The Dawn Star by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online

Drummer?”
    â€œThat’s right.” He hesitated. “Why am I here?”
    â€œEven if I knew, I couldn’t discuss it.” Javelin motioned him into an alcove, this one tiled in desert hues with a sun on the ceiling. No clouds. No shade. He felt hot just passing through. They went up tiled stairs and followed more tiled halls. Before this, he had only experienced such opulence on his visits to Castle Suncroft, home to King Jarid of Aronsdale. Drummer’s sister Chime had married Jarid’s cousin.
    Finally they opened up a locked suite of rooms. The entrance foyer was gorgeous, with aqua mosaics on its walls. A lamp shaped like a butterfly hung from the domed ceiling and glowed with sunrise colors.
    Javelin and the other guard checked the suite while Drummer waited with Kaj, the gambler. Still annoyed with the crack about gagging him, Drummer said, “I’ll bet you’ve never guarded an Aronsdale minstrel before. Aren’t you lucky?”
    â€œShut up,” Kaj told him.
    â€œDon’t you like to talk?” Drummer asked innocently. “Good conversation is like ambrosia to the human intellect.”
    Kaj squinted at him. “What?”
    The other two guards came back into the foyer. “Everything is in order,” Javelin said, with a sharp glance at Kaj. He escorted Drummer into a parlor and indicated a divan upholstered in sunrise colors. “Have a seat.”
    Drummer had no objection. He was exhausted. As he sat down, Kaj spoke curtly. “Sideways.”
    Drummer turned to the side, and Kaj sat behind him. When Kaj untied his wrists, Drummer barely restrained his groan of relief. His shoulders ached, and his limbs felt like dead slabs, but he had no doubt sensation would return with a vengeance. He would have winced, except he didn’t want Kaj to see his discomfort.
    Kaj stood up and looked down at him with his arms crossed. “Don’t make trouble. These rooms have no windows and only one exit, which is locked and guarded.”
    Javelin frowned at Kaj, then spoke to Drummer with courtesy. “You may rest. This suite and everything in it is for your use.”
    â€œWhat will happen to me?” Drummer asked.
    Javelin hesitated. “I don’t think you will be harmed.”
    That statement hardly rang with confidence. “Does that mean I might be?”
    â€œEnough!” Kaj said. He spoke to Javelin. “Havej and I can stand guard here while you attend Her Majesty.”
    So Havej was the third guard, the one who wanted a drink. Drummer sympathized. He could use a good strong one himself.
    â€œCan I get my glittar back?” Drummer asked.
    Kaj’s face flushed with anger, but Javelin spoke quickly, before the other guard could respond. “I’ll check.”
    After the guards left, Drummer lay on the divan. Closing his eyes, he silently cursed his fate. After a few minutes of dramatic brooding, he decided his time would be better spent exploring his sumptuous prison.
    The rooms were gorgeous, with golden furniture and sunrise mosaics. For a prison, he could have done worse. He had, in fact, many times. At least in those cases, he had known he would be released soon. He had no idea why he was here, though he would lay odds it had to do with his sister being queen of Harsdown. He couldn’t imagine any other reason for Taka Mal to bother with him. It scared him, despite his facade of nonchalance with his guards.
    He found a bowl of fruit and feasted on bananas, grapes, and oranges. He supposed he should have worried about poison. If they had wanted to kill him, though, they could have already done it plenty of times. In the bathing room, he washed up in the pool, which was tiled with designs of blue roses. His guards apparently didn’t consider him dangerous, for they had left the razor on a stand in the bathing room. He shaved the stubble on his chin. Then he wandered naked into the bedroom.
    Drummer