A Land Of Fire (Book 12) by Morgan Rice Read Free Book Online Page A

another.
    Soon, a wall of flame spread across the
seas, set one ship after another aflame. Tens of thousands of ships lay before
them, but Mycoples would not stop, opening her jaws, unrolling cloud after
cloud of flame. The flames stretched as if they were one continuous wall, as
the screams of men rose up below.
    Mycoples’s flames began to weaken, and
soon she breathed, and little fire emerged. Thor knew that she was dying
beneath him. She flew lower and lower, too weak to breathe fire. But she was
not too weak to use her body as a weapon, and in place of breathing fire, she
dropped down toward the ships, aiming her hardened scales into them, like a
meteor racing down from the sky.
    Thor braced himself and held on with all
his might as she dove right into the ships, the sound of cracking wood filling
the air. She flew into one ship after another, back and forth, destroying the
fleet. Thor held on as pieces of wood smashed into him from every direction.
    Finally, Mycoples could go no further.
She stopped in the center of the fleet, bobbing in the water, having destroyed
many of the ships, yet still surrounded by thousands more. Thor bobbed on her
back as she lay floating, breathing weakly.
    The remaining ships turned on them. Soon
the skies grew black, and Thor heard a whizzing sound. He looked up and saw a
rainbow of arrows arching his way. Suddenly, he was overcome with horrific
pain, pierced with the arrows, with nowhere to hide. Mycoples, too, was pierced
by them, and they began to sink beneath the waves, two great heroes having
fought the battle of their lives. They had destroyed the dragons and much of
the Empire fleet. They had done more than an entire army could have done.
    But now there was nothing left, they
could die. As Thor was pierced by arrow after arrow, sinking lower and lower,
he knew there was nothing left to do but prepare to die.

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    Alistair looked down to find herself
standing on a skywalk, and as she looked past it, down far below, she saw the
ocean crashing into rocks, the sound filling her ears. A strong gale of wind
knocked her off balance, and Alistair looked up and, as she had in so many
dreams in her life, she saw a castle perched on a cliff, heralded by a shining
gold door. Standing before it was a single figure, a silhouette, hands held out
to her as if to embrace her—yet Alistair could not see her face.
    “My daughter,” the woman said.
    She tried to take a step toward her, but
her legs were stuck, and she looked down to see she was shackled to the ground.
Try as she did, Alistair was unable to move.
    She reached her hands out to her mother
and cried desperately: “Mother, save me!”
    Suddenly Alistair felt her world
slipping past her, felt herself plummeting, and she looked down to see the skywalk
collapsing beneath her. She fell, shackles dangling behind her, and went
hurtling down toward the ocean, taking an entire section of the skywalk with
her.
    Alistair went numb as her body sank into
the ice-cold ocean, still shackled. She felt herself sinking, and she looked up
to see the daylight above become more and more faint.
    Alistair opened her eyes to find herself
sitting in a small, stone cell, in a place she did not recognize. Before her
sat a single figure, and she dimly recognized him: Erec’s father. He grimaced
down at her.
    “You have murdered my son,” he said.
“Why?”
    “I did not!” she protested weakly.
    He frowned.
    “You shall be sentenced to death,” he
added.
    “I did not murder Erec!” Alistair
protested. She stood and tried to rush to him, but once again she found herself
shackled to the wall.
    There appeared behind Erec’s father a
dozen guards, dressed in all black armor, wearing formidable faceplates, the
sound of their jingling spurs filling the room. They approached and reached out
and grabbed Alistair, yanking her, pulling her from the wall. Yet her ankles
were still shackled, and they stretched her body more and more.
    “No!”