The Dragon’s Appraiser: Part Two Read Online Free Page B

own bowl, which was still full. There was an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. Even the plants were beginning to look appetizing.
    “You shouldn’t worry,” Madja said to them. “I know Sevrrn will come to our aid.”
    Her words perplexed him. Madja did not usually lie.
    “Why do you say that?” he asked.
    Madja gave him a pointed look. “Because Sevrrn is the patron god of Erda. He’s always protected us. Why would he stop now?”
    “Perhaps to humans, Sevrrn is god,” he said, rather amused to be referring to himself in the third person. “I doubt he sees it that way. Did you ever consider that the only reason he defends the island is because it is where his hoard is located?”
    Finally, Sevrrn managed to catch a piece of chicken. He held his spoon up to show Madja, but she didn’t seem impressed.
    “That doesn’t sound very noble,” said Madja. “But that doesn’t really change anything. The Allonans could very well be coming to steal all of his treasure.”
    “They can try,” he told her. “But perhaps when they see that Sevrrn does, in fact, exist, they will pay him proper tribute. Unlike the natives, who as of late have been rather lax in that regard.”
    Sevrrn felt a tug at the corners of his lips. He was very much looking forward to seeing what treasures these Allonans would have to offer him. He’d heard that they were in possession of a mermaid with prismatic scales. He would enjoy having that in his lake.
    “I would think Sevrrn would be rather eager to defend the island from the nation that killed his sister,” Madja said.
    Now, she was just being plain ridiculous. The only thing that annoyed him was that they had killed Valdyra before he could.
    The innkeeper, who had been quiet for some time, finally spoke his piece.
    “Your companion is right,” he said to Madja. “Our island has flourished for thousands of years, while many great nations have fallen. We have only Sevrrn to thank for this. Yet we have been lax in our offerings to the dragon for some time. Word is, the capital has become so complacent in its tributes that they’ve gone so far as to offer up one of our own girls as a sacrifice and even that did not evoke Sevrrn’s mercy. Perhaps it is our own fault that our god has forsaken us.”
    Finally, someone who was making some sense.
    Abruptly, Madja stood. The sound of her chair scraping against the floor assaulted Sevrrn’s ears.
    “If you’ll excuse me, I’m heading to bed now.”
----
    M adja stood on the balcony , taking in the fresh air while she could. In a few days, she’d be back in Sevrrn’s lair. The prospect of being in a sea of gold had never been so dreary.
    “You are angry.”
    She wasn’t startled when Sevrrn appeared beside her. Over the past few weeks, she had developed a sort of sixth sense when it came to detecting his presence. It probably wasn’t as impressive as it sounded, because the air around him was always charged with an invisible energy.
    “I’m not sure how I feel,” she said in all honesty. “Hey, have I ever told you how I ended up in your lair? Why they chose me over everyone else?”
    “I never asked,” he said, perturbed by the realization.
    “Remember I told you about the family in charge of your tributes, the Kavesh? They’ve had close ties to the royal family for five generations. They hold a lot of influence with the prince, but what a lot of people don’t know is that they’re broke. They have a lot of debt overseas and they used to owe my father a great deal of money. Conveniently, they benefited a lot from his death.
    “A year ago, Jerl, the head of the family, wanted me to marry his son. His son wasn’t really a bad man, but I couldn’t possibly marry into that family after what they did to my father. Not to mention, they had their eyes on my mother’s fortune. You see, my father built his own wealth, but my mother was an heiress. Right now, my aunt controls the estate, but she’s really old. When she