Free The Hearts of Dragons by Josh VanBrakle Page B

back again.” He sniffed
and wiped his eyes. “Even so, I’m glad I got to see our home.”
    He turned to leave, and
that was when he saw it. In the ruined pile of the bed, Iren caught the
briefest glimpse of a color that didn’t belong—a rich brown. Everything else in
the room bore the muted colors of dust and decay.
    Iren reached down and
peeled back a layer of shattered bed. A triangle of leather poked out, all but
buried in the rotten wood and straw. Iren pulled it free, and when he held it
up for inspection, he gasped.
    It was a book, and
thanks to its position hidden in the bed frame, it had escaped the ravages of
time. Iren leafed through it, wondering what it could be about. He could read
and write, so he expected to quickly determine the book’s contents.
    As he paged through it, though,
consternation replaced curiosity. The text wasn’t Lodian. In contrast to the
Lodian alphabet’s rounded letters, the book’s characters had sharp lines. They
also weren’t divided into words, at least not words Iren recognized. Except for
a small group of markings at the top of each page, there simply seemed to be
columns of symbols filling the book.
    Rather, filling some of
it. The first fifty or so pages had no writing whatsoever.
    “Hey, Balear!” Iren
called, but there was no answer. The others had gone on ahead of him. Iren left
the house, mounted his horse, and galloped to catch up to them.
    “You look better,”
Balear said when Iren reached them. “Did you find something?”
    “I did,” Iren said. He
handed Balear the book.
    “I can’t believe this is
in such good shape,” Balear said as he opened it. “What kind of writing is
this?”
    Hana led her horse over
to them and asked to see the book. She’d only had it a few seconds before she
said, “It’s Maantec kanji, like the writing engraved on the Muryozaki.”
    Iren grinned. This was the
clue he’d come searching for! It was a Maantec book, and he had a Maantec right
here who could tell him what it meant. He knew it must contain information
about magic and how to heal his wounded body. “What does it say?” he asked.
    Hana flipped to the
book’s back page, opened her mouth, and then shut them both. She handed the
book to Iren. “I won’t read this to you,” she said. “How would you know what I
read would be truthful? I could make up anything I wanted, and you would have
no way of knowing.”
    Iren shrugged. “I trust
you.”
    She blushed, the red in
her cheeks making her even more attractive. Iren had a brief flash of the black-haired
woman in his dream. She really could be Hana.
    “I’ll make you a deal,”
Hana said. “Rather than read that book for you, I’ll teach you the Maantec
language. That way, you can read what it says for yourself.”
    Iren’s heart sunk. He’d
found the clue he needed. He was certain of it. But instead of Hana simply
telling him what was in it, now he had to learn a whole new language to find
out. It was crazy.
    “I will tell you one
thing about that book, though,” Hana said.
    The excitement came
back, just a flicker. “What’s that?”
    “See those symbols
separated from the rest at the top of every page? They’re dates.”
    Iren felt like he might
pass out. His hands trembled as he realized what he’d found: his father’s
diary.

CHAPTER TWELVE
Tropos Village
     
     
    When Iren, Balear, and
Hana reached Tropos around sundown, Iren barely noticed they’d arrived. Had
Balear not been there to confirm it, Iren wouldn’t have believed he had entered
a village. A few wattle-and-daub houses with thatched roofs dotted the area,
along with a well and a one-room church. That was it.
    Dismounting, Iren and
the others walked among the homes. An empty breath of wind passed through the
village. No one was around, which Iren found strange. Though it was dusk, it
was too early for everyone to have gone to bed. Now that he thought about it,
they hadn’t seen any animals out to pasture either.
    A chill ran up