Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (best e ink reader for manga .txt) 📕

voice she hadn’t heard in ages, a motherly voice that wanted her to go forward. To see where she had come from, where they had all come from.

Stepping toward the altar, she stared down into the water which bubbled up from deep inside. A small hole had been bored through the center by the spring. Staring through it, a beam of light highlighted the small dragon carved deep below.

“What—”

Excruciating pain hit her in the back of the head like a hammer. She dropped to her knees, holding her head between her hands and screaming through the agony.

What was happening? What was that sound of roaring echoing through her head?

She vaguely heard the medicine woman cry out and race away through the streams. Sigrid could hardly stay on her knees. She wanted to curl into a ball, because the sound wouldn’t stop. It was someone, or something, screaming so loud she couldn’t think of anything but their pain.

Their anguish.

Tilting her head back, she let out a scream that matched the rage in the roaring of her mind. Whatever had caused such pain would find she had little pity for those who harmed the weak. The dragon inside her roared its anger and vowed to find whomever had caused the sound of anguish.

19

Nadir

The dragon was so angry. Nadir could hardly think, he just let the beast take over and disappeared into the darkness of their shared mind. The beast raged and slammed upon the bars of Nadir’s own mind.

Why hadn’t he let the dragon help them? Why couldn’t he let the beast do what it was meant to do?

It screamed again, and he swore he felt his ears start to bleed.

“Stop it,” he told it, his voice weak and reedy. “I cannot let you free.”

But the beast didn’t want to hear his excuses. It wanted to fly out into the world and destroy whomever thought they could tame it. The beast wanted to claw and bite, to break stone and mountain beneath its claws.

The scream grew louder and louder until it shook the bars of its cage.

“Please,” Nadir tried again. Too late.

The beast was free.

20

Sigrid

“What is this madness?” she cried out. “Stop it!”

The echoing call grew louder and louder. Liquid dripped between her fingers where her ears had started to bleed. Another stream leaked from her nose and fell onto the stones before her. She couldn’t hear the drops striking the water or granite. All she could hear was the beast in her mind.

The dragon inside her whispered, “I can fix this.”

Sigrid didn’t question how or why. She simply let the dragon take over everything. They didn’t change forms, but suddenly she wasn’t in control as much as she had been before. Their minds tangled together like a woven tapestry, and she knew what the dragon knew.

The creature rumbled low in their mind, sending out the call across the vast expanse of the kingdoms. The guttural sound was like the purr of a cat and the settling of ice in winter.

Again and again, the dragon made the sound until the echoing cry of pain slowed. Quieter and quieter until it was nothing more than a moan.

Only then did the dragon inside her ease its control, and then Sigrid swore she heard it whisper, “Call out to him.”

So she did.

21

Nadir

The sound of flutes and the wind in chimes calmed the dragon. It raged and slammed against the cages, bursting free and forcing a painful change upon their body. Scales rippled in the boiling waters. Its tail lashed back and forth, catching a body and slamming it against the mountain around them.

Again, the sound whispered through his mind, and Nadir caught upon it with desperation. He focused on the voice. The sound of singing and the calling of an ancient animal that played for his soul.

The dragon slowed its movements, huffing out an angry breath and settling.

Then, he heard the voice.

“Be at peace,” she whispered. “I am here.”

Scales melted to flesh, horns flattened on his skull, and Nadir knelt in the pool of the oasis breathing hard.

Gooseflesh raised upon his arms and down his back. His hands shook in the water as the dragon purred in his mind.

“It’s you,” he said out loud. “It’s really you.”

How was it possible? She wasn’t here. He would know if she were here. But she was still in his mind, speaking to him as if she wasn’t more than just a mirage he dreamed of.

“Sigrid.”

22

Sigrid

The sound of her own name, grunted in that voice of a dragon and the ancient call of a mountain falling in the distance, made her hands shake.

She slumped against the altar, pressing her back against the spine, and ignored the water that sank through the furs she wore.

Ragged breaths escaped her lips. It wasn’t possible. He wasn’t here. She would know if he was here. And yet she could still hear him, clear as day and as haunting as a spirit. She tilted her head back, let it rest against the rock.

“Nadir,” she said, and the words felt like a prayer. “Hello, husband.”

23

Raheem

Raheem awoke to the sound of armor clanging. Rolling over on his small cot in the army chambers, he watched as a few of the men in his regiment prepared themselves.

He rubbed the back of his head and slowly sat up. “Soldier,” he barked. “Report.”

“The sultan is calling for war, general.”

What? That couldn’t possibly be right. Solomon had made it very clear that war was not on the horizon. He was here to prevent Bymere from making any foolish moves before Nadir returned. That was his role and nothing else.

Why was the man going against his word?

Raheem pulled himself from bed and yanked on the shirt which lay across the foot of his cot. He would have words with the strange new sultan, who appeared to be little more intelligent than the last one.

“War?” he muttered, shaking his head and jerking the fabric so hard the seams at the shoulders protested.