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

I said. My voice went up a pitch at thinking that this woman, the one from whom I’d taken the crystal, might know where others could be found.

Chapter 15

“You were the woman that I saw running along the track,” I said to the cloaked figure. “I thought you had been mugged.”

“Mugged?” the woman asked, puzzled.

“Robbed,” I amended.

The woman considered this. “I had.”

“And what,” I said, gesturing around the devastation of the temple, “brings you to such a fine spot on such a lovely—what even is it? Afternoon? Evening?”

The woman flowed to her feet with such astonishing speed that if I’d have blinked I would have missed it. One hand was still raised in the air, but she had gained her feet in the manner of a person who had no bones attached to her muscles.

Behind me, I heard the sudden increase in the tensions of the assembled bowstrings. A menacing creaking sound of arrows under pressure.

“Not another move, woman,” Jazmyn said, her voice cutting through the air.

I held a hand out to my side. “Easy, let’s not perforate anyone prematurely, eh?”

“Easy,” Ashrin said from behind me.

There was another chorus of creaks as the tension in the bowstrings were released a fraction.

The mysterious woman pulled back her charcoal-colored cloak and showed two crystals hanging from her black belt.

“I understand you are seeking crystals such as these, dragonmancer,” she said.

“Maybe,” I said.

The woman laughed lightly. “There is no maybe in it. Your eyes tell me as much. All your thought is bent on finding them.”

I had only needed one crystal at the start of this little quest. This strange and recondite woman had two of them hanging from her belt.

The choice was clear. Wayne had to be saved.

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “We’re after those crystals, if those are the kind that can store dragons.”

“They are,” the cloaked figure said.

I looked over my shoulder, at the men pointing their bow and arrows at the shadowy woman high above. I shook my head minutely. Slowly and carefully, the glinting tips of the arrows pointed down toward the floor.

“You can put your other hand down,” I called up to the woman standing on the beam. “We’ll not harm you.”

Slowly, cautiously, the woman allowed her hand to drop to her side.

“I catch the scent of a bargain in the air,” Diggens muttered from where he was perched on a miraculously unbroken chair with his feet resting on an upturned bucket.

“You have a bargain you want to strike?” I asked.

“I can help you find more, more of the crystals,” the woman said.

“But…?” I said.

“But you must do something for me first,” came the reply.

I nodded, trying my very best to mask my impatience. I could practically feel every wasted minute crawling past.

“Allow me to discuss this with my companions a moment, will you?” I called up.

The cloaked figure nodded her assent. I turned to Renji, Tamsin, Ashrin, and Jazmyn.

“We need to take this woman in for questioning,” I said in a whisper. “We’re not making any bargains with her. I don’t want her to have us over a barrel in any way, shape, or form. She has the crystals we need now, so it’s all good if we take her here and now. Once we have her, we can decide whether or not she’s speaking truthfully. The knowledge that she potentially has, of where to find more of these crystals, could be invaluable.”

“A reasonable plan,” Jazmyn said.

“I couldn’t have thought of a better one myself,” Ashrin added.

“Great,’ I said before I turned back to the woman.

“We’re going to need a little faith before we trust you,” I said, while behind me, the other four dragonmancers fanned out into a position that would enable them to come at the woman from four different sides.

“Faith?” the woman asked. Her covered head moved around, trying to keep Renji, Tamsin, Ashrin, and Jazmyn in view.

“That’s right,” I said. “As you guessed, we’re in desperate need of a couple of those special crystals. Time really is of the essence. So, to show your good will and to buy our trust, I’m going to need you to toss me those crystals on your belt.”

“You wish me to hand you both Etherstones as a sign of good faith, is that what you’re asking of me?” the woman said. You would have had to have ears carved of wood not to hear the dubious scorn in her voice.

“That’s about it, yeah,” I said.

The woman laughed then, a bitter laugh that made me feel like she thought we were trying to do a number on her. This was unjust. I had no designs on screwing her over, but there was just no damn time to launch into why the hell it was so important for her to hand over the crystals—or Etherstones, as she had referred to them.

There was a long, drawn-out moment. A moment filled with potential. It was the sort of pause in which a whole bunch of roads come together, for a whole bunch of people, before branching out once more into the myriad paths of the future.

Personally, I was hoping that the mysterious stranger would go out on a limb and simply trust me.

It was not to be.

“Bah!” the woman cried angrily. “I should have known not to trust the Empress Cyrene’s prized hounds! It does not matter that you oppose the Bloodletters as I do. Still that is not enough! Still you seek to snare me instead of treat with me! I will not be taken by force, even by the likes of you!”

With that, before I could offer any retort, she stepped out into space and dropped from the beam.

As she fell, cloak billowing behind her like solid shadow, the stranger moved