Eclipsing the Darkness (The Dragon Chronicles Book 5) Read Online Free

regretting the harm he had caused such a beautiful creature and her people.
    He sighed, knowing in his heart that he would never be able to face her. But he would make amends in a different way. He would atone for his sins without her knowledge. He would help their cause—her cause—until his end. Perhaps then she would forgive him. Perhaps then she would look upon him as a good man, and not the beast he was born.
    With a heavy heart, Torak wept into the night.
     

Chapter Three
     
    “Land!” the lookout shouted.
    Eamon peered into the night, seeing the multitude of campfires that were crowding the shore of Thyre. He smiled as he counted them, seeing hundreds—if not thousands—of tiny fires in the distance. There were armies camped there, lying in wait for the sons of the Firstborn to lead them to victory.
    “Full sails!” he shouted as the knights gathered around him. He looked to either side of his ship, seeing that Ulrich and Hamal were both at the bows of their own vessels. Hamal raised his sword as he looked back, and Eamon nodded his head. Ulrich stood motionless, chewing on an apple, tugging on his beard.
    The time was near.
    “There must be a thousand fires there,” Brianna exclaimed.
    “I was not expecting so many to be assembled already,” Eamon replied.
    “Do you think Cannuck is there?” Wrothgaar asked.
    Eamon nodded. “I know he is,” he said. “He is now the son of Kronos. I can feel his presence.”
    Wrothgaar grinned in anticipation of meeting the High Jarl for the first time. Angen patted him on the back, but that smiled never left his face.
    “I’ll prepare the men to disembark,” Angen said, staring after Wrothgaar as he walked away.
    “I wish Fergis were here,” Brynn said. “He would be happy to see such a force assembled in the name of freedom and honor.”
    “He would,” Eamon agreed. “And Kuros, as well,” he added, looking at Daryth.
    Daryth smiled. “Yes, he would,” he said.
    “We should announce our arrival,” Azim said, holding up his bow. “Shall I do so?”
    “Make our presence known,” Eamon said.
    Azim pulled back his bow, aiming it to the sky. He released a flaming arrow into the clouds. It burst into a blazing storm of fireballs that lit the sea with its beautiful orange glow. Far off to the shore, others fired flaming arrows into the sky in welcome.
    “Come, my friends,” Eamon said. “Let us man the boats.”
     
    Tregar and his men stood along the shore, watching as the ships approached in the darkness. He had seen their signal and ordered his men to return the greeting, and now awaited their arrival. Aboard the countless ships, he could see their torches bobbing up and down as they crested the waves. There looked to be fifty or more vessels, and who knows how many men aboard.
    What a formidable force they will make.
    “Mael,” Tregar commanded. “Prepare for their arrival. Send word to Cannuck that King Eamon has come.”
    Mael bowed, disappearing into the throng of gathered warriors. In the distance, boats were lowered into the water as the ships made anchor. Behind, a fleet of transports sailed through them. They would make landfall and let their occupants off directly onto the shore.
    “The Lifegiver will be shaking in his boots,” a soldier said, prompting laughter from Tregar’s troops.
    “If he even has boots,” another said.
    As the boats came into view, Tregar unsheathed his sword and held it in the air. His army did the same, and the collective shouts of the men were heard echoing across the water. Then, with a surge of froth and roiling sea, the strangest vessel Tregar had ever seen suddenly surfaced.
    The ship looked like a giant lobster with a row of jagged spikes along its dorsal edge. As it bobbed on the surface of the water, Tregar and his men stood wide-eyed and frozen. A portal opened at its top, and a dark-skinned, smiling man poked his head through. He was dressed in silk clothes; brightly colored and embroidered with