A Realm of Shadows Read Free Page A

we
must go,” she said excitedly, in a rush.
    Marco looked at
her, wondering.
    “Kyra,” she said.
“We can find her. She will help us. Wherever she is, she is fighting. We can join
her.”
    “But how do you
know she is alive?” he asked.
    Dierdre shook
her head.
    “I don’t,” she
replied. “But Kyra always survives. She is the strongest person I have ever
met.”
    “Where is she?”
he asked.
    Dierdre thought,
and she recalled the last time she had seen Kyra, forking north, for the Tower.
    “The Tower of Ur,” she said.
    Marco looked
back, surprised; then a glimmer of optimism crossed his eyes.
    “The Watchers
are there,” he said. “As are other warriors. Men who can fight with us.” He
nodded, excited. “A good choice,” he added. “We can be safe in that tower. And
if your friend is there, then all the better. It’s a day’s hike from here. Let
us go. We must move quickly.”
    He took her hand,
and without another word the two of them took off, Dierdre filled with a new
sense of optimism as they headed into the forest, and somewhere, on the
horizon, for the Tower of Ur.

CHAPTER THREE
     
     
    Kyra braced
herself as she walked into a field of fire. The flames rose to the sky then
lowered just as quickly, turning all different colors, caressing her as she
walked with her arms out by her sides. She felt its intensity, felt it enveloping
her, wrapping her in a thin embrace. She knew she was walking into death, and
yet she could walk no other way.
    And yet somehow,
incredibly, she did not feel pain. She felt a sense of peace. A sense of her
life ending.
    She looked out
and through the flames, she saw her mother, awaiting her somewhere at the far
end, on the opposite side of the field. She felt a sense of peace, as she
finally knew she would be in her mother’s embrace.
    I’m here, Kyra , she called. Come
to me .
    Kyra peered into
the flames and could just make out her mother’s face, nearly translucent, partially
hidden as a wall of flame shot up. She walked deeper into the crackling flames,
unable to stop until she was surrounded on all sides.
    A roar cut
through the air, even above the sound of the fire, and she looked up and was in
awe to see a sky filled with dragons. They circled and shrieked, and as she
watched, one huge dragon roared and dove down just for her.
    Kyra sensed it
was death coming for her.
    As the dragon
neared, its talons extended, suddenly the ground dropped out beneath her and Kyra
found herself falling, hurtling down into the earth, an earth filled with
flame, a place from which she knew she would never escape.
    Kyra opened her
eyes with a start, breathing hard. She looked all around, wondering where she
was, feeling pain in every corner of her body. She felt the pain in her face,
her cheek swollen, throbbing, and as she slowly lifted her head, finding it hard
to breathe, she found that her face was encased in mud. She was, she realized,
lying face first in the mud, and as she placed her palms in it and slowly
pushed up, she wiped mud back from her face, wondering what was happening.
    A sudden roar
ripped through the air, and Kyra looked up and felt a wave of terror as she
spotted something in the sky that was very real. The air was filled with
dragons of all shapes and sizes and colors, all circling, screeching, breathing
fire into the air, filled with fury. As she watched, one swooped down and
breathed a column of flame all the way to the ground.
    Kyra looked over
and took in her surroundings, and her heart skipped a beat as she realized where
she was: Andros.
    It all came rushing
back to her. She had been flying atop Theon, racing back to Andros to save her father,
when they had been attacked in the sky by that flock of dragons. They had
appeared from nowhere in the sky, had bitten Theon, had thrown them down to the
ground. Kyra realized she must have blacked out.
    Now she woke to a
wave of heat, of awful shrieking, of a capital in chaos, and she looked about
and saw the