Theft of Dragons (Princes of Naverstrom) Read Online Free Page A

mug of mead, Tael's eyes felt heavy from the heat of the fire and the satisfied feeling of a full stomach. He made his way over to the bar—stumbling a bit from his light head—and asked the innkeeper for the key to his room. The man looked confused for a moment, then Maysie came over and whispered into the innkeeper's ear.
    "Oh, I didn't realize you'd be staying for the night. Let me get you the key and I'll ask young Tad to show you up to your room."
    Tael turned from the bar and leaned back, scanning the room with bleary eyes. Two men dressed in black, woolen cloaks quickly looked away from him and stared into their drinks. Tael was about to ask the innkeeper about the men when he felt a tug on his cloak. A boy of perhaps ten motioned towards the stairs and Tael followed him up and around to a small room in the back of the inn that was adorned with nothing but a bed. Tael said goodnight to the boy, locked the door, and crawled under the covers.
    Sleep erupted into a blaze of the nightmare that haunted him many a night. The assassin dressed in black, spinning around to attack, the light of a lantern illuminating the black heart etched on the assassin's cape. The fury of red blood arcing across the air. Mother's scream as Father's knees buckled, his face lost and desperate and so filled with love for Mother.  
    Then his mother's panicked face turned calm and she faced him. "Wake now, son. They are coming..."
    He woke with a start to find pain surging through his head. The three drinks he'd drank now wracked his brain. His eyes were bleary but when he heard wooden boards creaking outside his room, his mind sharpened somewhat through the fog. He reached for Balensaar—his father's sword—the one his grandfather had given him after Father had been killed. The wrapped leather hilt felt warm and inviting as he wielded the blade and tensed, waiting back in the corner of the small room.
    Light burst from under the door—blinding Tael for a moment—and shouts and grunts could be heard from down the hall. Another blast of light caused an explosion farther away that sounded like it had ripped the inn in half. Heart hammering in his chest, Tael gripped the sword and flung open the door. A cacophony of screams and moans intermixed with the shouts of steel on steel and a series of booming explosions. He quickly peered around the door jamb and spotted the black maw of starlight pouring in through a hole in the side of the inn. What the hell did that?
    Tael grabbed his pack and snuck down the littered hallway, keeping himself low. He peered down the hole in the side of the inn and spotted several severed bodies, shredded arms and legs, a bloody splash on the floor, and what looked like a jaw lying haphazardly in the rubble. The stairway barely clung to the wall and he stepped gingerly, testing the boards, and satisfied, he quickly stepped and jumped down to the bottom. The main room of the inn was in ruins, chairs and tables lay askew, the hearth collapsed, and bricks were spilled out of the broken mouth of the chimney. Tael's stomach clenched and felt sick as he spotted Paddy the innkeeper splayed on the floor beneath the barrels of beer and ale and mead, his eyes open and empty of life.  
    The sounds of battle grew louder outside, steel and screams and the blasting of buildings. A massive explosion outside caused Tael to take cover as the hull of the inn imploded. Standing, he could now see out at the ruined remains of soldiers slain in a furious street battle. Was this war? Were the dwarves invading the city? But whatever happened had started in the inn and whoever had been attacked brought the battle outside. Tael had been sure that he was the target, but it seemed otherwise. He was certain of one thing, he would do all he could to avoid getting pulled into the confrontation. The Capitol City of Trikar was his destination, not a petty battle in a border town.
    If he remembered right, the barge running down the Elden River was