new change, to tolerate starting his life over again once more, in a home he might not even be able to keep.
Tek carried him to Platt’s side, Snakekiller right beside him, and together they stepped out of the mists on the mountainside.
“Oh,” Snakekiller said. Then again, “Oh.”
“It’s not what I thought,” Aron murmured, staring in disbelief at the sight below him.
Not a valley. Not a castle.
A wide and vast kingdom, stretching as far as he could see, north and south, east and west. A wonder of mountains and ivory lattice and heartwood towers studded with crystals. It was Adamantine wed to grasslands, and rivers and lakes, and everything in between. This was a countryside and structures made for creatures who flew and ran and rode. A dynast unto itself, hidden so far south, beyond the land of the dead.
Aron tried to breathe, and had to push his chest with his hand to succeed.
Snakekiller slipped off her talon and shifted into the great viper Aron had seen her become on the battlefield at Triune. With a hiss of rapture, she leaped from the edge of the mountain, her coils striking the ground as she made for the brilliant lands below. Her bull talon took off after her, his big clawfeet stamping rocks and grass as he ran.
“Now that,” Platt said, watching Snakekiller go, “is one fine woman.” He gestured to a white dragon winging toward them across the sun-drenched sky, letting off jets of flame. “Go, Aron. Fly with Kate. I’ll take care of Tek, and I’ll see you later at my tower, for dinner.”
Aron’s heart hammered as Kate drew closer, closer, reaching toward him with her mind, even as he reached back to touch the simple beauty of her thoughts. Since Aron had used his graal to help Kate master her thoughts and emotions, she gave off none of the carnivorous threat she or the other Stregans had in Eyrie. Even as a dragon, she seemed to retain the awareness that she was also Kate, and he was Aron, and she was happy to see him.
Thinking of Nic and how Nic’s wings had opened to carry Eyrie into a new and brighter future, Aron abandoned caution and leaped off the mountain.
Kate swept under Aron and caught him, and Aron knew Nic’s joy as his own.
Welcome, Kate said in his mind, and the sound seemed to stretch out for miles. Welcome, Aron.
As he sailed through the sky with Kate, Aron let the energy that rose from this city—no, this land—of dragons wrap him in its bright rainbow of hues and colors. Infused by such guileless, honest power, Aron understood that he had a destiny, a fate beyond Harvest and his lost family. Beyond Stone. Beyond his many mistakes and transgressions—even beyond the father so recently restored to him.
Aron’s graal glowed within his mind and essence, bathing him in those truths.
“Take me up,” he shouted to Kate. Then in his mind, Take me all the way to the clouds.
Kate’s wings gave a mighty push, and as they rose ever higher above the haven below, Aron felt nothing but joy and freedom, nothing but his own power and Kate’s, and the endless, perfect rushing of the winds.
S R VAUGHT is the author of Stormwitch, Trigger, My Big Fat Manifesto, and Exposed. She is a neuropsychologist working with adolescents. She lives with her family and many animals in Kentucky.
J B REDMOND is a lifelong fantasy fan who, because of cerebral palsy, used a tape recorder to tell this story. It was transcribed and added to by his coauthor (and mother), S R Vaught. He lives in Kentucky.
ALSO BY S R VAUGHT AND J B REDMOND
Oathbreaker: Assassin’s Apprentice
Text copyright © 2009 by S R Vaught and J B Redmond
Maps copyright © 2009 by Laura Hartman Maestro
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in the United States of America in December 2009
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
E-book edition published in April 2011
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
The Library of Congress has cataloged the paperback edition as follows:
Vaught, Susan.
A prince among killers / by S.R. Vaught and J.B. Redmond.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm. — (Oathbreaker; pt. 2)
Summary: Assassin’s guild apprentice Aron, his master, Stormbreaker, his teacher, Dari, and his mysterious acquaintance, Nic, join their formidable talents of mind and body as they battle the leaders who want to destroy their land.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59990-376-7 • ISBN-10: 1-59990-376-8 (paperback)
[1. Fantasy.] I. Redmond, J. B. II. Title.
PZ7.V4673Pri 2009 [Fic]—dc22 2009007625
ISBN 978-1-59990-800-7 (e-book)
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Code of Eyrie
Map
Introduction
PART IV Eltagh FATE CHOOSES
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR ARON
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE ARON
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX ARON
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN ARON
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT DARI
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE DARI
CHAPTER FORTY DARI
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE DARI
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO ARON
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE ARON
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR ARON
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE ARON
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX ARON
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN ARON
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT ARON
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE NIC
CHAPTER FIFTY ARON
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE ARON
PART V Eldruidh FATE STRIKES
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO NIC
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE ARON
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR ARON
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE ARON
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX ARON
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN DARI
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT ARON
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE NIC
CHAPTER SIXTY ARON
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE DARI
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO DARI
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE ARON
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR NIC
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE DARI
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX NIC
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN ARON
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT NIC
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE ARON
CHAPTER SEVENTY DARI
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE NIC
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO ARON
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE ARON
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR NIC
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE ARON
Also by S R Vaught and J B Redmond
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