Read The Fire Dragon Online

Authors: Katharine Kerr

The Fire Dragon

BOOK: The Fire Dragon
3.26Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
DRAGON PLAY

The dragon leveled off her flight, banked one wing again, and turned in a lazy arc.

“Look down!” she called out.

Rhodry, astride her, saw far below a line of horsemen marching. Leading them was a huge raven.

“Horseskin!” Rhodry yelled.

“And Raena with them! Let's have a bit of sport!”

With a roar, the dragon plunged down.

Kicking, plunging, bucking, the horses tried to bolt. The Horseskin riders were yelling and clutching their saddle peaks to keep from being thrown. The dragon ignored them and swooped after the raven.

Shrieking, the raven dodged, darting this way and that, but steadily the dragon gained. With one last shriek the raven disappeared, bursting through some invisible gate to another world.

Arzosah turned in a wild arc. “Shall we go after them again?”

She skimmed the ground and charged them one more time. The men screamed, wrenched their horses' heads around, and let them run where they would. The dragon pulled up, gained height in a mad flap of wings, and flew fast away, chortling to herself. Rhodry tipped back his head and howled in berserk laughter.

B
Y
K
ATHARINE
K
ERR

Her novels of Deverry and the Westlands

DAGGERSPELL

DARKSPELL

THE BRISTLING WOOD

THE DRAGON REVENANT

A TIME OF EXILE

A TIME OF OMENS

DAYS OF BLOOD AND FIRE

DAYS OF AIR AND DARKNESS

THE RED WYVERN

THE BLACK RAVEN

THE FIRE DRAGON

Her works of science fiction

RESURRECTION

PALACE

(with Mark Kreighbaum)

For my grandfather
,
John Brahtin.

He gave me my social
conscience.

TABLE OF INCARNATIONS
T
HE
C
IVIL
W
ARS
E
ARLY 1100S
M
ID-1060S
Anasyn
Kiel
Bevyan
Dera
Bellyra
Carramaena
Jill
Branoic
(yet to appear)
Blaen of Cwm Pecl
Caradoc
(yet to appear)
Lillorigga
Niffa
Rhodry
Maddyn
Rhodry
Peddyc
Jahdo
Mallona
Merodda
Raena
Sarcyn
Burcan
Verrarc
Cullyn of Cerrmor
Owaen
(yet to appear)
Rhodda as a child
Pertyc Maelwaedd (in 918)
Lady Rhodda

PART ONE
S
PRING
850
Deverry

The year 850. The gods saw fit to give our prince the
victory, but never had we dreamt how high a price they
would set for it.

—The Holy Chronicles of Lughcarn

S
unlight streamed into the tower room and pooled on the wooden floor. Grey gnomes with spindle legs and warty faces materialized in the warmth and lolled like cats. Despite his great age, Nevyn felt tempted to join them. He sat in the chamber's only chair and considered his apprentice, who was sitting cross-legged among the gnomes. She turned her face up to the sun and ran one hand through her blonde hair, which fell to her shoulders in a ragged wave.

“Spring's truly here,” Lilli said. “I'm so glad of it, and yet I dread summer. You must, too.”

“I do,” Nevyn said. “It won't be long now before the army rides out, and the gods only know what the battles will bring.”

“Just so. All I can do is pray that Branoic rides home safely.”

“You've grown truly fond of Branoic, haven't you?”

“I have. The prince doesn't like it much.” Lilli opened her eyes and turned to look up at him. “You don't think he'd do anything dishonorable, would you?”

“Prince Maryn, you mean? What sort of dishonor—”

“Letting Branno be killed in battle. Putting him in harm's way somehow. It sounds so horrid when I say it aloud. I can't imagine Maryn doing such a thing, truly. I'm just frightened, I suppose, and it's coloring my fancies.”

“No doubt.” Nevyn hesitated, wondering if her fear were only fancy or some half-seen omen. As apprentices so often did, she picked up his thought.

“I've been meaning to ask you somewhat,” Lilli went
on. “You know how the omens used to come to me? I'd be sewing or thinking of some ordinary thing, and then all of a sudden the words would come bursting out of my mouth?”

“I remember it well.”

“It doesn't happen anymore.”

“Good.” Nevyn smiled at her. “It's a common thing, that a person marked for the dweomer will have some wild gift, but when she starts a proper course of study, she loses the knack. Later, once you truly understand what you're doing, the gift will return to you.”

“I see. To tell you the truth, I'm just as glad. I'd be terrified if I could see—well, you know—someone's death.”

“Just so.” Nevyn hesitated, thinking. It was likely that if grave harm befell either the prince or her betrothed, she would know, no matter how far away she was. He decided that worrying her the more would serve no purpose and changed the subject. “I need to be on my way. The prince is holding a council—at noon, he said, so I suppose I'd better get myself there.” He stood up, stretching his arms above his head. “You may finish the lesson I set you from the dweomer book.”

“Those awful lists?”

“I realize that the memory work is tedious.” Nevyn arranged a mock-fierce expression. “But those calls and invocations will come in handy some fine day. Learn that first page for today.”

BOOK: The Fire Dragon
3.26Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Eight Little Piggies by Stephen Jay Gould
Helena's Demon by Charisma Knight
Young Philby by Robert Littell
Siren by Tricia Rayburn
Here Be Dragons by Alan, Craig
The Vampire's Kiss by Amarinda Jones