Ashes And Spirit (Book 3) by A.D. Trosper Read Free Book Online

if I hadn’t been so quick to start a war in Trilene! If not for me, there wouldn’t have been a battle for her to fight in, no battle for her to die in!” He was yelling back now and didn’t care. “No battle for Emallya and Bardeck or the Mallay people to die in!”
    “Now you take the extraordinary strength and honor of the people of the Mallay?” Her brows were drawn so tight they nearly touched, and her dark eyes were filled with fire. “Now you make all of their choices for them too?”
    “No, I didn’t say that!” He ran a hand over the tight braids on his head in frustrated anger. “I didn’t decide it, but I’m the one that started the whole flaming thing.”
    Dhovara shook her head. “You want someone to blame, Kellinar, but the truth is there is no one. Not even yourself. You could not start a war by yourself. You are a great and powerful man, Kellinar, but you are not that great and powerful.” Her expression softened. “The people of the Mallay, the New Sharrens, decided to go to war with their leaders in order to gain their own freedom. You did not decide this for them. They found their own courage, their own self-worth, their own strength, and they decided something for themselves for the first time in hundreds of years. Do not take the honor of that decision from them.”
    Kellinar stared at her as his anger ebbed away and confusion took its place. Was it really as she said? Had none of it ever been on his shoulders? Was the blood spilled that day really not on his hands? He thought back over the events leading up to the battle. Kellinar had never told anyone they had to go to war. He had tried to get Anevay to go home and work on her spell, and she had refused.
    Dhovara gently laid her hand on his cheek. “All decisions have repercussions, Kellinar. Some good, some bad, but each person is responsible for their own choices, no matter how it turns out. Never try to take that from them by assuming you had the power to make those decisions for them.”
    She patted his check lightly and smiled at him, her dark eyes crinkling at the corners, before turning and walking away. She glanced back before starting up the steps. “Come and see me when you have had time to understand what I said.”
    Kellinar stood there, a storm of confused emotions rolling through him, as he watched her leave. Dhovara had repeated nearly word for word what Shryden had said to him in New Sharren. When she disappeared from sight, he looked at the Dragon Hold rising high above him. It was time.
    He climbed the wooden steps up the side of the bay and began the long walk to the Dragon Hold, dreading each step but knowing it had to be done. When Kellinar passed through the massive doors into the Great Hall, he sensed Taela in the records room. Her focus was intense, and her sorrow diminished though not gone.
    He didn’t stop on his way past the little hall that led to the room; he had his own task to confront. Dhovara’s words chased each other around in his mind while he climbed the steps to the second level of the hold.
    The door to his lair loomed in front of him, and he froze as he reached for the latch. Closing his eyes, Kellinar leaned his head against the smooth wood and tried to steel himself for the empty room that waited beyond. Anevay wouldn’t be there, would never be there again.
    With a deep breath, he turned the latch and pushed the door open but didn’t step forward nor did he open his eyes. A completely irrational hope sprang in his chest. Maybe she would be there. Maybe the whole thing had been a nightmare. Maybe…
    Kellinar shook his head at the ridiculous notion and opened his eyes. The room looked just like they had left it when the three of them had departed for Trilene. Guilt stabbed at him when he thought of all the ways he could have dissuaded her. Again, Dhovara’s words rang in his mind, and he knew she was right. The choice hadn’t been his—it was Anevay’s.
    He walked into the room. One of