Kindle the Flame (Heart of a Dragon Book 1) by Tamara Shoemaker Read Free Book Online

just one attacking another. There were—he counted quickly from his vantage point behind a boulder some thirty yards from the fray—at least twelve of them here, no, thirteen. He'd missed one in the back running toward the others, his footsteps shaking the earth.
    The one Cedric had seen first was swiftly losing the fight. His attackers came at him from all sides, and boulder clashes thundered as the first monster was driven back, back, back. They were moving close to the cliffs and the den he shared with Shaya.
    No.
    Cedric's only possible route to the den was through the legs of the fighting giants. It would take far too long to go around; the giants would demolish their den by the time he got there.
    Cedric steeled himself. He pulled in deep lungfuls of air and then sprinted into the middle of the fray. A towering leg pounded no more than five lengths to his right. He over-corrected, leaping to his left and pushing himself forward.
    He ran face-first into a rock wall, knocking himself to the ground. Stars flashed in his vision, and involuntary tears blurred his sight. His nose throbbed, and he clapped his palm to it, wondering if he'd broken it.
    The stars blinked out again as a leg moved rapidly through the air straight above him. He let go of his nose and rolled to his feet, running forward, cursing the darkness, wishing he had started for home earlier.
    There was nothing he could do about that now. The rising cliffs towered across the valley of the Rockmonsters with holes dotting the steep walls like aged cheese. The den he shared with Shaya was at the center of one of those ridges. Not far now.
    Another leg crashed beside him, one of the boulders glancing off his arm. Pain shot to his shoulder. He shook it off and kept running, weaving where he could. The roars of the Rockmonsters were all about him, and he couldn't seem to leave them behind.
    The den lay just ahead, the blank darkness of the cliff face striking terror to his heart. Shaya would have had a fire lit to welcome him had she been home.
    She'd likely gone for shelter when the fight started.
    Perhaps she was inside and unable to move.
    But then she would have lit a signal fire for him to see.
    Unless somehow one of the monsters had put it out for her.
    Common sense told him that she would have put out the fire and gotten to safety. His pounding pulse told him she was trapped inside and injured ... or dead.
    A jarring crash nearly sent him to the ground again. He caught his balance, but a cry ripped from his throat as he glanced back at the den entrance, bathed now in moonlight. A massive boulder blocked the opening. If Shaya was inside, there was no getting out.
    Well, not easily. There was another entrance, through the roof, but it was too small for Shaya with her large equine body. Cedric could manage it well enough.
    He had to check.
    He sprinted in a wide arc to another tunnel's entrance a good forty spans to the left, diving inside, thankful for the temporary safety from the insanity outside. The Rockmonsters' roars sounded muted in here, almost still.
    He ran up the tunnel's slanted curve into another chamber that opened up twenty spans above the canyon floors. The tunnel ran along the length of the cliff, an old waterway that had long since dried up, and he knew just how far it was to reach the hole where he could drop into the den.
    She wouldn't be there. She couldn't. She hadn't built a fire, the entrance had been dark. She would have fled to safety, and he would find her as soon as the Rockmonsters succeeded in destroying themselves.
    When Cedric dropped through the hole onto the floor of the den, he found the smoldering remains of the fire she had quickly trampled out. Shaya herself lay crushed in the entrance. Her equine body was twisted beneath the massive boulder; her leather-covered torso panted heavily on the dark floor.
    “Cedric?” she gasped when she heard his footsteps.
    “Mother.” He collapsed to his knees beside her. He couldn't