Master of Dragons Read Online Free PDF Page B

for him
or for his corpse. It seems that it was this Draconas who caused the terrible
blast. They still don’t know how many are dead.”
    “Why would he do
that?” The monk sounded shocked.
    “Because he is our
enemy. Sent to destroy us.”
    “Who sent him?”
The other two monks were eager listeners now, avid for news.
    “The human king
who has long been a threat to us. Edward, the king of a nation known as
Idylswylde. You mark my words. This means war.”
    War against
Idylswylde. War against Marcus and his father. Ven tried to picture an army of
mad monks, and it was so ludicrous that he snorted in derision.
    He was much more
interested in finding out what had happened to Draconas.
    Ven remembered the
horrific blast. It had reduced the house in which he and Marcus and Evelina had
been to rubble and allowed Marcus and Evelina to escape. Draconas had caused
the blast and Grald was hunting for him. Which meant Draconas must still be
alive.
    Once the monks
were well out of earshot, Ven made his way back to the city, hoping to reach it
before anyone noticed that he’d been gone.
     

3
    ANORA FOUGHT
THROUGH A MIASMA OF BLACK ANGER AND Grald’s raging mixed with her own pain and
blank confusion. She was flat on the floor, lying amidst a heap of cracked
stones and splintered, smoldering timbers. Clouds of dust and smoke obscured
her vision. She coughed and shook her head to clear it of the throbbing and
Grald’s yammering.
    “What have you
done?” He was howling, furious. His colors reverberated inside her aching
skull. “You have destroyed half the city and nearly killed me in the process!
And my son? What has become of my son?”
    Anora ignored him.
She tried to remember. Draconas! What had become of Draconas? She leapt to her
feet and glanced swiftly about the wreckage of the building. His body must be
here somewhere. He could not have escaped her. He should be dead— human bones
and flesh burned beyond recognition.
    A walker had never
yet died while in human form, but the dragons had prepared for that
eventuality. The illusion of the human body remained even in death. Otherwise,
humans might come to know that dragons were spying on them. The dragons would
recover the corpse in secret and then use spells to lift the illusion, so that
the dead could be laid to rest in the bottom of the sea, the traditional dragon
burial site, where all life began and to which all life must eventually return.
    What with Grald
yelling at her and shrieking humans swarming about the place and her head
throbbing, Anora found it difficult to concentrate. She grit her teeth and shut
them all out. Draconas was not here and he must be here.
    Her illusory body
possessed dragon strength, and the humans watching were amazed to see the pudgy
holy sister lifting up enormous boulders and flinging them aside, heaving huge timbers
out of her way, kicking and clawing at the rubble. They assumed she was
searching for survivors, and they regarded her with awe and admiration.
    “Shut up,” she
finally ordered Grald. “Where are you? I need your help!”
    “Then you shouldn’t
have dropped a goddam building on top of me!” returned Grald, who tended to use
regrettable human expressions even in his dragon thinking. “It’s a good thing
this human body has a thick skull, otherwise . . .” He paused, seething, then
roared, “What the hell happened? You were supposed to kill Draconas, not level
my city!”
    Anora was silent,
her colors smoldering.
    “What?” Grald
thundered. “Isn’t he dead?”
    “He must be,”
Anora returned coldly. “It’s just ... I can’t seem to find his body.”
    “Perhaps it was
blown to bits,” Grald suggested.
    “If that were the
case, there would be blood, bone, hunks of flesh. There is nothing. You must
help me search for him.”
    “I would like to,”
Grald stated caustically “But at the moment I am buried under a half-ton of
rubble. My magic protected me from harm, but I can’t free myself. The monks