A Birthright of Blood (The Dragon War, Book 2) Read Free Page A

the barrel and rummaged through the rotten tubers. Bugs
scurried around her fingers, and she thanked the stars that
legionaries wore thick leather gloves. Rune rooted around beside
her, grimacing.
    "Disgusting," he said.
"I think I felt a rat in there. Or maybe a turnip that's gone
fuzzy."
    "Quiet!" Kaelyn
whispered and reached elbow deep. She rifled around, then smiled.
"There! I feel it."
    She gripped her catch and
pulled, fishing out a bundle of leather. She brushed it clean,
placed the bundle on the ground, and unwrapped it.
    She revealed parchment placards,
each about a foot long. Her eyes dampened.
    Each poster displayed the sigil
of House Aeternum—a two-headed dragon wreathed in leaves of birch,
the holy tree of Requiem. Above the dragon's heads, inked in silver,
appeared the constellation Draco—the stars of Requiem. Letters too
were drawn upon each scroll:
    "Relesar
Aeternum, true king of Requiem, reigns in the south. Join the true
king! Death to Cadigus!"
    Beneath this, in smaller script,
appeared the Old Words of Requiem, the forbidden prayer that priests
had sung for thousands of years.
    "Requiem!
May our wings forever find your sky."
    Rune stared at the posters and
tapped his chin.
    "Not bad," he said.
"Lana did a decent job, though she could have added something
about how I'm also breathtakingly handsome."
    Kaelyn sighed. "We're here
to spread the truth to the empire, Rune, not inundate the people with
more lies." She grabbed a sheaf of posters. "Now lift
half of them! It'll be a long night."
    "I don't understand,"
Rune said as he stuffed placards into his pack. "Why wouldn't
we just sneak into this city at night? Why bother seeing your father
speak and marching down the streets? We could have just come to this
alley in the first place." He shuddered. "Oh stars,
Kaelyn, the rally… the men he breaks… And we just stood there
and watched."
    Kaelyn sighed, rolling up
posters and shoving them into her own pack.
    "We needed to be there,"
she said softly. "We need to see, hear, and shout his evil. We
need to know the full rot of his soul." She lowered her head,
still seeing those broken bodies upon the wall, and when she looked
up at Rune, she saw them haunting his eyes too. "One must grasp
the depth of evil before one can fight it."
    When they'd packed all the
posters, they crept back to the alley's mouth. Kaelyn heard nothing.
The boulevard seemed barren. All the soldiers had either entered
Castra Draco or flown in pursuit of Lana.
    "Fly high, Lana,"
Kaelyn whispered and looked up at the sky, as if she could see her
friend flying there. "Fly far. Thank you."
    Her eyes stung. She knuckled
them, tightened her lips, and stuck her head outside the alley. She
peered from side to side. Seeing no one, she grabbed Rune and pulled
him out into the street.
    "Now come on," she
whispered to him. "We're just two soldiers on patrol, part of
the Flaming Eye Brigade. Curfew is on, the rally is over, so these
streets should be quiet. If anyone stops us, we're just doing our
rounds, and Castra Draco has our names to prove it."
    They began to walk, moving away
from the fortress. Kaelyn had grown up in this city; she'd spent
sixteen years here before fleeing her father's rod and wrath. She
knew these streets like the scars her father had given her. After
walking several blocks, they reached a wide brick building. Smoke
plumed from its four chimneys, and the scents of wine, ale, and
roasted meats wafted. Behind the stained-glass windows, she saw the
shadows of men moving, and she heard them singing hoarse drinking
songs.
    "The Green Duck," she
said. "A favorite alehouse among the soldiers."
    Rune raised an eyebrow. "The
Green Duck? This is Nova Vita, heart of the Cadigus Regime. I
figured alehouses here would have names like The Tavern of Steel, The
Goblet of Glory, or Frey's Firkin. Something more… imperial."
    Kaelyn allowed herself a wan
smile. "This tavern predates my father's regime. He did rename
Lynport after