Heir of Amber and Fire by Rachanee Lumayno (read aloud books .TXT) 📕

am I?” He tried to sit up, turning his head to look around. An intense headache instantly blossomed in his skull, and he sank back down, groaning.

“You’re in the Monastery of the Silver Rose.” The nun finished her ministrations on Kye’s leg, and handed him a steaming cup of tea that smelled strongly like feverfew. “Drink this for your head. I wouldn’t try to move too much, if I were you.” She threw the dirty bandages in a basket by the bed. “You were roughed up something fierce when you came here. I daresay it will be at least a week or two before you can even think about moving about.”

“What happened?” Kye asked.

While the nun didn’t know what had happened after Kye lost consciousness, she did know that his friends had brought him to the monastery. He eventually convinced her he was strong enough for them to visit, and then he was able to piece together the strange and sorry event between the band of travelers and the dragon.

The fight between King Hendon’s men and the dragon Joichan ended soon after Kye had lost consciousness. The soldiers had been burned by Joichan’s flame; Kye wondered why the dragon hadn’t just breathed fire on everyone immediately and killed them all right away. The fight finished, the dragon had shot straight up, into the air, and had flown away.

Of the original four in Kye’s group, one comrade had fallen during the fight, and one — Kye himself — was injured. Kye had hit his head against the tree when Joichan had swept him aside. His leg had landed underneath him, twisting at an unnatural angle. The leg would heal, but would forever be deformed and unusable.

As she had predicted, a little over a week passed before the nun declared Kye well enough to travel. He and his friends made their slow, sad way back home. His companions stayed in Orchwell, but Kye continued on to Calia, determined to collect payment on this commission and put the whole sorry affair behind him.

As he relayed his tale to King Hendon, Kye was met with a thoughtful silence from the impenetrable monarch. Even when Kye mentioned that all of the king’s soldiers had perished, there was no reaction from the king. When Kye finished his story, the king’s silence stretched out so long that Kye’s ears rang from the lack of sound.

Then: “What of the dragon?”

“Joichan still lives, Your Majesty,” Kye said. “My companions and I are not fighters, nor do we ever harm those that we are commissioned to seek.”

The king locked eyes with Kye. Kye held still, afraid to move, to breathe, to blink. The king looked up at his guards and said, almost lazily, “Throw him out.”

The guards moved toward Kye and grabbed his arms. “Wait!” Kye shouted. “What about payment? I was promised — ”

“You were promised? You broke your promise, to me,” said the king.

“I did not!” Kye said. “I led your men to Joichan, as I said I would.”

“I wanted Joichan’s head, but you failed to deliver.”

“That wasn’t what you told me the task truly was!”

The silence following Kye’s outburst lay heavily on the room. The king’s icy glare pinned Kye where he stood in the grip of the guards.

“Are you saying I lied?” King Hendon’s voice was too calm, too even.

“N—no, sire. I just — ”

“Four men dead, and you couldn’t even give me what I wanted,” the king said. “I should have you killed, but your paltry life is hardly compensation for my men.”

Kye held his breath, sure his life was now forfeit.

The king waved his hand as if Kye were an annoying gnat. Easily swatted away. Easily crushed. “But I’m feeling kind today. It could have been the dungeon for you, but instead, I’m just going to banish you from my kingdom. If you ever set foot in Calia again, you will be killed immediately. Farewell.”

The guards forcefully turned Kye around and began to march him out of the throne room. The doors shut behind him with a sickening finality. Kye was escorted to the gates of Calia with a stern reminder of the king’s decree. Despondent, he returned home to his family.

“EVEN THOUGH I WAS A child, I knew something was wrong the minute my father stepped through the door,” Beyan said. “And it was like our fortunes changed overnight. Bad luck followed us wherever we went.”

Without the money from King Hendon’s commission, Kye was unable to pay his team, but he insisted on it anyway. Out of his personal fortune, he gave them their wages, plus an additional stipend to make up for the trouble the group had encountered. He also made sure to compensate the family of his fallen friend.

Word of the Joichan campaign spread, fueled by a vengeful King Hendon. Jobs became scarce. Of the ones that were offered, completing them became an arduous task, since Kye’s injured leg hindered him from traveling easily. The family’s fortune started to dwindle, and Beyan’s mother became ill. They spent all they could — more than they could afford — for medicine to help her, but her condition steadily worsened.

As the next dragon seeker, all of the family’s hopes rested on Beyan. Despite his youth, Kye began taking his son with him on jobs, relying on Beyan for assistance and training him in the field.

“I loved seeking, I excelled at it,” Beyan said. “But I also felt like I was carrying an immense weight around all the time. There was so much pressure on me to restore the family name. Find the dragon, complete the commission, get the money. Help my mother get the medicine she needed or help my father with some seeking-related task he could no longer do. I grew to hate my abilities, even as I started getting more prominent in my position.”

The sky was beginning to lighten; we’d been up for hours talking. Soon Rhyss and Farrah would be up and we’d have to break camp and continue