Dragon Weather (73 page)

He wondered whether the dagger had really been broken, or whether Black had not seen its black blade in the darkness. In any case, it had been left behind and was lost forever.

But he knew now that obsidian could be used against dragons, at least sometimes, in some circumstances, against some dragons. That might be very precious knowledge.

He was bound by oath to reveal it to the Dragon Society—but he was unsure just how and when he would inform the Society, or even whether he would keep his word at all in this case. With Enziet dead the entire purpose of the Dragon Society might well be about to change. The dragons might be returning—if they learned that Enziet was dead, and if no one took his place as the keeper of the secret of draconic reproduction. If he could learn how Enziet had communicated with the dragons, Arlian might take that place. He might need to keep that secret, as Enziet had—and if he kept that, why not another?

And the dragons' secret also meant that Arlian saw the Society in a new light—as the dragons' breeding ground, rather than their foes. That changed
everything.
The Dragon Society was not what it believed itself to be.

But he was not yet ready to deal with such weighty matters. He would need to take time to think them through carefully. There would be time enough for his final decisions when he was back in Manfort.

“So you've almost finished your campaign of revenge,” Rime said, interrupting his thoughts and providing a welcome distraction. “Just Belly and Nail remain, I believe.”

“If I bother with them, yes. And Dagger and Tooth, if I can find them, and perhaps a fellow called Lampspiller,” Arlian said. “They're even less important than the lords, though. But even when I've dealt with all of those, my lady, the campaign is just starting.”

“Oh? It seems to me you don't have much more to do. You've beaten Belly once, and Nail's an old man, and you don't seem very determined to track down the other three.”

“The other three
humans,
” Arlian corrected her. “There are still the dragons—the three that destroyed my village, and the rest of them on general principles.”

“The dragons?” Rime asked.

Arlian nodded. “The dragons are my true foes,” he said. “I intend to destroy them all.” And that almost certainly meant, he realized, that he would have to destroy the Dragon Society itself in time.

And perhaps himself, since he had a dragon growing in his heart.

“That's a lifetime's work, at least,” Rime said. “You
do
know that no man has ever killed a dragon, don't you?”

Arlian smiled.

“I'll find a way,” he said.

TOR BOOKS BY LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS

THE OBSIDIAN CHRONICLES

Dragon Weather

The Dragon Society

Dragon Venom

LEGENDS OF ETHSHAR

Night of Madness

Ithanalin's Restoration

Touched by the Gods

Split Heirs
(with Esther Friesner)

THE ANNALS OF THE CHOSEN

The Wizard Lord

The Ninth Talisman

The Summer Palace

THE FALL OF THE SORCERERS

A Young Man Without Magic

Above His Proper Station

 

 

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

DRAGON WEATHER

Copyright © 1999 by Lawrence Watt-Evans

All rights reserved.

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-13: 978-0-8125-8955-9

ISBN-10: 0-8125-8955-6

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-32903

First Edition: October 1999

First Mass Market Edition: December 2000

eISBN 9781466840195

First eBook edition: February 2013