Read Online The Coming of Dragons: No. 1 (Darkest Age) by A. J. Lake - Free Book Online

befriend him. They had endured so much in the last two days, more death and destruction than most people saw in a lifetime. Elspeth’s world been had turned on its head – her father gone, the
Spearwa
gone – and in their place only outlandish talk of unnatural storms and conjured dragons, Ripente visions, and the blackest sorcery.
    Elspeth sighed. Whatever else was going on in this turned-up world, to walk in silence all the way from Dunmonia to Sussex would be terribly tedious. She shortened her stride, and smiled as Edmund caught her up.
    ‘You said you’re from Sussex?’ she began.
    ‘My family live in Noviomagus,’ he said stiffly.
    ‘Do you have brothers or sisters?’
    Elspeth was prepared to be interested, even envious. When Edmund had told Aagard his family would worry about him, she had pictured a whole clan longing for his return. She was taken aback when he glared at her.
    ‘Why do you want to know?’ he snapped.
    ‘I thought you were lucky to
have
a family, that’s all!’ she cried. ‘That there’s someone who cares if you live or die.’
    He walked on without replying, staring straight ahead.
    ‘Are you going to be like this all the way?’ she demanded, running after him. ‘It’s plain to see you’re some lord’s son, with your silver brooch and your lofty airs – but does that mean I’m not even allowed to speak to you?’
    Edmund stopped dead, then turned on her, his eyes bleak. ‘I’m a king’s son,’ he said.
    Elspeth stared at him as he went on in strained tones. ‘The silver clasp you saw is my name-brooch. It belonged to my father, Heored, King of Sussex.’
    Elspeth remembered Edmund’s aloofness on the
Spearwa
, his confident poise in the thane’s great house – he had drunk wine all his life, of course – and his constant air of secrecy. So that was why … She realised she’d been gaping like a fish.
    ‘But why did he send you away on my father’s ship?’
    ‘For safety,’ Edmund said harshly. ‘My father’s cousin in Mercia sent word that his lands were being threatened by the Danish invaders, and my father took all the good men of the kingdom and rode to help him, leaving my mother to rule in his place. That was months ago, and we’ve heard no word from them since. Then the Danes attacked our coast.’ He frowned. ‘My mother wanted me to go to her brother Aelfred in Gaul. I was to stay there until the danger was over. That way, she said, I could return to rule the kingdom if … if therewas no one else.’ His voice was low and hard, but Elspeth caught a flicker of misery in the boy’s face.
    ‘And would your uncle have made you welcome?’ she asked gently, thinking of her aunt’s overcrowded household in Dubris.
    ‘I think so. He lived in my father’s house when I was small. I was fond of him, and he of me. He went to Gaul to make his fortune and never returned, but he sent letters asking me and my mother to visit him.’ Edmund’s face clouded with memory, then hardened again. ‘But it makes no difference now. My mother will hear of the wreck and think me dead. I have to go back. I should never have left.’
    ‘We’d best get on with the journey, then,’ Elspeth said briskly. ‘Maybe we can reach your mother before the news does.’
    Edmund had not moved. ‘Elspeth.’ His voice was suddenly urgent. ‘If we have to travel with this Cluaran, he mustn’t know who I am! The sons of lords have been kidnapped many times before now, and held for ransom. Promise me you’ll say nothing.’
    He was an odd boy, Elspeth thought: so stiff and haughty one minute, then so fearful the next. But it was a small thing to ask in return for peace on the journey.
    ‘Agreed,’ she said. ‘Now come on, or we’ll never catch him.’
    The road climbed ahead of them, the trees giving way to gorse and heather. At the top of the next rise they caughtsight of a small figure heading eastwards, and they quickened their pace to catch up with him. Several times as the