Robin Hobb - City of Dragons

City of Dragons

Volume Three of the Rain Wilds Chronicles

Robin Hobb

To the Little Red Hen

Contents

Tintaglia and Icefyre

The Duke and the Captive

Dragon Battle

Pathways

Kelsingra

A Bingtown Trader

Marked by the Rain Wilds

Dragon Dreams

Other Lives

Return to Cassarick

Kidnapped

Flight

Illumination

Second Thoughts

Shopping

Strange Bedfellows

Homeward Bound

THE RAIN WILDS CHRONICLES

KEEPERS AND DRAGONS

ALUM: Pale skin, silvery gray eyes. Very small ears. Nose almost flat. His dragon is ARBUC, a silver-green male. Courting Skelly.

BOXTER: Cousin to Kase. Coppery-eyed, short, stoutly built. His dragon is an orange male, SKRIM.

HARRIKIN: Tall and slim, at twenty he is older than most of the other keepers. Lecter is his foster brother. Linked with Sylve. His dragon is RANCULOS, a red male with silver eyes.

ICEFYRE: An ancient black dragon, once entrapped in ice until freed by human intervention (also appears in Fools Fate ).

JERD: A blond female keeper, heavily marked by the Rain Wilds. Her dragon is VERAS, a queen, dark green with gold stippling.

KASE: Boxters cousin. He has copper eyes and is short, wide, and muscular. His dragon is the orange male DORTEAN.

LECTER: Orphaned at seven, raised by Harrikins family. His dragon is SESTICAN, a large blue male, with orange scaling and small spikes on his neck. Partnered with Davvie.

NORTEL: A competent and ambitious keeper. His dragon is the lavender male TINDER.

RAPSKAL: A heavily marked keeper. His dragon is the small red queen HEEBY.

SYLVE: The youngest of the keepers but mature and thoughtful for her age. Linked with Harrikin. Her dragon is the golden male MERCOR.

THYMARA: Sixteen years old; has black claws instead of nails and is at home in the trees. Good hunting skills. Her dragon is a blue queen, SINTARA.

TATS: The only keeper to have been born a slave. He is tattooed on the face with a small horse and a spiderweb. His dragon is the smallest queen, green FENTE.

TINTAGLIA: An adult queen dragon, she assisted serpents to journey up the river to cocoon. It has been years since she has been seen in the Rain Wilds. Currently paired with ICEFYRE, an ancient black dragon.

WARKEN: A tall, long-limbed keeper who lost his life on the journey upriver. His dragon, BALIPER, a scarlet male, has not chosen a new keeper.

THE BINGTOWNERS

ALISE KINCARRON FINBOK: Comes from a poor but respectable Bingtown Trader family. The dragon expert. Married to Hest Finbok. Gray eyes, red hair, many freckles. Now involved with Leftrin.

HEST FINBOK: A handsome, well-established, and wealthy Bingtown Trader.

SEDRIC MELDAR: Secretary and former lover to Hest Finbok, and friends with Alise since childhood. Bonded with the copper queen dragon RELPDA. Partnered with Carson Lupskip.

REDDING: Hests current paramour and Sedrics replacement. Greedy Bingtown Trader stock.

TRADER FINBOK: Hests father, a very successful Bington Trader. Married to Sealia Finbok.

THE CREW OF THE TARMAN

BELLIN: Deckhand. Married to Swarge.

BIG EIDER: Deckhand. A large, powerful man of simple thoughts.

CARSON LUPSKIP: Hunter for the expedition. Leftrins old friend. Keeper of SPIT, a small, temperamental, and dangerous silver dragon. Partnered with Sedric.

DAVVIE: Apprentice hunter to Carson Lupskip. About fifteen years old. Bonded to KALO, the largest blue-black dragon, after the death of Greft, Kalos previous keeper. Partnered with Lecter.

GRIGSBY: Ships cat. Orange and obnoxious.

HENNESEY: First mate on the Tarman and something of a ladies man.

JESS: Hired hunter for the expedition and traitor. Lost his life on the journey upriver.

LEFTRIN: Captain. Robust build, gray eyes, brown hair.

SKELLY: Deckhand. Leftrins niece and presumed heir. Infatuated with Alum but has a fianc in Trehaug.

