Dragonlinks Read Online Free

other links like this.’
    â€˜Thirty thousand, a whole mailshirt of them. United, the mailshirt is said to repel even magic. I suspect it is a passive entity, but one that absorbs life force.’
    â€˜A prize indeed,’ the Preceptor pondered. But nobody could collect the missing links after one thousand years.’
    â€˜You would be surprised. Scholars have well documented amazing feats by certain eminent prophets. The links can be traced via their direct lineage.’ He shrugged.‘One or two have been stolen over a period of time. This has led a trail to the false prophets.’ He closed his eyes in thought. ‘But whatever the case, the dragonlinks glow orange when near to each other, so that they can be found easily enough.’
    The big man reached into a leather stud pouch at his waist and fiddled with something within. The link on the cushion blazed up with a coppery glow and the Preceptor shrank back at once. Just as quickly it faded away to gleaming silver metal again.
    â€˜This is power beyond magic, Preceptor. This one link has a few amusing properties, but just think of what a mailshirt of thirty thousand links could do. Thirty thousand links, bursting with powers that the tame charmsmiths of your rivals could never match.’
    â€˜The court mage of the King of Skelt is an Adept 11. That’s more than just a tame charmsmith,’ said the Preceptor as he began to pace the floor again, his hands gesturing restlessly as he talked. ‘Over the border the Hamarian Queen has an Adept 14 in her employ, and his powers – gah, my head spins just to think about it! Even my own personal mage Walliach is only an Adept 9, and his cost is more than the wages of all my officers put together.
    â€˜Four years ago the Hamarian warlord Lokribar smashed his queen’s army and marched on the capital with an Adept 12 mage looking to his safety. Lokribar was found dead in his tent with a large, green worm’s tail wriggling in his navel while its head emerged from his mouth. I had just arrived to form an alliance with Lokribar and his rebels. I actually saw the foul thing. His Adept 12 was a charred mess in the remains of a nearby tent.’
    The Preceptor stopped and pulled his robes close about him, shivering at the memory.
    â€˜Your enchanted bauble means little to me, my friend, but side with me against the senior Adepts of monarchs and it shall prove favourable to your cause.’
    â€˜Good, good,’ said his guest, nodding. ‘I shall now, ah, commit us to a partnership.’
    The Preceptor waved his hands in the air. ‘Do what you like. Contracts are easily burned.’
    â€˜Not this contract. Now step back and sit in your chair, Preceptor. Sit very still and, whatever you do, refrain from making any sound.’
    The Preceptor’s guest raised one hand to his mouth while making a little flourish with the other. His lips moved as he muttered a single word that seemed all consonants. Immediately a writhing ball of blue coils poured out of his mouth like a stream of glowing water. It formed into a quivering globe and hung in mid-air, floating just before the man’s face. Within it was something orange-green, something that was all glitter and sharp angles, and that radiated considerable heat.
    â€˜Feed, starving.’
    The words were thin and high-pitched, as if scratched out on a badly tuned fiddle. They were felt rather than heard by the petrified Preceptor. His guest seemed more relaxed, now that the thing was outside him.
    â€˜Go to him who bears the truename Walliach. By your own truename, feed at him, then by your own truename go free.’
    Another screech. ‘Release.’
    â€˜Not until you are with Walliach. Go.’
    The sphere rose until it was past the rafters overhead,then it seemed to squeeze between the tiles of the roof and was gone.
    â€˜What was that?’ gasped the Preceptor.
    â€˜ That was very hungry. Hush now,