The Queen of Stone: Thorn of Breland Read Free Page A

moment to rest and to remember the path to return to the palace.
    A puddle of water lay ahead of her, and Thorn studied her reflection. Her skin was covered with coppery scales, her teeth sharp needles, and her hair was a mane of living serpents, coiled as if ready to strike. The face of a medusa. It was the first spell she’d cast in the BloodyTooth—an illusion to cloak her appearance, disguising herself as this monster. The people of Droaam dealt with medusas, and they knew the deadly consequences of meeting a medusa’s gaze. Though Thorn’s eyes lacked that mystical power, the fear was sufficient to shake even Xorchylic. The disguise wouldn’t hold up under long examination, but it had served its purpose. Her reflection blurred as the mystical energies faded, and Thorn could see her own true face. She reached into Kalakhesh’s sack and retrieved her dagger.
    “We’re safe,” she whispered.
    I doubt it
, Steel said.
Disguised or not, you revealed yourself to Xorchylic. He’ll be able to track your thoughts
.
    “Please,” Thorn said. “I know we haven’t worked together before, but I
am
a Dark Lantern. I learned counter-divination my first year.”
    And Xorchylic is a mind flayer, one of great power. Your technique is impressive, but we can only guess at his mental abilities
.
    “You didn’t see his eyes,” Thorn said. “Whatever powers he might have, he was too surprised to get a lock on me.”
    Then he will find another way. The trackers of the Znir Pact can follow a trail better than any hound, and your scent is all over that tavern
.
    “I have a plan,” Thorn said. “And I don’t need to explain every detail to my dagger.” She returned the dagger to its sheath before Steel could respond.
    Thorn had learned only a handful of spells … brief invisibility, disguise, the power to leap a great distance or cling to a sheer surface for a few moments. Her greatest trick was a ritual that concealed her scent and hid all traces of her passage. Thorn had planned to use it to cover her escape, but her ability to draw on magical energy was limited—and she hadn’t expected to cast so many spells in the Bloody Tooth. She reached out with her thoughts, flexing her fingers and whispering the first syllable of thespell, but it was no use. Without the power, the words had no effect, and she couldn’t draw from the source of the magic. But there were other ways to block pursuit.
    Thorn moved deeper into the maze of alleys. The three moons above spread light and shadow across her path. Rhaan’s pale blue radiance blended with the reddish light of Aryth to cast a purple hue across the city. Faint Sypheros was shadowy even when it was full. The orange moon, Olarune, wouldn’t be truly full for at least a few days, but this was the month of Eyre, and her moon was especially bright. Once it was high in the sky, Thorn imagined the night would be nearly as bright as full day.
    She emerged in a small courtyard, a convergence for alleys leading to the major streets. The air was filled with a foul stench, hot blood and bitter chemicals, and even though she’d been prepared for it, Thorn had to pause to hold back the bile in her throat. The pavement was dark, crusted stone, and Thorn realized she was walking across dried blood.
    A high, sharp scream rang out to her left, only to be cut off by the sound of steel on stone and a bugbear’s laughter. Thorn didn’t reach for her blades. There was no danger here. The sounds and the blood both came from a slaughterhouse, where the bugbear butchers were preparing meat for a city of monsters. The tannery next door processed the hides produced by its neighbor, and together the industries produced the vile odor that permeated the courtyard. The smell was enough to turn Thorn’s stomach, and it would be a thousand times worse for any creature with a sensitive nose. All she had to do was mask her scent, rubbing some of the offal from the killing floor across her clothing. Even if