PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS
OF DENNIS L. McKIERNAN
City of Jade
“An entertaining adventure tale.”
—Alternative Worlds
“[A] good introduction to McKiernan and Mithgar, as well as a solid treat for long-haul fans.”
—Booklist
“Aravan is a terrific swashbuckling hero…. The cast makes Mithgar seem a genuine realm where magic and the paranormal are the norm…. Longtime fans will relish sailing the waters of Mithgar aboard the Eroean.”
—SFRevu
“McKiernan’s talent for charming characters and exciting adventures of derring-do make this a good addition to most fantasy collections and an essential purchase.”
—Library Journal
“A fun story, with exciting battle scenes and a sweeping vista of adventure.”
—Romantic Times
“Makes Mithgar seem like a place I’d like to get to know better.”
—Romance Reviews Today
Once Upon a Winter’s Night
“Exuberant…never less than graceful…a solid, well-rounded fantasy that readers will enjoy as much on a summer beach as on a winter’s night.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Engaging.”
—Locus
“Intelligently told, romantic…and filled with the qualities of the best of the traditional fairy stories.”
—Chronicle
“A superb fairy tale…. The story line is charming and magical as it takes readers on quite a ride in the realm of Fairy. Dennis McKiernan escorts fantasy lovers into an enchanted place that deserves more tales.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Imaginative…. [McKiernan displays] a certain mastery in his ability to imitate older poetic forms of composition…. Those who enjoy fairy tales and folklore will likely be delighted.”
—SF Site
Once Upon a Summer Day
“An interesting twist…. McKiernan’s writing is evocative, and much of the novel’s enjoyment comes from sinking into the story. He paints vivid landscapes and provides lots of good action sequences. The book is valuable as much for the journey as for the destination.”
—The Davis Enterprise
“Romantics rejoice! McKiernan’s retelling of Sleeping Beauty is the way it should have been done the first time around…. The lines between good and evil are clear, and romance and chivalry and true love are alive and flourishing. McKiernan’s magic invites readers to dive completely into the story, as children do, and conjures the same overwhelming wonder that children experience.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“McKiernan embellishes another classic fairy tale in this enjoyably frothy fantasy…keep[s] the reader turning the pages.”
—Publishers Weekly
“McKiernan takes the tale in some unexpected directions. He also offers an engaging, clever, and resourceful hero in Borel, as well as entertaining sidekicks in Flic, Buzzer, and Chelle herself. Recommended.”
—SFRevu
“Steeped in tradition and timelessness and should appeal to fairy-tale lovers of all ages.”
—Library Journal
Once Upon an Autumn Eve
“McKiernan’s latest entry in his four-part fairy-tale cycle goes beyond the reworking of the classic fairy tale The Glass Mountain to depict a world of magic and enchantment.”
—Library Journal
“Using a fairy tale as its basis, McKiernan creates all-new heroes and heroines, placing them in a fantastical setting and giving them tribulations that would overwhelm the Brothers Grimm…. Readers who enjoy a well-told tale, full of enchantment and high adventure, will discover wonders and marvels to beguile their time.”
—SFRevu
“No one beats McKiernan at the traditionally styled adult fairy tale, with something for everyone: beautiful princess oblivious to all states of personal dishabille, handsome prince, impossible challenges, despicably evil creatures, and romance, romance, romance! Quite simply, enchanting.”
—Booklist
Once Upon a Spring Morn
“Entertaining…. The relentless, fantastical action will satisfy series fans.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Dennis L. McKiernan is a wonderful world builder who reminds readers of the magic that can be found in fairy tales…an enchanting tale that will have readers spellbound.”
—Midwest Book Review
“An inspired reenvisioning of two classic tales of love and adventure.”
—Library Journal
“McKiernan seamlessly sews together two fairy tales and adds unique twists and enhancements in his fourth volume of a world of Faery that ought to have been.”
—Booklist
Once Upon a Dreadful Time
“A magical and beautiful fairytale.”
—Alternative Worlds
“Exhibits the author’s unflinching charm and obvious mastery of his art.”
—Library Journal
“Solid…. Series fans should be satisfied.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Features the author’s takes on a diverse group of fairy tales—complete with riddles, challenges, trickery, and a surprise ending.”
