Dragon Prince 02 - The Star Scroll by Melanie Rawn Read Free Book Online Page B

“I had my doubts last night.” Turning to Pol, he asked, “Are you recovered, my prince?”
    “More or less. It never gets any easier, does it?” Pol sighed.
    “Never,” Maarken affirmed. “Do you want something to eat?” Their winces made him grin. “All right, stupid question, I know! There are horses outside if you feel capable of sitting a saddle without falling off.”
    They did. There was no special welcome from the people of the port, though they paused in their daily routines to greet both Pol and their own young lord. Maarken was the image of his handsome father: tall, athletic, with dark hair and gray eyes like sunlight through a morning mist. He was more lightly built than Chaynal, however; the slender bones of his grandmother’s people had lengthened in him, not thickened. At twenty-six he had fulfilled the promise of height and strength that for now was only hinted at in his young cousin. He also wore six Sunrunner’s rings where Pol had none. As they left the precincts of the town and started down the road between newly sown fields, he caught the boy’s envious look and smiled.
    “You’ll have your own one day. I had to wait until after I’d been knighted before Father would let me go to Goddess Keep and Lady Andrade.”
    “What’s she like?” Pol asked. “I remember her from when I was little, but not very clearly. And the only thing Meath and Eolie ever say when I ask is that I’ll find out sooner than I want to.”
    Meath grinned and shrugged. “It’s only the truth, isn’t it, Maarken?”
    The pair were old friends from Maarken’s days as a squire at Lleyn’s court, and they shared a chuckle. The young lord told his cousin, “You’ll have the chance to see for yourself in Waes. It’ll be a real family reunion this year, in fact. Andrade’s bringing Andry with her, and Sorin’s to be knighted by Prince Volog.”
    Andry and Sorin were Maarken’s brothers, twenty-year-old twins whose lives had taken divergent paths. Andry had faradhi gifts, just as Maarken did, but had seen no reason why he should go through the usual pattern of squire’s training and knighting when all he had ever wanted to be was a Sunrunner. When Sorin was fostered to Volog on Kierst, Andry went to Sioned’s brother, Prince Davvi of Syr. But after only a few years he had successfully pleaded his case to his parents. His progress in earning his rings had confirmed his choice.
    Maarken glanced over Pol’s head at Meath. “When do you ride for Goddess Keep?”
    “Tomorrow morning, after I’ve paid my respects to your parents.”
    “You’ll need an escort, if I’m not mistaken.” He gestured to the saddlebags slung across Meath’s horse. When the older man’s shoulders stiffened, Maarken went on, “Don’t worry, I won’t ask. But even in your misery last night you didn’t let go of them when the rest of the baggage was taken off the ship. That means they’re important, and you’ll need an escort to protect them—and you.”
    Meath smiled uneasily. “I didn’t know I’d been so obvious. I don’t want more than a couple of guards, Maarken. More might arouse suspicion.”
    Pol eyed his friend. “Then they must be very important. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to Goddess Keep? You told Maarken on the sunlight, didn’t you? How am I ever going to be a prince and make the right decisions if nobody ever tells me what’s going on?” Then he shrugged. “You don’t have to say it. I’ll learn what I need to know when I need to know it.”
    “Enjoy ignorance, Pol,” Maarken said. “When you’re older, you’ll know more than you want to, sometimes—and they’ll usually be the wrong things, anyway.”
    The road curved through pastureland where tall spring grass waited for horses to crop it. Ahead of them rose the magnificent towers of Radzyn Keep, seat of Maarken’s paternal forebears for hundreds of years. To the left was the sea below ragged cliffs; on the right, far beyond the