Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) by Barbara Kloss Read Free Book Online Page A

was done, her eyes slid over me with a pitying look that seemed to say, "Alex pushed me aside for that ?"
    I pulled my hood back over my head. "Thanks for waiting."
    She nodded curtly, and I started following her back but stopped before the Dragon's Blood. I didn't know what propelled me, but I reached out and plucked the end of a smaller berry-covered branch.
    "Careful, princess," Vera said. "The berries are extremely flammable."
    I dusted the snow from the berries and wedged it inside of my boot. "Well, then, I guess it's a good thing I can't start a fire."
    I'd expected some kind of retort from Vera about my magical inability, but instead she said, "You seem to have a penchant for small, red things."
    I didn't miss the look in her eyes when they settled on the base of my neck—the very place my red stone lay beneath my woolen layers. Of course. If she'd dressed me in her corset last night, she had to have seen the necklace Alex had given me. Had he told her he'd given it to me? Or did it represent something more than Alex had explained?
    Maybe you should ask him.
    Well, now, conscience, that's perhaps the most uncontroversial suggestion you've had yet.
    I'm never controversial. You just don't like what I have to say.
    True.
    We found Alex impatiently waiting beside Parsec. He moved forward to help me mount Calyx, but I held out a placating hand. "I'm not a paraplegic." I hooked my boot in the stirrup, grabbed the reins, and with a grit of my teeth, I swept my leg over and climbed into the saddle.
    Satisfied, Alex climbed on Parsec, and the three of us were on our way again. Alex kept Cicero's compass in his hand, checking it from time to time and adjusting our course accordingly. Every so often, the treetops would sway and bend from the winter breeze up above. I didn't feel it down here much, though sometimes a stray tendril would slip through the tree barrier, touch my face and rustle my hair like it was letting me know it was still there. Even here the breeze stirred with purpose, as if it were some cold and invisible presence that followed without ceasing.
    Sometimes a whirlwind would stir snowflakes from the ground and condense them into a shimmering shape. The shape was completely transparent and slippery as a shadow, and I might not have noticed them if one hadn't appeared right beside me. Alex told me they were the winter spirits of the mountains. Curious, but relatively harmless. After living in this world for approximately six months, I'd come to realize that "relatively harmless" really meant "keep your distance."
    We spotted a few crows, a jackrabbit, and some tracks I'd never seen in my life, but other than that, the forest was serenely quiet. About an hour passed before Alex halted Parsec. A cloud of warm breath rose from his full, pink lips. "I believe you know the way from here…?"
    The question was meant for Vera. Her gloved hands flexed over Nimarra's reins as her gaze settled somewhere past Alex. She nodded once, and then led Nimarra past Alex and Parsec, taking the lead. Alex waited till I caught up with him before he urged Parsec forward.
    We rode beside each other in silence, accompanied only by the occasional grunt or snort of our steeds. Parsec was irritated for some reason. And then I noticed Calyx kept veering closer to Parsec and would sometimes push his white-streaked nose into Parsec's personal space. Parsec would invariably curl his lips back in a threatening grimace, showing Calyx each and every one of his large, square teeth. But this thinly veiled threat only seemed to amuse Calyx and egg him on further.
    "These horses do begin to emulate their riders after a while," Alex said as he rode beside me with an imperceptible grin.
    "Well, that explains a lot," I said. "No wonder Parsec is so irritatingly sanctimonious."
    "Touché." He laughed. His cheeks were rosy red from the cold. "I suppose I deserved that." He paused, struck by a sudden thought. "By the way, I meant to ask you—that is, of