Vengeance of Dragons by Holly Lisle

Author:Holly Lisle [LISLE, HOLLY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC009020
ISBN: 9780759520134
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2000-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Yanth and Valard sauntered into the inn just ahead of Jaim and Trev. All four of them were grim. Ry, alone at the table, beckoned them over.

“Trouble?”

Valard waved one of the serving girls over and ordered plantain beer for all of them. When the girl left, he said, “I’d say yes. And I’d say it was trouble we could get out of if you’d take your woman and get the hell out of this city with us.”

Ry looked from face to face. “What sort of trouble?”

The four of them were quiet for a moment. Then Jaim said, “We can’t be sure. You’re barzanne—we found notices posted on the doors of the Great Parnissery today, and in the slave markets. There’s no mention of any of us. . . .”

“But I’m not soothed by that,” Yanth said. “We made cautious inquiries after our families, hoping to at least get news of them. But none of them are in the city anymore, and no one knows where they’ve gone or why they left. Our family homes are empty, the belongings still inside—”

“You went in?” Ry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Believing that your families were gone and knowing that if they fled Calimekka to save their lives, their homes would surely be watched, you went in? You’re insane, the lot of you.” How fast would Imogene have her soldiers on them? He stared at the inn’s front door. Men in Sabir green and silver probably already had the place surrounded; he and his friends would have to fight their way out, and they were sure to die in the process—

Yanth rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. “Of course we didn’t go in. We didn’t go anywhere near our old homes—we aren’t madmen. But people were only too happy to tell us what they knew.”

“That your families have fled Calimekka.”

Jaim said, “As best anyone can tell, yes.”

The darker possibility—that their families were dead—Ry left unspoken. His friends would have already considered it, and they would deal with it in their own ways. While hope remained, however, he and they would act as if the happiest outcome were also the only outcome.

Valard said, “You could take Kait with you and we could leave. Follow our families wherever they went, start a new life there. There’s nothing for you here anymore—you’re forsaken and cursed now, and this city is dead to you.”

The shock of being barzanne for certain, instead of just considering the possibility of it, burrowed into Ry’s gut like a knife. Taking Kait with him and leaving Calimekka would be both easiest and safest. The city could never be his home again. Nevertheless, he shook his head. “I stay. If you want to go after your families, I release you from your promises to me, and I wish you good speed and good health. But I won’t take Kait from Calimekka against her wishes, and as long as she is here, I won’t leave.”

His friends glanced at each other and nodded, as if he only said what they expected.

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