The Fire Dragon. Katharine Kerr

      KATHARINE KERR

      THE FIRE DRAGON

       Book Three of The Dragon Mage

COPYRIGHT

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      HarperVoyager

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Voyager 2000

      Copyright © Katharine Kerr 2000

      Katharine Kerr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan–American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on–screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse–engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or here in after invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780006482611

      Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007375387

      Version: 2017-05-02

DEDICATION

       For my grandfather,

       John Brahtin

       He gave me my social conscience

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

      Author's Note

Part One

       Part Two

       Epilogue

       Keep Reading

       Appendices

       Glossary

       Acknowledgements

       About the Author

       Also by the Author

       About the Publisher

       AUTHOR’S NOTE

      It occurs to me that readers might find it helpful to know something about the overall structure of the Deverry series. From the beginning of this rather large enterprise, I have had an actual ending in mind, a set of events that should wrap up all the books in a dramatic conclusion. It’s merely taken me much longer to get there than I ever thought it would.

      If you think of Deverry as a stage play, the sets of books make up its acts. Act One consists of the Deverry books proper, that is, Daggerspell, Darkspell, Dawnspell, and Dragonspell. The ‘Westlands’ books, A Time of Exile, A Time of Omens, A Time of War, and A Time of Justice, make up Act Two, while Act Three will unfold in the current quartet, ‘The Dragon Mage,’ that is, The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, and its ‘sister’, The Fire Dragon. The Gold Falcon will bring the sequence to its end at last.

      As for the way that the series alternates between past and present lives, think of the structure of a line of Celtic interlace, some examples of which have decorated the various books in this set. Although each knot appears to be a separate figure, when you look closely you can see that they are actually formed from one continuous line. Similarly, this line weaves over and under itself to form the figures. A small section of line seems to run over or under another line to form a knot.

      The past incarnations of the characters in this book and their present tense story really are one continuous line, but this line interweaves to form the individual volumes. Eventually – soon, I hope – the pattern will complete itself, and you will be able to see that the set of books forms a circle of knots.

       Katharine Kerr

PART ONE

      Deverry Spring, 850

      The year 850. The gods saw fit to give our prince the victory, but never had we dreamt how high a price they would set for it.

       The Holy Chronicles of Lughcarn

      Sunlight streamed into the tower room and pooled on the wooden floor. Grey gnomes with spindle legs and warty faces materialized in the warmth and lolled like cats. Despite his great age, Nevyn felt tempted to join them. He sat in the chamber’s only chair and considered his apprentice, who was sitting cross-legged among the gnomes. She turned her face up to the sun and ran one hand through her blond hair, which fell to her shoulders in a ragged wave.

      ‘Spring’s truly here,’ Lilli said. ‘I’m so glad of it, and yet I dread summer. You must, too.’

      ‘I do,’ Nevyn said. ‘It won’t be long now before the army rides out, and the gods only know what the battles will bring.’

      ‘Just so. All I can do is pray that Branoic rides home safely.’

      ‘You’ve grown truly fond of Branoic, haven’t you?’

      ‘I