Read A Memory of Fire (The Dragon War, Book 3) for Free Online Page A

dirt. "Now go grab another
shovel and help me, damn it. I'm not digging alone."
    She grumbled but she grabbed a
shovel.
    They dug.
    They dug for a long time.
    After digging through several
feet of soil and rock, sweat soaked Leresy. He wiped it off his brow
and stripped off his shirt.
    "Feel free to do the same,"
he told Erry, but she only slammed the shovel against his legs.
    They dug some more, and the sun
began to dip into afternoon, casting golden beams into the cave.
Still they dug, tossing shovel after shovel of dirt outside.
    "Leresy, damn it!"
Erry said. "There's nothing buried here."
    "We haven't dug deep
enough." He mopped his brow and dug some more.
    Erry tossed her shovel down and
placed her hands on her hips. Dirt covered her.
    "It's
an island!" she said. "A damn, stinkin' island in the
middle of nowhere. Burn me, it's barely even that. More of a
forsaken rock than an island. Why why why would there be a weapon buried here?"
    He gritted his teeth and kept
shoveling. "Because there has to be one."
    "What do you mean?"
she demanded and grabbed his arm. "Ler, what—"
    He reeled toward her, teeth
bared, and tossed his shovel down. It thumped against the dirt.
    "I mean," he hissed,
"that I'm not going to believe this is it. All right? I'm not
going to believe that... that things just end like this. That my
father wins. That Shari wins. That there's blood and fire and pain
in Requiem, and we're just going to hide here and remember it and..."
Tears budded in his eyes, and he hated himself for it. He spun away
lest she saw. "There has to be some way to fight him, Erry. To
kill that bastard and to kill the memories."
    He stood, chest heaving and legs
shaking, staring at the dirt. He felt her small hands on his
shoulders.
    "Ler," she said
quietly. She walked around to face him, and her eyes were soft.
"And if there isn't a way to fight? If this is all that's left,
isn't that enough? You and me?"
    He lowered his head and pulled
her into an embrace. He held her tightly, crushing her against him.
He smoothed her hair and closed his burning eyes.
    "I thought it would be,"
he said, voice choked. "I wanted to forget. I wanted to just
live here with you. To start a new life. Not a prince of Requiem
and an orphan from Lynport, but just... just two people on an island.
But I can't forget. I can't." His voice cracked. "I
still see it, Erry. All of it. The dragons burning Castra Luna and
killing so many, killing Nairi and the others. And the war and blood
at Lynport. And my father... my father grabbing me and Kaelyn,
beating us, laughing as we bled and screamed. I can't forget it.
You can't know what that's like."
    She held his head with both
hands and growled up at him. "Can't I? I was there with you.
At Castra Luna. At Lynport. I fought through the mud and fire with
you. And no, your father never beat me when I was a girl. But
enough men did. I grew up a dock rat, filthy and skinny and afraid.
I know what pain is. And I can't forget either, and I never will.
But that doesn't mean we have to go back. We don't have to go chase
that world again. That life of ours... that life is over. We have a
new life here."
    "I don't," he said.
"I don't think I ever will. Not until I go back and face him.
Not until I close that door. The door is distant, all the way across
the sea, but I can feel the cold wind still blowing through it. So I
have to find this weapon. And I have to kill my father." He
lifted the shovel again. "So please, Erry, please. Help me
dig."
    Night
was falling, and the cave was almost pitch black, when Leresy's
shovel crunched and red light glowed.
    His heart burst into a gallop.
At his side, Erry gasped. The soft red light gleamed under the soil.
Leresy drove his shovel deeper, loosening the dirt. The red glow
intensified.
    "Burn me," he said,
knelt, and began to clear away soil with his hands. "Erry, look
at this."
    She knelt and helped clear away
the dirt. Hundreds of red shards glowed below, each one no