Read Online The Dragon Knight's Curse (The Dragon Knight Series Book 2) by D.C. Clemens - Free Book Online Page B

Summertide , though it’s a weird version.”
    “Weird how?”
    “As in I can’t understand it. It’s in another language, I guess.”
    “Can we get in your father’s study?” I asked.
    “Uh, sure. I’ll get someone to unlock it.”
    I hadn’t taken the search for Summertide seriously in this house. It was only as we walked to his father’s study did it dawn on me that I could be inside a traitor’s home. The real surprise came when Owen said it was his mother reading the poem when Lord Vealora worried me more, given his trade in military intelligence. Indeed, he was one of the head investigators my family trusted to uncover the truth about the attack in Qutrios. Of course, it could be that his mother innocently enjoyed the epic while his father used it for work, or perhaps they were each a part of it. I shook my head to remove these premature thoughts.
    Seeing as it had no windows, the office door swung open into a dark room. The butler created the necessary light by using a fire spell to ignite a few candles and left us to our exploration.
    “Do you see the copy your mother reads?”
    “What’s going on, Odet?”
    “Nothing. Well, let’s just say a friend of mine would give much to see an original Summertide work.”
    “Original? Oh, so the language is Old Voreen?”
    “Yes, and I need to confirm it.”
    “You can read Old Voreen?”
    “No, but I can recognize its alphabet.”
    “Oh, okay. Give me a moment.” He examined the large shelf until his eyes reached the bottom corner. “Here it is.”
    He pulled out a fragile looking scroll and handed it to me in a way that made me cringe. With no identifying marks, I had to unroll a page to confirm what I didn’t want to feel. I must have been standing there agape longer than I thought, because Bell had to say “Your highness?” to snap me back to the normal flow of time. I had given myself away by this point.
    “What’s wrong, Odet?” asked a baffled Owen. “You’re not acting like yourself.”
    I put the scroll back where he found it. “Listen, Owen, I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
    “Of course, just tell me what’s gotten you so frazzled.”
    “I don’t think I can explain everything to you right now. I’m not even a hundred percent certain this isn’t a mere coincidence. Can you promise me you’ll do as I say?”
    “Sure, I promise.”
    “That scroll could be very important to a group of people, people who might hurt you if they discover you have it. At the same time, we can’t get rid of it, so I need you to keep a close eye on it. This is where the trust part comes in, you can’t mention any of this to your parents, do you understand?”
    “My parents? Why not?”
    “Because they might accidentally attract unwanted attention if they knew they had something this valuable. I’ll also need your butler take an oath before I leave.”
    “What oath?”
    “He knows we were in here. That could be enough to alert your parents that something is wrong. I need him to swear by my family’s name that he won’t say anything to them.”
    “Gods, Odet. This is as serious as I’ve ever seen you. Why can’t you tell me exactly what’s going on? Where’d you learn about this?”
    “I can’t confirm anything until I get more information myself. Will you do all this for me?”
    “I already promised, didn’t I?”
    “Thank you, and I promise to tell you everything, no matter how it turns out.”

Chapter Seven
    Mercer
     
    Dranall was about an eight hundred mile voyage to the north. A book I borrowed from the guild informed me of the city’s disputable ownership over the last thousand years. More recently, Etoc forcibly claimed the port city over a century ago at a time when the dying Alslana Empire was otherwise freely releasing territories from their hold. The port had actually been the capital of Etoc before it was seized by Alslana, compelling the leadership to make the less developed town of Bukuna its new capital.