A Birthright of Blood (The Dragon War, Book 2) by Daniel Arenson Read Free Book Online Page A

imagined the
Resistance would bury the dead. She had always heard that they
merely burned corpses, left them to rot, or even ate them. Yet
somebody had dug these graves here, raised these tombstones, and
engraved each one with a symbol of Old Requiem.
    As she kept wandering through
the forest, Erry saw that several scattered tombstones did bear
names. She recognized some; here lay the fallen youths of Cadport.
    Rune
must have buried them, Erry realized. He's
from Cadport too. He'd know some of those he slew.
    She
sighed and lowered her head. Back at Cadport, Rune Brewer had always
been kind to her. He would bring her food to the beach sometimes.
Once he even let her sleep in his tavern during a storm. Yet now the
boy had become a resistor. Now he had slain hundreds; burying those
he slew could not atone for that.
    "In only a year, so much
changed," Erry whispered. "Two kids from the boardwalk,
one now a soldier, one a resistor. And so many dead."
    She kept wandering, reading the
names of the fallen, until she saw a tall tombstone upon a knoll.
    Erry froze and stared.
    A ray of light fell between the
trees, lighting the tombstone. Ivy crawled over its craggy white
surface, and cyclamens circled its base. The trees rustled,
whispering to her. This grave seemed to beckon, and Erry approached
it gingerly, holding her breath.
    When she saw the name upon the
tombstone, she lowered her head, and a tear flowed down her cheek.
    "Mae Baker," she
whispered.
    She looked at her friend's grave
and clenched her fists.
    "Oh
damn it, Wobble Lips!" she blurted out. "Why did you have
to go and get killed, damn you? I told you to fly near me." Her fists shook, and she wanted to punch
the tombstone. "I told you a million times—in assault
formation, look ahead and blow fire, not at enemies beside you." She kicked the
earth, sending leaves flying onto the grave. "Now look at you.
Now look at you, Wobble Lips! At least I'm spared seeing your damn
lips wobble so much. At least you won't bug me again with all your
wailing and tears."
    She closed her burning eyes and
stood for long moments, fists clenched. Finally she sighed, opened
her eyes, and touched the tombstone.
    "Wherever you are now,
Wobble Lips, just… don't get into any more trouble, all right? Not
until I see you again. And for stars' sake, don't cry so much, okay?
Be strong. We all have to be strong." Her knees trembled and
she knuckled her eyes. "We're going to be so damn strong, Mae,
you won't believe it." She patted the tombstone. "Goodbye,
Wobble Lips. Goodbye."
    She turned and left.
    She walked through the forest,
head low.
    Soon she found a gravelly road.
As she walked between the trees, heading toward the ruins of Castra
Luna, she unrolled the scroll she had carried all the way from her
northern fort. She clutched it like a treasure.
    It had taken her moons to
convince her officer to write this scroll, reassigning her here. At
first, Erry had agreed to do anything for reassignment. And so she
had spent a moon serving her officer as a slave—scrubbing his boots,
sweeping his floor, oiling his sword, polishing his armor, and
begging again and again for naught. She had then changed her
approach. She spent the next moon wreaking havoc in her
phalanx—knocking over pots, breaking three swords, crashing into
other dragons in flight, and being the worst soldier she could be.
She had suffered many punisher burns during that moon, but it was
worth it. Finally, after Erry had lost yet another helmet, her
commander agreed to send her south.
    "Remember," Erry had
said, rubbing the bruises of his punisher, "I want to serve in
Castra Luna, and I want to serve under Lanse Tilla. Remember
that—it has to be Lanse Tilla."
    Her officer had scowled,
cursed… and written the scroll.
    "Soon I'll see you again,
Tilla," Erry whispered as she walked down the gravel road.
    All
my life, she thought, I've
had only two real friends. One now lies buried. The other is an
officer leading her own