Chasing the Dragon Read Online Free

winced and nodded. "I'm sorry, my lady. I'll check on it immediately. It's many days ' travel, it will take some time."
    "Go!" she snapped. "Find him. Find them both."
    "Yes, my lady," Ketten said and turned to leave.
    Rosalyn sampled some of the food on the tray and then glanced up at him. With Ketten gone, she would be alone again. Alone save for the ogres and goblins. "Ketten, spread word while you're out there."
    "Your Highness?" he turned and asked her with a furrowed brow.
    "Of the tolerance of this land. How man and goblin can live in peace. How a person with a strong back and a desire to build a name for themselves may do so."
    "There are few who would find that comforting."
    Rosalyn shrugged. "A few is better than none. The giants are listening but not interested in joining me. Yet. I need a stronger base of power to win them over. They care little for revenge, only for strength. In the meantime, I would like to see some faces around me that do not have tusks and scars upon them for a change. Did you ever think you'd be the prettiest man around, Ketten?"
    The mountain man turned servant chuckled and bowed his head. " You honor me, my queen. I will see what I can do. Will you, uh, be using your magic to sway them?"
    Rosalyn smirked. She'd conducted a ritual on Ketten , binding him to her. His life was hers at any time and he knew it. Controlling multiple people, however, would complicate her life and limit what magic she could do. "No, I will not. You alone share that special bond with me, Ketten."
    He bowed again. "I'll do what I can for you, my queen."
    "Very well, be off." Rosalyn turned from him and bit into a small apple. The juice ran into her mouth and sparked an almost forgotten memory of the decadence of food. She ate ravenously, uncaring of how cool the slices of mutton were.
    When the plate was empty and Rosalyn had licked her fingers clean , she straightened and looked around. There was no one to be found: man, goblin, or ogre. She frowned and glanced down at herself. Her belly was swollen from the food she'd eaten, although not obscenely. Perhaps she had let herself become too distracted.
    She turned and looked at Sarya again. Not too distracted, too focused. She was here for one reason and one reason only : to bind the dragon's power to her, much as Therion had bound the nymph's magic to him. The difference between the two was that dragons were far more powerful than a simple nature creature.
    Rosalyn knew she was fortunate to be the first one to arrive. Others would come, but by tricking Ketten and the simple -minded ogres into believing she craved more than the dragon's spirit, she had made them her allies. She had an army to keep away anyone foolish enough to come for the dragon's power now. She didn't have to break Sarya's secrets all at once; she could take her time.
    At least enough time to eat a meal on occasion.
    "But now that I've eaten, it's time to try again," Rosalyn whispered. She smiled at the statue and sat down in front of it. She began to chant and cast up a spell to show her the magic and allow her to begin to pick her way through the many shifting layers that made up the dragon's prison.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
    "Moonshine doesn't like the look of this pass," Aleena said.
    Celos glanced at her and then looked ahead to the rocky cleft ahead of them. "Do you agree that this is the route into the mountains?"
    "Yes, but—"
    "Then this is the route we must take. According to the guides, there's nothing else west of here for two days' travel," Celos finished. "By then, the only passes take us through the mountains to the lands beyond."
    "We could try east," Aleena said. "There are more paths into the mountains there, even caves. Tristam told us of some and the guides and hunters mentioned others."
    "Ketten came this way," Celos reminded her. "That's what they all said, that he brought a woman this way."
    "They were drunkards humoring you after they'd taken all your money playing