Blake Charlton - Spellbound - Book 2 of the Spellwright Trilogy

To my mother, Louise Bryden Buck, M.D.,

for patient love and lessons in healing

As for the poem, one dragon, however hot, does not make a summer, or a host; and a man might well exchange for one good dragon what he would not sell for a wilderness. And dragons, real dragons, essential both to the machinery and the ideas of a poem or tale, are actually rare.

—J. R. R. TOLKIEN,

“Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”

He is at once a stratum of the earth and a streamer in the air, no painted dragon but a figure of real oneiric power, one that can easily survive the prejudices which arise at the very mention of the word “dragon.”

—SEAMUS HEANEY

Introduction to his translation of Beowulf

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Map

Chapter One

Francesca did not realize she had used an indefinite pronoun…

Chapter Two

Suddenly conscious, Shannon dropped the text he had been holding.

Chapter Three

High up in Avel’s sanctuary, Nicodemus crouched in a dark…

Chapter Four

With Deirdre in her arms, Francesca charged up the eastern…

Chapter Five

Shannon ran to the window and thrust his hand into…

Chapter Six

Francesca’s hands tingled. Whatever cloth Deirdre ripped must have loosed…

Chapter Seven

The warkite was written on an eight-foot-long strip of white…

Chapter Eight

As Francesca fell from the lofting kite, her eyes met…

Chapter Nine

Shannon-the-text touched his fingertips to those of Shannon-who-still-lived. Golden light…

Chapter Ten

When the lofting kite rose to a height above the…

Chapter Eleven

An unseen wartext blasted the ghost’s right arm into a…

Chapter Twelve

When Cyrus and Francesca were flying above the Auburn Mountains,…

Chapter Thirteen

Squinting in the sunlight, Nicodemus examined his school of five…

Chapter Fourteen

When consciousness returned, Deirdre found her eyes filled with tears.

Chapter Fifteen

Francesca opened her eyes as something hard dug into her…

Chapter Sixteen

Cyrus had just removed the spells from Francesca’s robes when…

Chapter Seventeen

The secluded Hall of Ambassadors stood three stories up on…

Chapter Eighteen

Francesca followed Cyrus down several hallways to a narrow room…

Chapter Nineteen

Suddenly, Francesca was light-headed.

Chapter Twenty

Anxiously, the ghost reexamined the contents of Francesca DeVega’s bedroom:…

Chapter Twenty-One

In a dream, Francesca had diagnosed an inflamed appendix in…

Chapter Twenty-Two

Cyrus landed his rig in the South Market. Most days…

Chapter Twenty-Three

Deirdre pulled her shawl around her shoulders. She was standing…

Chapter Twenty-Four

Cyrus followed Francesca through the labyrinthine alleys until they left…

Chapter Twenty-Five

Once they were back on the street, Cyrus walked close…

Chapter Twenty-Six

One monster jumped forward to land an overhand hatchet strike…

Chapter Twenty-Seven

At first Cyrus struggled against the spellbindings, but he was…

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Cyrus scanned the sky above the line of watchmen. “There…

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Cyrus looked down at his robes. Only a thin network…

Chapter Thirty

The bluemoon hung as a bright shard among the skeins…

Chapter Thirty-One

“What under the holy sky do you mean we’re being…

Chapter Thirty-Two

The wind picked up as Nicodemus took his students over…

Chapter Thirty-Three

Shortly after dawn, the rain clouds rolled away from Avel…

Chapter Thirty-Four

Deirdre chewed her lip while looking at the loose pages…

Chapter Thirty-Five

“I believe everything you said,” Francesca said to Vivian, “except…

Chapter Thirty-Six

Vivian’s palms went cold as she listened to Lotannu try…

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Before anything else, Francesca became aware of the hot, musty…

Chapter Thirty-Eight

On their trek through the savanna, Francesca thought about snide…

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Francesca supposed that it was an hour or two after…

Chapter Forty

Francesca burst from the cabin into sunlight and chaos. Uprooted…

Chapter Forty-One

Cyrus had been in the wind marshal’s quarters only once…

Chapter Forty-Two

Francesca had always thought of airships as flying boats. She…

Chapter Forty-Three

Nicodemus tried to sleep as they waited for darkness.

Chapter Forty-Four

Francesca couldn’t sleep. Cyrus lay next to her in the…

Chapter Forty-Five

Francesca woke in a tent lightening with dawn. It took…

Chapter Forty-Six

As Captain Izem brought the Queen’s Lance around to approach…

Chapter Forty-Seven

When the bleeding stopped, Francesca dabbed the blood from the…

Chapter Forty-Eight

Sitting on a ruined crate, Lotannu pulled a blanket around…

Chapter Forty-Nine

Midmorning sunlight slanted through the redwood forest as Nicodemus rode…

Chapter Fifty

When marching into battle, druids wore plates of wooden armor,…

Chapter Fifty-One

The Queen’s Lance had covered half the distance to the…

Chapter Fifty-Two

Shannon woke when someone took his hand. He had been…

Epilogue

Starfall Island rose out of the blue horizon. Its forested…

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Other Books by Blake Charlton

Copyright

About the Publisher

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