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

and exhaled a blue plume. “Oh, I get about, Dragonmancer Renji.”

“And what would you guess might be at the end of this tunnel?” Kenia asked, crossing her arms and looking at the gnoll with a type of bemused respect.

Diggens spread his three-fingered hands. “If someone had a crossbow to my head? I’d hazard that there would be some more of the ratfolk down there, or at the very least the nest that this lot made their exodus from. Then I think it might be safe and prudent to assume that there could be a few more wild dragons down there.”

“More?” Kenia blurted out.

“Yeah, I’d put a couple of scales on there being at least one other dragon down there somewhere,” Diggens said casually. “But probably more. Southwest points toward the very heart of Galipolas Mountain, you see. It’s probably nice and warm in there, what with this being a snoozing volcano, the perfect spot for dragons to rest up. They have prey in the ratfolk, and chances are that they’re looked after by kobolds.”

Kenia ran a hand through her steel-gray curls and puffed out her cheeks yet again.

“Dang me, but when you speculate, you really do speculate to the moon, don’t you, Diggens?” she said. “More wild dragons and kobolds… I don’t know what the General might have been expecting, but I don’t think it was that.”

Diggens fixed her with a confident eye. That was the thing about the gnolls. They came across as these ludicrous little cartoonish creatures, but more often than not, they knew exactly what way the wind was blowing. I was becoming more and more inclined to trust the noses—as squashed as misshapen as they might be—of Diggens Azee and the rest.

“This,” Diggens said, through a cloud of blue smoke, “is the Subterranean Realms. It’s home to the unexpected.”

Kenia shook her head. “Well, I’ll report all this to General Shiloh. Better to hope for the best—”

“But prepare for the worst,” I finished.

Kenia grinned, and a host of fine lines spread out from the corners of her eyes like cracks in china.

“That’s right, Dragonmancer Noctis,” she said.

“Call me Mike,” I said.

“Mike, do you think you could tell me a little more about this dragondust?” Kenia asked me. “Dragonmancers Ashrin and Jazmyn are of the Empress’ Twelve and so I’d trust their word, even if they were to tell me that the sky was green, but it’s you that this stuff is meant to help. Are you sure it will? Have you tested it?”

I glanced over my shoulder at Rupert, who was sitting by the fire and repeatedly smacking his still adamantine knob with a bit of kindling, trying to get his boner to go down. Bjorn sat nearby guffawing with glee.

“Uh, no, I have not tested it as of yet,” I admitted, “but I’m almost one-hundred percent certain that it’s the ingredient we’re after.”

Dragonmancer Kenia took a step toward me. She might have been slightly older than the majority of other dragonmancers I had come across, but that did not mean the elf was any less alluring for that. Under her scarlet cloak, she wore the tight-fitting deep-green fighting garb of the Rank Two Dragonmancer with lightweight, custom-fitted leather armor over the top. Her outfit showed off every swell and curve of her toned physique.

“Well, you know I don’t have to be dashing off straight away,” the older elf said in a soft and inviting voice. “I am a dune elf, and have been on this world for more moons than you might believe. I’m sure there are a few tricks that I can teach a young Earthling like yourself, while we find out whether that dragondust you have collected is the genuine article.”

I ran my eyes over the woman’s face. There was something extremely appealing about her; a mature sensuality that was unique when set among all the younger women who made up the Academy dragonmancers.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to take a raincheck on that one,” I said, finding myself genuinely disappointed about having to turn the woman down. “I’ve already made plans on testing the powder out with another one of my generous dragonmancer colleagues,” and I looked over at Tamsin, who was standing with Renji. They were talking under their breath and pointing at the cleanup operation. Almost as if she felt me looking at her, Tamsin glanced up and smiled that bright white, sharp-toothed predatory smile at me.

Suddenly, my blood turned to fire in my veins. The thought of testing the dragondust while planting my seed in the hobgoblin was an engrossing one.

“She’s been waiting a long time for this,” I said, turning back to the Rank Two dragonmancer.

Kenia grinned and raised an eyebrow. “And she is not the only one, I think.”

I laughed lightly. “You might be right about that,” I admitted.

“Very well,” Dragonmancer Kenia said. “In that case, allow me to excuse myself. I need to get a semi-fortified position set up at this new tunnel entrance. I want to make sure that the captains are aware of the possible danger that lies below.”

With that, she bowed and excused herself, whirling away in a flash of scarlet cloak.

“Dad?” a voice resounding in my head said.

“Yeah, Garth,” I replied telepathically.

“Guess what?” the young dragon said.

I waited for a few moments and then realized that Garth wasn’t going to tell me what had happened until I followed the script.

“What?” I asked.

“I unlocked a new slot! Left Arm!” the Pearl Dragon said.

“No shit!” I replied.

I pulled out Garth's crystal on its golden chain and studied the minute inventory that swirled up from its smoky pink depths. My progeny was right.

Left Arm Slot: (Harpoon Stun - Support Weapon)—Fires a harpoon from left hand that can pull an enemy toward the wielder. Delivers a stunning charge when embedded in the chosen