Eastward Dragons Read Online Free PDF

the chamber, then strode towards the nearest chair. She settled down into it and said, “That probably has more to do with my king’s willful efforts to forget that I even exist.”
    “I am hurt, Neasa.”
    “Not really.” She raised her fingers to the band of runes tattooed around her neck and said, “You know better than anyone that I cannot harm you. Tell me, Berech, do you have all of your whores restrained or only those who might challenge you for the throne?”
    “A good joke.”
    “An honest question.”
    Berech sighed and sat upright, facing Neasa with his hands draped across his knees. “I only told Cuer what she wanted to hear. If I told her that my bastard sister was coming for a visit, rumor of it would be all over the castle within an hour. Let her think that another whore is coming to entertain the single most desirable bachelor in all of the commonwealth and it’s nothing new.”
    “And is she restrained as well?”
    “Of course.”
    Neasa shook her head and looked away from Berech to take in the opulence of his private chambers. Silk curtains were pulled back from the windows, allowing the morning light to fill the room and wash across the rich decorations in purple and white. Wherever the rough stones of the castle wall showed between the frames of paintings and gold-embroidered edges of tapestries they had been whitewashed. The difference between her rude quarters at Greenwatch Keep and these chambers were as stark as those between herself and her half brother.  
    “What do you want with me?”
    Berech stood and nodded towards a window in the eastern wall. Neasa heaved a sigh, rose, and followed him to the window.  
    “What do you see out there, Neasa?”  
    Beyond the wide, completely clear panes of glass Neasa could see the towers and walls of the castle below, resplendent with whitewashed stone and waving banners, perched atop the heights of A lbahi. Beyond and below, the shimmering waters of Brackwater Bay were teeming with cargo vessels of the shipping guild and warships of the commonwealth fleet, their masts arrayed with billowing white sails and brightly colored pennants declaring the lords and guild contracts of each vessel.
    “I know what you’re looking at, Neasa. Look up. Look beyond.”
    Neasa raised her eyes and gazed across the bay to the far horizon, where she could just see the hazy canopy of the wild elven forests. Here, far from the wide mouth of the river Trau, a journey by boat of one, perhaps two days would bring the traveler to the opposite shore. Those lands had stood untamed, and for the most part unexplored, for much of the history of the Commonwealth.
    “The elven lands?” Neasa asked, her eyebrows rising in surprise. “Please do not tell me that you intend to place a settlement on the far shore of the bay, Berech. You may be a royal fool, but I know that you had even better tutors than I did. Surely you know the history of our dealings with the eastern elves.”
    “Better than you, sister. I have been studying our treaties with the peoples of that vast wild in detail these last two months, ensuring that the mission I have for you does not give them cause for war. To the best of my interpretation, and that of my legal and foreign relations advisors, there is nothing to stop you.”
    “What do you want from me, Berech?”
    “I want you to be my eyes, my ears, and my sword on an important mission.”
    “Your sword?”
    “Yes. You were always a talented swordsman. If you are willing, I want you to join an expedition that will travel through the elven wilds all the way eastward to the dragon kingdoms.”
    Neasa turned from the window and gawked at Berech. An expedition to the dragon kingdoms? Trade with the draconic lands had been cut off for nearly a century. The overland routes had been dangerous even before the Dreaming had fallen upon the world and the lengthy water paths had fallen prey to drakes, pirates, and monstrous water beasts born of the nightmares