A Land Of Fire (Book 12) Read Online Free Page B

receive love. Just as we need meals, we need love. You must know
how much I love you. How much I accept you. How proud of you I am. You must
know that I am always with you. And you must know that we will meet again. In
the meantime, allow my love to carry you through. And more importantly, allow yourself
to love and accept yourself.”
    Thor’s mother stepped forward and hugged
him, and he hugged her back. It felt so good to hold her, to know he had a
mother, a real mother, who existed in the world. As he held her, he felt
himself filling up with love, and it made him feel sustained, born anew, ready
to face anything.
    Thor leaned back and looked into her
eyes. They were his eyes, gray eyes, gleaming.
    She lay both palms on his head, leaned
forward, and kissed his forehead. Thor closed his eyes, and he never wanted the
moment to end.
    Thor suddenly felt a cool breeze on his
arms, heard the sound of crashing waves, felt moist ocean air. He opened his
eyes and looked about in surprise.
    To his shock, his mother was gone. Her
castle was gone. The cliff was gone. He looked all around, and he saw that he
stood on a beach, the scarlet beach that lay at the entrance to the Land of the
Druids. He had somehow exited the Land of the Druids. And he was all alone.
    His mother had vanished.
    Thor looked down at his wrist, at his
new golden bracelet with the black diamond in its center, and he felt transformed.
He felt his mother with him, felt her love, felt able to conquer the world. He
felt stronger than he ever had. He felt ready to head into battle against any
foe, to save his wife, his child.
    Hearing a purring sound, Thor looked
over and was elated to see Mycoples sitting not far away, slowly lifting her
great wings. She purred and walked toward him, and Thor felt that Mycoples was
ready, too.
    As she approached, Thor looked down and
was shocked to see something sitting on the beach, which had been hidden
beneath her. It was white, large, and round. Thor looked closely and saw that
it was an egg.
    A dragon’s egg.
    Mycoples looked to Thor, and Thor looked
at her, shocked. Mycoples looked back at the egg sadly, as if not wanting to
leave it but knowing that she had to. Thor stared at the egg in wonder, and he wondered
what sort of dragon would emerge from Mycoples and Ralibar. He felt it would be
the greatest dragon known to man.
    Thor mounted Mycoples, and the two of
them turned and took one long last look at the Land of the Druids, this
mysterious place that had welcomed Thor in, and thrown him out. It was a place
Thor was in awe of, a place he would never quite understand.
    Thor turned and looked at the great
ocean before them.
    “It is time for war, my friend,” Thor
commanded, his voice booming, confident, the voice of a man, of a warrior, of a
King-to-be.
    Mycoples screeched, raised her great
wings, and lifted the two of them up into the sky, over the ocean, away from
this world, heading back for Guwayne, for Gwendolyn, for Romulus, his dragons,
and the battle of Thor’s life.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    Romulus stood at the bow of his ship,
first in the fleet, thousands of Empire ships behind him, and he looked out at the
horizon with great satisfaction. High overhead flew his host of dragons, their
screeches filling the air, battling Ralibar. Romulus clutched the railing as he
watched, digging his long fingernails into it, gripping the wood as he watched his
beasts attack Ralibar and drive him down into the ocean, again and again, pinning
him beneath the waters.
    Romulus cried out in joy and squeezed
the rail so hard that it shattered as he watched his dragons shoot up from the
ocean, victorious, with no sign of Ralibar. Romulus raised his hands high above
his head and leaned forward, feeling a power burning in his palms.
    “Go, my dragons,” he whispered, eyes
aglow. “Go.”
    No sooner had he uttered the words than
his dragons turned and set their sights on the Upper Isles; they raced forward,
screeching, raising their