Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) Read Online Free Page A

Asgar’s spikes as they flew, soaring over Par. Tan could simply have shaped them, but there was a different kind of peace found riding on the draasin. And with Amia’s pregnancy, he didn’t know how the shaping would affect her.
    She patted his hand. “You worry too much. Anything that I can tolerate, the baby can as well.”
    Tan wrapped his arms more tightly around her waist, cradling her against him. “I know what happened. Or nearly happened. Can’t I be a little protective?”
    “Not when it makes no sense,” Amia said. “And we don’t have to return. It seems the Utu Tonah is busy enough.” She offered a playful smile.
    “Even were there not the ceremony, we have to return, if only for a little while. Roine deserves to know what happened to us. And I need to determine if there’s anything to Honl’s claim that the convergence in Ethea needs protecting.” Even if those were the only reasons, he would still need to return.
    “That’s the only reason?”
    Tan smiled and shrugged. “I suppose we could tell my mother as well.”
    Amia elbowed him and he smiled. “She’ll be happy for you, you know, as you should be for her.”
    “I am happy for her. Plus, she’ll be happy for both of us.”
    Amia’s smile faltered.
    “Your mother would be pleased as well,” Tan said softly.
    “I… I know that she would. I would give anything for her to know what we’ve survived, what you’ve accomplished. I think she saw something in you when we first met.”
    “What we accomplished,” Tan said. “I could have done none of this without you. The Great Mother knows I might never have learned what I could do if not for you!”
    Asgar tilted, his wings flapping hard against the wind. The draasin hatchling tucked beneath Tan’s cloak squirmed and crawled free. He released his tight grip on Amia and slipped a hand around the draasin, fearing that she might fall from Asgar’s back. The hatchling turned her head and seemed to glare at him, attempting to spit fire at him. She’d already learned how useless the fire she could generate was against him.
    You haven’t learned to fly, he reminded her.
    And you forget that I’m draasin.
    She nestled into the spikes on Asgar’s back, as if she were meant to fit there.
    Through the fire bond, he sensed Asgar’s amusement.
    This one has a different fire, Maelen.
    That’s what I’m afraid of, he said but looked down at the hatchling with amusement. There was something about her precociousness that he appreciated. In some ways, she reminded him of Asboel and his casual arrogance, but in others, she reminded him of Honl, and the way that he had changed since healed by spirit. That change had brought the two of them closer together as well. Maybe the spirit connection reminded him of Amia, and that was why he appreciated it.
    What of the other hatchlings? Asgar asked.
    They are in their den. I left nearly an entire hog with them.
    That will last two days. And then what will become of them?
    Tan laughed. The first two hatchlings had taken to eating everything that the butcher Balsun brought. Eventually, he figured he would need to share with the butcher the reason behind his strange requests, but for now, the butcher simply provided anything that Tan requested.
    Then they will simply waste away, Tan answered.
    Asgar chuckled until the hatchling nipped at one of his spikes. He twisted his long neck and looked at her with his bright golden eyes. The hatchling stared back, an amusing defiance in her refusal to back down.
    This one pleases the Mother, I think. I understand why you were able to heal her.
    Tan wished that he understood why he was allowed to heal the hatchling, but that wasn’t an answer that he possessed.
    They crossed beyond the ocean and over Incendin. There was a time when simply flying over Incendin would have made him nervous, when he would have feared the lisincend, or the hounds, or any of the strange and terrifying life that existed in Incendin, but like