Dragonsight Read Free Page B

there?’
    Jelindel moved closer to him. ‘Are you all right?’
    Daretor drew a ragged breath. ‘If feeling as though I’ve drunk a squad of lancers under the table can be deemed as all right, I guess I am,’ he groaned.
    ‘That’s all right, then.’ Jelindel ran her fingers through his hair, concentrating. Bit by bit she drew writhing energy from his scalp, wincing as she absorbed it. When she could stand the pain no longer, she flicked the build up from her fingers.
    ‘It’s easing,’ he said.
    Jelindel devoted part of her attention to dispelling Daretor’s psychic hangover and another to finding out what might have happened at the caravan.
    ‘Ordinarily I could have shielded us from their magic,’ she said at last. ‘But it was very strong – I suspect it was ancient magic. Dragon magic, which is said to be the most powerful of all.’
    ‘I’ve had enough of dragons,’ Daretor said. ‘Hundreds of the horrors. Intelligent, too.’
    Soon, Daretor was able to stand and move about. They crossed to a viewing plate, and Daretor’s suspicions proved correct. Patches of cloud whipped past. The land was far below. Once, they ploughed through a skein of jet-black magalels, scattering them left and right, leaving them squawking in their wake.
    Without warning, the door to the cargo hold opened. A man entered while two guards stood inside the opening, warily alert. The man bowed curtly. He had a sharp face, hawkish from some angles. His thick brows met in the middle, over intelligent eyes. An air about him indicated that he was no underling. He seemed malevolent, despite his seeming politeness.
    A wolf badly disguised as a sheep, thought Daretor, not bothering to assess the possibility of escape while up so very high.
    The man seemed to read Daretor’s mind. ‘Where would you go?’ he asked. ‘Unless you can fly? My name is Rakeem. I am vizier to his Majesty, King Amida, whose hospitality you have already been privileged to experience.’ He gazed at Daretor, who shrugged.
    ‘What do you want with us?’ Jelindel asked. ‘You don’t seem to want us dead.’
    Rakeem switched his attention to her.
    ‘You know what we want.’
    ‘Actually we don’t,’ said Jelindel, with the confidence of someone who has nothing to lose. ‘I assume you are from a paraworld, the very paraworld where my friend Daretor was marooned in times past.’
    ‘Innocence does not become you, Archmage, but I shall speak our intentions plainly if you want it that way. We are seeking a powerful talisman that was stolen the same night your friend here, along with his accomplice, escaped from our domain. We want it back.’
    ‘We stole nothing!’ Daretor said heatedly.
    ‘Do not insult my intelligence,’ Rakeem said. ‘Did you not also steal one of our dragons? I would hardly call that “nothing”.’
    Daretor glared back. Jelindel scratched her head.
    ‘Steal is putting it a bit strongly,’ Daretor said. ‘We’d been unlawfully and unjustly imprisoned, and sentenced to die in your barbaric games. Escaping on one of your own dragons was only fair. Speaking for myself, I took no talisman.’
    ‘Perhaps.’
    ‘What did it look like?’ Jelindel asked, gesturing for Daretor to keep silent.
    Rakeem seemed surprised at the question. ‘It is a strange artefact, brought perhaps from an unknown paraworld long ago. It is made of something called red jade – a rarity everywhere. A thousand years ago it was fashioned into the shape of a dragon heart, and ever since it has pulsed as if filled with a dragon’s life’s blood.’
    ‘We did not steal it,’ Daretor repeated, ‘although we might have if given a chance.’
    Rakeem scowled. He walked to the door and turned to face them again. ‘It is the dragonsight. My king wants it back, even at the price of destroying your world to get it.’
    ‘That’s a high price to pay,’ said Daretor.
    ‘That is of little consequence. He doesn’t live here, does he?’ said Rakeem.
    ‘Why