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

the randomly built dwellings and shops meandered this way and that through the settlement, sometimes widening to a full-on thoroughfare, at other times thinning so that we all had to move along in single file.

Like a bunch of burrowing bugs worming their way into the middle of an apple, we wound our way further into the heart of the township. Gabby had his bow free, an arrow nocked to the string, as did a couple of the other members of Renji, Tamsin, Ashrin, and Jazmyn’s coteries. The eyes of our archers flitted from shadow to shadow, from empty doorway to gaping window, as we prowled quietly through the abandoned streets.

Abruptly, we emerged from between two leaning shanties and out into an open square.

“‘Ello, ‘ello, looks like they had themselves a bit of a knees-up in here, don’t it,” said Diggens sarcastically.

There were ratfolk bodies strewn all over the place, cast hither and yon like fallen leaves. Many were crushed and smeared and broken beyond recognition; entrails and limbs scraped across the roughly laid stone flags of the square, as if some enormous being had used them as a condiment to cover the square.

“There are some crispy ones over here,” Bjorn called in a low voice, nudging some charred and twisted corpses. They looked like giant french fries left too long in the fryer.

“Dragon kills,” Noctis said, within my head, no trace of doubt in his voice.

I echoed his words to the others.

Jazmyn nodded her head in an agreement. She pointed out a few of the dead that had been mauled and bitten.

“Looks to me like that wild dragon we dealt with earlier killed the few ratfolk that were left here and had a quick munch on some of them, amuse-bouche style,” I said.

“Don’t think there was really too much amusing about it,” Diggens grunted. “But I get what you’re saying, fella, and I think you’re right. Our mate, the dragon, came through here, threw a bit of fire about, and had himself a picnic. Then, when he’d stoked his appetite, he followed the main army—the main course—up that tunnel.”

“Seems to be the long and the short of it,” Renji said solemnly, looking down with something like pity in her eyes at the twist body of one of the ratfolk.

“I wonder where the dragon came from and what brought it through here,” Tamsin said. She seemed a little disappointed that she wouldn’t get a fight in, after all.

I pointed up at what was easily the largest building in the township; the ratfolk equivalent of a town hall.

“Town hall… Or a temple?” Renji asked as she retied her silver braids at the back of her head.

The front facade of this main building was built of large blocks of cut stone piled to make four huge pillars. It reminded me of the Acropolis in Athens, or one of those other Greek temples. Four large columns of stone holding up a triangle of rock that somehow looked more like a natural bit of rock than a piece of masonry.

“Shall we take a look?” Ashrin asked Jazmyn.

“He’s leading the expedition,” Jazmyn said as she gestured at me.

Then, everyone looked to me. For better or worse, I was responsible for whatever the hell happened down here.

“Let’s go,” I said.

Up the great, worn steps we went; dragonmancers leading, squads following, and Diggens Azee and Will bringing up the rear.

I stepped lightly up the steps leading to a huge main door. My Chaos Spear was in my hands, and adrenaline ran through my veins like liquid lightning. I was tense. Alert. I had to fight every instinct in my body not to run up the steps, kick the door down, and begin rummaging around whatever rooms lay beyond. Something spoke to my gut that here, if we were lucky, we would find some of the crystals that we so desperately sought.

I pushed open the heavy door with the butt of my spear. It creaked with gratifying ominousness, scraping on crudely crafted hinges as I forced it open.

Hot, dry air flowed out of the temple or hall or whatever the hell it was. The breeze smelled like sulfur and barbecue, a combination that was both delicious and nauseating.

The interior was like a viking longhall combined with a temple where blood sacrifices were a recreational activity. The smell of herbs, scorched meat, and sulfur was heavy in the air. Columns, decorated with semi-demonic looking runes and carvings, held up the ceiling. Great oaken rafters crisscrossed the ceiling and cut the gloomy shadows above into segments. Runes were scratched haphazardly around the place, running up the columns.

“It’s so… disordered,” Renji said, distaste in her tone.

I grinned grimly to myself. I could imagine how the djinn, quartermaster and armorer of the Academy’s main weapon store, must be rankled by the confusion and mess.

“More bodies,” called one of Jazmyn’s squad from the far right.

“And here,” said one of the members of Ashrin’s from the left.

The crude furniture had been smashed to matchsticks. Great streaks of soot marred much of the masonry. Patches of stone had been hit with such intense dragonfire that they’d bubbled and distorted and run like molten glass.

Diggens took off his hat to mop his bald head with a filthy bit of rag.  “I may not be a constable like what they have back in fancy towns like Drakereach or Rochaven,” he quipped, “but I’d say that that is where the dragon was being kept, don’t you reckon?”

The gnoll gestured down the far end of the hall with the hand holding the hat.

There was a monumentally large cage at the far end of the temple, a cage large enough to house a dragon.

“Shit, the ratfolk had some balls on them, didn’t they?” I shook my head at the ignorance or audacity that made them think they could