Free The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) by J.J. Thompson

the bloody thing.
    With a snort, he dropped
the spoon and stood up.
    Time to get that hammer
and chisel from the basement, he decided and headed for the stairs.
    It couldn't have been more
than an hour later when Ethmira pushed open the front door, followed
by a blast of frigid air and walked into the room.
    Simon had been tapping the
heart at different spots with the hammer and jumped up with surprise,
as if he'd been caught doing something naughty.
    Ethmira grinned at his
reaction as she slammed the door closed and then held up a package
wrapped in thick cloth. Where she'd gotten the material, he had no
idea.
    “ I found the horrid
thing,” she said with a touch of pride and, after stomping the
snow off of her feet on the doormat, walked across to the table and
set her prize beside the heart.
    She unwrapped it and Simon
stared at the revealed heart with some surprise.
    Unlike the first
crystalline ovoid, this dragon heart was almost yellow, with veins of
green shot through it. It had the same spiky appearance as the other,
and was also pulsing with a steady beat.
    Once she unwrapped the
heart, Ethmira sat down and stared at them both. She looked tired and
Simon hurried to make her a cup of tea.
    “ I find it
interesting to know that dragons actually burn up when they die,”
she said idly as she looked from one heart to the other.
    Simon handed her some tea
and sat down.
    “ Red dragons burn up,” he reminded her. “The black actually
exploded when it shorted out in the deep water of the river.”
    “ Hmm, good point. I
wonder how the others meet their ends. I'd like to be a part of as
many dragon deaths as possible.”
    The wizard was slightly
chilled by her eager tone of voice.
    “ You really hate
them, don't you?” he asked quietly.
    She turned to look at him
and Simon was surprised to see tears shining in her eyes.
    “ Yes, my friend. I
really do. The dragons and their minions destroyed almost all of my
people millennia ago. The remnants only survived because our Elders
found a way to retreat through the veil between worlds to a new
homeland.”
    She turned and looked
deeply into the flames in the fireplace, her expression grim.
    “ Mortals like the
humans and the dwarves know that they have a set time upon the Earth.
They know that death is inevitable. But for an immortal to die, not
through accident or disease, but through wanton violence, well...the
grief of my people is unending.”
    Ethmira looked at Simon
again and smiled at his expression.
    “ Why do you think we
are helping you? Your people, these Changlings as you call
yourselves, are doomed by the same powers that almost wiped out my
own race. We cannot, we will not, stand idly by and allow that to
happen. Not again.”
    Simon stared at her in
amazement.
    So that's why they watch
me so closely, he thought.
    He was touched by
Ethmira's concern, and that of her people, and tried to stammer out a
thank you. She just smiled and held up a hand.
    “ I just wanted you
to know why we do what we do, Simon. And now that I've explained
that,” she looked at the pair of pulsing hearts, “let's
destroy these damned things, shall we?”

Chapter
5

    Ethmira stood up and
looked at the hammer and chisel that Simon had brought up from
storage. She raised an eyebrow and stared at the tools.
    “ You think you can
break the hearts with those?” she asked doubtfully.
    Simon rose as well and
picked up the tools.
    “ Well, I don't
know,” he answered a little defensively. “I figured that
it would be a place to start, at least.”
    She simply shrugged and
stepped back.
    “ Go ahead then.
Let's see if they're as fragile as they appear to be.”
    Simon felt a bit
ridiculous as he slipped on his gloves and put the end of the chisel
against the base of one of the spikes. Ethmira obviously didn't think
this was going to work, and he was inclined to agree with her. But
like he'd said, you had to start somewhere.
    “ Okay,” he
said as he gritted his teeth. “Here