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

the armory. “So, did you notice anyone strolling out with the Sword of Semira?”
    All three guards fell belly-down on the marble floor with a clatter of malachite armor. “No, Your Majesty!”
    â€œIt was here when I inspected yesterday,” one dared in a strained voice. He was probably the leader of the detachment, judging by the long blue horsehair tail thrusting from his helm.
    â€œOh, for Cachamwri’s sake, get up,” Llyr snapped. “I am not Ansgar. I’m not going to have you executed.” In his anger, he raked a big hand impatiently through his hip-length blond hair, revealing the sweep of a pointed ear.
    As the three men scrambled to their feet with a rattle and clank, Llyr growled, “Organize a search party and find it. I don’t want to tell my subjects I lost the goddess’s own sword.”
    Diana’s eyebrows flew skyward. “You’ve got a sword that belongs to a goddess?”
    Llyr watched the guards hurry from the room. “Apparently I had a sword that belongs to a goddess. And I’m damned well going to get it back.”
    Â 
    Either the dream man was even tougher than he looked, or something new was after her.
    Something evil.
    A sense of menace filled the air, so thick she could barely breathe. The warrior she’d fought half an hour ago hadn’t felt anything like this.
    Nineva peered through the Honda’s windshield, searching for the nearest exit. Once again, she strengthened the magical barrier around her car. The spell had fooled Ansgar before when he’d gotten a lock on her, but this time it wasn’t working.
    She had the uncomfortable feeling she’d used too much power on the Sidhe warrior. Her magic wasn’t responding as it usually did.
    Spotting an exit, she took it at close to fifty miles an hour, fighting to pour still more magic into the spell as she went. As the overpass sloped up and curved around, she slowed to avoid losing control. But when she turned the steering wheel to follow the curve, the Honda kept going.
    Straight for the retaining wall.
    Oh, God, she’d gone into a skid! She must have hit a patch of black ice…
    She fought to steer into the skid and pump the brakes as she’d been taught, but the little car kept going. The wall loomed in front of the bumper. Nineva threw up a shield spell to protect herself against the boom of impact…
    Which never came.
    The Honda went airborne, sailing up and over the retaining wall as if launched off a ramp. But that was impossible; the grade wasn’t that…
    Something had her .
    Ansgar’s assassins , she realized. They’re just going to smash me and the car into the ground.

THREE
    Nineva unlocked her seat belt and lunged for the door, trying to remember the flight spell her father had taught her so many years before. She hauled up on the handle and prepared to launch herself into space…
    The door didn’t even budge.
    Frantically, Nineva threw a look out the windshield. The car had slowed, floating toward the grass below as gently as a leaf. Sweet Goddess, the assassins were powerful.
    I am so screwed.
    Gritting her teeth, Nineva gathered what magic she could and sent a wall of force at the door, trying to blow it open. The spell rebounded into her face like a slap from a giant’s hand. Stunned, she tried to shake off the blow, lifting her fingers to her stinging nose. She touched something wet. She was bleeding.
    So much for that idea.
    Silently cursing, she sank back into her seat to watch the ground approach. With a grim gesture, she transformed her jeans and shirt into armor, then conjured a sword. The length of steel felt familiar and comforting in her hand. It should; her father had started teaching her swordplay when she was barely taller than the blade she used. Despite her youth, he’d drilled her without mercy. After all, he’d told her, she would eventually be expected to fight the Dark Ones.