The Dragon of Despair Read online

  THE DRAGON

  OF

  DESPAIR

  Jane Lindskold

  Firekeeper Saga 3

  THE DRAGON OF DESPAIR

  Copyright © 2003 by Jane Lindskold

  Edited by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Map by Mark Stein based on an original drawing by James Moore

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor.com

  Tor is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  ISBN 0-765-30259-4

  First Edition: August 2003

  Printed in the United States of America

  Table of Contents

  THE DRAGON OF DESPAIR

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  BOOK ONE Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  Chapter VIII

  Chapter IX

  Chapter X

  Chapter XI

  Chapter XII

  Chapter XIII

  BOOK TWO Chapter XIV

  Chapter XV

  Chapter XVI

  Chapter XVII

  Chapter XVIII

  Chapter XIX

  Chapter XX

  Chapter XXI

  Chapter XXII

  Chapter XXIII

  Chapter XXIV

  Chapter XXV

  Chapter XXVI

  Chapter XXVII

  Chapter XXVIII

  Chapter XXIX

  Chapter XXX

  Chapter XXXI

  Chapter XXXII

  Chapter XXXIII

  Chapter XXXIV

  Chapter XXXV

  Chapter XXXVI

  Chapter XXXVII

  Chapter XXXVIII

  Chapter XXXIX

  Chapter XL

  Chapter XLI

  Glossary Of Characters

  Dedication

  For Jim,

  with love, appreciation,

  and a whole lot more

  Acknowledgments

  As always, there are many people to whom I owe my thanks for their contributions to the development of this novel. Informally, Jim Moore, Yvonne Coats, Phyllis White, and Linnea Dodson took the time to read the manuscript and provide feedback. Kennard "the mad scientist" Wilson applied his sense of precision to various discrepancies in the glossary. I also appreciated the flood of comments from those readers who let me know what they thought about the story that came before this book.

  More formally, my agent, Kay McCauley, remained the bedrock on which I stood. Various folks at Tor Books, including Tom Doherty, Fred Herman, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, provided cogent thought, valuable assistance, and genuine enthusiasm for the unwinding of Firekeeper's story.

  Special thanks go to Leyton Cougar and Candy Kitchen Wolf Rescue. They took time out of a very busy weekend to give Yvonne Coats (the world's most patient photographer) and me the opportunity to meet with Raven, their wolf ambassador. You can see some of the pictures from our meeting on my Web site, janelindskold.com, and also learn about the valuable work Candy Kitchen is doing to help save former "pet" wolves from being destroyed.

  Extra special thanks go to Raven. Thanks to him, I know firsthand what it's like to be greeted wolf-fashion. It's a pretty extraordinary experience.

  BOOK ONE

  Chapter I

  Burning a trail through the sky, the comet was brighter than any single star, almost brighter than the moon. Certainly, it appeared more purposeful.

  There was no doubt about the purposefulness of the young woman who sat watching the comet from atop one of the smooth stone outcroppings that erupted here and there through the forest floor like whales frozen in the act of breaching. Her arms were wrapped around her bent knees so that she made a single form, almost like a rock herself, but unlike the rocks her gaze was fixed on the light in the sky.

  To Firekeeper, who knew the stars through all their shifting annual panorama as a city-born woman would know the streets around her own house, the comet was a source of unending fascination and not a little uneasiness. She didn't like either feeling one bit.

  Night after night, she found herself drawn to some dark, quiet place where she could watch the comet, as if by watching it she could keep the heavens from doing something else unpredictable. Although the spring nights were yet chilly and damp here in the Norwood Grant at the northwestern edge of the Kingdom of Hawk Haven, Firekeeper didn't find them uncomfortable. She'd lived unprotected through much harsher weather.

  Blind Seer, her closest friend, often sat with Firekeeper on these vigils, though the wolf didn't really understand the woman's fascination.

