Dragonforge Read Online Free Page A

tonight.”
    The matriarch drew a bold white X across Vendevorex’s name. “The ‘master of the invisible’ has been a burr under my scales for fifteen years,” she grumbled. “He was bloodless, a beast without history. I never learned where he came from. I’m happy to know he’s gone. Ash in an urn is the only appropriate fate for an… aberration.”
    The way she said "aberration" gave the word mass, making it a solid thing that struck Graxen in the chest.
    She did not give him time to dwell upon the blow. “Shandrazel now wears the crown. He fancies himself a scholar. Metron will control him with ease.”
    “Shandrazel is a free thinker,” said Graxen. “He won’t be anyone’s puppet. He definitely won’t be a pawn of Metron.”
    “Metron was able to control Albekizan,” said the matriarch. “The high biologian will be more than a match for his son.”
    “Your informants have failed you,” said Graxen. “Metron is no longer high biologian.”
    “What?” She jerked her head around to fix her eyes on Graxen for the first time. She quickly turned her gaze away, looking distraught over this news. “Is he dead?”
    “Banished,” said Graxen. “Metron allied himself with Blasphet. Androkom is the new high biologian.”
    “No!” The matriarch looked as if the news caused her physical pain. She walked along the tapestries, her fingers tracing from thread to thread. “Androkom is a dreadful choice. His bloodline is one of genius, yes, but also carries a risk of madness. Look here!” She pointed her gnarled talon at a dark red scale on the cheek of a sun-dragon. “Shangon, his second seed removed—”
    “Second seed removed?”
    “What the less educated might call a grandfather,” she grumbled, sounding angry at the interruption. “Shangon was a brilliant scholar. At the age of thirty he earned the right to breed. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, the experience shattered him. He went insane and tried to return to the Nest. The valkyries were forced to end him. Until five generations have passed, members of Androkom’s bloodline must be kept from positions of authority. To make him high biologian is an absurd risk!”
    “It’s a risk Shandrazel is willing to take,” said Graxen. “He appreciates Androkom’s boldness of thought, his willingness to value reason over tradition.”
    The matriarch traced a black threads from the second seed removed to another red scale that represented Androkom. No black lines radiated out from it. Androkom was relatively young, not yet eligible for breeding. The matriarch hooked a needle-sharp talon into the tapestry and tore at the threads that formed the scale, fraying them.
    “No further,” she said, her voice cold. “I cannot undo his past, but I have just undone his future.”
    Graxen shuddered as he understood the harshness of her judgment. “Androkom may become the greatest high biologian known to history,” he protested. “You would end his bloodline now, in a moment of anger? How can you know what the future holds?”
    The matriarch’s eyes narrowed. “I do not know the future,” she said, coolly. “I create it.”
    “But—”
    “Save your breath, Graxen. You cannot understand the burden I bear, the responsibility of ensuring the strength of our race for eons to come. You haven’t the capacity to judge me.”
    “Why not?” asked Graxen. “Presumably, as your child, I was designed to inherit your intelligence.”
    He studied the tapestry that bore Androkom’s bloodlines. Was the thread of his own life marked somewhere upon this canvas? “What’s more, I presume my father must have possessed many desirable traits to have been chosen as your mate.”
    “You are so transparent, Graxen,” the matriarch said. “You will not learn your father’s name from me.”
    “Why?” Graxen asked. “Other sky-dragons know their heritage. Why has the identity of my father been kept secret from me?”
    “His bloodline ended with the production