The Adamantine Palace Read Online Free PDF Page B

secret valleys beyond, where no one would know me and no one would find me?
    The answer, she knew, was that she wouldn’t contemplate it even for a second. Which probably made her a fool, and that in turn made her laugh even more, and by the time she reached Valgar’s eyrie, she felt ten years younger.
    She’d hoped the feeling would last after she landed, but it didn’t. It died at the exact moment that she saw her knight-marshal, Lady Nastria, walking briskly across the scorched earth towards her. Nastria was already half in her armour, as if in a rush to leave, and was waving something in her hand. She was shouting.
    ‘Your Holiness! Queen Aliphera is dead!’

6
    Huros
    Huros knew exactly what was going on, because nothing could happen without him. He’d sat with Eyrie-Master Isentine and explained to Queen Shezira everything about the route they would take to escort Princess Lystra to her wedding. Exactly how many dragons would be flying, exactly where they would be stopping and exactly for how long.
    They left King Valgar’s eyrie at the crack of dawn. Huros was expecting that, because that had been in his plan. Today was the longest stage of their journey, all the way to the Adamantine Palace. They would stay there for one day, no more and no less, to let the dragons rest. He was quietly looking forward to it. He would spend the time with the highest alchemists in the realms, perhaps even with Master Bellepheros himself. It was an opportunity to advance himself, and this had filled his thoughts until late into the night. Thus he wasn’t entirely awake when someone knocked on his door. He stumbled outside while the sun was still creeping over the horizon and checked his potions were all carefully packed. Then he wrapped himself in his thick and deliciously warm flying coat, secured himself to the back of a dragon and started to count the others getting ready around him. By the time he reached twenty, his eyes had grown so heavy that he thought he might rest them for a bit. The counting was rather pointless, after all. He knew exactly which dragons were with them and exactly where they were going.
    Others climbed up beside him. He felt the dragon start to run and then launch itself into the air. He had a sleepy look around, and then his eyes closed.
    When he woke up two hours later, as his belly reminded him that he hadn’t had any breakfast, he was in the wrong place. The mountains of the Worldspine were too close. More to the point, there should have been some thirty dragons in the skies around him. Instead, he could see the white, two other war-dragons, and that was it.
    ‘Er . . . Excuse me?’
    There were two men on the war-dragon with him. One was a rider, sitting up above its shoulders. The other one looked like a Scales. Huros furrowed his brow, trying to remember the man’s name. Kailin. The one who looked after the white.
    ‘Hey! Scales!’
    The Scales turned around and gave Huros a blank look. The rider was too far away to hear them over the wind.
    ‘Scales! Can you hear me?’
    The Scales nodded.
    ‘Where are we?’
    The Scales shrugged.
    ‘Um, don’t you know? Where are the others then?’
    The Scales shook his head and shrugged again.
    ‘Well. Oh. Then who does know?’
    The Scales tipped his head towards the dragon-knight. Huros rolled his eyes and gave up. Strictly speaking, Scales were subordinate to Huros and the other alchemists, and all belonged to the order. In reality, most Scales lived in a tiny world of their own that seemed to consist of themselves, their dragons and very little else.
    His stomach began to rumble. He decided to have one more try. ‘Scales! Um. Have you anything to eat?’
    The Scales nodded and passed back a hunk of bread. Huros gnawed on it and quietly fumed. Under no circumstances was a squadron of dragons to split without consulting the senior alchemist present. Since Huros was the only alchemist Queen Shezira had deemed fit to bring, that was him. He would