Free Kal Moonheart Trilogy: Dragon Killer, Roll the Bones & Sirensbane by Rob May

essential: there were goblins in the forest, still.
    Lying on her belly beneath the wide fronds of a fern, Kalina Kalina spied on a pair of the creatures. These goblins weren’t armed and armoured like the group that had chased her down to the village three days ago; in fact, they appeared to be female. They wore skins around their waists, but their breasts were bare. They were collecting sticks of dry wood from the forest floor, communicating in grunts and whistles as they did so. If the goblins were here, then the dragon must be around too; she knew that much from the old stories. Every dragon commanded its own army of goblins, trolls and other monsters. Would the rest of the dragon’s horde be coming down from the mountains any time soon? Kalina shuddered at the thought; she really, really shouldn’t linger here long.
    When the forest was still and empty once more, she slipped away, keeping to the dark shadows between the trees, heading down the slope towards the village. Dusk was making it difficult to see. But what I can’t see, can’t see me , she reasoned. But what use was reason now? Only last week she had been telling her young pupils in the schoolhouse about how goblins all lived in underground chambers that their dragon masters had gouged out of the rock for them; they could probably see quite well in the dark. Kalina had gotten all her facts from the schoolmaster who she worked with; he had filled her head with countless old stories and legends. She wondered if his specialist knowledge had been enough to save him from the dragon attack.
    She avoided the well-trodden paths and took secret shortcuts through tangled groves and past secluded pools. Eventually she could see the ridgeline through the trees, and she followed it until she came to the Overlook, a pointed finger of limestone that jutted out over the valley. She went down on her hands and knees and crawled to the edge.
    What she saw below took her breath away. The village had been completely wiped off the map. No trace remained of any of the fifty or so buildings that were once there—not even one burned-out shell. Instead, in the centre of a mile-wide field of ash, was an enormous smoldering bonfire. Goblins were busy to-ing and fro-ing between the edge of the nearby trees and the smoking heap, which was piled up to the height of a three-storey building. Kalina could see they were bringing more wood to throw onto the bonfire.
    No, not a bonfire …
    In a shallow crater-like depression on top of the mound of timber, Kalina could see movement. A black man-sized shape was scrabbling atop a pile of still corpses. It moved awkwardly, stretching out its limbs, its neck, tail and wings.
    Not a bonfire … a nest .
    Kalina hissed between clenched teeth. The dragon was using the village and the villagers as a source of fuel and food for its young. Where was the parent now? Probably out hunting in the surrounding countryside; there was enough wood and wildlife nearby to raise a whole litter of juveniles to adulthood.
    She was aware suddenly of how exposed she was out on this promontory. I shouldn’t have come back. There’s no helping Deros, or any of them now. I need to run far, far—
    A dark shadow fell over her. Kalina felt the rock she was crouching on shudder, and heard the crack of heavy wings battering the air. She was buffeted forward several yards; her feet stumbling out into nothingness. She tried to grab at the sky with her fingers as she began to plummet.
    Then she was caught in mid-air. The dragon’s clawed toes wrapped painfully around her body like a gibbet. Kalina was still speeding through the air, but this time on a new trajectory: directly towards the nest. At the last moment, the dragon beat its wings and rose up, releasing its hold on her. Then she was falling again, this time head-first, arms flailing.
    Fifty yards below her, the hungry juvenile opened its jaws.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    IV.ii
     
    Ashes
     
     
     
    Kal’s eyes