City of Dragons

City of Dragons
Robin Hobb

‘Fantasy as it ought to be written’ George R.R. MartinReturn to the world of the Liveships Traders and journey along the Rain Wild River in this fantastic adventure from the author of the internationally acclaimed Farseer trilogy..The dragon keepers and fledgling dragons have discovered a route to the lost city of Kelsingra but there is one problem: they need to be able to fly to cross the treacherous waters and enter the fabled city. At first, only a few dragons are willing to try – the others are either too ashamed of their deformed wings and feeble muscles or too proud to risk failure and humiliation.But the rewards waiting at Kelsingra for those brave enough to take to the air are worth more than they could possibly imagine. This was a city built for dragons and their keepers. Alise Finbok is overwhelmed by the treasures she finds there, and spends hours carefully uncovering wonder after wonder, recording her findings for posterity. She knows the knowledge will change everything the world thought about dragons and the Elderlings.Yet rumours of the city’s discovery have floated down the Rain Wild River and reached envious ears in Bingtown and beyond. Adventurers, pirates and fortune hunters are coming in droves to pillage what they can from the city. Will the dragons, only just finding their strength, and their keepers, who are changing in their own mysterious ways, be able to fend them off?And what has happened to Tintaglia, the dragon-mother who started it all? Has she really abandoned her offspring forever? Or will she too return to seek the riches of Kelsingra…

ROBIN HOBB

City of Dragons

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 (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2012

Copyright © Robin Hobb 2012

Robin Hobb 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

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 ebook 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 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: 9780007273805

Ebook Edition © April 2012 ISBN: 978000729026 0

Version: 2017-10-06

To the Little Red Hen

Table of Contents

Title Page (#u9a1b9892-13c7-5452-81b7-a55aeb296355)

Copyright (#u6ed07f41-c7c1-5344-9c75-f51be774d136)

Dedication (#u157eee08-90f8-5e5a-803d-c7363fc6b5f9)

Prologue: Tintaglia and IceFyre (#u05981894-fd09-510d-91fe-f65aa707204b)

Chapter One: The Duke and The Captive (#uf36fd1d6-3657-559d-ae50-a266c609fcda)

Chapter Two: Dragon Battle (#uc93d6839-14b8-55f8-8ccc-682de0c9d745)

Chapter Three: Pathways (#u412f2a35-ad1a-525a-b27a-5713e9878260)

Chapter Four: Kelsingra (#ud60e2597-e610-55bd-8075-1f516d49920d)

Chapter Five: A Bingtown Trader (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six: Marked by the Rain Wilds (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven: Dragon Dreams (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight: Other Lives (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine: Return to Cassarick (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten: Kidnapped (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven: Flight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve: Illumination (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen: Second Thoughts (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen: Shopping (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen: Strange Bedfellows (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue: Homeward Bound (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

By Robin Hobb (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

PROLOGUE

Tintaglia and IceFyre

She 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 bat-like 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.