Read Dragon Queen for Free Online

Pinnacles amid the creations of the Silver King. The pitching of the ship grew worse. Abruptly he threw up into the bucket beside his bed, retching until there was nothing left, then groaned and lay back and closed his eyes; and so he almost didn't notice when the cabin door opened again and Tuuran slipped back in. The Adamantine Man sat beside him and the first Bellepheros knew of it was a cup of something hot and bitter pressed into his hand.
    ‘For the sickness,’ Tuuran said. Bellepheros forced himself up. As he did, a sudden sway of the ship banged the cabin wall against him.

    ‘Great Flame!’ He sniffed the cup and groaned again and then laughed despite himself. ‘I could tell you everything that went into this just from the smell. I know better remedies but it will do.’
    He drank. Tuuran pushed at the shutters but they didn't give. ‘They keep us slaves away from the storm-dark, locked up in the hold. Every crossing.’ He bared his teeth, a carnivore's grin. ‘I told them you might die of fright if you didn't have someone to hold your hand so they let me come up to look after you, but I know you don't need me, Master Lord Alchemist. I did this for me, not for you. I want to see it. I've heard more stories about it than I've heard of Vishmir and Narammed put together. I want to see if they're true.’
    Bellepheros resisted the temptation to lie down again and try to fall asleep. Tuuran's potion was working, at least a little, although with his travel chest he could have made something far better. ‘They want me to make an eyrie for them,’ he mumbled.
    ‘Yes, I know. It's obvious, isn't it?’ Tuuran pushed at the window again. ‘I've crossed the storm-dark a dozen times. I might never find a way home again, but I'll see the damn thing before I die.’ When the window didn't give, he punched it, then lay on the bed and kicked it, blow after blow until something cracked and then on until the shutters flew open.
    The sky flashed purple.
    Bellepheros forgot the snakes writhing in his belly. The night was black as pitch, the stars and moon all gone and swallowed up by the tide of darkness. The sea glistened, a faint blue-green phosphorescence lighting up the churning waves. The wind howled and swirled and then another bolt of purple light split the sea and the sky, jagged and blinding bright, lighting up the waves like the midday sun.
    ‘Lightning,’ hissed Tuuran. ‘The lightning. So that much is true.’
    Another flash and then another and the wind sucked them deeper into the storm. Even the sea seemed to rush towards it, the waves crashing and climbing over one another, pushing them on. The gale caught the broken shutters and smashed them against the hull, over and over. It screamed and whistled through the ropes and the rigging somewhere above. Banshee wails ripped the air,rising and fading. The ship rolled and heaved and pitched and the purple lightning flashed and flamed and danced through the sky. The storm drew Bellepheros in, wrapped him up and held him like a dragon's stare until the ship bucked mightily, tipping him and Tuuran onto the floor together. The Adamantine Man was laughing. ‘Imagine this deep in the hold, Master Alchemist, among the rats and the bilge water! Imagine it! Men falling over, tumbling into each other in the pitch black! Can you see why they piss themselves? Death stares at you there but I didn't fear it, not once, not ever, for I am Adamantine, made to face dragons!’
    Bellepheros struggled to his knees and clutched at the bed. The ship pitched forward, swinging his legs out from under him. Tuuran rolled and slammed into the door, then hauled himself to his feet. He was grinning like a madman, swept up by the violence around them while the lightning outside cracked again and again, bright and a vivid violet like nothing Bellepheros had ever seen. ‘This is not natural!’
    ‘No.’ Tuuran shook his head gleefully. ‘Even the Taiytakei don't understand it, though