The Girl With Red Hair (The Last War Saga Book 1) by Michael J Sanford Read Free Book Online

arrow from his bow and pinned a delicate wing between his thumb and forefinger. Erlen halted his charade.
    “Hey! Unhand me, you great lout! I am Erlen Dragontamer! And I tame—”
    Tannyl cut him off with a quick twitch of his wrist. Not enough to hurt the sprite, but Tannyl needed his attention. He found his jaw was clenched and it took some effort to loosen it. He worked the anger from his body and let the breeze carry it away.
    Slowly, he said, “Listen, Erlen. Dragontamer. I do not have time for this. A lot has come down on me just this past night and I cannot be held accountable for what I may do to you if you continue to follow me.”
    He released the creature and crossed his arms. Though seldom seen outside their area of the Forest, sprites were not altogether unusual, and Tannyl knew Erlen posed no risk to him, even if he were to desire it. But the true trouble with sprites, and the quality that most irked Tannyl, was their constant need to be… cheerful. And Erlen seemed the most joyous of the bunch.
    Erlen twirled the tip of his sword and jammed it back into his scabbard. He pointed at Tannyl. “A problem? Well, why didn’t you say so? I am Erlen Dragontamer, and while I most certainly, always, and with cruel efficiency, tame dragons, I am also a wonderful, fantastical, and very capable problem solver! Quick, with haste, and right away, escort me to this problem so that I might—no, so that I will tame it!”
    Tannyl rolled his eyes. Somehow, this felt worse than having lost all of Woodhaerst.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    JAYDAN EYED THE lanky boy. Boy wasn’t quite the right word, but neither was man. Alexander couldn’t have been more than eighteen seasons, but he sat tall as he polished his glaive. His red hair was trussed back in a tight tail that hung between his shoulder blades. The similarity between this Alexander and the strange girl was uncanny. Jaydan had no reason to distrust him beyond habit, but having appeared at the same moment that Adelaide did was unnerving. And how Adelaide arrived was even more so.
    He shook his head, realizing he had been staring at him for some time, and turned back to his own thoughts. He could hear Adelaide splashing about in the nearby stream, washing. Sachihiro had gone back after the wolf, saying something about a “great idea for Addy.” Jaydan shook his head to no one but himself. He had grown up with Sachihiro Teller, and he had never once had a great idea.
    As he shifted positions, the polished box, stowed in a tight pocket, pressed painfully into his ribs. Jaydan withdrew the item and held it up in the first rays of dawn. He would have gotten to it sooner had Adelaide not distracted him. But as he looked over the box, a wash of emotions poured over him. Regret and longing were chief among them, with dread a close companion. He had pried the item from his father’s lifeless hand, amid the blood, beside his mother’s fallen corpse. Or what was left of her. Looking back, it seemed clear that his father’s last action had been to retrieve the box from a hidden floorboard. The plank was still displaced when Jaydan had gotten there.
    And then she had come…
    “You all right?” Alexander called.
    Jaydan centered his vision and looked at the freckled face. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
    Kind, emerald eyes looked back. “You shouted something.”
    I did? he thought. Aloud, he said, “Just a bit of a cough. Night was a bit cold and I didn’t sleep much.” Or at all.
    Alexander smiled politely and returned to honing his blade. The soft giggle of a young girl drifted from the hidden stream. The Healer forced himself to smile as well.
    His fingers were wrapped around the box tight as a snake around a mouse, but the need to see inside outweighed the fear, and Jaydan managed to free the clasp and lift the hinged lid. The inside was lined with padded velvet, crimson and soft. There were only two items within: a folded square of parchment and a