Master of Dragons by Angela Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

will adore you as the first Sidhe prince born in a hundred and seventy years. She smiled to herself a little grimly. Best of all, Uncle Ansgar won’t be trying to have you killed, because Uncle Ansgar is worm chow.
    Ansgar, her husband’s vicious brother, had hated Llyr from the moment he was born. On his deathbed, their father, King Dearg, had made Ansgar king of the Morven Sidhe, and Llyr the king of the Cachamwri.
    Unfortunately, that hadn’t been good enough for Ansgar, who’d wanted both kingdoms. Over the next sixteen hundred years, he engineered the assassination of Llyr’s ten children and four previous wives, but all the attempts on Llyr had missed.
    Diana and Llyr had finally slain Ansgar during the last assassination attempt eight months ago. Now Llyr, like his father before him, was king of both the Morven and Cachamwri Sidhe.
    And Diana, werewolf and former city administrator of Verdaville, South Carolina, was trying to adjust to life as queen of the Sidhe. Becoming immortal was cool, and God knew marriage to a gorgeous fairy had its perks, but the workload was killer.
    The royal couple had spent the first six months of their reign in the Morven kingdom, trying to repair the damage Ansgar had done during his rule. This morning, after a two-month visit to the kingdom of Cachamwri, Llyr had embarked on a surprise inspection of the Morven palace.
    Diana and her ginormous baby belly had gone along, though at the moment, all she was really interested in was a place to sit. The scarlet court gown she wore was lovely with its gold embroidery and gems, but it weighed a ton. And God knew Prince Dearg was no lightweight. As a result, the small of her back felt like a rabid wolverine was chewing on a particularly tasty knot of muscles.
    Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a single chair in the armory. All the vast chamber held was an astonishing number of weird-looking swords, not to mention spears, armor, shields, and whatever the thing with all the spikes was. All of it was arranged on gleaming wooden racks or hung on the marble walls between elaborate carvings of battle scenes.
    Diana’s attention focused on one particular bas-relief. Were those fairies killing a dragon ? It was certainly possible. Though this world looked like the Earth she’d been raised on, it actually occupied a parallel universe where magic was a natural law. As a result, the humans that had evolved here were magic-using Sidhe, and the local fauna included unicorns, Hellhounds, and sapient dragons. The Sidhe and the dragons had made peace centuries ago, but at one time, each had hunted the other.
    Before she could waddle over for a closer look at the carving, a low growl drew her attention to her handsome husband. Well over six feet tall, the king had a long, elegantly boned face, a strong, narrow nose, and large, intelligent opalescent eyes that sparkled with magic. Hair the color of moonlight fell to his muscular backside, currently on mouthwatering display in a pair of black hose. His faintly Elizabethan black velvet doublet emphasized the impressive width of his shoulders, and tall, gleaming boots sheathed his brawny calves. Pregnant or not, just looking at him was enough to make her senses hum.
    Unfortunately, one look told her he definitely wasn’t in the mood for flirtation. A snarl curled the king’s regal lips as those incredible eyes went cold and narrow. “Trivag, where’s my sword? ”
    Lord Trivag took a step back, his mouth rounding in an O of dismay as he scanned the armory, apparently hoping the offending weapon would magically appear. A lean, distinguished man with waist-length cobalt hair shot with gray, he looked about sixty, which probably made him six thousand or so. The Sidhe aged very, very slowly. “My King, I inspected the armory myself just two days ago. It was here then.”
    Llyr turned his incandescent displeasure on the three Sidhe currently assigned to guard