Free A Birthright of Blood (The Dragon War, Book 2) by Daniel Arenson Page B

before. I
fought at Castra Luna."
    Cain barked a laugh. "Ha!
Luna? You fought green recruits there, not hardened men. Can you
fight a true warrior? When you fly to meet Frey and the Axehand
Order, will you slay them, or will you fly away with your tail
between your legs?"
    Rune clutched his sword and drew
a foot of steel. "I will fight. I will not run and hide."
    Hide
like you, he wanted to add, but bit down on the words.
    "We shall see," said
Cain. "Very well! I will fight with you. I will give you an
army. But first, boy, you must prove your words. You must prove
that you can indeed fight as you boast—fight a true warrior."
He raised his voice to a shout. "Doog! Doog, here boy. Here!"
    Footsteps thudded. Grunts rose
from the shadows. Rune turned toward the sound and felt the blood
leave his face.
    Oh
bloody Abyss, he thought.
    A lumbering troll of a man came
lolloping from the shadows. He towered seven feet tall, his
shoulders wide as an ox, his belly flabby but his arms rippling with
muscles. His feet were bare, the toenails yellow, and he wore only a
tattered tunic. Iron rings circled his neck and ankles, as if he'd
just been unchained from a dungeon. He grunted and chortled and
drooled as he approached. But worst of all was not his size. The
man had no face.
    A great scar rifted his head
from his right ear, across where his nose should be, and down to his
left jowls. The wound drove into his head, two inches thick, leaving
the man one eye and just the hint of a mouth.
    "Here, Doog, here!"
Lord Cain said.
    The huge, scarred man trundled
up to his master, then stood on wobbly legs. Saliva dripped from his
wound down to his shirt.
    "Merciful stars, Cain,"
Rune said.
    Cain barked his laugh,
fluttering his mustache. "Meet Doog. Do you like his face?
Ha! I gave him that wound myself—slammed my axe so hard into his
face he leaked half his brain. He kind of looks like the canyon we
live in, doesn't he?" He turned to the poor soul. "Here,
boy, I have a treat for you."
    Cain fished through his pocket,
produced a wafer, and held it out. Doog ate it from his hand like a
trained hound.
    "By the Abyss, Cain,"
Rune muttered. "He's a man, not a dog."
    Cain spat. "Ah, he's got
no sense left in him. Took it with his face, I did; he's more beast
than man now. I trained him myself. Want to see him do tricks?
Sit, Doog, sit!"
    "We have no time for this,"
Valien interjected. "Cain, enough of your games. Rune will
fight the poor soul. And he will defeat him."
    Rune bit his lip, not so sure
about that. Doog was perhaps a halfwit, but he was twice Rune's
size. Each of his arms could have been a person on its own.
    "Valien…" he began.
    The gruff knight strode toward
him, grabbed his shoulders, and leaned close.
    "Is there a problem, Rune?"
Valien said, and a hint of a smile touched his lips. "I've
trained you well. You are young and strong. You can defeat him."
    Rune looked over at Doog. The
brute was chortling and drooling and begging for treats from his
master. An ugly sound rose from his wound, halfway between a yowl
and a mewl. Rune wasn't sure whether it sounded pathetic or
terrifying.
    He leaned closer to Valien and
whispered. "Stars, Valien, he's bigger than Beras."
    Valien
shrugged. "Should make a bigger sound when he falls." His
face grew somber. "Rune, understand—Cain is an old sort of
fighter. You're used to fighting among resistors, men of honor and
hope and light. Cain is a different kind of man. He will not follow
starlight or dreams of Old Requiem. He will follow strength .
He will follow a man he believes can be king. Show him your
strength today, and he will lend us his army." Valien nodded.
"When you joined our fight, I never promised you safety. You
knew that battles lay ahead. You fought soldiers in a great battle.
This man you must fight alone." He dug his fingers into Rune's
arms. "And greater enemies await you; someday you will face
Frey himself in battle. First you must pass this test."
    Rune looked again at