Rain Wilds Chronicles
Page 53
The sight of his treasure left him oddly calmed. He put the flask back into the secret drawer and took up a small shallow box made from cedar. He opened the sliding lid and looked inside. The scales rested there on a shallow bed of salt. They were slightly iridescent in the dim light of the cabin. He closed the lid, replaced the box in the secret drawer, and shut and locked it. They’d probably find the brown dragon dead. They wouldn’t suspect him, he suddenly knew. He’d covered his tracks well. He’d smeared the blood away, and the wound from his knife was so tiny that no one would find it. He hadn’t killed the beast, not really. Everyone saw that it was nearly ready to die anyway. If his bleeding of the dragon had hastened its death, well, that didn’t mean he’d killed it. It was only an animal anyway, despite how Alise might moon over it. A dragon was only an animal, just like a cow or a chicken, to be used by a man in any way he saw fit.
Exactly the opposite, really.
The intrusion of that thought was so sudden and foreign that it shocked him. The opposite? That man was to be exploited by dragons as they saw fit? Preposterous. Where had such a silly idea come from?
He straightened his jacket, unlatched his door, and stepped out onto the Tarman’s deck.
Day the 5th of the Prayer Moon
Year the 6th of the Independent Alliance of Traders
From Erek, Keeper of the Birds, Bingtown
To Detozi, Keeper of the Birds, Trehaug
A missive from Trader Kincarron to the Councils of Trehaug and Cassarick, expressing confusion and concern about the Councils’ contract with his daughter Alise Kincarron Finbok and asking for clarification. A speedy reply is requested.
Detozi,
When Trader Kincarron dropped this off, he promised a handsome bonus if both his query and a response traveled quickly. If you can prod anyone at the Council there to send a response before the day is out, and use your swiftest pigeon, I would consider the debt settled for the peas.
Erek
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE RAIN WILDS CHRONICLES
KEEPERS AND DRAGONS
ALUM: Pale skin, silvery gray eyes. Very small ears. Nose almost flat. His dragon is ARBUC, a silver-green male.
BOXTER: Cousin to Kase. Coppery-eyed, short, stoutly built. His dragon is orange male SKRIM.
COPPER: An unclaimed, sickly brown dragon.
GREFT: Eldest of the keepers, and most heavily marked by the Rain Wilds. His dragon is blue-black KALO, the largest male.
GRESOK: Large red dragon, first to leave the cocooning grounds.
HARRIKIN: Long and slim as a lizard, at twenty, he is older than most of the other keepers. Lecter is his foster brother. His dragon is RANCULOS, a red male with silver eyes.
JERD: A blond female keeper, heavily marked by the Rain Wilds. Her dragon is VERAS, a queen, dark green with gold stippling.
KASE: Boxter’s cousin. He has copper eyes and is short, wide, and muscular. His dragon is orange male DORTEAN.
LECTER: Orphaned at seven, raised by Harrikin’s family. His dragon is SESTICAN, a large blue male with orange scaling and small spikes on his neck.
NORTEL: A competent and ambitious keeper. His dragon is lavender male TINDER.
RAPSKAL: A heavily marked keeper. His dragon is the small red queen HEEBY.
SILVER: Has an injured tail and no keeper.
SYLVE: A twelve-year-old girl, youngest of the keepers. Her dragon is golden MERCOR.
TATS: The only keeper to have been born a slave. He is tattooed on the face with a small horse and a spider web. His dragon is the smallest queen, green FENTE.
THYMARA: Sixteen years old; has black claws instead of nails and is at home in the trees. Her dragon is a blue queen, SINTARA, also known as SKYMAW.
TINTAGLIA: An adult queen dragon, she assisted the serpents on their journey up the river to cocoon. It has been years since she has been seen in the Rain Wilds.
WARKEN: A tall, long-limbed keeper. He is devoted to his dragon BALIPER, a scarlet male.
THE BINGTOWNERS
ALISE KINCARRON FINBOK: Comes from a poor but respectable Bingtown Trader family. The dragon expert. Married to Hest Finbok. Gray eyes, red hair, many freckles.
HEST FINBOK: A handsome, well-established, and wealthy Bingtown Trader.
SEDRIC MELDAR: Secretary to Hest Finbok, and friends with Alise since childhood.
THE CREW OF THE TARMAN
BELLIN: Deckhand. Married to Swarge.
BIG EIDER: Deckhand.
CARSON LUPSKIP: Hunter for the expedition. Leftrin’s old friend.
DAVVIE: Apprentice hunter to Carson Lupskip. About fifteen years old.
GRIGSBY: Ship’s cat. Orange.
HENNESEY: First mate.
JESS: Hired hunter for the expedition.
LEFTRIN: Captain. Robust build, gray eyes, brown hair.
SKELLY: Deckhand. Leftrin’s niece.
SWARGE: Tillerman. He has been with the Tarman for more than fifteen years.
TARMAN: A river barge, long and low. Oldest existing liveship. Home port Trehaug.
