Chapter Thirty-Nine

It was dusk, a day later. Hal Kailas uncomfortably sat a horse in the middle of a victory parade, through the shattered streets of Aude.

Now there would be an absurd ceremony, the keys to the destroyed city gates handed to the Sagene and Deraine Lord Commanders of the Armies.

Kailas had heard it took most of the night to bring the looters to bay, for few soldiers took kindly to a siege like this one had been, and had wreaked bloody revenge on the women and shops of Aude.

Windows were smashed, emptied wine casks were scattered here and there, and there were bodies, still unburied, sprawled and beginning to stink.

But that was the way of war, though Kailas despised it.

At least he'd gotten Storm off the keep's roof, and under an animal chiurgeon's care. He would heal, and fly again.

As would Hal Kailas.

Trumpets blared, drums thundered, and soldiers cheered.

But this was but one battle.

The might of Roche lay unbroken.

Kailas heard a faint noise, looked up, and saw, far above the city, a circling black dragon.

Perhaps it was Ky Bayle Yasin.

His, and Roche's, debt to Hal Kailas was still unpaid.

The Dragonmaster knew the war, and the killing, had only begun.