"Michael A. Stackpole - Dragon Crown Saga 3 - When Dragons Rage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stackpole Michael A)

CHAPTER 3


Kerrigan Reese shivered in his bed, huddled beneath a thick woolen blanket that
smelled of sour sweat. The corpulent youth had pulled the blanket up over his head. He
endeavored to keep still, so that the crackling scrunch of the mattressтАЩ straw couldnтАЩt drag
him back to reality.
The shivers betrayed him, however. The tremors coaxed little sounds from the straw. The
scrabbling of rodents, perhaps, or of insects. Or of beetles burrowing into a grave,
devouring the flesh of the deadтАж
He shook his head, letting the resulting thunderclap of sound banish those thoughts. For
a moment or two it worked, then the sounds returned. And beneath them, the buzzed roar of
the common roomтАЩs rabble: laughing, shouting, and singing some stupid song.
 Kerrigan wondered how they could sing at a time like this. Everything had come crashing
in on him. The world he had known in his first seventeen years had exploded like an alembic
in a failed spellcasting. His life on Vilwan had been one of peace and comfort тАФ though he
had failed to recognize that at the time. His tutors had been severe taskmasters, but had
taught him all manner of spells that no Human sorcerer had mastered in centuries. If ever!
He had known the way of the world, of the evil that was Chytrine. The grand history of
Vilwan had informed him of the wars that had been fought against her. He had read of the
loss of Vorquellyn and of the war before his birth. Okrannel had fallen to ChytrineтАЩs forces
then, but she had been stopped at Fortress Draconis. The clear assumption had been that
the last war had put a stop to her predations, but her renewed attacks against the
Southlands gave lie to that idea.
And her attacks had destroyed his life.
Chytrine had formed an alliance with Vionna, the Pirate Queen of Wruona. The pirates
had sent a fleet to attack Vilwan, complete with dragonels mounted aboard the ships. There
was even a dragon. A fierce battle had raged at the northern tip of the island. The pirates
had failed in their invasion, but not without exacting a terrible price.
Kerrigan did not know of that battle firsthand. He, like so many sorcerers his age and
younger, had been evacuated from Vilwan. As the ships that had brought troops to Vilwan
took Apprentices and Adepts away, the true focus of ChytrineтАЩs plan was revealed. Pirates
attacked the evacuation fleet тАФ destroying ships, devastating a whole generation of
magickers. Kerrigan himself had been sorely wounded, and save for luck and circumstance
would have died.
From there he had been made a plaything of Panqui juveniles, traveled to Yslin and on to
Okrannel, where he had helped with the preparations for the siege of Svoin. HeтАЩd then been
sent to steal a portion of the DragonCrown that VionnaтАЩs consort, the Azure Spider, had
stolen from Jerana. On that quest his last tutor, Orla, had been slain.
And then there was the siege of Fortress Draconis and a second evacuation to the
south. In that one, he had taken charge of a small company of children. HeтАЩd been unable to
protect the young sorcerers who had been on the ship with him, but he vowed he would not
let these children тАФ the scions of the fortressтАЩ brave defenders тАФ come to harm.
HeтАЩd borne up bravely through it all. He was able to acknowledge that, but once theyтАЩd
reached Oriosa and he was freed of the vow heтАЩd given the Draconis Baron, things had
spiraled down into him. Orla, as she was dying, told him to have nothing further to do with
Vilwan and to follow Crow and Resolute. Resolute clearly had nothing but contempt for him