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

Hana, seeming satisfied that this drink was not poison, knocked back the contents of her cup, grimaced, and swallowed. Then she gasped, “Urgh!”

The General chuckled. “Yes, indeed. This is a fine liquor,” she said. “But I can assure you it isn’t poison.” She sighed. “Now, you’ve told Dragonmancer Noctis that you were the woman whom he met that night outside of Drakereach. Is that true?”

“I would not have said it if it were not true,” Hana said.

“And what were you doing in our neck of the woods, may I ask?” General Shiloh said, pouring another couple of drinks.

The bearmancer licked her lips and shot a look at me. “I was in Drakereach that night because the Seer of my people told us of a man who could help them, a man from another world, a man who commanded an Onyx Dragon. Naturally, I assumed that such a man, or at least word of him, could be found near the Crystal Spire.”

General Shiloh handed Hana another drink. “What does the Vetruscan Kingdom want with such a man?”

“I am sure that you are aware, General,” Hana said, “that all the civilizations have lost their male mancers, yes? Every single mancer in the world, as far as the Vetruscan Kingdom is aware, is a female.”

Ashrin and Jazmyn exchanged startled looks, but General Shiloh did not seem at all surprised by this revelation. She knocked back her drink once more.

“I have heard rumors of this, yes. The Mystocean Empire though,” she said in a thoughtful voice, “has kept itself closed off from most other civilizations that surround us. A civilization running low on monsters—whether they be bears, dragons, or rocs—is a secret best kept, well, secret. Such secrecy ensures that said civilization is not seen as weak and attacked by their neighbors. But, it seems, it’s an even playing field. It sounds like all civilizations alike are suffering from the same problem.”

She shot me a look then. A look that said, as clear as day, that all the civilizations had the same problem, bar one—the Mystocean Empire. They had me, Mike Noctis, the Dragon Breeder.

General Shiloh returned her attention to the bearmancer, Hana. “And so, your Seer, she sent you in search of this Onyx Dragon wielding Outworlder. Why, exactly?”

Hana slowly poured the second drink into her mouth and swallowed. She narrowed her eyes against the vile burning and then said, “It is believed that this man, should he turn out to be more than just a rumor and be able to actually breed dragons, might also be able to breed bears.”

I raised my eyebrows at this. Mike Noctis, Dragon Breeder. Mike Noctis, Bear Breeder. It didn’t quite have the same ring to it.

The General set her cup carefully down on her desk and crossed her muscular, furred arms across her broad chest.

“It’s possible, perhaps,” she said. “But now you come to the sticky part, the part that has that dirty, awful word ‘politics’ stamped all over it. You see, if our Dragonmancer could breed bears as well as dragons, which I am not saying that he can, I doubt the Empress Cyrene would care to share him, or allow anyone outside of our Empire to make use of him.”

I bristled a little at this. The way that General Shiloh was talking, she made me sound like some prize stallion that the Empress Cyrene planned to keep locked up in a stable, venturing out only to service her picked mares.

“What is more,” General Shiloh continued, “now that you know of his existence, you cannot be allowed to leave. You are, I am afraid, a prisoner of war.”

Hana went pale. Her small hands balled into fists at her side, and she pressed her lips together.

“I… The information that I have about the Etherstones,” she said, her voice thick with anger, “do you not care to bargain with me for that?”

General Shiloh sighed. I could tell that it was not a piece of theatrics. The no-nonsense commander of the Mystocean Empires battle forces was not a politician, she was a warrior. That much was obvious, even to one who had known her only a few days. She did not enjoy this skullduggery. She clearly felt sorry for this young woman standing in front of her.

But she had a job to do, and an empire and its people to think about.

“You should not have mentioned this information, Bearmancer Hana,” she said, “for there will be no bargaining, I’m afraid. You shall be taken before the Lorekeepers back at the Drako Academy and they will pry and wring this information from you, whether you like it or not. The fate of the Mystocean Empire depends upon your cooperation, willing or not.”

Compelled then by the urge not to see this young woman—who was clearly good in heart—dragged before those bastard Lorekeepers, I suddenly interrupted.

“General, let’s not be hasty! We don’t need to get the Lorekeepers involved right away, do we?”

General Shiloh raised an authoritative eyebrow at me. Her lips formed a dangerous line.

Undeterred, I said, “The Lorekeepers, from what I have heard, might be skilled at getting prisoners to sing, but anyone will say anything once you start peeling their skin off and snipping their tendons. You know that’s true.”

“Mike…” Jazmyn hissed in a warning voice.

The General’s face gave nothing away, but she didn’t start screaming either.

“This woman, she’ll tell us what we want to know without having to resort to torture.” I came to stand in front of General Shiloh’s desk and turned to look at Hana. “Won’t you?” I asked.

The bearmancer stared at me with those big deep red eyes of hers. I willed myself to project, in my own eyes, how badly she did not want to fall under the custody of the Lorekeepers. I tried to communicate to her that this shit was