The Name of All Things (A Chorus of Dragons #2)

by Jenn Lyons

“He’ll bring the city down around your ears!” “So distract him,” Kihrin said. Var turned his head. “What was that?” “You’re a dragon too,” Kihrin said. “Don’t even try to pretend you’re not. Every person who participated in that ritual to create Vol Karoth was turned into a dragon, including you. So you’re more than capable of distracting Morios, until we can evacuate. Then we’ll talk about killing the damn creature.” Relos Var stared at him, lips drawn back in a sneer. Janel watched, waiting for Var’s response. “Well?” Kihrin said. Relos Var turned his phantom horse around and galloped to the edge of the bridge, away from Lake Jorat and toward Demon Falls. The phantom horse jumped. For anyone else, it would have been suicide. But Var seemed to hover for a second in the night air, the magical construct horse vanished, and his form blurred. What replaced him was an extraordinary sight—enormous and reptilian, winged and clawed. He confirmed what Kihrin had long suspected: that he was the dragon Kihrin had seen briefly in Kharas Gulgoth before Relos Var had shown in up person. That indeed, the morgage hadn’t been mistaken when they had depicted nine draconic shapes—not eight—leaving the site of the botched ritual that had created Vol Karoth. His hide glimmered with metallic rainbow shimmers in the predawn light.