Read Online The Dread: The Fallen Kings Cycle: Book Two by Gail Z. Martin - Free Book Online

Coalan had proven his ability to defend the king.
    When Coalan had gone, Soterius turned to Tris. “You look tired, and the real fighting hasn’t started yet. I don’t think these magic skirmishes are what’s losing you sleep. So what’s the real reason?”
    “We’re getting ready for war. I’m worried about having to leave Kiara and Cwynn behind. Do I need more reasons?”
    Soterius gave him a potent stare. “I don’t think that’s all of it.”
    Tris sighed. “I haven’t slept well the last few nights. Bad dreams. It’s been different each night. I haven’t been able to decide whether they’re warnings or just my nerves getting to me.”
    “What did you dream?”
    Tris shifted uncomfortably. “One night, I dreamed about Alyzza, dancing in her cell at Vistimar. Only this time, she wasn’t mad, and she wasn’t singing in riddles. She looked like she did when we met her in the caravan. She looked at me and said, ‘Look to the pages, Tris. There are answers in the pages.’ ”
    “Pages? Does she mean the histories Royster brought you from the Library at Westmarch?”
    Tris shrugged. “I’m not sure.” Darker possibilities had occurred to him, ones he would not speak aloud. “The thing is, I’ve read through everything countless times, and nothing jumped out at me as being significant. Maybe the circumstances just aren’t right. Maybe the meaning will be clearer later.”
    “Or maybe you just had a bad dream.”
    Tris grimaced. “Yeah. Maybe that too.”
    “Was that the only dream? You seem a little too tired to have had just one bad night.”
    “There’ve been others. I dreamed about Cwynn. He was lying on a huge pile of bones, and a current of wild magic, like the Flow, opened the ground under the pile and roared up toward the sky. I thought it was going to burn him, but it swirled around him. It was as if he were part of the magic, calling the power.”
    “But you’ve examined Cwynn and had the Sisterhood and Cheira Talwyn look at him. You said that as far as anyone can tell, he doesn’t have any magic at all.”
    “As far as anyone can tell,” Tris repeated tiredly. “He’s only a few months old. Most power doesn’t manifest until puberty. Talwyn thought he had something. She said he ‘glowed’ to her mage sight. She said she thought whatever we’re fighting might be after him.” Tris ran a hand over his face. “He’s my son. How can I protect him if I don’t know as much about him as our enemy does?”
    Coalan returned with their dinner, taking great care to lay out their bowls, bread, and drink carefully. Soterius hid a proud smile at the young man’s proficiency. As promised, two generous glasses of brandy accompanied the meal. “Who knows what we’ll have tomorrow, or whether we’ll have time to eat,” Coalan said as he finished setting out the food. “So eat hearty!”
    With that, Coalan settled down in a corner of the tent with his own meal, which Tris could not help but notice included a double portion of bread and a tankard of ale. Coalan had charmed himself into the good graces of the cook, who made sure that the young man never went hungry.
    “Anything else?” Soterius brought Tris’s thoughts back to the present. “Any other dreams?”
    Tris paused to take a few bites of food, followed by a sip of brandy. “It’s just as I told Sister Fallon: I’ve hadeach of those dreams several times. But there was one more. I dreamed about a burying ground, an old place where someone had been laying their dead to rest for a long time. I felt power sweep through the cairns, calling to the dead. It gave the spirits no choice; it tore them from their resting places, forced them to the surface.
    “But it wasn’t calling them just to rise. It began drawing the souls that hadn’t crossed over to the Lady into itself. I could hear them screaming, but in the dream, I was frozen. I tried to use my power to block the magic, and I couldn’t do it. I felt like I was watching