SWARGE: Tillerman. He has been with the Tarman for more than fifteen years. Married to Bellin.

TARMAN: A river barge, long and low. Oldest existing liveship. Home port Trehaug.

MISCELLANEOUS CHARACTERS

ALTHEA VESTRIT: First mate, Paragon out of Bingtown. Aunt to Malta Khuprus (also appears in the Liveship Traders trilogy).

BEGASTI CORED: Chalcedean merchant; bald, rich trading partner of Hest Finbok.

BRASHEN TRELL: Captain of the Paragon out of Bingtown (also appears in the Liveship Traders trilogy).

CHASSIM: Daughter of the Duke of Chalced. Widowed several times and still part of the Dukes household.

DETOZI: Keeper of the messenger birds at Trehaug. Engaged to Erek.

DUKE OF CHALCED: Chalceds dictator, elderly and ailing.

ELLIK: Chancellor to the Duke of Chalced, and his sword arm.

EREK: Keeper of the messenger birds at Bingtown.

JANI KHUPRUS: Rain Wild Trader and mother of Reyn Khuprus and Tillamon.

KIM: Keeper of the Birds, Cassarick. A Tattooed, a former slave who came to the Rain Wilds seeking a better life.

MALTA KHUPRUS: The Elderling queen, resides in Trehaug. Married to Reyn Khuprus. Changed to an Elderling by the dragon Tintaglia (also appears in the Liveship Traders trilogy).

PARAGON: A liveship. Helped escort the sea serpents up the river to the cocooning grounds. Not completely stable (also appears in Mad Ship ).

REYN KHUPRUS: Younger son of a powerful Rain Wild Trader family. Changed to an Elderling by the dragon Tintaglia. Married to Malta (also appears in the Liveship Traders trilogy).

SELDEN VESTRIT: A young Elderling; Maltas brother and Altheas nephew. Missing for some time after setting out on a mission to search for other surviving dragons (also appears in the Liveship Traders trilogy).

SINAD ARICH: Chalcedean merchant who strikes a deal with Leftrin, via blackmail.

THE CHALCEDEAN: Hests nemesis. A Chalcedean nobleman, willing to do anything to obtain dragon parts for the Duke.

TILLAMON: Sister to Reyn, heavily marked by the Rain Wilds. Older than Reyn; unwed and likely to remain so.

TINTAGLIA AND ICEFYRE

S he rode the air currents easily, her legs sleeked tight against her body, her wings spread wide. On the undulating desert sands below, her rippling shadow showed her as a serpentine creature with batlike wings and a long, finned tail. Tintaglia thrummed deep in her throat, a purr of pleasure in the day. They had hunted at dawn and hunted well. They had made their separate kills, as they always did, and spent the morning in feasting and then sleep. Now, smeared still with the blood and offal of the hunt, the two dragons had another goal in mind.

Ahead and slightly below her, Icefyre was a gleaming black shape. His long body flexed as he shifted his weight to catch and ride the wind. His torso was thicker and heavier than hers, his body longer. Her featherlike scaling glittered a scintillating blue, but he was an even black all over. His long encasement in ice had taken a toll on his body, one that was taking years to heal. His larger wings still had rents in the heavy webbing between the finger ribs. The smaller injuries to his body were long gone, but the tears in his wings would knit more slowly, and the welted scars of their healing would always be visible. Unlike her own azure perfection. Out of the corners of her eyes, Tintaglia admired her glittering wings.

As if he sensed her lack of attention to him, Icefyre banked abruptly and began his circling descent. She knew their destination. Not too far away a rocky ridge erupted above the sand. Stunted trees and gray-green brush populated its jagged edges and rough gullies. Just before the brushy ridge was a hidden oasis, in a wide, sandy basin, surrounded by a scatter of trees. The water rose from the depths of the earth to form a wide, still pool. Even in winter, the depression cupped the days warmth. They would spend their early afternoon soaking in the sun-warmed waters of the oasis to cleanse the blood from their hides and then rolling luxuriantly in the rough sand to polish their scales. They knew the spot well. They varied their hunting grounds over a wide range, but every ten days or so, Icefyre led them back here. He claimed it was a place he remembered from his distant youth.