Page 139 of Haunted

Did Ahnalyn forgive Aneirin for the part he played in Niawen’s exile? Did seeing the truth sway her feelings for him?

I don’t sense the same love reciprocated. Good.

My daughter’s light shines with meekness and a tinge of embarrassment and confusion. What did Aneirin tell her? Did he confess his love?

I will not allow this.

97

After a day, I lose sight of Ahnalyn. After retrieving her son, she entered the dragon realm, a place my sight cannot reach. It doesn’t matter. I’ve entered the plains where my army has assembled.

Gethen is eager to present his men. The march will take over a month, but my units in Terrin will meet Sieffre’s men in two weeks’ time.

I mount my horse. General Gethen and my team will forge ahead of the march and meet my men from Terrin while his new army follows.

“Will the war machines be ready?” I ask Gethen.

“Aye, my lord. You will be pleased.”

“Excellent.” I spur my horse forward, and my men and I race toward the mountain to begin our journey.

Several hours later, I remember the dragon stones in my pocket. I put Cephias’s around my neck. Might as well find out what’s going on in Gorlassar.

A world of glorious beauty opens to my sight through his dragon eyes. The greens are vibrant. The blues radiant. Cephias is flying.

For a while, I soak in the amazement of this world I’m seeing for the first time. Niawen told me much about it, and her descriptions ring true. A world of endless summer. Fruit trees and fields of flowers. Though spring is well on its way here, on Bryn, nothing compares to Gorlassar’s beauty.

I had never hoped to enter this world. Without a dragon, I can’t scale the sheer mountain cliff that leads to the portal between worlds. I planned to ask Niawen to take me. I planned to get my own dragon.

None of those schemes worked out.

Nothing is ever final. After I conquer Talfryn, I’ll build up my empire. Terrin, Talfryn, and Rolant, all ruled by the most powerful half-emrys in this hemisphere.

The master of deception

The empress be damned.

Then I will get myself a dragon.

One thing at a time.

I was patient before. I will be patient again.

Cephias descends. The land is barren there. A dragon breeding ground? I once saw them in Morvith. Dragonlings have to stay away from flammable surfaces.

Cephias enters a grand circle of vaulted stone. Several dragons are in the area, and one perches on a raised platform.

My heart rate quickens as Cephias bows.

The dragon’s magnificent. Bright green. Blinding. Cephias addresses her. “High Dragoness.”

“Young one,” she says. “Wonderful to see you. What news do you bring of the human world?”

Cephias tells her how wicked I am and of the colossal damage I’ve done.

Then he surprises me. “Your Highness, the emrys ask for your aid. The humans need help defeating this Lord Caedryn.” Cephias talks about the humans and how some of them are good and some are bad. “They deserve a chance.”

They go on for some time. As my company makes camp for the night, I smile to myself. We will need to be ready for dragons. Gethen’s war machines will work wonders.

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