Dragon's Winter Read Online Free Page A

chant. A deep hum seemed to rise from the earth. It spiraled up the stairway to the courtyard, the kitchens, the stables. The dogs in their cages began to snore. Horses slept in the stable. Chickens slept in their pens. Sentries nodded at their posts. Lennart’s knees buckled; with a soft snore, he slid to his knees and then to his side.
    On the rampart overlooking the main gate, Lorimir nodded and woke and nodded again, until, infuriated by a weakness he could neither explain nor control, he set the point of his dagger against his rib, so that the flare of pain would wake him if he slept again.
    The hum crept upstairs, to the tower chamber. The fire died. The alabaster lamp sputtered, went out. The sorcerous murmur intensified. It closed Karadur’s eyes and buckled his knees. He fell, boneless as the boar. His hand opened; the armband tumbled from his grip.
    Tenjiro, rising, put a hand on Azil’s shoulder. “Azil. Get up.”
    Azil opened his eyes. His body ached as if he had been running, or fighting. Tenjiro bent over him. Tenjiro had done something ... some magic. A terrible lassitude held him immobile. “Up!” came a soft, irresistible command. He struggled to his feet.
    “Listen to me,” said that light, clear voice. “We will go to Karadur’s chamber now. We will take his talisman from him. You shall take it; I need every fiber of concentration to maintain the sleeping spell. If Kaji wakes before the talisman is in the box, he will burn the castle to ash around us. Once the talisman is in the box, you will go. The grooms are asleep; you’ll have no trouble getting horses. The binding spell will hold for an hour or two.” Tenjiro’s long hands moved irresistibly as he spoke. “It’s time. Bring the box.”
    Azil’s head was thick and muzzy, as if he had taken a dose of the sleeping potion Macallan kept to treat the sick or wounded. Obediently he lifted the black box.
    “It’s cold,” he said, meaning the box. “Why is it so cold?”
    “It is made of void. It eats light.”
    The two men climbed the long stairs from cellar to kitchens to the upstairs chambers. Servants lay sleeping in hallways and chambers. The cook lay prone like a worshipper before his stockpot. One of the scullery boys snored at his feet. Old Lirith, chief of the castle women, a huge woman, massive and elegant, lay sprawled in utter indignity at the foot of the main stairs. Blood pooled in a pocket below her white hair.
    Tenjiro halted. He reached a hand out. Then, drawing back, he moved past her. The somnolence that enveloped Dragon Keep from foundation to flagpole grew stronger as they moved. It lay heaviest at Karadur’s door. Tenjiro whispered a word.
    The chamber door opened. They went in. Karadur lay motionless on the floor. Against the dark cloth of his shirt, a small golden circle flashed bright as a star.
    “Open the box,” Tenjiro whispered. Azil tipped up the lid of the black box. Inside was lightlessness, absence, a chill blackness that sucked light out of the air and devoured it. “There is the talisman. Take it,” Tenjiro said. “Put it in the box.”
    Azil walked to Karadur, and knelt. He lifted the shimmering band with both hands, wincing as he did so, put it in the box, and shut the lid. Karadur’s eyelids opened. With a harsh sound, he tried to sit upright. “Go!” Tenjiro said. Azil went out the door. Tenjiro said two words. Karadur tensed. A look of strain crossed his face.
    Tenjiro said softly, “Farewell, dear brother. No, you cannot move, Kaji, so don’t trouble to resist. Or, no, go ahead, fight! Struggle with all your force. It will tire you out.”
    “Tenjiro, what are you doing?”
    “Leaving, dear brother. You cannot pretend to care. You think I don’t know how you hate me?” He touched the scar lines on his cheek. “In our mother’s womb you tried to destroy me even before our birth, just as you killed our mother. When you could not, you took what should have been mine.”
    Muscles stood