The Confliction (Book Three of the Dragoneers Saga) (Dragoneer Saga) by M. R. Mathias Read Free Book Online

over it while I was under the hood; something about stages of metamorphosis.” She heard a sound, paused and peeked out of the barred window in her cell’s door. It was just King Blanchard moaning across the corridor.
    “How long, I’m not sure yet.” She turned from the door and continued in a whisper. “There’s an open altar in the center of the main temple. Have Jade carry you high above and you’ll see it. If I can break from this cell, I could get there, but that’s a big if.”
    I will return in three days,
Lemmy said as he was suddenly being pulled away from his spiritual presence.
    “Tell Jenk—” her voice snapped off as Lemmy came to in the freezing cold darkness. He was surprised to find that he was enclosed in a dome made of snow. Jenka was sitting there in a huddle, listening to the world around them intently. Lemmy took a few moments to calm himself and gather his wits. Then he did as Zahrellion had told him, and cast an inquiring spell that activated on touch. When he grabbed Jenka’s ankle, Lemmy nearly jumped out of his skin. Jenka yelled out in surprise, then hushed himself and Lemmy, too, as they both fought to keep from laughing out loud like two little boys.
    Lemmy grabbed Jenka’s forearm, and then used his mind and Zah’s spell to speak.
She’s all right. King Blanchard, too. But we can’t just rush in after them.
    “Have they hurt her?” Jenka asked. “Could you see her?”
    She isn’t hurt that I could see, save for her shoulder,
Lemmy said.
I told her we would return in three days with news. Let’s get back to Jade, fly over this place so we can see the layout, then make for the castle.
    “Did she say anything else?” Jenka asked before Lemmy broke the contact.
    She said that she’s not just some damsel, and that King Blanchard busted one of Linux’s front teeth.
    “That’s it?” Jenka looked disappointed. “She didn’t say—”
    She loves you, fool. It doesn’t need to be said.

    Jenka wanted to ask more, but Lemmy began digging his way out of the snow dome he’d built. Jenka was sore, and he knew drawing his sword would be a painful chore, so he carried his blade and stayed ready to use the power of the teardrop, not the steel. He followed Lem slowly out of the temple valley, and was aggravated the whole trek that he couldn’t ask his friend a hundred questions about Zahrellion.
    Jade was waiting and eagerly took flight. His wounds hurt. Jenka could feel his dragon straining as they flew. Still, Jade was determined to work away the pain. Even though it was bitter beyond words outside, they took the time to fly over the temple a few times and assess the layout.
    Jenka remembered seeing the open garden once from the inside. He’d walked in on an ogre being whipped by a blue-robed druid with black eyes. He shuddered at the memory. He was surprised that each time they flew over the temple they saw a few more Sarax lingering near the structure. They also saw several of the ivory-antlered trolls Aikira had mentioned. They were picking through the frozen dead. None of them were doing anything more than pillaging, though.
    After they were finished, Jade carried them up above the clouds. The air was so cold it was like ice on the riders’ skin. Strangely, the unhindered sun warmed their blood on the inside. It wasn’t so bad as they rode over an endless field of rolling cottony mist, under a bright clear sky.
    They had to dive back down into the bitter gray gloom soon enough, but they were feeling the warmth of knowing that a huge fire was surely blazing inside the castle before them. Then Jade was back-flapping awkwardly down to land on his pad. The riders went shivering their way through the snowfall and down the spiral stairway into the warm, welcoming rotunda below.
    Marcherion and Aikira were waiting impatiently for them. Marcherion looked angry.
    “Is she all right?” Aikira asked before March could speak.
    “She is for now,” Jenka said flatly. “What is