Free Dragon Bonds (Return of the Darkening Series Book 3) by Ava Richardson Page A

reading these, but Varla and Merik were certain they could make sense of them. I hoped they were right.
    Turning to me, Thea said, “It’s just that…I hate to leave Torvald as it is. It’s our city. We pledged as Dragon Riders to defend it.” She poked at the boiled oats with her spoon.
    I gave a shrug. She wasn’t wrong, but I could see no other choice. “What have we got? Lord Vincent has control of others, healing for himself and armor. The Darkening now has wild dragons and an army. What do we have?” I waved at the tents scattered through the sparse forest where we camped right now.
    We had almost two squadrons of Dragon Riders, a bunch of people who had never fought, and two troops from the King’s Army—foot soldiers and men-at-arms who had either fled the city or who had been stationed in watch towers and had found us. They were rough men and women who had been trained, but they had never been in a war. Years of peacetime and having Dragon Riders who could deal with bandits from the Southern Realm had left many of them lazy.
    And they didn’t know how to work with dragons.
    Maybe I was being too harsh, but in my experience, soldiers distrusted dragons. And dragons had to choose their riders. The king had troops that didn’t want to work together—so either the dragons had to be used for scouting missions, or the soldiers had to be used for that so they didn’t have to accompany a dragon or have anything to do with them at all.
    Thea nodded and put down her bowl of porridge. She waved her arm at the men and women just now starting to take up staffs and swords for training. “They are good fighters; they’ll learn how to dig in and stand their ground. I can see that in them, I know that. But what I wouldn’t give for Reynalt and his Storm Claws right now.”
    The sorrow in her words told me she wasn’t just talking militarily.
    Thea’s brother hadn’t come back to camp yet. He, his squadron of Dragon Riders, and the rest of the Flamma family were still unaccounted for, along with four other Dragon Rider squadrons. No one talked about it, but everyone had to be wondering if Commander Reynalt had as little faith in King Justin as the rest of us.
    I glanced at the royal pavilion. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust King Justin. I was just not sure I liked him. He had been proud and arrogant as a prince, but now he seemed uncertain and more interested in vengeance than anything. Even worse, he kept changing his mind about how he wanted to launch a counterattack. That was a poor trait in any leader.
    I was hoping that at least Instructor Mordecai could make the king see sense and sway his plans. Judging from the shouting coming from the king’s tent, I wasn’t certain that would happen.
    Rolling her eyes, Thea muttered under her breath, “That’s not going to help.” She pushed off the pole. “Sorry, Seb—I have to sort this out.” She left, making her way across camp, issuing a few sharp orders to the idlest gawkers and headed inside the king’s tent.
    Ugh. Politics. It had been much simpler to share a dragon’s world.
    I headed over to get a second bowl of porridge—it wasn’t good, but it was hot and filling. When I came back, I saw Syl and Beris standing over Merik and Varla. I braced myself for some rude comments, but Syl was excitedly pointing to a symbol on one of the scrolls. “I’ve seen that one before—I know it.”
    “Where?” Varla asked. “Where did you see it?” She tossed her long, red braid back over her shoulder. She no longer looked the freckled girl I’d first met.
    Merik looked up at Syl with unabashed amazement. None of us had thought about Syl much—he was just Beris’ navigator. But now it seemed he was a little like Merik—he seemed to have a liking for scrolls and books and little bits of history.
    Well, he wouldn’t have made navigator if he didn’t.
    The thought left my stomach a little sour—and then shame washed through me. Truth was I wanted to think