Holly Lisle - Vengeance Of Dragons

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By Holly Lisle
Diplomacy of Wolves
Vengeance of Dragons
Courage of Falcons
Available from Warner Aspect
A Time Warner Company
This book is a work of fiction. Names,characters, places, and incidents are the product of
theauthor’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblanceto actual events, locales, or
persons, living or dead, iscoincidental.
VENGEANCE OF DRAGONS.Copyright © 1999 by Holly Lisle. All rights reserved. No partof
this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic ormechanical means, including
information storage and retrievalsystems, without permission in writing from the publisher,
exceptby a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
For informationaddress Warner Books, Inc., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York,NY 10020
Aspect® name and logo are registered trademarks ofWarner Books, Inc.
A Time WarnerCompany
ISBN 0-7595-0013-4
A trade paperbackedition of this book was published in 1999 by Warner Books.
First eBook edition:December 2000
Visit our Web site atwww.iPublish.com
To Joe, with love and gratitude
Contents
Acknowledgments
Map
In Diplomacy of Wolves . . .
BOOK ONE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Interlude
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
BOOK TWO
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Interlude
BOOK THREE
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Again, thanks to PeterJames and Nick Thorpe, authors of Ancient Inventions, whichhas proved
the most inspirational and useful book I’ve read inages; to Betsy Mitchell, whose editing,
recommendations, comments,and questions made the book far better than it would have
otherwisebeen; to Russell Galen and Danny Baror, whose tireless work in mybehalf made my
first European sales happen, and made it possiblefor me to live off my writing income, and in
Russ’s case,inspired the project in the first place; to Matthew, whosefirst-draft editing also
resulted in major changes and majorimprovements, and whose encouragement keeps me going;
and to Markand Becky, who did all sorts of useful and kind things for me whileI was writing that
made my life easier, and who cheered me up whenthe work got hard. And finally, belated thanks
to John“JT” Tilden and Perry Ahern for cheerfully providing thebodies.
In Diplomacy of Wolves . . .
Magic, in the world ofMatrin and especially in the Iberan lands where the last of thetrue humans
live, has been a study both forbidden and reviled for athousand years — but Kait Galweigh has
survived to hide thesecret Scars of old and dangerous magic. A daughter of the
powerfulGalweigh Family and a promising junior diplomat, Kait is Scarred.Her nature causes her
to skinshift, a trait which would lead to herimmediate execution even by members of her own
Family. Chaperoningher cousin prior to the girl’s wedding into the DokteerakFamily, Kait
overhears a plot between the Dokteeraks and theGalweighs’ longtime enemies, the Sabirs. The
Families areplanning to destroy the Galweighs at the upcoming wedding.
Kait survives a harrowing escape from Dokteerak House with herinformation, aided by a stranger
who, like her, is Scarred by theskinshifting curse called Karnee. She is drawn to thestranger and
is dismayed to discover that he is a son of the SabirFamily, her Family’s oldest and worst enemy.
She returns tothe embassy, where she informs the Galweighs of the Dokteerak-Sabirtreachery,
and tries to put her attraction to the Sabir Karnee outof her mind. Her Family takes both military
and illicit magicalsteps to foil the conspiracy and crush the conspirators. TheSabirs, though,
never planned to share power with the Dokteeraks;instead, they use them to get the Galweigh
military out in theopen. Then, on two carefully managed fronts, they wipe out theDokteerak and
Galweigh armies and use both treachery and magic tocapture Galweigh House back in the grand
city of Calimekka.
However, magic used forcefully against another always rebounds.Both Families’ wizards, who
call themselves Wolves, expectedto strike unprepared targets with their spells. But their attackshit
each other at the same time, and the magic rebounds, wiping outthe majority of both Families’
Wolves.
It simultaneously does two other things as well, both seeminglyirrelevant. First, the magical blast
wakes an artifact called theMirror of Souls. A beautiful and complex creation designed by
theAncients before the end of the Wizards’ War a thousand yearsearlier, the Mirror has been
waiting for just such a powerful rewhah. It signals that the world has returned to the use ofmagic
. . . and more importantly, magic of the rightsort. The Mirror awakens the souls it holds within its
Soulwell,and they reach out to people who might be able to help them.
Second, the rewhah horribly Scars a young girl namedDanya Galweigh, a cousin of Kait’s, who
has been kidnapped bythe Sabirs and used as a sacrifice by the Sabir Wolves when theGalweighs
fail to meet the ransom. Danya is changed beyondrecognition, and the baby she unknowingly
carries, a baby conceivedthrough rape and torture during her capture, is changed, too, butin more
subtle ways. The force of the rewhah throws Danyainto the icy southern wastes of the Veral
Territories, where, wereit not for the help of a mysterious spirit who calls himselfLuercas, she
would die.
Kait finds Galweigh House in Sabir hands and many members of herFamily executed. She steals
the Galweigh airible and flies for helpto the nearby island of Goft, where the Galweigh Family
has otherholdings. However, the head of this lesser branch of the GalweighFamily sees the
demise of the main branch as his chance to advance,and he orders Kait killed. A spirit voice
claiming to be herlong-dead ancestor warns her of the treachery, and she escapesagain, this time
