A Crown Imperilled
The penultimate volume of the mighty Riftwar CycleWar rages in Midkemia but behind the chaos there is disquieting evidence of dark forces at work.Jim Dasher’s usually infallible intelligence network has been cleverly dismantled; nowhere is safe. He feels that the world is coming apart at the seams and is helpless to protect his nation.Quiet palace coups are underway in Roldem and Rillanon; and King Gregory of the Isles has yet to produce an heir. In each kingdom a single petty noble has risen from obscurity to threaten the throne.Lord Hal of Crydee and his great friend Ty Hawkins, champion swordsman of the Masters’ Court, are entrusted with the task of smuggling Princess Stephané and her lady-in-waiting, the lovely but mysterious Lady Gabriella, out of Roldem to a place of greater safety. But is there any safe haven to be found?Meanwhile, Hal’s younger brothers Martin and Brendan are attempting to hold the strategic city of Ylith against an onslaught of Keshian Dog Soldiers, and a mysterious force from beneath the sea. The Kingdom might lose Crydee and recover; but if Ylith falls, all is lost.An unknown player appears to orchestrating these conflicts. Can Pug and the Conclave of Shadows track down this source before Midkemia is destroyed?
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RAYMOND E. FEIST
A CROWN IMPERILLED
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2012
Copyright © Raymond E. Feist 2012
Raymond E. Feist asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Ebook Edition © January 2012 ISBN: 9780007290185
Version: 2016-01-13
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Source ISBN: 9780007264827
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2012 ISBN: 9780007290185 Version: 2018-12-04
This oneâs for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; you know who you are.
Table of Contents
⢠PROLOGUE â¢
Awakenings
MIGHTY DRAGONS RACED THROUGH THE SKIES.
Hurricane-force winds struck his face, yet the rider sat confidently astride the neck of his scaled ebony mount; his to command by will alone. Arcane arts kept him firmly in place, and exultation energized every fibre of his being as the Dragon Host rode out in search of conquest.
Never in the long history of the Valheru had the entire Dragon Host risen united.
The entire Host, save one. Dark emotions turned quickly to rage. The white-and-gold rider was absent. Ashen-Shugar: the only dissenter within the Host.
But the absence of the father-brother did not signify. The Valheru had answered his call, and Draken-Korin had taken his rightful place as leader of the Dragon Host.
He watched mad energies race through the skies above the dragon riders, flashing colours of blinding brilliance as energy vortexes and tears in the fabric of space and time exploded into spectrums invisible to mortal eyes, but perfectly clear to his Valheru vision.
His vision shifted; memories fading as others resurfaced. The cavern, once the Lord of the Tigersâ seat of power, was dark. That didnât concern him since his vision was far sharper than any mortalâs, but he missed the warmth of torches and ⦠Where were his servants?
He tried to lift his left arm and pain tore through his shoulder. He had not felt pain like this since â¦
Images cascaded through his mind as he relived the memories of ages past.
He felt his first breath and heard a contemptuous mother curse him as her servants carried him away. Elven slaves brought him newborn to a clearing in the warm, damp forest, and without any tenderness left him on top of a large rock. To live or die by his own strength.
He remembered extending his infant senses, a primitive assessment of danger and threat; he felt no sense of fear, only compelling need. His instincts emerged at need, drawing upon ancestral memories shared since the dawn of creation. The forest was deep, and he sensed predators on every side. The most dangerous, now receding, were of his own race.
Valheru.
A pack of golden jackals sniffed the air, seeking the source of the tempting hint of birthing blood, their heads up and their senses alert. They had left their den as the sun set in the west, to hunt.
The child felt them move closer, the scent of his birth summoning his death. He reached out and sent a blast of hate and anger at the troop.
The jackals stopped, and cringed. Then, ears flattened, they continued to skulk towards the architect of the mental assault, hunger outweighing their fear.
Another presence ⦠nearby. He reached out and instantly recognized the massive predator. But this time instead of danger he discovered contentment there, a warm, nurturing feeling that felt alien, but also compelling. He reached out once more and formed a simple command.
Come.
The tigress leapt to her feet, ignoring the plaintive mewing of her cubs, and bounded down the hill towards the tiny thing that coerced her.
The jackals approached the exposed infant cautiously, knowing that it possessed dangerous abilities, yet driven by the need to feast. Then another scent arrived on the wind and they halted.
The massive tiger charged into the clearing next to the infant and roared a challenge.
