The Hearts of Dragons Read Online Free PDF Page B

‘we’ a moment ago. Do
you have relatives here, other Maantecs?”
    Hana’s expression
darkened, and she turned away from him. “No,” she said. Her voice caught. “My
parents lived happily on this farm for years, until six months ago.”
    Iren frowned. Six months
ago wasn’t that long after Amroth’s defeat at Ziorsecth. “What happened?”
    Hana started to answer,
but at that moment, Balear stirred. Iren and Hana ran to him. “Are you all
right?” Iren asked.
    Balear groaned. “Where
am I?” He blinked twice and tried to sit up, but he fell back in the straw. He
clutched his head with his hand. “Everything’s spinning,” he said. “You didn’t
make me drink Kodaman brandy by any chance, did you?”
    Iren recalled the
pungent odor of the maple-based liquor. “Sorry, old friend,” he said, “no such
luck.”
    The soldier’s eyes
struggled to focus. “So we survived?” he asked. “I was sure I would die back
there. What happened?”
    “An angel dropped out of
the heavens and rescued us,” Iren said with a flourish. “A left-handed angel by
the name of Hana.”
    Hana blushed as Balear
looked at her. “It was nothing,” she stammered.
    Now it was Balear’s turn
to blush. “It’s an honor,” he said, “to make the acquaintance of a woman at
once so beautiful and capable in battle.”
    Iren rolled his eyes.
“If you’re well enough to flirt, you’re well enough to tell me what’s going on.
Why was Orcsthia’s mayor going to execute you?”
    Balear shifted himself
into a more comfortable position on the straw. “I left Ziorsecth six months ago
to help restore peace in Lodia. You know that much.”
    Iren nodded. He
remembered all too well the sad day two of his closest friends—Balear and
Rondel—had departed the forest. He’d probably made Minawë feel the same way
he’d felt back then.
    He forced down a wave of
guilt. “I trust it didn’t go as planned.”
    “No, it didn’t,” Balear said.
“I expected instability after Amroth’s death, but I never thought a civil war
would break out.”
    “A civil war?” That
would explain why Orcsthia had constructed its earthen defense. Still, Iren had
a hard time believing Lodia would fall apart because of the death of its
lunatic king, Amroth.
    “What did you expect?”
Hana asked. “If you’re General Balear Platarch, former head of the First Army
of Lodia, you must have known what would happen when the Succession Law went
into effect.”
    “Succession Law?” Iren
felt like a Tacumsahen parrot, spitting back whatever someone else said. Yet he
couldn’t help but be confused. None of what Balear and Hana were saying made
sense.
    “Do you know how
succession works in Lodia?” Balear asked him. “How the next king is chosen when
one dies?”
    Iren knew it all right.
Last year Amroth had used that process to rise to power. “When the king dies,
his first legitimate son replaces him,” Iren said. “If the king has no
legitimate son, then his chief advisor becomes the king.”
    “Right,” Balear replied.
“That’s how Amroth became king even though he wasn’t of royal birth. King
Azuluu made him his chief advisor. But what would happen if a king died without
either a legitimate son or a chief advisor?”
    Iren stiffened. Amroth
hadn’t sired any children, and he never would have suffered an advisor. “I
assume there’s some process for choosing a new king.”
    “There is,” Balear said.
“It’s called the Succession Law. If a king dies without a legitimate son or a
chief advisor, the mayors of Lodia’s large towns and cities gather in a
council. They then choose who among them should become the next king.”
    “That sounds like a good
idea,” Iren said. “I don’t understand why a rule like that would lead to civil
war. After all, Lodia isn’t that big. It only has a handful of cities.”
    “Actually, it doesn’t,”
Hana interjected. “The Succession Law was written eight hundred years ago, less
than two