Read [Hurog 01] - Dragon Bones for Free Online Page A

see you’re not taking Penrod’s advice. I talked to him after the Hurogmeten died. That beast needs to be put down.”
    Fat lot you know, I thought.
    â€œHe’s pretty,” I said. “Hot blood and small spaces. Big things like him and me need space.” I thought about the tunnel leading to the dragon bone cave and the raw places on my shoulders ached in response. “Lots of space.”
    â€œHe killed your father, Ward. He’s dangerous.”
    I looked at him. “If he couldn’t control him, he shouldn’t have ridden him.” It was father’s favorite axiom with variants like, “If he couldn’t beat him, he shouldn’t have started the fight.”
    Duraugh turned as if to go but twisted abruptly and closed in until we were face-to-face.
    â€œWard,” he said intently, “your mother may be Tallvenish, but you are born and bred Shavigman. You know that our land is ruled by magic. I’ve fought skellet in the high reaches—”
    Ciarra darted behind me at the mention of the unquiet dead.
    â€œâ€”and I’ve seen a village the Nightwalkers destroyed.” Duraugh waved a hand vaguely southward. “The Tallvenish laugh at our fear of curses, but you aren’t a flatlander, are you?”
    I didn’t know what he was getting at, but I played along. Ducking my head awkwardly so I could meet his eyes, I whispered, “We have a curse.”
    And an embarrassingly poor curse it was, too. No verse, no obscure references, just something that looked as though a group of adolescent boys had scratched it into a stone wall. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the wall hadn’t been in the great hall. The only reason visitors didn’t laughwhen they saw it was that it was written in old-style runes that few people could decipher.
    â€œDo you know what it is?”
    I blinked at my uncle a moment before I decided it was something an idiot could know. “The house of Hurog will fall to the underground beast.”
    â€œThe stygian beast, Ward. Stygian is the underworld beast. Fen thought it a good name for a warhorse. He picked better than he knew. That stallion is an underworld creature,” he said intently. “He should have been killed long ago. Do you see?”
    I’d known Stygian had been named for the beast who came from the underworld to gobble the souls of the dead who hadn’t lived well enough to go dwell in the houses of the gods. Who’d have thought Uncle would take it so seriously? It occurred to me that the curse had already come to pass. Because the bones of the underground beast lay chained in a hidden cave under the keep, Hurog’s riches were gone, and there were no dragons in the world.
    Hurog didn’t need the Stygian beast to destroy itself the rest of the way. My father was . . . had been a madman. My mother ate dreamroot and took little note of what went on about her. My sister was mute, though not a healer or magician could tell why. My brother had tried to take his own life.
    â€œYou do see?” Duraugh asked, obviously forgetting in his obsession that he was talking to the family idiot.
    â€œI see very well,” I replied to remind him. “But what does that have to do with the horse?”
    My uncle was a good-looking man, better-looking than my father if not so handsome as his own sons. But anger took away from his looks; maybe that’s why I enjoyed his reaction so much. The Brat buried her face against my back as he controlled himself with an effort.
    â€œStygian was your father’s doom. If you don’t see that, he’ll be yours as well.”
    â€œHe is a horse,” I said doggedly. “And I changed his name. Stygian takes too long to say. Pansy. His name is Pansy.” I liked the name better every time I said it.
    Â 
    OREG, THE BOY FROM the dragon bone cave, came to me as I got ready for bed that night. I didn’t see him come in