  "J light in the sky" Blind Seer grumbled on this night as on so many others. "That's all it is. Come and run with me. We could terrify the deer."

  Firekeeper uncoiled herself sufficiently to swat the wolf lightly across the bridge of his long nose.

  "Let them raise their fawns in peace," she said, "so there will be food for the year to come. Surely you haven't fallen so low that you must hunt sucklings and their mothers."

  "I was more thinking of the young bucks, spring mad in the pride of their new antlers. They need humbling."

  Her eyes never leaving the fat white comet with its glowing tail, Firekeeper answered, "And you a Royal Wolf, greatest of the great, are setting yourself the task of improving Cousin-kind? Our parents would be ashamed."

  Their argument was interrupted by the sound of feet steadily advancing along the forest trail. Neither wolf nor woman moved, for the tread was as familiar to them as the tall red-haired youth who appeared around a bend in the trail a moment later.

  "I thought I'd find you out here," Derian Carter said, greeting them with a casual wave of the hand that was not occupied balancing a tin-screened candle lantern. "Watching the comet again? I promise you, it won't go anywhere."

  "Elation tell you where I am," Firekeeper replied, knowing this must be so. She had many places from which she watched the comet. Animal wariness kept her from frequenting any one place too often. Elation, however, could have easily found her.

  The peregrine falcon had taken a liking to Derian. Although Elation could not talk to Derian as she could to Firekeeper, she had found ways of making him understand simple things. Derian, in turn, simplified matters greatly by accepting, as most of Firekeeper's human acquaintances still did not, that the bird was as intelligent as most humans.

  "Elation might have," Derian admitted before changing the subject. "There's news from across the White Water River. A single courier made the crossing late this afternoon. He came to Duchess Kestrel, figuring she'd pay well to know the last several months' gossip from New Kelvin."

  Firekeeper was interested in spite of her initial pique at having her vigil interrupted.

  "From New Kelvin?"

  The neighboring country was separated from Hawk Haven by a river broad and rocky enough to be difficult to cross even in the best weather. Once snowmelt had swelled the river, the two nations had been effectively cut off for better than a moonspan. Only lately had the river begun to ebb, though many days would pass before normal commerce resumed.

  Derian nodded.

  "And from how both the duchess and the earl remained closeted with the courier through dinner, the courier had news worth the tokens the duchess has ordered drawn from the Norwood Grant treasury."

  "And what did the courier say?" Firekeeper prompted, almost, but not quite, forgetting the comet.

  "I don't know," Derian replied, "but we have been requested to meet w
ith Duchess Kestrel and her son as soon as possible. Can you leave your comet unwatched?"

  Firekeeper gave him a slight smile, though she knew Derian could not see it in the darkness.

  "I can."

  A group OF seven was to meet in Duchess Kestrel's studyùeight, if you counted Blind Seer, which Firekeeper most certainly did. As she waited for the rest to assemble and stop their idle chatter, the wolf-woman studied her surroundings, automatically noting exits and defensible corners.

  This was a room Firekeeper had visited only once before. Unlike the nearby chamber claimed by her son for a similar purpose, the duchess's study was light and uncluttered, its furniture crafted from pale woods rubbed to a high polish and scented with beeswax. The stone-flagged floors were covered in jewel-toned New Kelvinese carpets that seemed to glow in the lamplight. The broad, south-facing windows were curtained in heavy brocade woven in shades of soft golden brown and beige.

  In her younger days, Saedee Norwood, Duchess Kestrel, had been a warrior who had won her spurs in a particularly nasty border skirmish with Bright Bay. There was a statue in the garden commemorating those deeds. It depicted a slim-hipped young woman brandishing a sword, an arrogant tilt to her proud head.

  But those battles had been long ago. The only trace remaining of that woman was the selfsame sword hanging on the wall behind the desk where the duchess daily dealt with the business of running the large land grant that she had inherited from her father. Bearing childrenùtwo of whom had survived to adulthoodùhad spread Saedee Norwood's once slim form. Bearing the responsibilities of her position had graven lines in her face.

