Read Online The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas - Free Book Online

the new queen’s eyrie. We should ask them for her blessing for our journey. If we send a dragon right away, it will delay us here another day. If we wait until the morning, it will be two days before we hear a reply.’
    The queen nodded. ‘Make it so. Send Hyrkallan. He’s suitable, and he’s been chafing at the bit to let his hunting dragon off its reins. Mistral doesn’t fly fast enough for his liking.’
    The tone of the queen’s words told Nastria that she was dismissed. She bit her lip. At the door she hesitated. ‘I could stay, if you wish, Your Holiness. We have a few hours yet.’
    Shezira shook her head. ‘No, Knight-Marshal. Let me alone a while. I like it here. It reminds me of flying, with all this space around me; and I want to be the first to see my white coming in. Besides, don’t you have a hundred and one things to do?’
    ‘Only one, Your Holiness.’ Nastria smiled sadly as she left. ‘Only to serve my queen.’

10
    The Ash Dragon
    Sollos spent the night snuggled up inside a huge hollow log. He’d covered himself in leaf mould to keep warm, and in the end he’d slept surprisingly well, even after it started to rain. No one had come after him, and when he woke up, it didn’t take him long to convince himself that all the dragons were gone. He made his way cautiously back to the river in case any of Queen Shezira’s riders had survived, but all he found were the charred remains of the luggage. The white was gone, no one else was there, even the body of the Scales was missing. Washed away in the river? he wondered. But while the river was wide, the water was only a few inches deep, and peppered with sandbars and stones.
    Maybe the Scales didn’t die after all.
    He shrugged, washed and drank, and then, more in hope than expectation, rummaged through what was left of their supplies in case something edible had survived.
    ‘Gotcha!’
    Sollos almost jumped out of his skin. Kemir was standing right behind him.
    ‘Anything that looks like breakfast left in there?’
    ‘No.’ Sollos gave Kemir a glare. ‘Burned to the core.’
    ‘They really went for that white dragon, didn’t they?’
    ‘Whoever they were.’
    Kemir shrugged. ‘Some other bunch of lords on dragons. Can’t tell them apart myself.’
    ‘It matters.’ Sollos sighed. ‘We’re supposed to notice that sort of thing.’
    ‘Well I didn’t see any colours, if that helps.’
    Sollos gave him a sour look. ‘Not really. Did you see what happened to the white dragon?’
    ‘I saw it take to the air after the first couple of flamestrikes. I didn’t hang around to see where it went.’
    ‘South. It went south.’
    ‘Took what was left of its Scales with it too.’
    ‘Did it?’ Sollos blinked in surprise.
    ‘Hanging from one of its claws. Maybe it was hungry. It hadn’t fed, after all. He must have been dead. He was right in the middle of that first blast.’
    Sollos sighed. That explained why he hadn’t found the remains of the Scales here. ‘We shouldn’t stay out here. If they come back, this is the first place they’ll look.’
    ‘It’s the first place Queen Shezira will look too.’
    Sollos thought about this, trying to work out how soon the queen would realise that her precious white dragon was missing. ‘It’ll be tomorrow before anyone comes looking for us. Anyone friendly, that is. Anyway, we ought to try and find that alchemist.’
    Kemir looked truly surprised. ‘Really? Do you actually think he’s still alive?’
    Sollos shrugged. ‘He might be. You have something better to do?’
    They walked in silence up the valley, staying close to the treeline and scanning the skies, until Sollos decided they’d covered a mile. For most of the morning he wandered up and down, calling out as loudly as he dared. The alchemist never appeared. In the end he gave up. For a brief moment he wondered whether it had been right to let the alchemist go off on his own. No one had come in pursuit, despite his fears. They