Lonen's War Read Online Free PDF

what occurred. The Destrye had indeed made their way
to within leagues of the city and seemed determined to storm the
walls.”
    “ Unfortunate,” Chuffta commented, the
irony settling her thrill of fear. Her mother, naturally, showed no
reaction, but it seemed not all the dismay belonged to Oria.
    “But we were victorious!” Yar burst through,
that cocky grin cracking his unfortunately still-pimpled cheeks.
“We halved their numbers and sent them scrambling. They were still
retreating this morning. Let the cowardly barbarians run with their
tails between their legs!”
    “And us harrying them with golems all the
way,” Ben added with a thin smile of triumph. Of all her brothers,
Ben had been the oldest when he took the mask. Not as old as Oria
was now, but they’d at least shared the struggle to find hwil that Nat and Yar had escaped. Privately Oria thought
the trial had tempered him, made him less impetuous than her other
brothers—and that he’d be a better heir than Nat because of it.
    Nat…he had a meanness to him. She’d stopped
mentioning it because everyone told her that older brothers always
give grief to their little sisters. Chuffta didn’t like him either,
which validated her unease.
    “ I don’t have a good reason, though,” Chuffta mused. “He reminds me of those sand mites that get under
the scales.”
    She smiled a little at that and found Nat
watching her with cold eyes, as if he somehow knew she discussed
him. “Don’t be afraid, baby sister,” he said. “Unfortunate that
you’re too fragile to leave your tower more often than a few times
a year, but we’re here to protect you. Those meat-headed warriors
ran away, squealing like little girls.”
    “They did!” Yar crowed, clearly delighted.
“And now we’ll be able to return to the business of finding our
ideal wives. I bet I find mine first. Pretty Priestess Jania seems
likely.”
    “You don’t even know what she looks like
under her mask,” Nat scoffed.
    “I can see the shape of her body well
enough. Besides, her face doesn’t matter. It’s the matching of
sgath and grien that does.” Yar rubbed his palms together. “So far
we match.”
    “You wish you could find a temple-blessed
marriage,” Ben muttered, a bitterness to it. From what Oria
gathered, his testing and courtship went as slowly as his
qualifying for the mask had. Though he didn’t discuss such things
with her. “You’ll be beyond lucky to find a priestess who can
barely tolerate your touch.”
    “He does, because he wants to tup someone
besides—”
    “And if the Destrye don’t continue to
retreat?” Queen Rhianna interrupted Nat.
    “Well, they will,” Nat replied, with a
confident nod. “Why wouldn’t they? We decimated them.”
    Their father waved off his half-eaten salad,
leaned his elbows on the table in its place, steepled his fingers,
and met his wife’s gaze. Their magical connection clicked into
place, the cycle of their regard flowed between them, warming Oria
like the rising sun on a frosty morning. Like her father’s embrace
and the cool calm of her mother’s presence, the perfectly balanced
partnership between her parents grounded Oria more than all the
meditation and mental discipline lessons.
    “If they don’t, we will have to take other
steps,” the king said slowly, speaking only to the queen. “Tell the
priestesses to build all the sgath possible. We may need it.”

~ 4 ~
    L onen led his men across
the sand, which swirled like so much soft shadow with Sgatha not
yet risen to shed her rosy light and Grienon—in the sky as he
nearly always was—falling into his darkest phase, then to slowly
wax to full white in the next few hours.
    The sleeping city loomed ahead, shrouded in
dim lights and traces of fog rolling off the ocean in the chill
night air. How it could be so cold at night when the days blazed so
hot made no sense. Thankful for his black fur cloak, both for the
warmth and the way it helped him blend into the