Siege At The Settlements (Book 6) Read Free Page A

sounds. Others made sounds that would freeze the blood in your veins.
    Squawk!
    The sharp sound cut through the streets. Vibrated the cabin. The dragon out there was terrible. Plain terrible. A six-legged bluu dragon. A real predator. No wonder the people were terrified. Drat!
    There was very little that Nath didn’t know about dragons. Born of dragons in Dragon Home, or The Mountain of Doom as the commoners called it, he’d learned all there was to know. Their sounds. Their scales. Habits. Weapons. Magic. His father the Dragon King had educated him on all that during Nath’s first hundred years.
    Nath gazed at the boy, nuzzled in his mother’s arms. His father was gone. Their provider. Protector. It made him thankful he still had his own father, even though he couldn’t see him. That made him wish he’d spent more time with him when he had the chance. Made him wonder if he’d ever see his father again and made him miss Dragon Home more than ever.
    Squawk!
    The young woman gasped.
    “That sound. That horrible sound.”
    Nath didn’t remember hearing the sound the night before.
    “How often does it come out?”
    “Every few days or so,” she said. “It picks through the streets.”
    “It eats people,” the boy said. “It ate my friend.”
    “Dragons don’t eat people,” Nath said.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “No, they don’t, at least, not any that I’ve ever known. But they do like orcs. I’m certain of that. Your friend wasn’t an orc, was he?”
    The boy shook his head.
    Did giants and some of the other fowl races and creatures eat people on Nalzamblor? Yes. But dragons, much like people, did not. They might kill them by the bushel. Or roast them. But they didn’t eat people. At least, that was how it had always been.
    Perhaps things had changed.
    Nath walked over to the boy and woman, saying, “I’ll take care of this.” He patted the boy’s head. “No dragons will be eating any people.”
    “Promise?” the boy said.
    “Indeed,” Nath said. “Now stay with your mother.” Headed for the back door, he turned back one last time and nodded.
    As Nath headed out the door, he heard the boy speak one more time.
    “I hope you don’t get eaten.”
    Squawk!

Chapter 4
    S quawk!
    “Brenwar,” Pilpin said, “What is that thing, a giant bird?”
    Hunkered down at the edge of the mountain, Brenwar said, “Hush.”
    “But it bothers my ears. Rattles the hairs in my beard.” Pilpin scrunched up his face. “I want to make it stop.”
    Brenwar had as much patience as a stone, but it began to wear. Something strange was in the small town, and Nath was in there. Gorlee had disappeared as well. Can’t take anything that’s not a dwarf anywhere!
    “I think what yer hearing isn’t any bird. That’s a dragon calling.”
    “Sounds like a bird.”
    “Aye, a featherless bird with a hide like iron.”
    “Oh,” Pilpin said, glancing upwards. “It sounds like it’s coming from everywhere. Do you think it’s calling more dragons?”
    Brenwar grumbled. Trap! He had a feeling their luck would be running out soon. The Clerics of Barnabus wanted Nath Dragon. They had made that clear. He’d slipped past them for twenty-five years. Now, rumors of a black-scaled, red-haired man’s exploits had begun to spread. Now, the walls were closing in. And Brenwar was sure what the next step was. Soon enough, they’d have to join the wars that waged all around. Would Nath Dragon be ready? That worried him.
    He pulled Pilpin over by the neck of his armor and looked him in the eye. “Are you ready?”
    “Does my beard have hairs?” Pilpin said, getting excited. “Does a dragon have scales? An orc, a malodourous hide and breath? A giant, hair in his nose? Do roosters crow? Do— mrph ?”
    With his had clamped over Pilpin’s mouth, Brenwar said, “Alright.” He grabbed a small horn of bone that dangled like a necklace over Pilpin’s chest. “Be ready to use this. Come on.”
    “We’re going in then?”
    “Were going