Skylan jumped down off the rocks onto the narrow strip of shore. Farinn followed more slowly.
“How is your history of our people coming?” Skylan asked, starting to burrow through a pile of what appeared to be refuse left behind by a flood: driftwood, broken branches, brush.
“Very well,” said Farinn, cheering at the thought.
He had undertaken to write down all the old songs and stories of the Vindrasi so that they would not be forgotten. He also was writing a true account of their adventures during their quest for the spiritbones, an account that was not “gilded by poetry.”
Farinn had asked Skylan if he wanted him to read it to him. Skylan had refused. He could not quite get over his belief that reducing a story to lines and setting it down on paper sucked the life out of it.
Farinn helped him remove the pile of branches and brush and, slowly, they uncovered the old Venejekar, lying on its side on the beach. Skylan grabbed hold of the dragonhead prow and Farinn took the stern and between them they tilted the dragonship upright. They were about to carry it into the shallow water when a pile of fishnet on the shore began to move.
“Skylan!” Farinn hissed in alarm. “Someone is hiding in there.”
Skylan, looking grim, walked over to the pile of net and gave it a kick.
“Come out,” he ordered.
A boy of about eleven stood up and threw off the netting and yawned. The boy was dressed in ragged clothes that were too big for him. His hair fell over his face and he glared through the tangle at Skylan.
“Where have you been? I thought you were never coming!”
“Is that … Wulfe?” Farinn asked, astonished.
“Is that … Farinn?” said Wulfe, mimicking him. He frowned. “You’re like Skylan. You got old.”
“Happens to all of us,” said Skylan. He eyed Wulfe. “Well, at least most of us.”
“I tried being old once,” said Wulfe, adding with a shrug, “I didn’t like it.”
He scampered on board the dragonship and, leaning over the hull, began to talk to several oceanids and a couple of dryads who had wandered out of the forest to see what was going on.
Skylan boarded the Venejekar and began inspecting it, regarding his work with pride. The dragonship looked very much as it looked fifty years ago. He had spent a long time repairing the old ship, making it like new again.
“What is Wulfe doing here?” Farinn asked in a low voice as he helped Skylan haul his sea chest on board.
“He is sailing with me,” said Skylan.
He opened the sea chest and took out the spiritbone of the Dragon Kahg. Walking over to the prow, Skylan hung the the bone, still in its leather thong, on the nail.
“How did the boy know you were leaving?” Farinn asked, trailing after Skylan.
“The fae,” said Skylan. “You know what gossips they are. The oceanids have been watching me work on the ship.”
Skylan rested his hand on the spiritbone. Memories came alive at his touch, causing him to look up at the head of the Dragon Kahg. The eyes glowed fierce, fiery red.
“The dragon…” Farinn stared, awed.
“He left his spiritbone with me,” said Skylan. “He knew one day I would make this voyage and that he would come with me.”
“Kahg says he’s ready to leave,” Wulfe announced.
Skylan turned to Farinn. “You should go now, my friend. I need to set sail before they miss me.”
“What do I tell your children?” Farinn asked unhappily. “Your people?”
“They must not grieve for me. My song has not ended. It has just begun.”
Skylan stood at the prow, his hands gripping the rail, his legs braced. The seawater broke over him, cooled him. He tasted the salt on his lips. He touched the amulet.
“Torval, let Aylaen know I am coming to her. Wherever she is, I will find her.”
Farinn waded back to the shore alone and stood watching as the Venejekar glided out of the shadows of the alcove and sailed onto the bright, silver-gilded sea.
The final voyage of Skylan Ivorson, the last and greatest Chief of Chiefs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The description of Raegar’s war galley is taken from an actual ship known as The Forty, built for Ptolemy IV in the third century. The Forty is described by Plutarch in his Life of Demetrios:
Ptolemy Philopator built [a ship] of forty banks of oars, which had a length of two hundred and eighty cubits, and a height, to the top of her stern, of forty-eight; she was manned by four hundred sailors, who did no rowing, and by four thousand rowers, and besides these she had room, on her gangways and decks, for nearly three thousand men-at-arms.
Lionel Casson, in his book Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Princeton University Press, 1971), theorizes that The Forty was a giant catamaran, consisting of two galleys connected by a level platform on which catapults could be mounted.
—M.W.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have been the all-time bestselling fantasy collaborators for more than thirty years. Coauthors of dozens of novels, games, and other fantasy media, they first gained fame in 1984 with the first novel in the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Their books have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. Doom of the Dragon is the fourth and final book in the Dragonships of Vindras series. Margaret Weis lives in Wisconsin; Tracy Hickman lives in Utah.
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Tor Books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
DRAGONSHIPS OF VINDRAS
Bones of the Dragon
Secret of the Dragon
Rage of the Dragon
Doom of the Dragon
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Map
Prologue
Book 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Book 2
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Book 3
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
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Tor Books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
DOOM OF THE DRAGON
Copyright © 2015 by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
All rights reserved.
Edited by James Frenkel
Cover art by Michael Komarck
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Weis, Margaret.
Doom of the dragon / Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.—First Edition.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates Book”
ISBN 978-0-7653-1976-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-8122-8 (e-book)
I. Hickman, Tracy. II. Title.
PS3573.E3978D65 2016
813'.54—dc23
2015031486
e-ISBN 9781466881228
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First Edition: January 2016