Rise of the Dragons Read Free Page A

shame him.
    She knew she should let it go—but she
could not. Something within her would not allow her to. She sensed danger,
especially on the eve of the Winter Moon. She did not trust her elder brothers;
they would not harm Aidan, she knew, but they were reckless, and too rough.
Worst of all, they were overconfident in their skills. It was a bad
combination.
    Kyra could stand it no longer. If her
father wouldn’t act, then she would. She was old enough now—she did not need to
answer to anyone but herself.
    Kyra burst into a jog, running down the
lone country path, Leo by her side, and heading right for the Wood of Thorns.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Kyra entered the gloomy Wood of Thorns,
just west of the fort, a forest so thick one could barely see through it. As
she walked through it slowly with Leo, snow and ice crunching beneath their
feet, she looked up. She was dwarfed by the thorn trees that seemed to stretch
forever. They were ancient black trees with gnarled branches resembling thorns,
and thick, black leaves. This place, she felt, was cursed; nothing good ever
came out of it. Her father’s men returned from it injured from hunts, and more
than once a troll, having broken through The Flames, had taken refuge here and
used it as a staging ground to attack a villager.
    As Kyra entered, immediately she felt a
chill. It was darker in here, cooler, the air wetter, the smell of the thorn
trees heavy in the air, smelling like decaying earth, and the massive trees
blotting out what remained of daylight. Kyra, on guard, was furious at her
older brothers. It was dangerous to venture here without the company of several
warriors—especially at dusk. Every noise startled her. There came a distant cry
of an animal, and she flinched, turning and looking for it. But the wood was
dense, and she could not find it.
    Leo, though, snarled beside her and
suddenly bounded off after it.
    “Leo!” she called out.
    But he was already gone.
    She sighed, annoyed; it was always his
way when an animal crossed. He would return, though, she knew—eventually.
    Kyra continued on, alone now, the wood
growing darker, struggling to follow her brothers’ trail—when she heard distant
laughter. She snapped to attention, turning to the noise and weaving past thick
trees until she spotted her brothers up ahead.
    Kyra lingered back, keeping a good
distance, not wanting to be spotted. She knew that if Aidan saw her, he would
be embarrassed and would send her away. She would watch from the shadows, she
decided, just making sure they did not get into trouble. It was better for
Aidan not to be shamed, to feel like he was a man.
    A twig snapped beneath her feet and Kyra
ducked, worried the sound would give her away—but her drunk older brothers were
oblivious, already a good thirty yards ahead of her, walking quickly, the noise
drowned out by their own laughter. She could see from Aidan’s body language
that he was tense, almost as if he were about to cry. He clutched his spear
tightly, as if trying to prove himself a man, but it was an awkward grip on a
spear too big, and he struggled under the weight of it.
    “Get up here!” Braxton called out,
turning to Aidan, who trailed a few feet behind.
    “What are you so afraid of?” Brandon
said to him.
    “I’m not afraid—” Aidan insisted.
    “Quiet!” Brandon suddenly said,
stopping, holding out a palm against Aidan’s chest, his expression serious for
the first time. Braxton stopped, too, all of them tense.
    Kyra took shelter behind a tree as she
watched her brothers. They stood at the edge of a clearing, looking straight
ahead as if they had spotted something.
    She crept forward, on alert, trying to
get a better look, and as she weaved between two large trees, she stopped,
stunned, as she caught a glimpse of what they were seeing. There, standing
alone in the clearing, rooting out acorns, was a boar. It was no ordinary boar;
it was a monstrous, Black-Horned Boar, the largest boar she had ever seen,