after stealing money from the House treasury.
The spirit tells her another way she can aid her Family, eventhough it says they are now all dead.
Following its advice, shehires a ship from the Goft harbor to take her across the ocean insearch of
the Mirror of Souls. The spirit tells her that thisancient artifact will allow her to reclaim her
murdered Family fromthe dead. She enlists the aid of the captain, Ian Draclas, bytelling him she
is going in search of one of the Ancients’lost cities. Such a place would make any man’s fortune.
Onboard the ship she runs into a man named Hasmal rann Dorchan,whom she once met briefly.
Hasmal, a wizard of the sect known asthe Falcons, had been trying to escape the doom that an
oracle hadwarned would befall him if he associated with Kait. He is notpleased to see her.
Hasmal’s oracle mocks him and warns him that to protecthimself, he must teach Kait magic. She
learns, but denies theexistence of the doom-filled destiny he claims they share.
Kait is plagued by dreams of the Sabir Karnee; she becomescertain that he is following her across
the sea. To break herobsession with him, she accepts the advances of the ship’scaptain, and she
and Ian Draclas become lovers. But her obsessiononly worsens.
As the ship nears its destination, it sails into the heart ofWizards’ Circle, a place where magical
residue from theWizards’ War a thousand years before is still so strong thatit can affect and
control anyone moving within its reach. Hasmalworks magic to free the ship, and Kait, in her
skinshifted form,saves the life of the captain. In so doing, though, Kait isrevealed as a monster
and Hasmal as a wizard, and the crew turnsagainst them. They reach the shore and discover the
city, but whileKait, Hasmal, Ian, and two of his men set out to retrieve theMirror of Souls from
its distant hiding place, the crew mutiniesand maroons them in the unexplored wilds of North
Novtierra.
Book One
“Solander the Reborn will arrive
in the wind of the Dragons’ breath.
Wanderers and Steaders joined
will slay the Dragons.
Born of blood and terror,
The opal city Paranne will rise at last.”
FROM THE SECRET TEXTS, VOL. 2, SET 31
BY VINCALIS THE AGITATOR
Chapter 1
The scream was Kait Galweigh’sfirst warning that something was wrong. The second, half an
instantlater, was the hard metallic stink of human blood mingled with therank stench of predator.
“Run!” she heard Hasmal shout.
“The gap!”
“Slings!”
“Gods, I think he’s dead!”
She heard running, and shouts, and animal howls. The smells andsounds and the terror hit her like
a blow to the skull; her bodyresponded before her mind could. Her blood began to boil and
herskin and muscles flowed like liquid, and the human part of her,which had been hunting for
edible plants in the forest, Shifted toembrace the monster that lived inside of her; she became the
thingshe both hated and needed. With the woman burned away, whatremained was beast, furred,
fanged, four-legged, hungry for thehunt. Karnee now, blood-mad, she raced toward trouble.
She came over the ridge at a dead run, and skidded to a stop atthe sight laid out before her. The
attackers had her people backedinto a narrow crevice in the cliff that formed the north wall
oftheir camp. Turben was down and bleeding heavily. The other threeused the plentiful shale
scree as their weapon; they were takingturns throwing volleys against the enemy with makeshift
slings,timing their fire in such a way that a constant rain of theknifelike stone shards filled the air.
She couldn’t see her attackers, but she knew where theywere from the sound of them; they were
using the ruin as theirshield. They were better armed than the humans. She could hear thetwang
of bowstrings, the hiss of heavy arrows flying through theair, the rattle and clatter as the arrows
rebounded off the cliffface and knocked loose more scree. Better armed and with their
preycornered, they couldn’t help but win.
Unless she found a way to shift the odds in her favor.
She scrambled down the cliff, kicking loose scree as she did.But neither her friends nor her
enemies would pay attention to her— four-legged, she moved differently than a human, and
gavethe impression she was moving away from the trouble.
Once into the valley and downwind of the attackers, she came inbehind them, running through
the underbrush with her belly to theground. She was fast and quiet enough that they had no
warning whenshe burst out of the brush to attack them.
She got her first clear look at them as she charged toward thenearest. They were taller than any
man and gaunt as specters, andgray fur hung from their frames in ragged, moss-festooned
hanks.She guessed they massed twenty to twenty-five stone — morethan four times the weight
and bulk of the average human. They ranon four legs but stood clumsily on two to fling rocks or
shoottheir arrows, and they called to each other in rough syllables thatwere not far removed from
wordless grunts. Yet they did speak, andthey did make weapons, and their faces, arranged in
human fashionthough larger and more heavily boned, bespoke their Wizards’War origins. They
were Scarred — monsters whose ancestors athousand years earlier had been men.
She was terrified. All her life, she’d heard horriblestories about Scarred monsters and what they
were capable of —and she knew what she was capable of, which made her givethe stories
credence — but in the end it didn’t matter.Her friends needed her.
摘要：

ByHollyLisleDiplomacyofWolvesVengeanceofDragonsCourageofFalconsAvailablefromWarnerAspectATimeWarnerCompanyThisbookisaworkoffiction.Names,characters,places,andincidentsaretheproductoftheauthor’simaginationorareusedfictitiously.Anyresemblancetoactualevents,locales,orpersons,livingordead,iscoincidental...

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