The Burning Sky Read Online Free PDF

Without thinking, Iolanthe reacted. A wall of fire roared toward Mrs. Oakbluff.
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    The prince first secured the house with an impassable circle to keep out other intruders. The front door still stood more or less intact, but the wall around it had crumbled. He stepped over the debris strewn across the vestibule, and barely had time to duck as a tongue of fire roared in his direction.
    But the fire did not reach him. Instead it pivoted midair and shot back where it had come from. He followed it toward the back of the house and stopped in his tracks.
    A dozen trails of hissing, crackling flames, vicious as serpents, attacked the housebreaker, who frantically shouted shielding charms. The girl, now covered in plaster dust, stood in a tall trunk, her arms waving, her face a scowl of concentration.
    Some of the housebreaker’s shielding charms took. Behind their barricade, she pointed her wand at the girl. 
    The prince raised his own wand. The housebreaker fell to the broken floor. The girl gawked at him a moment, raised both hands, and pushed them out. Fire hurtled toward him.
    â€œFiat praesidium!” The air before him hardened to take the brunt of the fire. “Recall your flames. I am not here to harm you.”
    â€œThen leave.”
    With a turn of her wrists, the wall of flame reconfigured into a battering ram.
    Good thing he had fought so many dragons. “Aura circumvallet.”
    Air closed around the fire. She waved her hands, trying to make her fire obey her, but it remained contained. 
    She snapped her finger to call forth more fire.
    â€œOmnis ignis unus,” he murmured. All fire is one fire.
    The new burst of flame she wanted materialized inside the prison he had already made.
    He approached the trunk. Sunlight slanted through the broken walls into the room, sparkling where it caught specks of plaster in the air. One particular ray lit a thin streak of blood at her temple.
    She yanked at the trunk lid. He set his own hand against it. “I am not here to harm you,” he repeated. “Come with me. I will get you to safety.”
    She glowered. “Come with you? I don’t even know who . . .”
    Her voice trailed off; her head jerked with recognition. He was Titus VII, the Master of the Domain. 2 His profile adorned the coins of the realm. His portraits hung in schools and public buildings—even though he was not yet of age and would not rule in his own right for another seventeen months.
    â€œYour Highness, forgive my discourtesy.” Her hand loosened its grip on the trunk’s lid; her gaze, however, remained on guard. “Are you here at Atlantis’s behest?”
    So she knew from which quarter danger came. “No,” he answered. “The Inquisitor would have to step over my dead body to get to you.”
    The girl swallowed. “The Inquisitor wants me?”
    â€œBadly.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI will tell you later. We need to go.”
    â€œWhere?”
    He appreciated her wariness: better wary than naive. But this was no time for detailed answers. Each passing second diminished their chances of getting out unseen.
    â€œThe mountains, for now. Tomorrow I will take you out of the Domain.”
    â€œBut I can’t leave my guardian behind. He—”
    Too late. Overhead Marble emitted a high, keening call: she had sighted the Inquisitor. He untwisted the pendant he wore around his neck and pressed its lower half into her hand.
    â€œI will find you. Now go.”
    â€œBut what about Master—”
    He pushed her down and slammed the trunk shut.
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    The moment the trunk closed, its bottom dropped out from underneath Iolanthe. She fell into utter darkness, flailing.

CHAPTER 3
    THERE WAS NO TIME TO bring down Marble. Titus had two choices: he could let the Inquisitor see Marble, catch her, and realize that Titus’s personal steed was loose in the vicinity; or he could vault onto the beast, with the