The Dragon’s Appraiser: Part Two Read Online Free PDF Page A

dies, it all goes to me. Or at least, it would have.”
    “I see,” Sevrrn said. “So when you refused, they arranged for you to be sacrificed out of spite?”
    “Maybe in part, but more likely it was because of my cousin. I have a younger cousin who’s third in line for the estate. I’d bet anything that Jerl’s son is already planning their wedding.”
    “This Jerl sounds like a clever man,” Sevrrn remarked.
    Madja didn’t bother arguing. She was beginning to understand that the dragon’s mind didn’t have much of a moral compass.
    “To be honest, I wasn’t too scared about being sacrificed,” Madja said, her mind drifting back in time. “I mean, I cried some, but the more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that you weren’t real. I imagined that I would find a great big hoard of abandoned treasures. I’d take whatever I could carry, make for the nearest port, and stow away on a ship bound for a far-off continent. Maybe Manduria. Women have equal rights there. I could work as an appraiser and make my own fortune.”
    A wistful grin claimed her lips. “I had this crazy fantasy about buying a huge trading vessel. I’d travel back to the island and I’d use my money and influence to undercut all of the Kavesh’s goods.”
    Sevrrn did not appear impressed. “You have an odd notion of vengeance. I would simply kill them all.”
    Madja couldn’t help but laugh. “You think I should kill the Kavesh?”
    His expression perfectly blank, he said, “I could leave for the lair right now, get my scales and fly to the capital. They will all be dead before the night falls.”
    To her eternal shame, Madja hesitated.
    “No, that wouldn’t be right,” she said, trying to convince herself just as much as him. “Just like it wouldn’t be right to let the island fall to Allona. So many people could die, Sevrrn. You have the power to protect them all.”
    “Just as I have the power to aid the Allonans. Then, they would be beholden to me and would pay me proper tribute.”
    Madja glared at him. “You already have more treasures than you even know what to do with.”
    “I know full well what to do with my treasures,” he replied with a snort.
    She felt her shoulders sag. This wasn’t an argument she could win. Over the past few weeks, she had thought she’d seen a change in him. But although he had become better at acting human, it really was just a façade. Underneath the man’s skin, he was nothing more than a dragon.
    Was he even capable of compassion?
    Would he ever be capable of love?
    Or had Madja only been seeing what she wanted to see?

5
    M adja was fairly certain that Sevrrn had never felt vulnerable a day in his life. That was the only explanation she could come up with for why he slept like the dead.
    Sevrrn could fall asleep on a whim. Literally. He had once explained that he had a near-mastery of all of his biological processes. Apparently, it was one of the prerequisites for being able to take human form, and why only the long-lived and powerful dragons could do so.
    After an hour of tossing and turning in bed, Madja finally gave up. She made no effort to be quiet as she wrapped a dress robe around her bed shift, stepped into her slippers, and left the room. By now, she knew that even if the land quaked and split open beneath him, Sevrrn wasn’t climbing out of the hole until sunrise.
    There were no lights on in the inn, but somehow Madja made it outside without stumbling. Out on the walkway, she stared up at the room where Sevrrn was still resting. As usual, he had wanted to have sex with her that night. Both her mood and the fact that her father had once slept in that very bed had made rejecting him easy.
    She took a walk along the shore. The last time she had seen the cove at night, Madja had been five-years-old and the myriad ships had looked like shadowed giants, blotting out the horizon. She remembered how big they had seemed and how small they had made her feel. But now, as