Rise Of The Dragon King (Book 5) by M. R. Mathias Read Free Book Online Page A

content in this time, for he was given every reasonable thing he requested, and though the king saw him at these feast-like gatherings on occasion, and had nodded his head once slightly, Richard had yet to be summoned before His Highness.
    Richard didn’t mind this, for if he was asked about the daughters, he would be forced to lie. He had their names so confused now that he had sworn not to even bother with identifying which one was which until they sorted it out among themselves. Baru had been correct about them: it didn’t matter which of them it ended up being, they were all the same, only a little younger or older than the next one, and they were just like their mother. That thought made Richard smile, for making a gaggle of children with any of them was going to be a most pleasurable undertaking.

Part III
    A COLOSSAL DEBACLE

CHAPTER NINE
    A fter the group gathered themselves, Rikky talked to the two boys about the deaths they’d just witnessed. Both of the youngsters were visibly rattled, but neither of them was ready to go back home yet. Worse, there were no bodies to bury, so there would be no easy closure. Everyone was trying to stay distracted and busy, and so far it was working. Already, Linux was hauling in palm-sized sunfish, some of which Captain Willian and Brawn were cleaning and frying; others were going into a bucket for later use as bait for a bigger set of lines.
    The valley was warm and green and alive. When they first came down from the camp, they spooked a herd of fleet gazeelin through the forest. The tiny, rabbit-sized deer looked like scrambling antlered mice as they fled.
    Birds of all sorts called and whistled, and the big, long-necked storks near the lakeshore aggressively screamed out their protest at the human intrusion into their world.
    Some of the creatures showed less fear. The squirrels and the little brown-and-white-striped dirt-runners went about their daily routine as if the horses andmen were not even there. A few of them even braved the camp to get at some bread crumbs Linux tossed out before he found the rowboat.
    “The only thing we are guaranteed in life is to die,” Rikky commented to the boys in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner. “All any man can hope for is to die well.”
    “Preferably old, fat, and cozy by a hearth fire with all your kidlets at your feet,” Brawn called over.
    Both Jericho and Pascal chuckled through the grim mood that had overtaken them all.
    “By the gods!” Linux yelled from the small wooden craft he was rowing back across the lake. His voice carried over the water and reached Rikky just before the sloshing sound of a large wave splashed around his ankles.
    It wouldn’t have been so alarming, but the lake was ice cold, and he’d been standing a good three feet from the shore.
    “Pull me in!” Linux’s voice sounded more like that of a frightened woman than that of the husky guardsman’s body he’d stolen.
    Captain Willian was pulling on the rope tied to Linux’s boat, and Brawn was racing over to help. Out in the lake, a bubble the size of a farmhouse gurgled up and popped, sending another three-foot-tall wave rolling out away from theepicenter.
    Rikky started to go help the rangers, but Pascal was knocked off his feet by the water and swept a dozen yards away. Both Rikky and the prince ran after him. It was a good thing they did, too, for a roaring splash as loud as any he’d ever heard, and then the heavy smacking of something huge slapping the mud right where they’d been, came next.
    Run to the woods straight ahead
, Silva’s voice sounded across the ethereal.
Run fast
.
    As soon as Rikky scooped Pascal up out of the mud and herded the prince into the trees, he turned to see what it could be. He was shocked that it was something so large that he had to crane his neck to take it all in. It looked like some sort of long-legged rhinosaur, or something he’d seen drawn in the archives on King’s Isle. When Silva swept by it,