“That’s impossible,” Geoffrey said, “Weapons are all checked and cleaned before each use.”
“Trust me,” Adrina said. “Anything is possible.” She unshouldered the bag she was carrying and knelt beside her brother. She reached into the bag carefully, making sure to grab the tiny dragon just behind the head. “Give me your hand, brother,” she said. She took Valam’s left hand in her free hand as he offered it. “Don’t give in to the fear,” she whispered. “It will be all right, I promise.”
Geoffrey turned to Seth. “Know this,” he said. “You’ve earned my respect and that of the Free Peoples.”
Chapter Sixteen:
Return to Imtal
Celebrations followed the competitions as they did every year. It was during the celebrations that the Kingdomers stole away from the great city of Solntse. The return journey to Imtal was brief and uneventful.
Upon her return Adrina held council with her father, Keeper Martin and Father Jacob. Her father was pleased to learn of the victory, overjoyed to know that Valam would recover from his wounds. No one spoke of the poison lest the whisperers know they had almost succeeded. King Andrew understood. He didn’t need to be told that something grave had almost happened.
Adrina left the council, speaking not a word about how she had came to be in Solntse. For hours afterward she paced in her room. She was upset, agitated.
After the ordeal in Solntse she had not been able to vent. Keeper Martin, Father Jacob, and everyone else were always around. She had had no private time, no time alone to come to terms with what she had done.
A servant had delivered her dinner some hours ago. The food sat on the tray untouched.
She was shivering, she realized. The air was cold. The thin dress she wore wasn’t helping. She didn’t care. A part of her wanted to catch her death of a cold.
She had sentenced Vilmos to death, so why shouldn’t she suffer.
She saw herself in the long dressing mirror as she paced. She almost didn’t recognize the pale, thin girl staring back at her. She hadn’t been eating, couldn’t find the will to eat.
Spotting the tray of food, she picked it up and hurled it at the mirror. The shattering brought the guards running.
“Get out! Get out!” she screamed at them.
They backed out of the room, eyes down turned.
“Treat people as you want to be treated,” a voice said quietly from the corner of the room.
Adrina’s eyes lit up. “Myrial? Myrial?” She turned. “Where are you?”
“First agree that you won’t scream, no matter what.”
Adrina walked in the direction of the voice. “Why are you speaking such nonsense?”
“Agree?”
“Yes, whatever you say. Oh, Myrial, it is so good—” Adrina put a hand to her mouth, held back a scream. She sucked at the air until she could speak calmly. “Who? Who did this to you?”
“It is my own fault, my own fault for wanting it all. I should have seen—”
Adrina hushed Myrial by putting her arms around her. “I missed you. How could I have ever let this happen to you?”
“You didn’t,” Myrial said sternly.
Adrina helped Myrial to a chair. “You warned me not to meddle. Housemaster Bever did this to you, didn’t he?” Myrial didn’t say a word. Adrina continued, “We’ll pay him back. Every bruise, every pain, accounted for.”
Myrial turned quiet eyes to Adrina. “He has already paid,” she said, “I killed him.”
“He’s dead?”
“Dead as can be. He said he made sure you were gone. He was going to kill me. I thought he was going after you next. I could not—”
“Don’t,” Adrina said. “No need to explain. I don’t want to know. I trust you did what you had to do, as I did what I had to do.”
“Valam?” Myrial asked. “I heard that he—”
“He will live. I have seen to that, but at what price?” Adrina said under her breath. She was asking herself, trying to come to terms with what she had done. She spoke loud enough for Myrial to hear as well. She couldn’t carry the burden alone.
“The dragon mark?”
“I hear things,” Myrial said.
Adrina’s face was screwed up, livid, her eyes filled with pain and rage. The fingers of her hands tensed while the nails dug into her palms. “I did what I had to do.” She cried, her sobs echoed off the walls of the room. “I did what I had to do.”
“No need to explain,” Myrial said, turning Adrina’s own words back on her. “I don’t want to know. I trust you did what you had to do.”
Adrina put her head in Myrial’s lap. “Valam will live.”
Myrial combed Adrina’s hair with her fingers. “Yes, he will. You did what you had to do.”
“And the elves, have I damned them too?”
“You have damned no one. Lord Geoffrey brings word of renewed commitment to the Alliance from the leaders of the Free Peoples. Representatives arrive within the week. True, earnest discussions will begin.”
Adrina looked up at Myrial. “How do you know such things?”
Myrial said coolly, “Bever’s whisperers are now mine.”
“He was a spy?”
“So it would seem.”
End Of Book Four
Here ends The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches
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The dragon king awaits you…
Robert Stanek is an award-winning, international best-selling author of many books for young people and adults. He lives with his wife and children in the Pacific Northwest in the United States, and is intensely fascinated with our natural world. He loves the outdoors and frequently takes his family on short trips to see the natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest, including Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, the Columbia River Gorge, and Puget Sound.
Learn more at www.robertstanek.com
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In the Service of Dragons – The sequel series to
The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches
Discover what happens when the dragons are revealed…
Table of Contents
BOOK ONE
Preface
Chapter One: Three Lives Transformed
Chapter Two: The Winds of Change
Chapter Three: It Begins
Chapter Four: Discovery
Chapter Five: Realization
Chapter Six: Permission
Chapter Eight: Guidance
Chapter Nine: Ambush
Chapter Ten: First Lessons
Chapter Eleven: Decision
Chapter Twelve: Vangar Forest
Chapter Thirteen: The Bottoms
Chapter Fourteen: Rest’s End
Chapter Fifteen: Disaster
Chapter Sixteen: Return
BOOK TWO
Chapter One: Passage
Chapter Two: Past Thoughts
Chapter Three: Awakening
Chapter Four: Magic Shield
Chapter Five: Refusal
Chapter Six: Crossing
Chapter Seven: Alderan
Chapter Eight: Prisoners
Chapter Nine: Bushwhacked
Chapter Ten: Conquest
Chapter Eleven: Full Circle
Chapter Twelve: Battle
Chapter Thirteen: Last Play
Chapter Fourteen: Parting Ways
BOOK THREE
Chapter One: Unto the Winds
Chapter Two: The Long Road
Chapter Three: An Unexpected Discovery
Chapter Four: Return to Imtal
Chapter Five: Unexpected Competitions
Chapter Six: A Fitful Transition
Chapter Seven: The Awakening
Chapter Nine: Agai
nst the Odds
Chapter Ten: A Strangeness in the Air
Chapter Eleven: Galan’s World
Chapter Twelve: King’s Mate
Chapter Thirteen: The High Council
Chapter Fourteen: A Lonely Path
Chapter Fifteen: The Final Game
Chapter Sixteen: Across the Distance
Chapter Seventeen: The Final Truth
Chapter Eighteen: Dreams of Tomorrow
BOOK FOUR
Chapter One: Things Revealed
Chapter Two: Messages & Shadows
Chapter Three: Slipping Away
Chapter Four: Boundaries
Chapter Five: Stark Reality
Chapter Six: Guiding Fools
Chapter Seven: Blessed Sight
Chapter Eight: A Gentle Madness
Chapter Nine: King’s Decree
Chapter Ten: Hidden Doorways
Chapter Eleven: Destinations Reached
Chapter Twelve: Finding Truth
Chapter Thirteen: Losing Touch
Chapter Fourteen: Dragon King
Chapter Fifteen: Endgame
Chapter Sixteen: Return to Imtal