MISCELLANEOUS CHARACTERS
ALTHEA VESTRIT: First mate, Paragon out of Bingtown. Aunt to Malta Khuprus.
BEGASTI CORED: Chalcedean merchant; bald, rich, trading partner of Hest Finbok.
BRASHEN TRELL: Captain of the Paragon out of Bingtown.
CLEF: Ship’s boy on the Paragon, former slave.
DETOZI: Keeper of the messenger birds at Trehaug.
DUKE OF CHALCED: Chalced’s dictator, elderly and ailing.
EREK: Keeper of the messenger birds at Bingtown.
MALTA KHUPRUS: The Elderling “queen,” resides in Trehaug. Married to Reyn Khuprus.
PARAGON: A liveship. Helped escort the sea serpents up the river to the cocooning grounds.
SELDEN VESTRIT: A young Elderling; Malta’s brother and Althea’s nephew.
SINAD ARICH: Chalcedean merchant who strikes a deal with Leftrin.
Day the 2nd of the Plough Moon
Year the 6th of the Reign of the Most Noble and
Magnificent Satrap Cosgo
From Erek, Keeper of the Birds, Bingtown
To Detozi, Keeper of the Birds, Trehaug
This night have dispatched to you four birds, bearing in two parts our agreement with the dragon Tintaglia, to be ratified by the Rain Wild Council. Trader Devouchet, leader of the Bingtown Traders’ Council, suggested that duplicates be sent. They sum up the formal agreement between the Traders and the dragon. We are to aid her serpents in traveling up the Rain Wild River in exchange for her assistance with defending the Trader cities and waterways against the Chalcedean invaders.
PLEASE DISPATCH A BIRD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
TO CONFIRM RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE.
Detozi,
A brief message of my own, penned in haste in a very small space. All is chaos here. My bird coop scorched in the fires the invaders set, many of my birds dead from smoke. I’m sending Kingsly as one of the messenger birds tonight. You know I raised him from a squab by hand after his parents died. Please keep him safe there and do not return him until we know that all is well. If Bingtown falls, treat him well and keep him as your own. Pray for us here. I do not know that Bingtown will survive this invasion, dragon or no.
Erek
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DRAGON KEEPER. Copyright © 2010 by Robin Hobb.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic
or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Eos is a federally registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hobb, Robin.
Dragon keeper / Robin Hobb. — 1st ed.
p. cm — (The rain wilds chronicles; v. 1)
ISBN 978-0-06-156162-7
1. Dragons—Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3558.O33636D73 2010
813’.54—dc22
2009027318
* * *
10 11 12 13 14 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2010 ISBN: 9780061966149
Version 11012013
Contents
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Chapter One: Poisoned
Chapter Two: Tricky Currents
Chapter Three: First Kill
Chapter Four: Blue Ink, Black Rain
Chapter Five: White Flood
Chapter Six: Partners
Chapter Seven: Rescue
Chapter Eight: Horns
Chapter Nine: Discoveries
Chapter Ten: Confessions
Chapter Eleven: Revelations
Chapter Twelve: The Locket
Chapter Thirteen: Choices
Chapter Fourteen: Divergence
Chapter Fifteen: Tarman
Chapter Sixteen: Reeds
Chapter Seventeen: Changes
Chapter Eighteen: Gone Astray
Chapter Nineteen: Mud and Wings
Chapter Twenty: Kelsingra
Credits
Copyright
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE RAIN WILDS CHRONICLES
KEEPERS AND DRAGONS
ALUM: Pale skin, silvery gray eyes. Very small ears. Nose almost flat. His dragon is ARBUC, a silver-green male.
BOXTER: Cousin to Kase. Coppery-eyed, short, stoutly built. His dragon is an orange male SKRIM.
COPPER: An unclaimed, sickly brown dragon.
GREFT: Eldest of the keepers, and most heavily marked by the Rain Wilds. His dragon is blue-black KALO, the largest male.
GRESOK: Large red dragon, first to leave the cocooning grounds.
HARRIKIN: Long and slim as a lizard, at twenty, he is older than most of the other keepers. Lecter is his foster brother. His dragon is RANCULOS, a red male with silver eyes.
JERD: A blond female keeper, heavily marked by the Rain Wilds. Her dragon is VERAS, a queen, dark green with gold stippling.
KASE: Boxter’s cousin. He has copper eyes and is short, wide, and muscular. His dragon is the orange male DORTEAN.
LECTER: Orphaned at seven, raised by Harrikin’s family. His dragon is SESTICAN, a large blue male, with orange scaling and small spikes on his neck.
NORTEL: A competent and ambitious keeper. His dragon is the lavender male TINDER.
RAPSKAL: A heavily marked keeper. His dragon is the small red queen HEEBY.
SILVER: Has an injured tail and no keeper.
SYLVE: A twelve-year-old girl, youngest of the keepers. Her dragon is the golden MERCOR.
TATS: The only keeper to have been born a slave. He is tattooed on the face with a small horse and a spiderweb. His dragon is the smallest queen, green FENTE.
