Rise of the Dragons Read Free

past time you became a man,”
Braxton said.
    Bounding down the grass hills she knew
by heart, it did not take Kyra long to catch up to them. She ran out onto the
road and stopped before them, blocking their path, breathing hard, Leo beside
her, and her brothers all stopped short, looking back, stunned.
    Aidan’s face, she could see, fell in
relief.
    “Are you lost?” Braxton mocked.
    “You’re blocking our way,” Brandon said.
“Go back to your arrows and your sticks.”
    The two of them laughed derisively, but
she frowned, undeterred, as Leo, beside her, snarled.
    “Get that beast away from us,” Braxton
said, trying to sound brave but fear apparent in his voice as he tightened his
grip on his spear.
    “And where do you think you’re taking
Aidan?” she asked, dead serious, looking back at them without flinching.
    They paused, their faces slowly
hardening.
    “We’re taking him wherever we please,”
Brandon said.
    “He’s going on a hunt to learn to become
a man ,” Braxton said, emphasizing that last word as a dig to her.
    But she would not give in.
    “He’s too young,” she replied firmly.
    Brandon scowled.
    “Says who?” he asked.
    “Says me.”
    “And are you his mother?” Braxton asked.
    Kyra flushed, filled with anger, wishing
their mother was here now more than ever.
    “As much as you are his father,” she
replied.
    They all stood there in the tense
silence, and Kyra looked to Aidan, who looked back with scared eyes.
    “Aidan,” she asked him, “is this something
you wish to do?”
    Aidan looked down at the ground,
ashamed. He stood there, silent, avoiding her glance, and Kyra knew he was
afraid to speak out, to provoke the disapproval of his older brothers.
    “Well, there you have it,” Brandon said.
“He doesn’t object.”
    Kyra stood there, burning with
frustration, wanting Aidan to speak up but unable to force him.
    “It is unwise for you to bring him on
your hunt,” she said. “A storm brews. It will be dark soon. The wood is filled
with danger. If you want to teach him to hunt, take him when he’s older, on
another day.”
    They scowled back, annoyed.
    “And what do you know of hunting?”
Braxton asked. “What have you hunted beside those trees of yours?”
    “Any of them bite you lately?” Brandon
added.
    They both laughed, and Kyra burned,
debating what to do. Without Aidan speaking up, there wasn’t much she could do.
    “You worry too much, sister,” Brandon
finally said. “Nothing will happen to Aidan on our watch. We want to toughen
him up a bit—not kill him. Do you really imagine you’re the only one who cares
for him?”
    “Besides, Father is watching,” Braxton
said. “Do you want to disappoint him?”
    Kyra immediately looked up over their
shoulders, and high up, in the tower, she spotted her father standing at the
arched, open-aired window, watching. She felt supreme disappointment in him for
not stopping this.
    They tried to brush past, but Kyra stood
there, doggedly blocking their way. They looked as if they might shove her, but
Leo stepped between them, snarling, and they thought better of it.
    “Aidan, it’s not too late,” she said to
him. “You don’t have to do this. Do you wish to return to the fort with me?”
    She examined him and could see his eyes
tearing, but she could also see his torment. A long silence passed, with
nothing to break it up but the howling wind and the quickening snow.
    Finally, he squirmed.
    “I want to hunt,” he muttered
half-heartedly.
    Her brothers suddenly brushed past her,
bumping her shoulder, dragging Aidan, and as they hurried down the road, Kyra
turned and watched, a sickening feeling in her stomach.
    She turned back to the fort and looked
up at the tower, but her father was already gone.
    Kyra watched as her three brothers faded
from view, into the brewing storm, toward the Wood of Thorns, and she felt a
pit in her stomach. She thought of snatching Aidan and bringing him back—but
she did not want to