The Queen of Stone: Thorn of Breland Read Online Free PDF

heroes, and if you think shepherding a wounded agent is some sort of honor, you—
    Thorn dropped the dagger and the voice ceased abruptly. She ran her fingers over the shard embedded at the base of her skull, feeling the pressure of crystal on bone and the fire in her nerves. Thorn hated herself for giving in to the pain. She took a deep swig from the open bottle and almost choked. It was iced tal, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it was sweetened with honey. I didn’t think they served children here, she thought bitterly.
    The red circle on the dagger glowed with a faint light, but Thorn ignored it. She picked up the sack she’d taken from Kalakhesh and studied its contents. A small loop of leather cord, just large enough to fit around a finger. A much longer coil of lightweight silk rope. A few sets of rags, the clothes of a goblin servant; a clink of glass against glass revealed vials of dark liquid wrapped up in the filthy clothes. She found a raven’s quill and a few folded pieces of parchment covered with writing in the goblin alphabet.
    Thorn examined each item, opening a vial to sniff the potion within, considering the cipher used on the parchment notes, testing the quill on the blanket—as she expected, it was enchanted to write on any surface.Finally, she opened the leather-bound book, turning to the last page.
    Light suffused the vellum. Golden ink flowed like quicksilver, settling into words. Half the page was taken up by a picture. It showed a statue of a handsome knight, his hands at his sides, his sword absent. A woman leaned close to him, a woman with golden skin and a mane of snakes for hair. Stone monsters flanked the knight and the medusa; a mighty griffin reared up behind the warrior, a fierce hydra stood across from him. Thorn looked at the words below the image.
    Without his sword, the Knight of Storms was a man divided, bereft of his past and his glory. In this state he faced the Queen of Stone and met her pitiless gaze. Now, he who had been the most loyal servant of the King was made subject to the Queen of Stone and left among the ghosts of the Crag. Three keys are needed to free him from his eternal slumber—his sword, his past, and the forgiving kiss of the Queen of Stone
.
    Thorn picked up the dagger. “I’m listening.”
    Harryn Stormblade is alive
. Steel’s voice was cold, but he said nothing about her earlier outburst.
    Every child heard the stories. The Knight of Storms, the child of Thronehold, one of the greatest champions of unified Galifar. “He disappeared over two hundred years ago,” Thorn said.
    In Droaam. And now he’s been found
.
    “In a picture book?” Thorn shook her head. “I’m impressed with the glowing pages and the magic ink, but what makes you think this is anything but a goblin scam to lighten the Brelish treasury by a few thousand galifars?”
    Because we’ve found the statue. It’s in the Great Crag. Kalakhesh confirmed it when he contacted us
.
    “Well, if Kalakhesh said it, it must be true.” The crystal in her neck reacted to her frustration, andthe pain increased with her anger. She struggled to calm her thoughts and quiet the stone.
    The Silent Knives have nothing to gain from it, and you know that. Kalakhesh said that we wouldn’t betray Darguun for such a sum—the same holds true for his masters. We have independent confirmation of the existence of this statue—a sketch made by one of our envoys, when the Daughters sought to be recognized at Thronehold. At the time, we assumed it was no more than a monument, a mockery of a fallen hero. Now we know it is the hero himself, most likely given to the Daughters as tribute. Your mission is to recover Harryn from the Great Crag
.
    Harryn Stormblade
. It was easy to see why the Citadel wanted to recover the knight. Few people in Thorn’s line of work believed that the current peace would hold, and the support of a true hero of legend would be a powerful tool for any leader who sought to claim the