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

Boom.

The thought of the tin of beer shriveled in my mind like a dry leaf in a firestorm.

The remaining ratfolk started chattering and hissing amongst themselves, their twitching human-like paws dropped their weapons and they began turning and scarpering for the hole they had burrowed or blown through the wall.

We cut them down even as they ran, for all of us thought that every one of these mindless killers would be one less that could potentially kill an Empire trooper.

Diggens appeared at my elbow. “You know,” the gnoll said, “they might be running, but they ain’t running from us.”

A long, low preening cry echoed around the chamber, as the last of the ratfolk ran screeching around the pond, aiming to gain access to the deep dark of the tunnel they had come through. The sound came from Renji’s sleek, molten silver Steel Dragon, Corvar. Renji had allotted her to her Leg Slot, and so the gorgeous creature was visible now.

Corvar let loose another one of the keening wails, her bullwhip like tail lashing the air in agitation. The mercurial beast had her head down and her eyes closed. I noticed that she was quivering strangely.

“What’s going on with Corvar?” I shot at the djinn.

Renji shook her head, frowning and looking around the body-littered cavern.

Without warning, the rough-cut crystals hanging around my neck and containing the magical essences of Garth and Noctis began to quiver too, in much the same way that Corvar was.

“What draws near, lads?” I asked the two dragons that shared my mind.

“Uh, I feel something,” Garth said with adolescent helpfulness. “I’ve never felt anything like it, though. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t think that it is good.”

“Noctis?” I asked.

I felt Noctis’ thought quest outward like a plant’s tendril toward a patch of sunlight.

In his ancient, patient, and businesslike voice, the Onyx Dragon said, “That is an unbound dragon.”

“Unbound?” I asked.

I could feel Noctis’ interest unfurling like a burning fern frond.

“A wild dragon,” he rumbled through the telepathic pathways of my mind. “That is a wild dragon.”

Chapter 12

No sooner had Noctis hit me with this startling bit of news than the dragon crashed through the hole that the ratfolk had burrowed.

It was a great, mean brute of a thing, possessing none of the refinement of the dragon companions of me or my dragonmancer friends. It bowled through the entrance of the tunnel like a subway train that had jumped its rail. It was about the same size as one, now that I came to look at it. The wild dragon’s broad, strong forelegs ripped fresh rock from the tunnel entrance as it bulled its way out of the too small space, crushing ratfolk that were trying to flee from it under its claws.

“A d-d-dragon?” Rupert said, his face sagging at the awesome spectacle of the dirty bronze-colored creature. “Is that the ratfolk’s backup or something?”

The dragon stretched forth a thick neck, opened its huge maw wide, and let rip with a jet of orange flame that engulfed the last of the panicking ratfolk. The helpless creatures were roasted to cinders where they stood, utterly consumed by the torrent of brilliant, lethal flame. When the wild dragon snapped its jaws shut, all that was left of the ratfolk were a few puddles of liquid metal.

Gabby made an eh-eh sound in his throat.

Bjorn nodded, not taking his eyes from the magnificent killing machine and said, “I know less than fuck all about most things, but I’d say that the dragon is most definitely not on the side of the ratfolk.”

“I agree with that fat hairy lad,” Diggens Azee said amiably.

“Who the fuck does that dragon belong to?” Tamsin asked as the dragon picked up one of the many bodies that lay jumbled around the area and chewed it up in its massive jaws.

“Listen to your dragon,” Ashrin said in a hushed, almost reverential voice. “That is a wild, untamed dragon.”

“Wild dragon?” Renji asked. “Have any of you here ever heard of such a thing?”

Judging by the look on the faces of the assembled members of the coteries I guessed that nobody ever had. Nobody except Rupert, who had stuck up his hand like a kid in a classroom.

“I read about them in a book someone lent me from the Grand Library,” he said. “This rather fanciful bit of poetry mentioned wild dragons and the kobolds who worshipped them.”

“Before now, if someone had come mouthing off to me about wild dragons, I would have told them to crawl out of the bottle and dry out,” Jazmyn said. “But you cannot deny the evidence of your own eyes.”

The dragon bent to another of the ratfolk corpses and began to tear it apart, splitting the belly with a claw so that it could get to the still warm, steaming entrails.

“How in the world did it come to exist? How did it come to be here, in the Subterranean Realms, of all places?” one of Jazmyn’s coterie members asked aloud.

“A mystery,” said Jazmyn.

“I’ve always found all things mysterious to be the most beautiful,” Ashrin said distractedly, watching the dragon consume ratfolk body after ratfolk body. “I’ve always been of the opinion that the day you lose your ability to stand and gaze at something in awe, and think to yourself that you really know very little about this world, then that’s the day you die.”

Jazmyn nodded. I noticed that she had adopted a fighter’s stance; feet wide, weight balanced.

“That’s right, Ash,” she said, eyes locked on the dragon. “You might still be breathing. You might still be walking about. But, when you lose the ability to let wonder claim you every now and again, then you’re dead in the mind, if not the body.”

“Despite the fact that it’s g-g-gorily