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

“Good work, bud, I’m proud of you,” I said, with genuine warmth.

“Thanks, old man,” Garth quipped.

“Shove that old man stuff up your ass, you young whippersnapper,” I said, laughing in my head.

I wandered over to where Renji and Tamsin were standing, talking with their heads together. When I approached the two dragonmancers, they stopped their conversation and focused on me, their faces set in masks of alert keenness.

“What news, Mike?” the blue-skinned djinn asked me. “Will we be moving on soon?”

“Shortly, I think,” I replied. “May as well rest up a little more while the cleaning up takes place, and we figure out our next steps. Diggens made some deductions that might require us to strategize a little more.”

There came a tramping of more booted feet, and another small company of troops marched into the cavern. At their head, I was delighted to see Penelope and Saya. My two friends spotted me, Renji, and Tamsin and hurried over.

“We heard all about this ruckus,” Penelope said, in her quiet scholar’s tone.

Saya looked wistfully around her. “I cannot believe that I missed out on all the fun.”

I laughed and put my arm around the statuesque blonde warrior.

“If there is one thing that I think we can all rely on,” I said, “is that there is bound to be more enemies that need killing just around the corner.”

Saya looked slightly placated and gave me a half-smile.

“What are you two doing down here?” Renji asked.

“General Shiloh put us on messenger running duties,” Saya said. “Messenger drakes can be unreliable underground. We’re meant to report back about supply lines and all that.”

“So, have you found anything?” Penelope asked me. She scanned my person, as if looking for crystals.

“I have,” I said. “Dragondust. Apparently, it’s going to juice me up.”

“That’s excellent news!” Penelope cried.

“Bloody brilliant,” Saya added. “But what about the crystals?”

“Nothing on that front just yet.”

Changing the subject somewhat, I then told my four fellow dragonmancers about Garth obtaining access to yet another slot. After I mentioned this, I realized that I had just done my first bit of proud parental gloating.

Saya, Renji, and Penelope all made polite congratulatory noises.

Tamsin though, tilted her proud and aquiline chin and looked at me through her narrowed yellow eyes. “Your dragon is not the only one who has done such a thing,” she said, looking very much like the cat that had got the cream.

“You too?” I asked.

Tamsin nodded. She turned away from me, concentrating hard on the dozen or so ratfolk corpses that were still bobbing in the subterranean pond, and raised her hands.

The corpses rose into the air and fell in an untidy heap on the floor about ten yards from the edge of the pool.

A soldier passing nearby bowed. “Thanks very much, Dragonmancer.”

“That,” I said, “is impressive stuff, Dragonmancer Tamsin. Telekinesis? You deserve a pay rise or something.”

Tamsin grinned that wolfish smile of hers. “I thought I’d get a prize at least.”

I locked eyes with the hobgoblin and felt her smile mirrored across my face. I looked briefly over at the line of tents along the one wall of the chamber, and then back at Tamsin.

“I’ll give you a prize, dragonmancer,” I said in a lowered voice. “As soon as I’ve found a crystal. Two crystals, that is. It’d be irresponsible for me to create a dragonling when I can’t even find one to help Wayne.”

Tamsin nodded, a little disappointed. But she understood. We all understood what was at stake.

“Now that you’ve procured the dragondust,” Penelope said, cutting into the silence, “we should return to the General with it.”

“Ashrin is keeping it in a pouch,” I said. “You can grab it from her.”

Penelope went and grabbed the pouch, and then returned within a few moments.

“You can trust Saya and I to get it to the surface without any problems, Mike,” the Knowledge Sprite said.

“I know I can,” I said to Penelope. “Was there any word sent about Wayne after we left?”

Saya sighed. “Wayne isn’t doing too well,” she said, a momentary flash of pain marring her beautiful face. “A runner came in to report to us just before Pen and I left. Word is that he’s starting to fade.”

“Goddamn it, we have the powder I need to make more dragonlings, but we’re going to have to stay down here until we find a crystal.”

I spoke the words like a mantra now. Perhaps, I subconsciously thought that if I repeated them to myself enough, I might manifest what we needed to happen into being fast.

“As soon as we find them, Saya,” I said vehemently, “I’m going to be coming in hot back up to the camp.”

Saya inclined her head to show that she had heard.

“All right,” I said, “you ladies get out of here. I’ll be seeing you top side. Soon, I hope.”

I watched Penelope and Saya march out of the cavern with their heads held high. They had their coteries in tow, as well as a small company of troops following behind them. They did not look back. Their eyes were turned forward, onwards, as they marched off.

Tamsin and I returned to where Jazmyn, Renji, and Ashrin were waiting by our campsite with their coteries and Diggens. I began sorting my own pack as I spooned up a bowlful of stew that Renji had set aside for me.

“It boils down to this,” Jazmyn said to the other dragonmancers. “We have no real idea where those damned crystals might be found. All we know is that they are in the Subterranean Realms somewhere.”

“Right,” Ashrin said. “And that is like pointing out the particular haystack in a field of haystacks in which the needle is buried.”

“Helpful,” Renji said in her slow voice, “but not that helpful, you mean?”

“Then how