Avondale V Read Free Page A

keep up appearances, and Leonosis had grown noticeably thin and haggard.
    He was anxious to board the sky ship from Sparlan Citadel and finally be free. The king’s sky ship was actually a very powerful vessel built to direct a war. Draggah had ordered it made ready, along with the entire fleet of over one hundred war ships. Many had already gone out in search of Tiberius, but now the king was mobilizing the large army at his disposal.
    “My liege,” came a voice from behind them.
    Draggah turned quickly, seeing the man in charge of organizing and supplying the king’s fleet standing in the doorway.
    “Speak,” Draggah said in a low, ragged voice.
    “We are dangerously low on hylum, my lord,” the man said.
    Draggah looked at the man, who averted his gaze from Leonosis’ haggard form. Leonosis could feel the demon’s foul intentions. He was considering hurting the man, for no other reason than because the officer was delivering bad news. Leonosis felt a quiver of fear at the thought of using all of Sparlan Citadel’s reserves of hylum. Avondale was the only place in the kingdom where the precious gas was mined, and if they exhausted the reserves in the capital, they would have no choice but to take control of Avondale. Otherwise, they risked losing ships, maybe even the entire fleet. The war ships were useless without hylum.
    “Are all the war ships ready to set sail?” Draggah asked.
    “Not all of them, my lord.”
    “And is there any hylum gas left?”
    “Yes, my lord.”
    “Then get those ships in the air.”
    “But, my liege, we can’t deplete the reserves completely,” the man said, his voice little more than a fearful whine.
    Leonosis understood the officer’s fear. He could tell by looking at the man that he was not a warrior. His talent was obviously in organization. He kept the king’s forces armed and supplied, making him an essential part of the king’s army, but Leonosis knew that Draggah didn’t care about that. He had already murdered several officers who hesitated to obey his commands or reported news the demon didn’t want to hear. He was like a spoiled child who had no comprehension of the consequences of his actions. He was destroying the king’s army on what Leonosis could only consider a fool’s errand.
    “We don’t need reserves,” Draggah said. “We need the army ready to move as soon as I give the word. If that doesn’t happen, you will be the first to feel my wrath.”
    “Of course, my liege.”
    “Get out of my sight,” Draggah said, turning away from the man at the doorway.
    Leonosis’ body moved, and he still found it odd to feel himself being directed by an alien force. He wanted to scream for the demon to get out, but it did no good. He was a prisoner in his own body, helpless to stop the carnage around him.
    “Are you sure this Tiberius is really worth the effort?” Queen Ariel asked.
    She was lounging on a cushioned bench near the window, wrapped in an almost transparent gown that clung to her curves. It was Draggah’s latest torture to tease Leonosis with what he couldn’t have. Leo could feel his body’s desire smoldering like coals in a smithy’s forge, but Draggah wouldn’t let him touch the queen. He was saving her virtue for something, some type of foul magic that Leonosis couldn’t imagine. Still, the demon enjoyed flaunting Ariel’s alluring body in front of his helpless slave.
    “He was little more than a novice when I saw him last,” she continued. “He can’t be a threat to you.”
    “He has the Balestone,” Draggah said.
    “How can you be sure of that?”
    “I can feel its power growing,” Draggah said.
    “And you think Tiberius is using the stone’s magic to enhance his own power?”
    “Of course he is,” Draggah said. “We must not underestimate him again.”
    “We? It wasn’t I who let him escape Hamill Keep.”
    “No, you only let him live when you could have killed him in Avondale, before he learned to use his