The Ruin by Richard Lee Byers Read Free Book Online Page B

breath, yes with the next.”
    Pavel sneered. “It’s better to be able to think two contradictory thoughts than none at all.”
    “So,” said Raryn, tufts of his silvery mane sticking out every which way, “it comes down to this. Maybe the Hermit is real, maybe it isn’t. The only way to know is go look.”
    “If we think the trip worthwhile,” Kara said, “and I do. I suspect we’ve learned all we can on these steppes.”
    “And ‘all,’” said Will, “wasn’t much. But we could swing south. Head toward the Great Dale.”
    Taegan grinned. “At least it would be warmer. We could enjoy another taste of genuine summer before the season
    passes away. But the one thing we know about the ancient elves’ citadel is that it stands somewhere in the far north. We’re more likely to find clues to its whereabouts if we poke around in the same vicinity.”
    “I agree,” said Dorn.
    “Sounds like we’re all of the same mind,” said Will. “Go hunt the Hermit, and if it turns out we’re dropping our bucket in a dry well, we’ll just have to hope Azhaq, Llimark, or one of our other partners finds the lost castle, or whatever the place turns out to be.” He glanced toward the eastern sky, where black was beginning to lighten to gray. “No point trying to go back to sleep now. Want to start breakfast?”
    “We’re not done conferring,” Brimstone whispered. “When you reach the hills, I’ll start traveling with you. Obviously, that will require you to journey by night and rest by day.”
    “No,” Pavel said. “It’s too dangerous for us to have you lurking around all the time. You proved it by attacking the Nars.”
    Brimstone spat sparks and acrid smoke. “You traveled with me before and took no harm, and if the Hermit is as dangerous as the nomads claim, you may well need me.”
    Dorn turned to Pavel. “I don’t trust the thing, either,” he said, “but he can be useful. If he turns on us, you and I will just have to kill him.”
    Pavel smiled crookedly. “I’ll hold you to that. Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I have a sunrise to celebrate.”
    He walked a few paces away, to a spot where he enjoyed an unobstructed view of the eastern horizon, spread his arms wide, and started to chant. Perhaps he flashed a grin when the sacred words made Brimstone hiss, spread his dark gray wings, and fly away.

CHAPTER TWO
    25 Eleint, the Year of Rogue Dragons
     
    The hobgoblins had left signs, white stones arranged into glyphs on the ground and symbols hacked into tree bark, for those able to interpret them. Raryn could, but didn’t need the warnings to sense the blight infecting the wooded hillsides, though most of the manifestations were subtle.
    The trees weren’t monstrously deformed, but a little stunted and twisted, and already dropping their leaves as if resigned to the advent of autumn. Night birds fluttered from limb to limb, and animals scurried in the brush, but not often, and when Raryn caught a glimpse of one, it had a starved and mangy look. The gray mist hanging in the air was similarly unsettling. The chill it carried couldn’t bother him, but it felt slimy as well as wet.
    Of course, even if a traveler missed all that, the horses’ refusal to proceed beyond a certain point had been the final giveaway.
    Yes, something inimical had taken root there. The question, though, was whether it was the Nars’ Hermit or something less exotic. Offhand, Raryn could think of several creatures whose mere presence acted to corrupt the air, earth, and water in their environs. He and his partners sometimes earned their pay hunting them, and as often as not, it was Raryn’s job to range ahead of the others, looking for sign, spying out the lay of the land, and making sure they didn’t all blunder into danger in one clump.
    He was performing the same function while Taegan and Jivex scouted from the air. With luck, somebody would spot something informative before they all probed too much deeper into this