—Library Journal
“[Dennis McKiernan] is one of the few writers who can hold my interest…. [Once Upon a Dreadful Time has] some clever tricks with time and magic that were more than usually amusing.”
—Critical Mass
“A satisfying conclusion to an imaginative world.”
—Monsters and Critics
By Dennis L. McKiernan
Caverns of Socrates
The Faery Series
Once Upon a Winter’s Night
Once Upon a Summer Day
Once Upon an Autumn Eve
Once Upon a Spring Morn
Once Upon a Dreadful Time
The Mithgar Series
The Dragonstone
Voyage of the Fox Rider
HÈL’S CRUCIBLE
Book 1: Into the Forge
Book 2: Into the Fire
Dragondoom
The Iron Tower (omnibus edition)
The Silver Call (omnibus edition)
Tales of Mithgar (a story collection)
The Vulgmaster (the graphic novel)
The Eye of the Hunter
Silver Wolf, Black Falcon
City of Jade
Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar (a story collection)
THE DRAGONSTONE
A Novel of Mithgar
Dennis L. McKiernan
ROC
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA
USA / Canada/ UK / Ireland / Australia / New Zealand / India / South Africa / China
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
For more information about the Penguin Group visit penguin.com.
Published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Previously published in a Roc hardcover edition.
First Roc Mass Market Printing, September 1997
Copyright © Dennis L. McKiernan, 1996
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
ISBN: 978-1-101-62642-9
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
To my brother
Larry Edward
And
to my friend of more than fifty years
Richard Lee Rose
and to all our kindred and friends everywhere,
from those we’ve known the longest
to those we’ve yet to meet
Table of Contents
Foreword
Author’s Notes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Once Upon a Winter’s Night
About the Author
Foreword
In looking out there, I see a lot of red slippers scattered across the Mithgarian landscape, each just waiting to be examined, for each has a tale to tell if I can but scrutinize it closely.
Red slippers? Red slippers? What in the world is he talking about?
Just this:
Although to my knowledge this never happened, still I can imagine Watson beginning a narrative as follows: “It was soon after Holmes and I had resolved the peculiar case of the singular red slipper, when there came a knock on the door of our quarters at 221-B Baker Street. As I set aside the paper and prepared to answer the summons, Holmes put a finger to his lips and hissed, ‘Do not under any circumstance, Watson, open the door without your pistol in hand, for it can be none other than the Bengalian assassin….’”
Watson would then go on to illuminate us as the fascinating case of the circular cord.
But you know what? We never do find out about the red slipper, the one mentioned in his opening sentence.
Yet, for those of us who avidly followed Watson’s narratives, we knew, knew, that in between, in between, those cases we did get to read about, the Great Detective was out there solving other most singular dilemmas, and if we just kept our eyes open, we indeed might see him afoot observing clues obvious to him but completely obscure to us…obscure, that is, until explained, at which time Lestrade might say, “Oh, how simple. Why anyone can see that.”—Um, you bet.
Now, I repeat, as far as I know, Watson did not chronicle any Case of the Red Slipper, nor did he publish anything concerning a Bengalian assassin or a circular cord…but surely such things should have been. After all, there was the case of the giant rat of Sumatra, and there was the account of the Addington tragedy, and the story of the red leech, and the terrible death of Crosby, the banker, and many, many more cases alluded to but never published…each a red slipper dropped upon the Holmesian ’scape.
And there are red slippers lying all across Mithgar, and every now and again I pick up one that somehow was dropped, and in my best Sherlockian manner I examine it closely and tell you what I see.
Some Mithgarian red slippers have been: a small silver horn found in the hoard of Sleeth; a logbook entry concerning a crystal spear; a mention of the long-held secret of the Châkkia; a stone knife which disappeared in an iron tower; a silver sword taken from the hand of a slain Elven prince; and so on.
Some red slippers are enormous, such as a tapestry depicting a key moment in the Great War of the Ban. Some are small but have great impact, such as a stone ring given to an impossible child. These and more hold the most intriguing tales, and they are red slippers all, slippers which I may take up someday and see what they can tell you and me.
There is a problem in examining red slippers, though, for every time I take one up to tell its story, it seems more red slippers fall out.
