A Storm in the Desert: Dragonlinked Chronicles Voume 3 Read Free

Shrine soon. Two bells had passed since the start of dinner, and most people would be heading home for the night. The shrine should be emptying.
    Takatin disliked going there himself. The number of vendors near the place bothered him. The hawkers gave the place too much of a festival feel. The food and drink vendors weren’t even the worst. It was those selling supposed holy relics that irritated him. And those who purchased from them irked him even more. It was all a little . . . disrespectful.
    He took a sip of wine and chuckled.
    Me, complaining about—
    Anais refilled his goblet.
    Damn the woman, how did she know?
    A deep, reverberating gong announced the Capu’s return.
    “Oh,” the Capu said when he walked in the room. “I apologize for keeping you waiting.” He turned to his pesan, who trailed behind. “You did not tell me we had a meeting with the Nesch.”
    The boy looked flustered. “I—”
    “There wasn’t a meeting scheduled.” Takatin stood and placed the goblet on the side table. The room wavered briefly. How much had he drunk?
    “I see. Please, let’s adjourn to the drawing room.” When Capu Cirtis glanced at his pesan, the boy bowed and left the room. The Capu then gestured to his steward for his own goblet of wine and led the way to the small meeting chamber.
    After handing the wine to Capu Cirtis, Anais withdrew to a corner of the room. Being deaf, as all the stewards in the Order were, she’d wait there for hand instructions.
    “So, what brings the Nesch to see me at this hour?” Capu Cirtis sat in a chair.
    Takatin chose to pace instead, though there was little enough room to do so. “Why did you send a manis, alone, to find the boy?”
    Capu Cirtis let out a breath, sounding impatient. “The insidious rumors of the dragon boy threaten the stability of the Order.”
    “And when the manis finds the boy and dragon, will they be killed?” Takatin faced Capu Cirtis and crossed his arms.
    “The Order has had to deal with dragon sympathizers in the past.”
    Takatin nodded. “I know the histories. The Laminae killed several members and so execution was warranted. Has the boy done anything?” He watched Cirtis swirl the wine in his goblet. Did the Capu know something about the boy that hadn’t been shared with the Umeri, that hadn’t been shared with him?
    “I didn’t send the manis to kill them.” Capu Cirtis drank deep. “We must discover whether or not the rumor is true. Locating the boy, determining if he does, in fact, have a dragon, is all that’s needed for now. If the rumor is false, we’ll be able to quash it. If not, at least we’ll know where they are and can decide what actions are warranted.” He stood, a tacit ending of the meeting. “I’m tired of rumors. I want to know truths.”
    Nesch Takatin frowned as he walked down the nearly empty hallways. He’d wanted to ask more of the Capu, wanted to demand an explanation of why he hadn’t been consulted before the fighter had been sent. But Cirtis didn’t wish to speak more of it, apparently.
    Truths. Everyone in the upper echelon knew the truth of the Order, including Capu Cirtis. And yet, the Order continued on the same path.
    ‘It is as it always has been.’
    He heard that weak excuse from those who would hold to tradition despite anything that contradicted the old ways. Fools, all of them.
    ‘No one would believe.’
    That he heard from still others. When the Order first started, how many believed dragons were evil? That hadn’t stopped Daelon. No, it was laziness. People today were lazy and comfortable in their routines.
    ‘Only a fool tries to shift sliding sands to another course.’
    The weight of over a century of lies would someday carry these fools to the bottom of a sand-sink, dragging all who believed in them to the same doom, and almost none of the leadership seemed to care. That is what angered him the most. That is what had started him down his current path.
    A guard on patrol saluted him