Read Online Dragon Forge: The Draconic Prophecies - Book Two by James Wyatt - Free Book Online

barracks. Harpies nested in the cliffs of the city, and three hags—the three sisters—governed the fractious nation from a court built among the ruins of the ancient hobgoblin empire of Dhakaan.
    “Have you ever seen an ogre drink?” Zandar said. “There must be taverns there to feed those appetites.”
    “House Tharashk has an outpost there,” Kauth added. “I’m sure they maintain something like civilized facilities.” House Tharashk, made up of orcs and half-orcs as well as humans, had made enormous profits during the Last War by recruiting mercenaries from among the monsters of Droaam.
    “What about Ashtakala?” Zandar said, grinning wolfishly at Vor.
    “The city of demons is not the capital of the Demon Wastes,” the orc growled.
    “Isn’t it a legend?” Sevren said. “I’ve never heard of anyone who’s actually been there.”
    “It’s real,” Vor said.
    Zandar smirked. “Or as real as a million-year-old city populated with masters of illusion can be.” He was clearly tryingto nettle Vor, and it was working. “Maybe we’ll find it on our expedition.”
    Vor stepped close to the warlock and stooped to look straight in his face. “You had better pray to whatever creatures you serve that we do not,” he said. “Or we’ll all be damned.”
    Zandar backed down after that, and Sevren led them to a druid he said would help them stock up for their journey. But Kauth couldn’t get Vor’s words out of his mind.

    Sevren proved to have useful contacts in Greenheart, and soon their packs were loaded with everything they would need for their journey—food, tents, rope, even extra clothes and weapons. Considering that none of the town’s buildings were crafted unless by druidic magic, the town was well supplied with the gear used by rangers and druids in the wild.
    That evening, they set up their new tents near the edge of town, where the trees started coming closer together and the stone huts farther apart. They had agreed on two tents, each one large enough to hold two of them. Zandar and Sevren shared one, which left Kauth and Vor in the other. Kauth was relieved to see that Vor removed his plate armor to sleep—he had visions of the orc’s large shoulderplate jabbing into him as he tried to sleep. Even so, the tent was going to be crowded with the two larger members of the group together.
    Kauth stayed awake outside the tent when the others retired for the night. For a while he sat and listened to the sounds of the forest—the chirping of frogs and crickets, the hoots of owls, and the soft, mournful songs of parents lulling their children to sleep. He could grow to like Greenheart, he decided—it had a peace and harmony about it that was sorely lacking in the other parts of his many lives.
    With that thought, he began preparing his mind for the night ahead. He would be in close quarters with Vor, and he could not allow his identity to slip as it had on the airship with Gaven and Rienne. He began by reviewing the shape and features of his body, from his unruly hair and steel eyes down to his thick, crooked toeswith their ugly nails. Cementing every detail in his mind as he had learned so many years ago.
    She was jolted out of sleep by Kelas’s voice: “Who are you?”
    She sat bolt upright and shouted her answer: “I am Faura Arann.”
    “Stand for inspection.”
    Kelas examined every detail of her face and body, measured the length of her hair, checked that her mole had not drifted while she slept. He stood behind her and weighed her breasts with his hands
.
    “Excellent. Go back to sleep.”
    Kelas never paid enough attention to the eyes, she thought. It’s the eyes that will give you away
.
    Kauth shook the unwelcome memory from his mind, scowling at himself. He ran a hand over his face to make sure he hadn’t slipped.
    “Focus,” he told himself. He repeated the exercise, from the top of his head to the leathery soles of his feet. Fixed each detail in his memory.
    Who are you? he