A Birthright of Blood (The Dragon War, Book 2) (9 page)

Lord Cain cackled; it sounded
less like a laugh and more like a man gagging. Spittle flew from
beneath his bushy mustache.

"Aye, you've still got a
way with words, you bastard!" Lord Cain said. He barked a
laugh. "You always were the poetic one, weren't you? Reading
your books like a woman." He snorted. "True men have no
use for books, Valien, nor for your fancy words. We deal with blood,
blades, and dragonfire."

"You will have the glory of
all three," Valien said, "if you join our cause."

They reached the throne. Lana
went to stand by her father's side. Rune and Valien remained
standing before him. All around, the columns rose into shadows, and
the guards stood still and dark between them. The lamps burned,
casting flickering light.

Lord Cain turned to stare at
Rune. Those dark, shrewd eyes narrowed, scrutinizing him.

"Is this your boy, Valien?"
the entombed lord asked and grunted. "Is this pup the so-called
heir you've been trumpeting around? He looks more like a girl to me.
Ha! This one is prettier than my daughter. My arse is hairier than
his cheeks." He thrust out his chin at Rune. "Do you
talk, little girl? Or do you merely drag around behind your lord as
a trophy?"

Rune felt his temper flare. He
grabbed his sword.

"You know Shari Cadigus,
daughter of the emperor?" he said to Cain. "You know of
her missing wing? My teeth tore it off."

Cain snorted. "So you
fought another woman, and you couldn't even kill her. And you think
you can fight men in battle? You think you can slay Frey Cadigus?"
He hacked a laugh. "And you want me to help you! I wager you
need help to wipe your own backside."

Rune growled. "I flew to
battle. I fought Frey's men. You haven't left this cavern in years!
And you call me a—"

"Rune!" Valien said,
voice rough, and his eyes blazed. "We've not come here to argue
with Cain, but to seek an alliance."

Cain's laughter boomed and
echoed across the palace. He clutched his belly. "Ha! This
boy who would be king cannot even talk without his lord lecturing
him. What sort of king allows a knight to interrupt his words?"
He sat back upon his throne. "Be gone, boy, before I send word
to the capital that you hide in my hall."

"Me, hide in your hall!"
Rune said and snorted. "You've been rotting here for too long,
old man. Will you not emerge to fight? Will you leave your army
here in the shadows to collect dust, or will you emerge into the sky
as a dragon?"

All mirth left Cain's eyes. His
face darkened, and his lips peeled back in a snarl.

"Emerge into the sky? A
sky full of imperial dragons bearing Frey's sigil? Fly in a sky
another man rules? No, boy. Am I not a man? Am I not a lord?"
He spat on the floor. "I will not fly over another man's
fields, forests, or forts. I am Lord Cain! I march and fly above
earth that I own."

"You own nothing but a hole
in a wall," Rune said, disgusted.

"Aye, little girl, and
wouldn't you love to rule this hole in a wall? Wouldn't you love to
command the army that dwells here? They are true warriors. They are
true men, tested in battle, not babes fresh off the teat like you."

Rune took a step forward. "You
want lands? You want skies to call your own? You want to see
sunlight again, old man? I will give you land and sky if you join my
cause. Fight with me, Cain, and I will give you what you desire."

Cain snorted. "Will you
now, boy? You will give me lands, is that so? I will take what
lands are mine, not have a whore's daughter give me a treat like a
dog." He spat on Rune's boot. "If Frey should fall, I
will command all the south of Requiem—from Castra Luna in the north,
down to Ralora Cliffs in the south, and east across the plains of
Osanna to the port of Altus Mare."

Rune's eyes widened and he
guffawed. "But that's half the kingdom!"

"Aye," said Lord Cain
and cackled. "Would you rather rule half a kingdom or all of
nothing?"

Valien stepped forward, face red
beneath his beard. "Enough, Cain! Enough of this bantering.
Are you two leaders or fishwives?" He took another step forward
and clutched Cain's shoulder. "Cain. We are old friends, you
are I. We are both warriors. Now fight with us. Let us swing
swords and blow fire together. Cadigus has you hiding in a hole like
a rat. Join us, dethrone the man, and you will have the lands you
crave."

