Page 7 of A War of Crowns

Perhaps the witch and the large man were right.

Perhaps the Lord on High couldn’t hear him all the way here in Mysai.

He was so far from home. So far from the shores of Elmoria. Far from the mist-bathed fields of the little farm his family had worked for Lord Tollere in the barony of Leinor since before he was born.

Eyelids heavy, Hedley’s head finally lolled back to slump against the witch’s shoulder. All he could do now was wait for the end to finally come. It wouldn’t be long.

But then the cloud cover visible just beyond the panes of the broken window before him finally shifted, allowing shafts of moonlight to spear downward at last.

The pale light illuminated the vast expanse of the Arathian desert beyond the fallen outer wall of the fort. Sand dunesstretched as far as the eye could see. Rocky cliffs were a mere afterthought upon the landscape even further beyond that.

Dry Reach.

It was the deadliest swath of no man’s land this side of the Straight. No Elmorian ever patrolled its expanse because no Elmorian ever returned from those patrols. Only the Arathians knew how to cross Dry Reach and survive the trek.

But wouldn’t he rather die in the heart of the desert than fade away within a witch’s arms?

Fight.

That word—that command—pricked at the edge of his consciousness unbidden.

Run.

He didn’t have to die tonight. He wouldn’t die tonight. Not now. Not here.

Not. Like. This.

“Let me go!” Hedley screamed as a sudden spark of rebellion ignited in his chest with all the abrupt fury of dry tinder catching flame. Strength beyond that which he had ever known before suddenly burned within him—a defiance that sent him thrashing one last time against the witch’s hold.

He thrust his right arm back, twisting the full weight of his body into the motion. A cry of pain exploded from the woman keeping him pinned when his elbow caught her in the ribs.

Her hold on him loosened. Her dagger slipped from his chest. An opportunity presented itself.

Hedley threw himself forward.

The world shattered in a shimmer of broken glass and starless night as he flew through what was left of the Roost’s window and tumbled out into the darkness. The cold desert wind greeted him in free fall while he wheeled through the air.

He greeted it in turn with open arms.

Lost and alone but free, Hedley let himself sink into a deep and vast nothingness at last. His final thoughts as he fell toward the desert dunes stretching endlessly below were a fever dream swirl of Dane, the collapsing ramparts, the flicker of Alyx’s wings, and the hypnotic gleam of the witch’s fiercely golden gaze as he was swept away and dragged down…down…down…

…deep into the unknown.

Four Months Later

“When it comes to the matter of the followers of the Lord on High and those who pray to the goddess known as the Lady Below, there is only one thing on which both parties can agree: that it was the dragons who almost sundered the world nearly three thousand years ago. But this humble scholar still questions if dragons ever even existed outside the imaginations of our ancestors.”

-Scholar Nicolo Alberti, speaking

at the Assembly of Minds within

the City-States of Fortuna

Chapter one

Seraphina

For not the first time that day, Queen Seraphina de la Croix of Elmoria fantasized about leaping across the polished expanse of her council chamber’s central table so that she might throttle the Duke of Coreto with her bare hands.

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