Read Online Lost mark 3 The Queen of Death: by Matt Forbeck - Free Book Online

and now, he realized, he might never have a chance to learn the answer. Sallah had kept away from him since storming off, not an easy trick on a craft the size of the Phoenix, but she had managed it.
    "Not a lot of pretty girls where you come from?” Kandler laughed, despite his sour mood. "Not many,” he said. "I think Espre’s beautiful, of course, but I’m biased.” His gaze shifted to where she and Xalt and Duro huddled together near the port rail.
    They had nothing on the ship to use for a cookfire, and Espre had wanted a hot meal. Xalt had managed to rig up a long wooden arm, which he’d stabbed through a hunk of beef they’d gotten from the dwarves in Gaptown. He stood now with his arm extended, holding the steak as close to the airship’s elemental ring of fire as he dared, and it had already started to brown.
    As Kandler watched, the ring of fire flared angrily at the warforged, engulfing the food. Xalt drew back the flaming food instantly and blew out the flames with a blast of air from his lungs. This set Espre to nearly hysterical giggling, and for the first time in a long while Kandler saw her happy.
    "She reminds me so much of her mother,” Kandler said.
    "What about Sallah?”
    Kandler shook his head. "They’re nothing alike. You wouldn’t have caught Esprina dead in a temple. She was the most even-tempered person I’d ever met. Sometimes . . .”
    He wondered why he felt compelled to tell Monja anything. Had she worked some kind of spell upon him? He hadn’t known her all that long, but maybe that was the reason he felt he could unburden himself on her. That, and the fact that she’d asked for it.
    "Sometimes she’d look at me, and there was this horrible sadness in her eyes. I just knew it came from the fact that she thought she’d live on for hundreds of years after I died. To her, loving me must have seemed like trying to hold on to summer. Eventually you know autumn has to come, but you ignore it as long as you can and try to enjoy the best days of the year the most you can.”
    "And that’s different from how Sallah looks at you?’
    Kandler shook his head. "No. That part’s exactly the same.”

    Her belly full of scorched beef eaten from the tip of a sword, Espre wandered over to where Kandler sat chatting with Burch. She’d been dreading this for some time, but she didn’t see that waiting to take care of it would make it anything but worse.
    The sun had long since set, and the night would have been crisp, cool, and filled with stars and moons had it not been for the ring of fire that kept the airship aloft and had cooked her meal so well. As it was, she could make out a few of the constellations out beyond the ship’s prow, off toward the southern horizon, and the heat from the ring of fire forced the chill far away.
    "Hey,” Kandler said as Espre came closer. "You get enough to eat?”
    She nodded and rubbed her belly. "I’m sure I’ve had better, but I can’t remember when.”
    "Leave any for us?” Burch said, licking his lips.
    Espre felt mortified. "I’m sorry,” she said, happy that with the ring of fire to her rear her face was shrouded in shadow. "I didn’t think—”
    "Relax,” Burch grinned. "I’m only joking. I can see from here that Xalt’s already got another steak on that stick of his.”
    "I’m sure it will be even better than the first,” Espre said. "He’s a fast learner.”
    "What’s on your mind?” Kandler said.
    "Does anything have to be on my mind?”
    Kandler smirked. "I know you, Espre. Don’t try to hide who you are, not from me.”
    The fact that Kandler knew her so well frustrated Espre, and at the same time, it comforted her. It felt good to realize that there were people in her life who had been around her enough to know how to read her intentions, her moods.
    "I—I just wanted to say that I think we’re doing the right thing.”
    Kandler’s smile shed as much warmth as the ring of fire. "Thanks,” he said. "That means more to me