Cain grumbled under his breath.
He gave Valien a long look, then turned his eyes toward Rune; his
tufted eyebrows turned with his stare like shutters.

"Does he know how to
fight?" he said. "The boy is too soft and too young. Can
he kill?"

Rune nodded, thinking back to
Castra Luna, and ice filled his belly. "I've killed before. I
fought at Castra Luna."

Cain barked a laugh. "Ha!
Luna? You fought green recruits there, not hardened men. Can you
fight a true warrior? When you fly to meet Frey and the Axehand
Order, will you slay them, or will you fly away with your tail
between your legs?"

Rune clutched his sword and drew
a foot of steel. "I will fight. I will not run and hide."

Hide
like you,
he wanted to add, but bit down on the words.

"We shall see," said
Cain. "Very well! I will fight with you. I will give you an
army. But first, boy, you must prove your words. You must prove
that you can indeed fight as you boast—fight a true warrior."
He raised his voice to a shout. "Doog! Doog, here boy. Here!"

Footsteps thudded. Grunts rose
from the shadows. Rune turned toward the sound and felt the blood
leave his face.

Oh
bloody Abyss,
he thought.

A lumbering troll of a man came
lolloping from the shadows. He towered seven feet tall, his
shoulders wide as an ox, his belly flabby but his arms rippling with
muscles. His feet were bare, the toenails yellow, and he wore only a
tattered tunic. Iron rings circled his neck and ankles, as if he'd
just been unchained from a dungeon. He grunted and chortled and
drooled as he approached. But worst of all was not his size. The
man had no face.

A great scar rifted his head
from his right ear, across where his nose should be, and down to his
left jowls. The wound drove into his head, two inches thick, leaving
the man one eye and just the hint of a mouth.

"Here, Doog, here!"
Lord Cain said.

The huge, scarred man trundled
up to his master, then stood on wobbly legs. Saliva dripped from his
wound down to his shirt.

"Merciful stars, Cain,"
Rune said.

Cain barked his laugh,
fluttering his mustache. "Meet Doog. Do you like his face?
Ha! I gave him that wound myself—slammed my axe so hard into his
face he leaked half his brain. He kind of looks like the canyon we
live in, doesn't he?" He turned to the poor soul. "Here,
boy, I have a treat for you."

Cain fished through his pocket,
produced a wafer, and held it out. Doog ate it from his hand like a
trained hound.

"By the Abyss, Cain,"
Rune muttered. "He's a man, not a dog."

Cain spat. "Ah, he's got
no sense left in him. Took it with his face, I did; he's more beast
than man now. I trained him myself. Want to see him do tricks?
Sit, Doog, sit!"

"We have no time for this,"
Valien interjected. "Cain, enough of your games. Rune will
fight the poor soul. And he will defeat him."

Rune bit his lip, not so sure
about that. Doog was perhaps a halfwit, but he was twice Rune's
size. Each of his arms could have been a person on its own.

"Valien…" he began.

The gruff knight strode toward
him, grabbed his shoulders, and leaned close.

"Is there a problem, Rune?"
Valien said, and a hint of a smile touched his lips. "I've
trained you well. You are young and strong. You can defeat him."

Rune looked over at Doog. The
brute was chortling and drooling and begging for treats from his
master. An ugly sound rose from his wound, halfway between a yowl
and a mewl. Rune wasn't sure whether it sounded pathetic or
terrifying.

He leaned closer to Valien and
whispered. "Stars, Valien, he's bigger than Beras."

Valien
shrugged. "Should make a bigger sound when he falls." His
face grew somber. "Rune, understand—Cain is an old sort of
fighter. You're used to fighting among resistors, men of honor and
hope and light. Cain is a different kind of man. He will not follow
starlight or dreams of Old Requiem. He will follow
strength
.
He will follow a man he believes can be king. Show him your
strength today, and he will lend us his army." Valien nodded.
"When you joined our fight, I never promised you safety. You
knew that battles lay ahead. You fought soldiers in a great battle.
This man you must fight alone." He dug his fingers into Rune's
arms. "And greater enemies await you; someday you will face
Frey himself in battle. First you must pass this test."

Rune looked again at Doog. He
was now howling and swinging his arms; Cain was goading him with a
spearhead like a man riling up a war dog before a fight.

