Dragon Breeder 3 by Dante King (e novels to read online .TXT) 📕

I looked from this newcomer to Old Sleazy.

“Relation of yours, is he?” I asked.

“No,” both gnolls said at the same time.

I snorted. I didn’t know why Old Sleazy and the rest of his family were so keen on denying they were related to one another. It was just one of those things.

“The name’s Diggens Azee, fella,” the newcomer said, extending a callused three-fingered hand.

I took it, and we shook.

“How goes it, Diggens?” I said. “I’m Mike Noctis.”

Diggens appeared not to be listening. He’d pulled out a small pie from somewhere and was busy tipping a small vial of some red sauce over the top of it.

“What’ve you got there, Diggens?” Old Sleazy asked.

“Pie,” said Diggens.

“I know that! What kind?”

“Mince and cheese,” Diggens said, taking a huge bite. “With a sauce of squashed tomatoes.”

“Squashed tomatoes sauce?” Old Sleazy scoffed. “That’s the ruddy stupidest, most lowbrow thing I ever heard!”

“And why do you think that me and Diggens here should meet?” I asked Sleazy, making sure to cut this potential pie-related argument off at the roots.

“Well, my cous—my friend, Old Sleazy here reckoned that we should make the introductions, seeing as I’ll be coming along on this little jaunt of yours,” Diggens said through a mouthful of pastry and mince.

“What?” I said.

“Look, fella, on the off-chance that whatever you’re looking for is buried under rubble, I’m going to be the bloke to help you out,” Diggens said. “Many of the old tunnels have caved in since those wankers from the Shadow Nations fled into the Subterranean Realms. For that reason, you’re going to want an excavator or a sapper. Diggens Azee is the bloody best of the bunch.”

Diggens stuck a horny thumb into his own chest and let loose a belch that could probably have collapsed a perfectly sound tunnel.

“And what do you get out of this little deal, if I let you come along?” I asked, deciding to bypass incredulity and cut straight to the chase.

“Well,” Diggens said, “if we stumble across anything of more conventional value—not just valuable to you and your magical nadjas, I mean—I might get to pocket it.”

“Ah, so you offer your services as a quality sapper to us,” I said, “and in return for digging out anything that we might need digging out, you get to go on a treasure hunt with the deadliest escort that anyone could ask for?”

Diggens swallowed the last of his pie. “That’s a bloody cynical way to look at it, fella,” he said, “but yeah, that’d be bloody ripper.”

At that moment, while I mulled over what Ashrin and Jazmyn were likely to say when I suggested this ridiculous individual should join our small party, the two dragonmancers appeared.

Ashrin was finishing off some sort of skewer of barbecued meat, while Jazmyn was alternating between licking grease off her fingers and gnawing the last bit of flesh from a drumstick of some kind. Behind them, soldiers nudged each other and pointed at the two dragonmancers. The eyes of the men and women had that starstruck quality to them that reinforced the impression that Ashrin and Jazmyn were celebrities.

“Ash! Jaz! You lovely specimens, ain’t you a sight for sore eyes!” Old Sleazy said, much to my surprise.

Why are you surprised? I asked myself. The old bastard seems to know absolutely everyone.

“Uh, hey ladies, are we good to go?” I asked the two dragonmancers.

“Oh gods, Old Sleazy,” Ashrin said, ignoring me, “this manticore skewer is unbelievable! What did you marinade it in?”

“That secret is worth more than my life, Ash, you know that,” the gnoll chef said.

“Oh, come on…” Ashrin wheedled.

“I shouldn’t tell ya, but seeing as it’s you...” Old Sleazy said, leaning in. “It’s silk mustard. But, shhhh, don’t you tell a soul! You promise me, you take that one to your grave!”

Jazmyn threw the finished bone into the street and smacked her lips. “And that goddamn fig-infused jackalope haunch was incredible!”

“Yeah,” Old Sleazy said, “that’s a fan favorite around these parts. Ladies, may introduce you to someone that I think it’d be in your best interest to meet...”

While I stood dumbly by, Old Sleazy seamlessly made the introductions. Within about fifteen seconds, he had ingratiated Diggens Azee into our company as easily as if it had been planned all along.

The only thing that Jazmyn said was, “Any friend of yours is a friend of ours, Old Sleazy.”

Ashrin’s only comment to this unexpected addition was to ask whether us taking Diggens along would mean that Old Sleazy would supply us with some of his traveling provisions. The rotund gnoll agreed, grudgingly, that it would.

He was a soft touch when it came to the fairer sex.

“So, Mike,” Diggens said, slapping me on the arm in a matey manner, “you ready to rumble?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, Diggens,” I said, trying to pull my attention away from the sight of the two most revered dragonmancers in town getting along with Old Sleazy like he was a figure of great importance.

“Good,” Diggens said, “because when we go down to the Subterranean Realms, you’ll need to make sure that your top paddock is free of fairies.”

I blinked. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I mean, you’ve got to have your bloody brain switched on, man,” Diggens said. “Do you not speak common, or what?”

“I’ll keep my head in the game, don’t you worry,” I said.

“Fucking oath you will,” Diggens said. “There’s all sorts of shit down there that’ll kill you, and I’m not talking about the Shadow Nations neither. Tremors are known to happen. Cracks in the earth. Quicksand and pitfalls. You gotta stay on your toes.”

“I don’t think I’ve been off my toes since I arrived in this world,” I said.

Diggens fumbled in