THYMARA: Sixteen years old; has black claws instead of nails and is at home in the trees. Her dragon is a blue queen, SINTARA, also known as SKYMAW.
TINTAGLIA: An adult queen dragon, she assisted the serpents on their journey up the river to cocoon. It has been years since she has been seen in the Rain Wilds.
WARKEN: A tall, long-limbed keeper. He is devoted to his dragon BALIPER, a scarlet male.
THE BINGTOWNERS
ALISE KINCARRON FINBOK: Comes from a poor but respectable Bingtown Trader family. The dragon expert. Married to Hest Finbok. Gray eyes, red hair, many freckles.
HEST FINBOK: A handsome, well-established, and wealthy Bingtown Trader.
SEDRIC MELDAR: Secretary to Hest Finbok, and friends with Alise since childhood.
THE CREW OF THE TARMAN
BELLIN: Deckhand. Married to Swarge.
BIG EIDER: Deckhand.
CARSON LUPSKIP: Hunter for the expedition. Leftrin’s old friend.
DAVVIE: Apprentice hunter and nephew of Carson Lupskip. About fifteen years old.
GRIGSBY: Ship’s cat. Orange.
HENNESEY: First mate.
JESS: Hired hunter for the expedition.
LEFTRIN: Captain. Robust build, gray eyes, brown hair.
SKELLY: Deckhand. Leftrin’s niece.
SWARGE: Tillerman. He has been with the Tarman for more than fifteen years.
TARMAN: A river barge, long and low. Oldest existing liveship. Home port Trehaug.
MISCELLANEOUS CHARACTERS
ALTHEA VESTRIT: First mate, Paragon out of Bingtown. Aunt to Malta Khuprus.
BEGASTI CORED: Chalcedean merchant; bald, rich trading partner of Hest Finbok.
BRASHEN TRELL: Captain of the Paragon out of Bingtown.
CLEF: Ship’s boy on the Paragon, former slave.
DETOZI: Keeper of the messenger birds at Trehaug.
DUKE OF CHALCED: Chalced’s dictator, elderly and ailing.
EREK: Keeper of the messenger birds at Bingtown.
MALTA KHUPRUS: The Elderling “queen,” resides in Trehaug. Married to Reyn Khuprus.
PARAGON: A liveship. Helped escort the sea serpents up the river to the cocooning grounds.
SELDEN VESTRIT: A young Elderling; Malta’s brother and Althea’s nephew.
SINAD ARICH: Chalcedean merchant who strikes a deal with Leftrin.
Day the 5th of the Prayer Moon
Year the 6th of the Independent Alliance of Traders
From Erek, Keeper of the Birds, Bingtown
To Detozi, Keeper of the Birds, Trehaug
A message from Trader Jurden to be delivered to the Trehaug Rain Wild Traders’ Council, regarding an order for Sevirian cutlery and the unfortunate shortage that has caused an unexpected and substantial increase in the price for it.
Detozi,
Greetings! The king pigeons have proven disappointing for speed and homing ability, but their swift breeding habits and quick growth to size make me wonder if there is an opportunity to create a supply of food birds that might be especially suitable to raising in the Rain Wilds. Your thoughts on this?
Erek
PROLOGUE
The humans were agitated. Sintara sensed their darting, stinging thoughts, as annoying as a swarm of biting insects. The dragon wondered how humans had ever managed to survive when they could not keep their thoughts to themselves. The irony was that despite spraying out every fancy that passed through their small minds, they didn’t have the strength of intellect to sense what their fellows were thinking. They tottered through their brief lives, misunderstanding one another and almost every other creature in the world. It had shocked her the first time she realized that the only way they could communicate with one another was to make noises with their mouths and then to guess what the other human meant by the noises it made in response. “Talking” they called it.
For a moment, she stopped blocking the barrage of squeaking and tried to determine what had agitated the dragon keepers today. As usual, there was no coherence to their concerns. Several were worried about the copper dragon who had fallen ill. It was not as if they could do much about it; she wondered why they were flapping about it instead of tending to their duties for the other dragons. She was hungry, and no one had brought her anything today, not even a fish.
She strolled listlessly down the riverbank. There was little to see here, only a strip of gravel and mud, reeds and a few scrawny saplings. Thin sunlight touched her back but gave small warmth. No game of any size lived here. There might be fish in the river, but the effort of catching one was scarcely worth the small pleasure of eating it. Now, if som
eone else brought it to her…
She thought about summoning Thymara and insisting the girl go hunting for her. From what she had overheard from the keepers, they’d remain on this forsaken strip of beach until the copper dragon either recovered or died. She considered that for a moment. If the copper died, that would make a substantial meal for whichever dragon got there first. And that, she decided bitterly, would be Mercor. The gold dragon was keeping watch. She sensed that he suspected some danger to the copper, but he was guarding his thoughts now, not letting dragons or keepers know what he was thinking. That alone made her feel wary.