Avalyne Series 01: The Queen of Carleon Read Online Free PDF Page A

the market and tell Mrs Birdweather about it. After that, everyone in village would know.
    ‘ What’s that?’ he asked.
    ‘ This,’ Keira said smiling, ‘is an invitation from Dare to visit him and the Queen in Sandrine. It appears that he is having a party and wants us to attend.’
    As always, Tully’s first thought when considering such a trip was how Keira would manage it, because Sandrine was such a long way, away. Despite the fact that it was seven years in the past, Keira had not recovered as she ought and occasionally she had strange turns but he also knew that a change of scenery might also help the situation.
    ‘ I told the messenger we would go,’ Keira declared in case his hesitation was due to his usual concerns about her.
    ‘ You did?’ he exclaimed with some surprise, and he felt himself relax in light of that revelation. If she felt well enough to go then he wouldn’t argue with her. She’d only get cross with him if he did. Keira didn’t like being reminded that she wasn’t as well as she should be. ‘Then we’ll go.’ He grinned. ‘It would be nice to see Dare and that lot again.’
    It still felt odd though calling the King of Carleon by name or think of him as the War Dragon. To Tully, he would always be Dare, who had appeared on their door step, needing help and showing them that there was no such thing as hiding from evil if evil was determined to seek them out.
    ‘ Yes it would,’ Keira agreed, grateful that he had offered no protest.
    ‘ I wonder what the celebration is about.’ he mused not expecting an answer.
    Keira knew but she kept it to herself for now.
    ‘ I suppose we’ll find out when we get to Sandrine. The why doesn’t matter much, as long as we get to see our friends.’
    ‘ You’re right as always, Tully,’ Keira agreed, and was glad to be going on a trip to see their old friends again.
    *****
    Unlike the messenger who was required to cross the Baffin Range to deliver the invitation to the Furnsbys, the invitation sent to Kyou the Weapons Master of Carleon did not have as far to travel. At that very moment, the dwarf of Iridia was in the city, helping to reinforce the city’s fortifications after years of neglect and damage from Balfure’s attacks. 
    During the war with Balfure, Kyou had been like most of his people, forced to maintain a nomadic existence in the distant mountains of the Jagged Teeth or fall under the yoke of the Shadow Lord. Balfure had swept through their ancestral home of Iridia in the Starfall Mountains with his Berserker army and enslaved the Warlords of Iridia, the very greatest of the dwarven craftsmen. Intending for them to build him weapons of terrible cunning and ingenuity, Balfure's plan was to subjugate the dwarves and use their continued survival to bend the warlords to his will.
    His father, Atrayo had been the greatest of the Warlords but he refused to aid Balfure in his thirst for conquest. Balfure did not let him live long enough to regret his decision and his death served as an example to the others, who yielded reluctantly.
    Kyou and the rest of Clan Atrayo had fled Iridia and took to wandering until they arrived at the mountains of the Jagged Teeth. Reputedly the home of ancient Order of Enphilim, Kyou had expected to find it abandoned since no one had seen or heard of any of the Magi from the Order in many hundreds of years. It did not take them long to discover how wrong they were. Living in isolation within his tower was the wizard Tamsyn— the last of the Magii.
    Tamsy n, who had been in deep sleep since the Primordial Wars, awakened to a world that was bedevilled by a new threat and offered the dwarves sanctuary in the Jagged Mountains using his not inconsiderable powers to shield them from Balfure's sorcery. In the meantime, he counselled Kyou who was a young and vengeful youth to have patience, that vengeance against Balfure would come in due course. He just had to wait. A change was coming.
    That change came in the