Dragon Wizard by S. Andrew Swann Read Free Book Online Page A

laugh.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Lucille said after a moment. “I didn’t realize.”
    â€œIt’s fine,” Krys said. “Sometimes I think Frank’s the only one who understands me.” The mention of my name drained all the levity out of Krys’s voice and her expression went slack and pale.
    Lucille grabbed her shoulder. “We’ll get him back.”
    You don’t have to. I’m still here!
    Krys nodded and gave an unconvinced, “Yes.”
    â€œYou go and get things ready so we can help him.”
    Krys took a step back and nodded. “Yes, Your Highness.” Her grim smile contrasted with eyes that were shiny and red. She turned on her heel and left us to go with the others.
    Lucille paced around alone in the bedchamber lost in her own thoughts. I wished there was some way I could comfort her, hold her hand, or at least tell her I was still around.
    She stopped at the window and looked out at the northern night sky. “I wish you were here, Frank.”
    I wish you knew I was here.
    â€œYou know more about this thieving outlaw stuff than I do.”
    The girls know what they’re doing.
    â€œYou could tell me what I’m doing wrong.”
    Like taking evil magical artifacts?
    She sighed and threw herself back on the bed without disrobing.
    â€œWe’ll figure this out, Frank. I promise.”
    Get some sleep. You’re still exhausted and it’s only a few hours till dawn.
    She didn’t need my encouragement. Her eyes were already closed and I had the strange sensation of being able to hear myself snore before following her into slumber.
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    We didn’t have time to dream. I heard shouting and commotion and shot up from bed, blinking sleep from my eyes. I ran to the window where I heard shouting and galloping hooves. Looking out past the constructionbelow my window, I could see the front gate open to admit a small crowd of disheveled riders who shouted at the guardsmen with some urgency.
    I couldn’t make out all they said, but I could hear the word “dragon” quite clearly.
    Oh crap.
    It was about this time I realized that I had done all this under my own power. At least, I thought I had. Once I came fully awake and tried to move consciously, my body remained where it was.
    Lucille’s body.
    She blinked a few times and shook her head. Then she glanced at the purple sky. “Too early,” she whispered.
    She turned around and headed out of our bedchamber.
    I decided that our dash to the window was so obvious and reflexive an action that I had just convinced myself that I’d been in control. That realization unleashed a crushing wave of self-pity. The illusion of autonomy, however brief, made it much much worse when I couldn’t so much as blink an eye on my own.
    I barely paid attention until Lucille met the newcomers at the entrance to the inner keep of the castle. Once I focused on where we were and what we were doing, Lucille was in the midst of a ragged rabble of wounded guardsmen and commoners from one of the border towns near the Northern Palace.
    Apparently the Dragon Prince hadn’t exhausted his hostility on our banquet. He had taken his aggression out on at least one village.
    Lucille kept questioning the victims, as if trying to pokesome hole in their story. I tried not to listen. I had seen the kind of destruction they talked about, the last time a truly evil soul inhabited that dragon’s body. I understood Lucille’s panicked attempts at denial. I’d felt similarly back then because I’d thought the dragon had been her.
    By the Seven Hells, it’s not me!
    While Lucille stood in the courtyard with the refugees, a guard came out of the keep and called for the spokesman of the “latest group” for an audience with the royal war ministers.
    â€œLatest group?” Lucille repeated.
    Another nearby guard overheard her. “Yes,