Free The Last Dragon Chronicles: The Fire Ascending by Chris D'Lacey

reached into his jerkin and pulled out my tapestry. He spread it out on the ground and weighted the corners with four loose stones.
    “You’re going to tell me exactly what you saw with the tornaq. And I’d ask you not to dither. I still have a destiny to fulfil with the dragon.”
    I pitched a little and began to cough. A flare of pain all around my left cheekbone

    reminded me of the blow I’d taken. From
    the cave there came a high-pitched wail. A woman in pain. Voss ignored it, but took a little pity on me. “Give him water.”
    Grella looked towards the cave, then uncertainly at Voss.
    He ran his knuckles down the side of
    her face, pushing back her tumbling yellow hair. “When I give an order, you obey me, remember?”
    “Yes, Lord,” she said. She hurried to my side. The unicorn let out a quiet whinny.
    Grella took a water pouch from her belt and offered it up to my dry, cracked lips. “Don’t speak to me,” she whispered. “He’ll be watching for that.” I filled my mouth with the warlord’s water. Its

    coolness was a welcome relief for my
    throat.
    From the cave came another awful
    wail.
    Voss swung his body towards his men. “Gunn,” he barked. “Go and quieten thewitch.”
    Gunn, the overweight thug who’d struckme, threw a wary look towards the cave. “I ain’t good with nippers,” he said.
    Voss drew the unicorn horn.
    “All right,” Gunn said, clambering to his feet. For a man with several layers of fat, he could run like a startled rabbit when threatened.
    But even as Voss put the horn away, Gunn was back again, run out of the caveby the sibyl’s screams.

    “It’s coming,” he said. “She wants you,
    Voss.”
    “I’m busy,” Voss growled.
    “Well, it ain’t a pretty sight.”
    “Nor are you,” Voss argued. “Now get
    back in there and stuff her mouth.”
    Gunn looked at his friends. Theyshrugged and went back to their dice.
    Voss turned towards me again.
    While their argument had been takingplace, I had managed a swift exchangewith Grella:
    “What’s happening in the cave?”
    “Voss made a vile potion for Hilde –
    from the stem of the unicorn’s horn.”
    The oozing fluid. “He poisoned her?”
    “No. She’s birthing a child.”
    So Eirik hadn’t been lying about that.

    “Why did Hilde take you?”
    “To calm the unicorn. When it passed through Taan it knew I was there and tried to leave Voss. Be quiet now. Drink.”
    “One last thing.”
    She frowned. Voss was about to turn.
    “Why did you draw the child on the tapestry?”
    Her face turned as pale as the falling snow. “I didn’t,” she whispered. “She appeared by herself.” She thrust the water pouch back to my lips.
    “Enough,” Voss barked.
    Grella, head bowed, pulled away.
    “Well, boy? What have you to say about this?” He jutted his chin at the tapestry.
    “I saw many things with the tornaq,” I said. I swallowed and added, “Too many

    to remember.”
    Voss sighed. He stroked his beardtwice. “It’s a long drop, boy. You’ll havetime to remember every crack in everyrock if you don’t start talking.” He pointedthe joint of meat at the image. “The dragonis writing. What did you see?”
    And suddenly, I knew a way to free myhands. “A symbol.”
    “A symbol?” He tilted his head.
    “I can’t describe it – but I could draw it
    for you.”
    He looked at me and chuckled, a clear indication that my plan was as plain as the night sky above. He pulled the hunting knife out of his boot and shaved off a
    sliver of meat from the joint. “If I have to ask you again, apprentice, I’ll cut off your

    toes and make you hobble to your death. What did you see the dragon writing?”
    I looked at Grella.   Just tell him , she mouthed. But I didn’t need to. I happened to glance down at the tapestry just then. And there, very small, but also very clear on the dragon’s parchment were the three curved   lines   that   translated