A Night of Dragon Wings Read Free Page A

soldiers shoved a sabre into his hands.
    "Go on, you wretch," said one soldier, voice echoing inside his falcon helm—the man who had whipped and stabbed his back so many times.  "Fetch us the key, maggot, and you'll have your sweet freedom, and you can return to your whore and miserable whelp."
    Zar's eyes stung, the memories coursing through him: his son, his beautiful son with the blue eyes, fingers that clutched his, and soft hair like molten dawn.  He could see him again.
    All I must do is be strong, be brave, find the key… and I can go home.
    Before him loomed the shadowy doorway.  When he looked over his shoulder, he saw the queen there, her armor bright in the sunset, her eyes like sapphires.  He saw her soldiers, fifty men clad in steel, swords in hand.
    Or I can fight them, he thought.  I can swing my sword at them.  I can try to cut them down.  I can't kill them all, but maybe I can kill enough to run between them, to flee into the desert.
    He gritted his teeth, sending pain blazing down his jaw.  Even if he did escape them, what then?  They would hunt him.  They would catch him.  They would return him to the dungeon—to the whips, the pincers, the rats, the endless agony and screams.  Here at least, in this tower, death could relieve him.  It would be a gruesome death; the creatures inside could gut him, or mangle him, and he would scream… but at the end, they would kill him.  That was more than Solina's dungeon offered.
    And maybe…   Zar swallowed a lump.  Maybe I can find the key.  Maybe I can return home to my wife and son, a hero bearing jewels and glory.
    He squared his shoulders, swallowed again, and stepped into the tower.
    Darkness swirled around him.  Wind whispered like voices.  He walked, step by step, sword trembling before him.
    "Find the key!" Solina shouted behind him, but her voice was muffled and distant, an echo from a different lifetime.  "Find the key for your freedom!"
    He kept walking.  His knees shook.  The shadows engulfed him, then parted like a curtain, and Zar found himself standing in a round chamber.
    His breath died on his lips.
    The walls and floor were built of rough gray bricks.  The room was empty but for a large, obsidian table engraved with a peering eye.
    A creature sat at the table, fork and knife in hand.  Zar nearly gagged; he had never seen a creature so grotesque.  It looked like an obese, naked man, its folds of pale skin hiding its features—a creature like a great slab of melting butter.  It seemed to have no eyes, only two slits.  Two white folds opened to reveal a raw, red mouth and a wet tongue.
    Zar wanted to stab the creature.  He wanted to turn and flee.  He wanted to close his eyes, curl up, and pray.  Yet he stood frozen in disgust and terror as the creature raised its hand.  Its fingers were fat as bread rolls, pale and glistening and ending with small claws.  It pointed at a staircase behind the table; the stairs seemed to rise to a second story.
    "Do I…"  Zar's voice cracked, and he swallowed and tried again.  "Do I climb?  Is the key upstairs?"
    The obese, pale creature said nothing, only kept pointing at the staircase.  Its wrinkled slits stared at Zar like eyes.  Its mouth opened again, revealing small sharp teeth.
    Zar took a step toward the stairs, keeping one eye on the creature.  Sword trembling in his thin hands, he began to climb.  The stairs corkscrewed up, craggy under his bare feet, until they emerged into the second floor of the tower.
    Zar felt himself blanch.  He raised his shaking sword.
    "Shine your light on me, Sun God," he whispered.
    Fight it, he thought and clenched his jaw.  Kill it or your body too will fall from the tower.
    The second story looked much like the first, round and rough and empty.  A creature lurked here too.  At first Zar thought it a dog with two heads.  But this canine creature was larger than a dog—closer in size to a horse—and its two heads were humanlike,