The Dragon Hammer (Wulf's Saga Book 1) by Tony Daniel Read Free Book Online Page A

the south, with grasshoppers and boll weevils chomping on them through the night, wheat and corn to the north. Sheep grazing on the upland slopes. The Shwartzwald Forest blanketing the peaks. Then climbing to Massanutten Mountain, the long flattop highland that ran down the middle of the Shenandoah Valley, and into the U-shaped depression indented in Massanutten’s crest. This was Bear Valley, where the Earl of Shwartzwald dwelled. He was a bear man, but the valley was filled with all kinds of Tier. Down again into the east Shenandoah Valley, where herds of eastern buffalo lived. Living with them were the buffalo people, talking animals who stood on two legs like men but had the heads of buffalos. They were herders of their lesser brothers and sisters. Most were asleep in the wigwams where they lived, but some guarded the herd at night from the purely animal wolves and bears. These guards sang low and booming songs to calm their herds and let them know all was well.
    Across the western valley and into the deep forests of the Greensmoke Mountains. The centaurs lived there, half-human, half-horse. The centaurs had a lot of magic in their bones, and Wulf felt some of the centaurs sense him within the land-dragon right now.
    Then back to the Shenandoah Valley and south, to Glockendorf, where the gnomes made their famous bells of iron and brass. The neatly kept little town, half on the surface and half in caves, was shut tight for the night. Gnomes didn’t mess around when it came to security. They lived too close to the Roman colonies for that.
    Running through it all, shaping the land with its waters, were the two forks of the Shenandoah River, a river that flowed south to north. Where the two forks joined and continued flowing north together was Raukenrose, ancient seat of the duke.
    He could feel the township.
    He could feel all the humans, otherfolk, and Tier, all at once, but each alone as a separate person also.
    The Mark of Shenandoah. Wulf’s country, his land. It was also the landholding of his father, the duke. Wulf’s oldest brother, Otto—who was named after his father—would inherit rule of the mark after the duke was gone.
    The true land-bond of Shenandoah belonged to Otto, not to Wulf. That was what it meant to be the ruler or the future ruler of Shenandoah. The dragon chose you. It pulled you into its dreams.
    He should not be doing this. He shouldn’t be able to do this.
    But Wulf didn’t feel guilty, not really. It wasn’t like he could do anything about the dragon-call. But he did feel afraid of what it might mean. If it ever came out that Wulf could hear the dragon, Otto would handle it. His brother was rock solid, totally committed to the mark no matter what. But there would be those who would say that if Otto weren’t the chosen one, then the rule of the mark was up for grabs when Wulf’s father died or when the disease that had already half wrecked his mind took its final toll.
    That was why Wulf was sneaking out at night to visit the Olden Oak. That was why only his best friend knew his secret.
    Wulf continued spreading out into his vision of the land. It wasn’t like looking at a map, or even like being in a map. It was more like being the real thing, the land, part of it—like if something happened to Shenandoah, it would happen to him.
    Third son. Not even spare to the heir. That’s what the von Blaus and von Trausts and others of the castle boys taunted him with. But it was basically true.
    Third son in a dragon-trance.
    He had never been more confused in his life.
    Third son, and the dragon-call and land-bond was coming to him ? Most in the castle knew Duke Otto wasn’t the man he used to be. It was a disease called morosis. His father was always grasping for words for this or that—things he knew very well before—and his sentences often trailed off into confusion. Many thought that it was high time for the duchess to let Otto, the eldest son, take the reins.
    But Otto claimed that he