  Yet, Firekeeper thought as she watched the duchess greet those she had summoned, perhaps not all traces of that young warrior had vanished. The arrogant lift of the duchess's head was much the same, though tempered with a restraint that might have been alien to her younger self.

  There was a similar arrogance in the bearing of the duchess's son and heir, Norvin. Earl Kestrel was a small manùindeed, his mother was tallerùand maybe some of his apparent arrogance came from refusing to be seen as weak in a world where strength and size were usually equated.

  Firekeeper knew the earl fairly well. It had been he who had led the expedition she had accompanied out of the western wilderness. Initially, she had thought Norvin Norwood taken up with nothing but his own advancement. Later, she had come to realize thatùinterested as Norvin was in promoting his own good and that of his familyùhe was also a commander whose troops respected him, a master whose vassals found him fair, and a parent who, though dictatorial at times, strove not to smother his children.

  In the eyes of the human world, Firekeeper was one of those childrenùadopted by the earl soon after his return from the west. Firekeeper did not think of the earl as her fatherùthat place in her heart belonged to the wolves who had raised herùnor did she particularly think of the earl's four children as her siblings. One of these, however, Norvin Norwood's eldest son and heir, had earned the wolf-woman's mingled affection and exasperation.

  Edlin Norwood entered the room even as Firekeeper thought of him, his breezy friendliness a decided contrast to his father's and grandmother's studied restraint. Nor did he particularly resemble them, lacking their prominent hawk-like nose. Edlin did share his father's dark hairùthough the earl's mixed silver with the jetty blackùand the earl's pale grey eyes. Still, no one watching Edlin as he bobbed a quick bow to his grandmother and then collapsed bonelessly into a comfortable chair would have taken him for his father's son.

  But Firekeeper respected Edlin. He had been with her and Derian in New Kelvin early in the winter just past and had proven that there was more to him than met casual inspection. However, if Edlin's deeds in New Kelvin had earned Firekeeper's respect, they did nothing to reduce her frustration with him. Soon after Firekeeper had arrived at the Norwood Grant the previous autumn, Edlin had taken a very unbrotherly fancy to her. He'd evenùso Firekeeper had heard rumoredùtold his father he wished to marry her.

  The earl had refused without even consulting Firekeeperùthough his decision proved much to Firekeeper's reliefùbut his father's refusal hadn't ended the matter for Edlin. Often he would watch Firekeeper, sometimes covertly, more often forgetting himself and gaping with slightly open-mouthed admiration.

  Why Edlin fancied her Firekeeper hadn't the least idea. In a society where women were admired for social grace and eleganceùeven those who, like Saedee Norwood or Crown Princess Sapphire, had won honor on the battlefieldùFirekeeper possessed neither. She donned long gowns, jewels, and other such finery only under duress. Rather than displaying herself to her best advantage on some couch or embroidered chair, she preferred sitting as she was now, on the floor, her arm flung around Blind Seer, her short hair tousled from wind and weather.

  Fortunately for Firekeeper, Saedee Norwood had forbidden anyoneùeven her sonùto force Firekeeper to change her ways too drastically. As long as Firekeeper would gown when necessary, used proper utensils when dining at table, and remembered not to bolt her food, the duchess claimed herself content. Firekeeper, in turn, sought to please the duchess, preferring to offer evidence of her willingness to learn human ways on her own, rather than having those ways forced upon her.

  Such attempts to please were not alien to Firekeeper's nature. Wolves always submit before those who have power over them. To them this is an expression of respect, not a humiliation. Saedee Norwood did not ask for belly-pissing cringing, only the human equivalent of a jaw-licking tail wag.

