage. We can ride right past the city, and they’ll never see us.” She trembled faintly as she spoke.
    Silwren’s new unsettling eagerness to use her magic sent a chill down Rowen’s spine. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. If something goes wrong—”
    “El’rash’lin gave his life, Knight. He died for you, as much as anyone. It’s time I did my part. If I say I can get you past the city unharmed, then I can.” Silwren’s violet eyes flared as she spoke.
    Rowen resisted the urge to reach for Knightswrath. “Something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong.” He relaxed his voice. “I trust you. I do. But you dying right now to keep me alive just means I’ll die a little later. I need your help, not your sacrifice.”
    Silwren smiled faintly but said nothing.
    “We go south.” Rowen turned his horse.
    The others fell in behind him. As he rode, Rowen thought of the hundreds of Hesodi dragged in front of the city, stripped naked, then impaled and left to endure a slow, agonizing death in the baking sun. He’d seen such things before. For a moment, he imagined himself riding to the victims’ rescue, Knightswrath gleaming in the sunlight, an army of Knights at his back. He pushed the thought from his mind.

Chapter Two
    Captain of the Shal’tiar

    E ven from halfway across Brai’yl Run, the stark