If
Kaelyn were here, she would say this is madness,
Rune
thought.
She
would urge for calm, for peace, for another way.
He tightened his lips.
Yet
Kaelyn isn't here, and Lord Devin Cain is a different sort of man;
Valien is right about that. I'll have to play by his rules today.

He nodded. "I will fight
him."

They left the hall—Rune,
Valien, and a hundred dwellers of the castle. They stood within the
canyon. Outside the palace facade stood Lord Cain, wrapped in his
ratty cloak, his wild red-and-white hair fluttering in the wind. At
his side stood his daughter, the Lady Lana, clutching the hilt of her
saber; her hair too billowed, its single white strand like a banner.
Around them stood a crowd of canyon soldiers.

These men were Cain's personal
host; they had served his family for hundreds of years, and they did
not wear the black steel of the Legions. Their armor was pale, their
cloaks gray like the cliffs around them. They did not bear the
longswords of the Legions, but curved sabers shaped like the canyon
they dwelled in. They wore the red spiral upon their armbands, as
decreed for all soldiers in the empire, yet not upon their
breastplates; there they sported the sigil of House Cain, two stone
statues guarding a gateway.

The actual Stone Guardians
towered above the men. Rune glanced up at them, then back down at
the cracks at their feet. He swallowed when he remembered how close
their fists had come to crushing him.

"Remember, Rune,"
Valien said, leaning close to whisper in his ear. "You will
fight as dragons here. Fly fast. Do not hesitate to blow your fire.
We have flown many times in the night. Use the sun now; let it
blind your enemy."

Rune nodded and looked over at
that enemy. Doog stood in the canyon, his iron collar and anklets
gleaming. The beast tossed back his head and howled, a roar so loud
the canyon seemed to shake and birds fled. Spittle flew from the
smaller canyon rifting his face.

"I'm afraid," Rune
said. Ice seemed to encase his innards.

Valien nodded. "All wise
men fear battle. Only fools rush fearless into a fight. The true
warrior is not he who feels no fear, but he who conquers fear."

Rune nodded, forcing himself to
swallow, and clenched his fists to stop them from trembling.

I
will conquer my fear,
he told himself.
I
will fly fast. I will use the sun. I will win this. For Kaelyn.
For Requiem. For Tilla.

"Doog!"
Cain shouted and raised his fists. "Crack his bones!"

Doog repeated the gesture,
raising his fists to the sky, and his howl pealed across the canyon.
The scarred, collared man shifted into a dragon. Scales of motley
grays, blacks, and browns rose upon him, clattering like mismatched
plates of armor. His claws drove into the canyon floor, and his
tattered wings raised storms of dust. Long horns grew from his head,
but like his human form, the dragon Doog had no face; the same scar
drove into his dragon's head. A single fang thrust out from the
crevice, and fire smoldered within. His head looked like a volcano
ready to erupt.

"Rune, shift!" Valien
shouted.

Rune summoned his magic. Black
scales flowed across him, and he beat his wings and soared.

The scarred, metallic dragon
howled and flew toward him, a beast of rattling scales and smoke and
spurting flame.

Rune blew his fire.

The jet blazed across the
canyon, roaring and spinning. Doog howled and his flames burst, not
a neat jet, but a wild fountain like exploding barrels of gunpowder.
Rune's stream crashed against the inferno, and fire filled the
canyon.

Rune beat his wings and rose
from flame. He flew higher. The canyon walls raced at his sides.
Below he saw Doog thrash in the blaze, and then the beast soared too,
howling and lashing his tail. Doog blew more fire. The beast had no
jaws for blowing narrow, flaming streams like other dragons; instead
he spewed burning showers thick with saliva.

Rune cursed. He had trained to
dodge thin jets of fire; he knew how to bank around them, then blow
his own flames. Toward him rose an inescapable inferno like an
overflowing smelter. He kept soaring. The fire kept rising below;
Doog was still ascending, spraying his heat. The canyon walls raced
at his sides, trapping Rune. The fire was rising too quickly; he'd
never reach the canyon top in time.

He cursed, shut his eyes, and
swooped.

He screamed as he crashed
through the flames. His scales blazed; he felt the flesh beneath
raise welts. He burst from the blaze, stretched out his claws, and
slashed at Doog.