Read Online Soulwoven by Jeff Seymour - Free Book Online Page A

Gulf.” The prince’s shoulders were pulled taut in a way that made him look bigger and thicker than he was. His back was straight as a rod. He looked cold. Hard. Mean.
    Like his father.
    “But the necromancers are the lesser threat,” said Quay. “We need to warn the Aleani and the Sh’ma. They must protect the other heart dragons.”
    Cole licked his lips. “We?”
    “We.”
    The prince brushed past him into his solar, then strode toward a stone table with two wire chairs on either side of it. He sat in one and motioned for Cole to take the other.
    Cole did. The metal flexed beneath him surprisingly comfortably.
    Quay leaned forward and lowered his voice. “My father can’t send anyone with me, and with things as they are amongst the Seven, I don’t want to ask for help from them either. As it is, the houses might overlook my journey because it’ll make their play for power easier. To try to take a full bodyguard or other nobles with me might push Aegelden Elpioni and Aesith Lord Pendilon too far. They might send someone after us or turn on my father prematurely if they think we’re out looking for help.”
    Cole leveled a hard stare at his friend. “And you think there’s something I can do to help you?”
    The prince nodded. “You always have before. You and your brother both.”
    It was true. When Quay had needed something—information, someone to talk to, a few hours away from the palace with no one knowing where he was—Cole had usually been able to get it for him. Those last had been the good times, when he and Quay had been boys in a city together rather than a prince and his subject.
    Quay went on. “Aegelden Elpioni has eyes and ears everywhere in this city, but right now, for a little while, they’re distracted while they try to cover up what happened last night. I need you to get me out of his sight before he realizes he should be keeping an eye on me. I need you to come with me to Aleana and the White Forest. I need you to help me protect the other heart dragons.”
    Cole took a deep breath. Outside, the rain poured over the city of his birth. The chair beneath him bent and flexed as he moved. The lives of tens of thousands of people were about to change because of the decisions of the men and women in the building he sat in, and in front of him the Prince of Eldan stared down at him with all the weight of his office and twelve years of friendship. Cole struggled to find the proper wording for no.
    “What if they’re already destroyed?” he asked instead.
    “Then at least we’ll know.”
    Cole broke eye contact with his friend and studied a crack in the tiled floor. The road to Aleana ran through dangerous territory. The Sh’ma killed Eldanians on sight. “Until we’re dead,” he grumbled.
    For a moment, he considered turning Quay down. It was possible. He’d done it once or twice before.
    But he’d seen the hard-edged look on Quay’s face before as well, when someone dared to presume he was bluffing at King’s Conundrum. The prince would go alone, if Cole didn’t go with him. He would go, and with no one to help him he would fail, and Cole didn’t want to live with that. When he was sad, when he was angry, when he was hurt or he needed a place to run, Quay was always there for him.
    So he ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “All right.”
    After all, he had always wanted to see West Eldan. And Nutharion too. He’d heard the women there were beautiful, and the weather was so nice they wore nothing but colorful, see-through silks.
    And the dragon is real, you thrice-damned idiot—you’ve seen it in your dreams.
    The serious expression on Quay’s face faltered. His hands, folded on the table, relaxed. He looked for a second like the boy whom Cole had befriended long ago.
    “We’ll be fine, Cole,” he said. “I promise.”
    Cole looked at the elaborately carved beams above his head, the paintings on the walls, the soft furniture and gilded mirrors, and then turned his