The Quest for the Trilogy: Boneslicer; Seaspray; Deathwhisper Read Online Free PDF

this?”
    â€œCan you name another more suited to the task?”
    â€œNo,” he replied.
    â€œNeither could I.”
    â€œDon’t you already know what this book contains?”
    Hesitantly, Craugh shook his head. “I don’t know. Though Wick and I trusted each other and would have laid down our lives for each other—and almost had occasion to do so now and again—we still maintained our own counsel in some areas.” He sighed and a lightning storm manifested in the smoke over his peaked hat. Green sparks danced within the storm. “I think it was because Wick knew— knows —that I have my own secrets from him.”
    Chief among those secrets had been Craugh’s own early villainy and search for power through The Book of Time . And the fact that Craugh had fathered Lord Kharrion. Only Juhg knew that, and it had been the first secret he had kept from Grandmagister Lamplighter.
    â€œBut I was with Wick when he found Lord Kharrion’s Wrath,” Craugh said.
    â€œIt is a weapon?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhat kind of weapon?”
    â€œRead the book,” Craugh directed. “I don’t want to risk influencing translations
or interpretations of what you find there. When you have the book decoded, we’ll compare what we know.”
    Suddenly a thump sounded on the tavern’s roof. Then more thumps followed, as if a giant were walking across the split wood shingles. Other thumps sounded in different spots, indicating that more than one thing now walked atop the building.
    Craugh stood immediately and took up his staff. His eyes narrowed in consternation. “Quickly, Grandmagister. It appears my arrival here hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
    â€œUnnoticed?” Juhg got to his feet. “You were trying to arrive unnoticed ?” That could only bode the gravest trouble.
    Striding to the center of the big room, Craugh glared up at the ceiling.
    â€œUnnoticed by whom?” Juhg asked, remaining by the table. He peered through the window. Outside, night had come to Shark’s Maw Cove. Lanterns lit the crooked boardwalks that led through the boggy marshland to the docks and dilapidated warehouses.
    â€œThose who would prevent me from learning anything further of Lord Kharrion’s Wrath, of course.” Craugh took his staff in both hands. Green sparks whirled around both ends of it.
    The magic was so intense in the room that Juhg felt the hairs on his arms standing to attention. He reached down and slipped out the long fighting knife his friend Raisho had given him years ago when they had entered a trade partnership. That had been when Juhg had tried to leave the Vault of All Known Knowledge because he and Grandmagister Lamplighter had been of different views on how to proceed with the Library.
    Juhg said, “Who—”
    Then the roof splintered and caved in, scattering shingles in all directions. Three impossible figures dropped to the tavern floor and stood on clawed feet with toes as big as tree roots.
    They were vaguely human in shape, possessing two arms and two legs, and had vaguely human features that looked like ridged skulls with flat brown eyes the size of saucers. No nose and a ragged slit for a mouth completed their features. Warped ears twisted like conch shells stuck out on the sides of their heads. They had four fingers and four toes at the ends of their extremities, but those were each as large as a man’s wrist. Their skin looked like cypress bark streaked with moss. When they stood, Juhg realized they very nearly reached the ceiling beams, making them at least thirteen or fourteen feet tall. Pungent and strong, the stink of a fecund swamp clung to them.
    As one, they turned their gazes on Craugh.
    â€œGet behind me,” the wizard ordered.
    Juhg did as he was bade, but he was thinking that since the creatures seemed interested in Craugh, maybe that was the last place he wanted to be. Still, he