A Sword for a Dragon by Christopher Rowley Read Free Book Online Page B

Marneri, of course.”
    “Marneri is a nice city. I was there several times when I was a little girl. I liked the white stone walls and the narrow streets. But it’s so small compared to Kadein. Kadein is spread out far beyond its walls. Our house is on Slyte Hill itself, miles from the Old City.”
    “I’m sure it’s beautiful.”
    “Oh yes, it is. So beautiful, to ride in the woods of the Surd now, and onto the park at Blue Fountain, that would be heavenly. You can see the king’s new palace there through the trees. The buildings are exquisite, everything is done in tiles, white, blue, and scarlet on the roofs.”
    She sighed again.
    “When you come to the city, Relkin of Blue Stone, you must be sure to call on me. I will take you around if you like. There’s so much to see.”
    Relkin enjoyed a hollow laugh inside. He doubted very much that Kessetra Paxion would be that happy to see him if he actually did show up at the door to her family’s manse on Slyte Hill. Nor did he think he would fit in very easily with the fashionable crowd she would run with in the great southern city of the Argonath.
    That wasn’t his world. He knew that. There was no place for him there unless he brought with him a fortune, and as yet he had failed to discover a scheme that would provide him with one.
    The hour was sounded from the bell in the North Tower and the luncheon was over. Relkin escorted Kessetra back to the lower hall where she bade him farewell.
    He went in search of more quibini, but discovered that the buffet had been cleared away and there was nothing to be had but hot tea and lemons.
    With his already tormented imagination filled with visions of the lovely Kessetra Paxion, he headed for the East Quarter Dragon House.
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Each day’s passing brought their departure to the southlands closer. There were a thousand things to attend to, and Relkin was frantically busy getting equipment repaired or reissued from the legion commissary. Not only did he have to get all of Bazil’s gear ready, but he had to see to the issue of weapons and armor and general equipment to the Purple Green.
    First consideration went to their weapons. The new commander was insistent that they carry all the required weapons in the legion regulations.
    That meant they had to carry an extra tail sword for each dragon plus a pair of tail maces. Each of these weapons was large and heavy. The shield, four feet wide and eight deep, was made of steel bands in a lattice covered in thick leather, a sheet of hard wood, and then leather again. By regulation there had to be eighty steel studs on the front of the shield, but Bazil’s had only sixty left when Relkin inspected it, so he joined the mob at the blacksmith’s shop and ended up waiting on line for an hour.
    And that wasn’t the only smithy work that needed doing. In addition, there was the great dragon helmet, and the breastplate and the cuisses of steel to check for faults or uncomfortable dents. On Bazil’s breastplate, there was a problem place where a troll ax had hammered a considerable dent the year before at the battle of Ossur Galan. That had to be welded again and patched with fresh steel. The forge in Fort Dalhousie labored day and night to keep up with all the work.
    And, of course, new equipment had to be fitted for the Purple Green who was bigger all round than any wyvern dragon.
    Finally, there were Relkin’s own weapons, short sword, dirk, crossbow, and two dozen arrows. They were all in order. The sword had been sharpened at Fort Kenor and had seen no action since.
    But the weapons were merely the first item on a long list. There were water bottles to check, spoons and plates to requisition—they were due for new ones—plus flint and steel for fire making.
    Then there was clothing. The dragon wore a joboquin, a harness of leather, on which his armor attached through a dozen retainer bolts. Bazil’s joboquin needed mending, which sent Relkin to the repair shop,