Rage of the Dragon by Margaret Weis

Author:Margaret Weis [Weis, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 0765319756
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2012-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

BOOK

3

CHAPTER

21

The Norn, three sisters who rule the destinies of gods and men, sitting beneath the World Tree, spin the wyrds of men. As Raegar’s thread runs through their gnarled twisted fingers, the Norn laugh over the follies of those whose lives they hold so loosely and carelessly. Raegar’s wyrd seems made of golden thread these days and spins headlong toward glory. Beneath the sea, the wyrds of Aylaen and Skylan, Farinn and Acronis and the Dragon Kahg seem to have slipped off the wheel, for time slows beneath the sea. The Norn keep fast hold of these mortals, however, twisting and tangling and binding together and cutting apart.

* * *

Aylaen woke from a horrifying dream of tentacles rising up out of the water and wrapping around the Venjekar, Kahg roaring in fury and sinking his fangs into a tentacle and the mast breaking, falling … to a more horrifying reality of pain in her head, and being held underwater by strange-looking women who were trying to smother her by pressing a mask over her nose and mouth. When Aylaen fought and tried to tear the mask off, the women took hold of her hands and would not let go.

Aylaen breathed deeply and kept breathing. The pain and terror subsided, replaced by dazed wonder to realize that she was far below the surface of the sea, being carried along to some unknown destination by the women who had … saved her life. Gradually, Aylaen began to think the horrible dream had not been a dream at all. The Venjekar had been attacked by a sea monster. The Dragon Kahg had fought it off. The mast had fallen on top of her and that was the last she remembered until waking up in another world.

She could see very little of her surroundings, for the water was dark and murky, the women far below the surface where the sunlight could not reach. They carried small, translucent globes that gave off an eerie bluish-white glow, which they used to find their way. As Aylaen went along, she began to worry. What could have become of Skylan and the others? She was alone; the women had carried her off, away from the ship and her friends. Having saved her life, the women appeared to have taken her prisoner.

Legends and tales of the Aquins came confusedly to her mind. They were half-fish, half-human—who saved sailors from drowning. She had awakened from a dream to find herself in a bard’s song, only these women did not have scales or fins, though they swam as gracefully and rapidly as dolphins.

Aylaen could not communicate with her captors, two of whom held her fast and linked arms around her. Three more women swam near, carrying the globes and their weapons. The flow of the saltwater over Aylaen’s body had a soothing effect. She slipped into a kind of trance, as though her mind and body had parted company.

At length the water began to grow brighter. The sea floor appeared to be rising.

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