Oh, well…
In any event, come with me as I pick up another one of these crimson shoes from the ’scape and let us not only see what we find but also what other red slippers might fall out.
—Dennis L. McKiernan
May 1995
Author’s Notes
The Dragonstone is a tale which takes place before the Separation, when mystical and mythical peoples and creatures yet lived within this world.
It is a story which begins 323 years before the events chronicled in Voyage of the Fox Rider, hence The Dragonstone is a tale which takes place before the Great War of the Ban, thus, the Rûpt are free to roam about in daylight as well as night, although it is told that they prefer to do their deeds in darkness rather than under the sun.
The story of the Dragonstone was reconstructed from the fragments of a lengthy lay attributed to a bard named Delon. I have in several places filled in the gaps with notes from other references, but in the main the tale is true to its source.
As I have done in other of my works, I have used transliterated archaic Greek to represent the magical language of the Black Mages, and Latin to represent the magical words of all other Magekind.
There are many instances where in the press of the moment, the humans, Mages, Elves, and others spoke in their native tongues; yet to avoid burdensome translations, where necessary I have rendered their words in Pellarion, the Common Tongue of Mithgar. However, some words and phrases do not lend themselves to translation, and these I’ve either left unchanged or, in special cases, I have enclosed in angle brackets a substitute term which gives the “flavor” of the word (i.e., <see>, <fire>, and the like). Additionally, sundry words may look to be in error, but indeed are correct—e.g., DelfLord is but a single word though a capital L nestles among its letters.
The Elven language of Sylva is rather archaic and formal. To capture this flavor, I have properly used thee and thou, hast, dost, and the like; however, in the interest of readability, I have tried to do so in a minimal fashion, eliminating some of the more archaic terms.
For the curious, the w in Rwn takes on the sound of uu (w is after all a double-u), which in turn can
be said to sound like oo (as in spoon). Hence, Rwn is not pronounced Renn, but instead is pronounced Roon, or Rune.
“Perhaps, Ferai, you are along to make us
believe that we indeed have free will.”
“And perhaps, Buret, you are along to
make us believe we do not.”
CHAPTER 1
Lightning stroked the night, the glare flaring through the narrow windows, thunder rolling after. As if summoned by the flash, a blast of rain hammered down on the small, ramshackle, dockside tavern, while the wind rattled door and sideboards and slammed a loose shutter to and fro, and waves roared against the pilings ’neath.
Inside the weatherworn building the sound of the storm was muted somewhat, and Olar, his sharp elbows on the rough broad plank which served as a bar, leaned forward and hissed to Tryg, “Wha’ be them two women doin’ here, eh?” He thrust his narrow chin sideways toward the shadow-wrapped corner where the two strangers sat just beyond the yellow light of the single tavern lantern hanging above the bar. “Mayhap a couple o’ doxies come t’ ply their trade when th’ raiders return, aye?”
Tryg, proprietor of the Cove, snorted at Olar’s remark, then leaned forward and said in a voice just loud enough to be heard above the moan of the wind and drum of the rain and the rattle and bang and swash, “Ye’d better not let them hear ye call ’em doxies, laddie, else ye’re like to come up missing y’r balls.”
Yngli, the only other person in the tavern, slapped the plank and laughed at this remark, but Olar looked at Tryg in surprise. “’N’ j’st why d’ye say that?”
“’Cause one o’ them be an Elf, ‘n’ t’other’s a, a, well I don’t rightly know her kind, yet she be th’ one wi’ th’ gleamin’ swords.”
Olar drew his breath in through clenched teeth and glanced toward the shadows of the darkened corner as lightning again stroked nearby, thunder slapping after.
The flare briefly illuminated the outsiders’ faces: delicate, strange, exotic. The one on the left was fair skinned—ivory and alabaster—and she had hazel eyes aslant and chestnut locks falling to her shoulders, with pointed-tipped ears showing through. The one on the right was saffron skinned—tawny, ivory yellow—her tilted eyes glittered onyx, her short-cropped raven-black hair shone glossy…but this one’s ears were not tipped.
The strangers sat in the corner with their backs to the wall, silent, impassive, as if waiting. On the table before the yellow one lay two unsheathed swords, one long, one shorter, each slightly curved; the blades glinted wickedly as lightning flared.