Dragons Reborn Read Free Page B

cell.
    Cade fell onto the
floor, chains rattling, and banged his knees. Mercy stood in the doorway, clad
in her priceless armor, a seraph of beauty and light. She stared down at him in
disgust and spat on him.
    "I hope you
choose death," she said. "I'll be the one to torture you. And I'll
enjoy it. And I'll make it last a very long time." A mad grin stretched
across her face, lurid, inhuman, a grin that tugged at her cheeks as if her
face could split in two. It was the grin of a demon. "But not before you
watch me do the same to your precious Domi."
    With that, Mercy
slammed the door shut, sealing Cade in darkness. He heard her footsteps leaving
the dungeon, and then he heard nothing but the screams.

 
 
ROEN

    He stood
outside, slamming his axe into the logs again and again, and with every blow he
wanted to shatter the world. With every blow, Roen saw her eyes again, saw her
walking away, saw her blazing into his life with heat and softness and love,
then vanishing, elusive as a sprite.
    "Why
did you ever come here?" He swung his axe down, cleaving the wooden log.
He placed another log on the tree stump and swung again. "Just to love me,
hurt me, leave again?"
    His
axe cleaved through the log, drove into the tree stump beneath, and embedded
itself there. Roen grunted and tugged on the axe so mightily he couldn't
control it. It tore free, flew backward through the air, hit an oak, then
thumped to the forest floor.
    Roen
dropped to his knees with a similar thump, lowered his head, and clenched his
fists at his sides. Piles of chopped wood rose around him in the forest, the pieces
of his soul, for Fidelity had broken that soul as surely as he had chopped the
wood.
    He
looked around him. The forest was beautiful, a place of peace, of home. Aspens,
oaks, and sugar maples rustled around him, their leaves turning yellow, orange,
and gold. Moss coated boulders and fallen logs, and the song of birds and
rustling leaves filled the canopy. Roen had chosen this life, a life of
solitude in the wilderness, a life of forgetting. Of escape. A life away from
the Cured Temple, the bustle of cities, the oppression of the priests . . . and
away from her.
    Roen
closed his eyes, the memories resurfacing.
    It
had been almost four years ago, on a summer dawn, that she had come into his
life. From beyond the years, Roen could still hear the shrieks of firedrakes,
still see the fire blaze overhead.
    "Slay
the weredragon!" the paladin had shouted, and the blast of their
firedrakes' wings had shaken the forest canopy. "Burn the reptile!"
    While
his father still slept, Roen had woken before dawn, and he was fishing from a
stream as light slowly filled the forest. At first he thought he was still
asleep, still dreaming. Yet when he stared up, he saw her: a blue dragon
fleeing across the sky, two firedrakes in pursuit.
    "Burn
the weredragon!"
    Roen
stared up, chest constricting, fingers shaking.
    Weredragon.
    His
eyes stung.
    My
father and I are not alone.
    He
summoned his magic, the magic the Temple called a curse, and he soared as a
green dragon. He crashed through the canopy, rose behind the firedrakes, and
blasted out his fire.
    His
flaming jet washed over one paladin, and the man screamed, and his firedrake spun
madly. Roen shot forth and lashed his claws, thrust his fangs, tasted blood,
roared with rage. The firedrake crashed down to the forest, dead before it hit
the trees. The second beast shot toward him, roaring out fire, and its rider
shot arrows. Roen bellowed as the weapons slammed against him, but he refused
to fall. He beat his wings, soared higher, and swooped. He felt like a mindless
beast, like a firedrake himself, as his claws tore the paladin apart, then sank
into the firedrake, ripping it open, sending it crashing down dead.
    With
his enemies slain upon the forest, Roen reared in the sky, stretched out his
claws, and roared, a great roar that echoed for miles.
    He
had fled the Cured Temple to this forest. They had invaded his