The Dinosaur Knights Read Free Page A

boil she found her perceptions unnaturally keen: the rustle of the broad splayed leaves above them, the smell of the forest and the sweating beasts, the usual chittering debate overhead between toothy birds and furred fliers, the feathery touch of a breeze on her face. Which now felt as if a red-hot iron mask had been clamped over it.
    The men riding behind her also spoke, pitching their voices low. “Did you see the rack on that Baroness? Shitfire or not, I’d love to bury my cheeks between them.”
    â€œI’d pay to see you try, Corneille. Me, I’d rather try to screw a red-feathered horror. Safer in the long run.”
    â€œHow about the wench, then?” persisted Corneille, who was manifestly hornier than was good for him. “She’s almost as hot.”
    Almost? Melodía thought. She carefully kept her shoulders slumped and eyes downcast. But she did wish for soldier ants to bite Corneille most enthusiastically on the genitals at the next stop.
    â€œYou’d be almost as great a fool to lay a finger on her,” said the other man. “Me, I’m afraid to touch anything that belongs to that she-spider. Even her shadow.”

Chapter 2
    Los Compañeros de Nuestra Señora del Spejo , The Companions of Our Lady of the Mirror —An Order Military made up of dinosaur knights sworn to serve the Creator Bella, which was founded by its Captain-General, Comte Jaume dels Flors, to serve beauty and justice and aid the oppressed. Their churchly charter restricts them to no more than twenty-four serving members, picked from the most heroic, virtuous, artistically accomplished, and beautiful young men of Nuevaropa and beyond, not all of noble birth. They are encouraged to form lasting romantic pairs among themselves to further cement their bonds. Nuevaropa’s most renowned warriors, led by its foremost living philosopher and poet.
    â€”A PRIMER TO PARADISE FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF YOUNG MINDS
    â€œâ€”and in the heat of the Battle of Blueflowers”—the round man’s tenor voice bubbled with outrage—“they held back and did nothing—nothing!—while our beloved brother Sieur Percil was cruelly slain, and the heroic lords Yannic and Longeau suffered the wounds whose marks you see before you!”
    Though Rob sat under guard at the back of the villa’s banquet hall, he could clearly see Yannic, seated up front near the Council dais. The nobleman’s narrow head was wrapped in bandages that left only eyes, mouth, and nostrils uncovered. Rob reckoned whatever lay beneath could hardly help being an improvement on what Yannic had started with.
    He did find it an interesting commentary on the current balance of power in Providence, or at least the town, that the only town lord privileged to sit at the high table was Longeau, himself a Council member.
    â€œAs for our country brethren, Baron Ismaël of Fond-Étang was captured and carried back to Crève Coeur to be held for ransom. Baron Travise, sorely wounded, barely escaped the fray. His squire and servants carried him back to the Glades to recuperate.”
    The speaker himself was unwounded in his well-filled robes of green and gold. “Melchor, you fat, treacherous bastard,” Rob muttered to Karyl, who sat beside him on the bench built out from the hall’s rear wall. “I thought he was the most reasonable of the lot. And here he was working to undermine us all the time.”
    Karyl returned the slightest of shrugs. “No doubt you’re right.”
    Rob glared at him. “Isn’t that something of a cavalier attitude when we’re on trial for our lives?”
    â€œThe play’s only begun,” Karyl said. “Providentials like their drama. This production will be long drawn out. Let’s wait to see the climax, shall we?”
    â€œAs long as it fails to involve a black hood, an axe, and Rob Korrigan’s young neck.”
    Karyl laid his head