Rage of the Dragon Read Online Free Page B

demise.
    Aylaen blinked. The cubbyhole was gone. The bulkhead looked as though it had never been disturbed. She could even discern rust on the nail heads. She reached out her hand to touch it and felt the wood, rough and solid and wet beneath her fingers.
    “What does ‘demise’ mean?” Wulfe asked.
    “‘Dying,’” Aylaen answered. She wrapped her arms around herself. The fog was chill and damp. “In this instance, ‘death.’ ‘Let them meet a swift death.’ If you didn’t know what the word meant, why did you use it?”
    “My mother taught me the song. She taught me lots of songs and all of them are magic like this one. Only some of them are a lot more powerful.”
    “Like turning yourself into a wolf?” Aylaen asked, shivering. The chill was creeping into her bones.
    “My mother didn’t do that to me!” Wulfe cried, bouncing up angrily. “My mother loves me. She came to me every night and she held me and sang to me and told me to remember the songs because they would protect me from you Uglies who hate us and fear us.”
    “I don’t hate you,” said Aylaen gently.
    “But you’re afraid of me,” Wulfe mumbled. His eyes brimmed with tears that spilled over and ran down his cheeks, leaving tracks in the dirt. He dragged his hand across his nose. “Because I can change into a wolf.”
    Aylaen leaned back against the bulkhead.
    “I am afraid of you. Like you’re afraid of Skylan.”
    “I’m not!” Wulfe said indignantly.
    “Even though you know Skylan loves you and would never hurt you, you run away when he draws his sword.”
    “I don’t like swords,” said Wulfe.
    He sat down beside her. He was silent a long while, considering her words, then he lifted his eyes to meet hers. “I think I understand. And I want you to know that even if I am a wolf sometimes I would never hurt you or Skylan.”
    Aylaen smoothed back the shaggy hair from his forehead. “I’m not afraid that you would hurt me. I’m afraid because I don’t understand why this happens to you.”
    “My grandmother,” said Wulfe. “She put a curse on me because I am part human. My mother tried to lift the curse, but she couldn’t.”
    Wulfe sighed. “I miss my mother.”
    “I miss my mother, too,” said Aylaen.
    She put her arm around him and felt his tense body relax against hers.
    “I might hurt Treia, though,” Wulfe said, and before Aylaen could say anything, he jumped to his feet and ran off, disappearing into the fog. Aylaen could hear his bare feet pattering across the deck.
    Hurt Treia … Back in Sinaria, Treia had looked straight at Aylaen and cried in fury, This is your fault. You should be dead! Why aren’t you dead?
    “My fault,” Aylaen repeated softly. “I am the one who should be dead.”
    Aylaen was supposed to have died in Sinaria. But she had survived and her survival had somehow ruined Treia’s plans. Aylaen had tried for so long to love her sister. She had defended Treia. She had forced Skylan to rescue Treia from the dragon Treia had brought into being. Keeper had planned to take them to the ogres, speak for them. Treia had poisoned Keeper. Skylan had tried to warn Aylaen about her sister, but she had refused to listen. Now if the ogres captured them, they would die and it would be her fault.
    Aylaen heard Skylan calling softly to her. She stood up and groped her way across the deck, following the sound of his voice.
    “Where’s Wulfe?” he asked, and then his gaze went to her neck. His eyes widened in alarm. “Where’s the spiritbone?”
    “I hid it,” she said. “Wulfe helped me.”
    Aylaen was afraid he would be angry and was relieved when Skylan smiled. “He showed you his cubbyhole.”
    “You know about that?”
    “I know he has one. I don’t know where it is and I don’t want to know. Are you confident it is safe?”
    “I don’t even know how to find it,” said Aylaen. “It is hidden in the bones of the ship. If something happens to us, the Dragon Kahg will protect