Read The Dragonstone for Free Online

if he is the one.”
    “Jikoku,”
growled Aiko…then sighed. “If it is your will, Dara.”
    With that, Aiko reached beneath the table and dragged Alos by his ankle out from under, ale cups rattling in his wake, the flagon lost to his grip. Then with a grunt she hefted him up and across her shoulders. And with Orri and his raiders looking on in wonder, she followed Arin across the floor and out into the dank night, a thin thread of vomit-tainted drool dribbling from Alos’s slack jaw and leaving a wet trail behind.

C HAPTER 5
    I t was well past mid of night as Arin sat staring into the flames, trying to just who the one-eyed man was, to no avail. Behind her, Egil now slept in the bed, the brandy coursing through his veins keeping him unconscious. From the next room came an agonized howling as Aiko scrubbed the old man, hauling him shrieking from tub to tub as the water in each became too filthy, the lodge boy running back and forth, bearing fresh hot water after dumping the old out through the trough of the bathing room. Perhaps it was this caterwauling which kept the vision from coming—Arin did not know, yet she continued to fix her gaze deep within the fire.
    As the lodge boy passed through the room carrying the old man’s clothes out to the greatroom hearth to be burned, in through the door came Thar, the healer bearing a bulging leather sack. He momentarily paused and frowned at the ruckus in the next room, then a look of understanding crossed his face. He stepped to the Dylvana’s side and raised his voice above the howls and said, “Right, Lady, I ha’e th’ herbs and stones and powders ye asked fr, though th’ gettin’ o’ some o’ them were a fair quest i’ itself. Ha’ t’ look through all me goods. Ha’ t’ get old Maev up fr some o’ ’em.” He set the bag on the small table next to the chifforobe.
    From the next room there came a sodden
thunk!
and the yowling ceased.
    “Aiko?” called Arin.
    “He tried to get away, Dara, but slipped and hit his head” came the reply.
    Arin raised a skeptical eyebrow but did not question Aiko further. Thar pointed to the leather bag. “Ye look atwhat I ha’e brought and make certain I got all that be needed. I’ll go peer at Alos, see if he be truly injured or no. But, Lady Arin, do not start mixing the medicks wi’out me. I c’n use th’ knowledge o’ th’ sleepin’ draught t’ aid them what need such.”
    “A sleeping draught and a potion to ease pain, Thar. I shall show thee the making of each.”
    Thar bobbed his head and then stepped into the next room as Arin began laying out the contents of the bag: harf root, laka reed, soda stone, oil of cod…
    The lodge boy came back through carrying a fresh pail of steaming water. Moments later he stood shuffling from foot to foot at Arin’s side. “Beggin’ y’r pardon, Lady, but”—he swallowed—”
she
wants th’ chewin’ stick, th’ p-p-pumice, ‘n’ th’ mint leaves, er, ‘right now,’ she said, she did, Lady, beggin’ y’r pardon.”
    Arin unloaded the rest of the bag and found the requested items and gave them to the lad.
    Back to the other room he sped as Thar returned. “Alos, he be no th’ worse f’r th’ havin’ o’ a knot on top o’ his head, though how it came about from a slip, I nae c’d say.”
    Arin sighed and cast a glance toward the room where Aiko could be heard muttering words in her native tongue. As the Dylvana turned her attention back to the goods on the table, soft moans from Alos began as well.
    “This is the way of a sleeping draught, Thar,” began Arin.
    From the bathing room Alos’s moans became a feeble yowling only to be choked into muted squawks as if something had been jammed in his mouth.
    Arin heaved a sighing breath of resignation…and then took up the mortar and pestle. “First thou must grind the soda stone into fineness, thus….”
    *   *   *
    Once again Arin sat before the fire and gazed intently into the flames,