  Moreover, like her son, Saedee Norwood had proven herself worthy of Firekeeper's respect. The wolf-woman had observed how the duchess enforced the right of individual decision not only for Firekeeper, but for other members of her household as well. At a time when a hundred years of fairly stable government was bequeathing social ritual and restraint as its gift to the younger generation, Saedee was old enough to remember when this had not been soùand wise enough to sacrifice the benefits she could have garnered from a calcifying social order for the greater benefits gained from a vital and active family.

  Thus Saedee had made her son, Norvin, her partner in running the Norwood Grant at a time when several of her contemporaries were struggling to maintain a firm hold over their growing households. Equally, she used her authority over her son to keep him from rebuking Edlin too severely for the young man's own idiosyncratic style.

  But then, as Firekeeper had learned from Wendee Jay, the Kestrel retainer who served as the wolf-woman's personal attendant, Saedee Norwood herself was an unconventional woman. No one knew who had been the father of her childrenùNorvin, Eirene, and several others who had not survived beyond infancy. Saedee had not only kept this information to herselfùshe had also refused to marry, even when offered advantageous alliances for her house.

  Firekeeper stretched, wondering just a little about the pedigree of this human family with whom she found herself allied.

  Edlin's arrival brought the gathering's number to six. Derian had arrived with Firekeeper and Blind Seer, and both duchess and earl had already been present. Now a slight rap on the door announced the last arrival.

  Grateful Peace was a slender and elegant man, almost effete to Firekeeper's way of seeing things. His hairline had receded so far back that he was nearly bald. What hair he retained was bone white. His facial features were startlingùadorned as they were with the bluish green lines of several tattoos. Spectacles perched on the bridge of his thin nose and gave him a round-eyed appearance at odds with his air of quiet watchfulness.

  He had come from New Kelvin the previous year, self-exiled for choosing to act against the policies of the government he had served for the previous decade and a half.

  A solid hit from a crossbow bolt had forced the amputation of Grateful Peace's right arm. While he recuperated, he had wintered at the Surcliffe family vineyards east of Duchess Kestrel's holding. However, when the snowmelt had begun, Duchess Kestrel had invited Peace to join herself and her family at their residenceùdeliberatel
y waiting to offer her invitation until the White Water River was so swollen that there would be no easy commerce between the Norwood Grant and New Kelvin for at least a moonspan. Grateful Peace was an outcast from his homeland, and no one doubted that there was a price on his life.

  Nor, Firekeeper thought, would Peace be easy to hide. Even though he has stopped painting his face, nothing can hide the tattoos. Though he styles his hair more as men wear it here, still his very bearing and manner of standing is different. He walks awkwardly in trousers, as if his legs still need to feel the touch of robes to know when to break his stride.

  Duchess Kestrel did not keep them waiting long after Grateful Peace had taken his seat.

  "I assume that all of you have already heard about the courier who arrived today. 'Courier' may be too polite a term," she added with wry smile. "However, it will do.

  "One item of his news was rather shocking," the duchess continued. "Before I reveal it, I must ask that you not speak of it to anyone other than those gathered here. I have chosen to reveal it to you because I would like your advice regarding what course of action I should take."

  Nods around the semicircle facing the duchess's desk confirmed the willingness of the gathered to keep her confidence. When Firekeeper realized that this was no general gossip sessionùas she had first imagined when Derian had spoken to her out on the groundsùshe wondered why Duchess Kestrel had wanted her here.

  Duchess Kestrel did not offer to answer this unspoken question, only accepted their unspoken promises of silence with a nod of her own.

  "Very well," she said with a slight, involuntary sigh. "Melina, once of House Gyrfalcon, has married. Her new spouse is the Healed One, the hereditary monarch of New Kelvin."

  Saedee Norwood declaimed these words as if she expected them to cause a sensation, nor was she disappointed. After a moment of shocked silence, there was a tumult of questions and expressions of dismay. Firekeeper believed that she herself had kept silent, but after a moment she realized that the rumbling growl she heard was coming from her own throat.