Free Dragonbound: Blue Dragon by Rebecca Shelley Page B

half-naked. He felt sorry for Tana. She'd offered to be his friend without knowing what he was. But he couldn't understand why Indumauli had betrayed him. Was it because he'd killed the Great Green? Or because he questioned Rajahansa's power to choose Kanvar's fate?
    The men replaced Kanvar's sword at his side and tightened the crossbow in its harness on his back, but held his arms tight so he couldn't reach the weapons. When they dragged him out of the hut, both Tana and her father were gone.
    He found himself standing on a platform high up in the trees. Other huts crowded around the one he'd been in, circling the trunk of a forest giant. The tree's branches spread out and intertwined with neighboring trees, creating thick walkways over to other platforms and huts. An upper canopy blocked view of the village from above, and an under canopy blocked the sight of the village from the jungle floor. Indumauli was right. The Maranies had never seen or suspected the village existed in the jungle so close to the colony.
    The men lifted Kanvar between them and hurried him across a network of branches to reach a black volcanic rock cliff, which rose into the air above them and disappeared above the upper canopy. Steps had been carved into the stone just wide enough for a single person to ascend at a time. They'd have to set Kanvar down if they intended to take him up there. Some of them going in front of Kanvar and the others prodding him up from behind.
    Kanvar searched the cliff face for hanging vines he might seize when he made a jump for it. He hadn't died yet, and he didn't intend to do so now, at least without a fight.
    The men set Kanvar down at the base of the stairs and motioned for him to go up.
    Kanvar backed away. "Never." He bolted back across the branches toward Tana's hut, searching for some way down from the village. He had to get away. Couldn't let the men drag him up to some cliff to kill him.
    His right leg gave out, and he fell. The men caught him and tried to tie his hands behind his back. His crippled hand only reached halfway down to his good one and slipped easily out of the ropes.
    The men cursed and settled for binding both arms down tight against Kanvar's sides. He fought that. Squirming and kicking, but the four of them muscled him into submission, securing his arms and binding his feet as well. The biggest of them heaved Kanvar over his shoulder and started up the stairs. The others followed.
    Kanvar thrashed, trying to free himself.
    Indumauli's silky voice wormed its way into his mind. Stop fighting them, little Naga. Trust me. This is necessary to save you. Relax. Trust. Wait.
    Why did you betray me! Kanvar screamed back into the Black serpent's mind. Indumauli's thoughts spun away from Kanvar's without answering.
    The man carrying Kanvar came out on a ledge high above the trees. Billowing gray clouds obscured most of the jungle below and left the mountain peaks floating like islands in the mist.
    The other three men came up beside the first, and they set Kanvar on the ground.
    Kanvar rolled to his knees and looked out across the clouds. "What are you going to do with me?" he demanded. He was too high up. If they cast him down, there would be no vines and vegetation to save him.
    Three of the men retreated back down the stairs without answering. The fourth moved to the far side of the ledge where the sunlight glinted off a round copper plate suspended from the rock above by heavy chains. He lifted a hammer from the ground below the plate and thumped it into the center. A loud gong sounded, almost deafening Kanvar. It boomed out across the mountains.
    The man struck it again and again.
    Kanvar struggled against the ropes that bound him. He had to get free.
    The gray clouds parted below him, and Dharanidhar rose into the sunlight. He'd reset the bone in his wing and splinted it allowing him to fly. And fly he did, straight for Kanvar.
    The village man let out a surprised yelp, dropped the hammer and raced