How to Lose Your Dragon (The Immortality Curse Book 1) by Peter Glenn (beach read TXT) 📕

empty save for a pile of old, rusty saw blades stacked up in one corner. The blades likely hadn’t seen any use in a couple of decades based on the amount of dust laying on top of them.

For a moment, I thought about picking one up to use as another weapon, but the blades looked heavy - at least ten pounds each - and I wasn’t really much for working out, so I stuck with my trusty katana instead.

The next room spilled out into another corridor. I surprised another Iceni guard in this hallway, whose life ended much like the last few: quickly. I left him lying face down on the ground, trying desperately to shout for help through the gurgling blood in his throat and kept going. Another three doors greeted me this time, but only one had light coming from it.

Part of me wondered if I should be setting some sort of trail for Sheila and Rick to follow after through all the halls and doorways, but I tossed that idea out pretty quickly. They could just follow the trail of dead bodies. It would work better than breadcrumbs, if a tad more icky.

Of course, if you think about it, breadcrumbs in dirt were kind of icky, too. Like, whose grand idea was that anyway? But I digress.

Several different voices emanated from the next open doorway, so I slowed to a crawl and tightened my grip on my katana as I made my way over. I could barely make out one of them talking about how the guards at the gate were so touchy and would spout off over a mouse or a bird flying in. It made me feel a little safer knowing that the guards up ahead weren’t taking all the noise and warnings seriously.

That would make them easier targets.

I bounded around the next corner, letting loose a battle cry. Four shocked faces greeted me.

Before anyone could act, I skewered the first guy in the face, then kicked him in the chest to simultaneously free my blade and send him careening into the girl next to him.

Those two fell to the ground in a hail of limbs and screams, slamming into the dirt with a loud crunch.

The third guard came at me then. He side-stepped the two mewling bodies and swung at me with a rather large club.

Club Guy swung with all his might. The crude implement sang through the air with a speed I would have thought impossible, and it was all I could do to back out of the way in time before it crushed my ribcage.

His club smacked into the metal wall instead, leaving a nasty dent and almost toppling it over in the process.

I used his momentum against him and slammed into his back with my blade. The katana cut through his tender flesh, and the force of the blow sent him flying into the wall. I heard a loud crack of bones breaking as his head met the metal of the wall, finally breaking through, then he sputtered for a moment and finally stopped moving.

Fourth Guard looked at me, then, brandishing a sword as long as my arm.

“It’s just me and you, now,” I told him.

He huffed and advanced, lunging low to get under my guard.

I was forced backward once again, but it worked to my advantage. Fourth Guard tried to right himself and lunge again, but he ended up tripping over Club Guy’s body and falling on his face.

I jammed my blade into his neck and twisted it to partially decapitate the guy, then proceeded to put the first two guards out of their misery in a similar fashion. It was hard work, but it was the only way I could be sure they wouldn’t rise again.

Up ahead, I heard a fresh cacophony of voices and noises that signaled movement. I was getting close to the main knot of Iceni, I could tell. Plus, all that noise from my last encounter had probably set them on edge, too. It was one thing to hear a guard shout a warning, but quite another to hear bodies smashing into metal and screams of death.

Well, the time for stealth was over. I’d wasted enough time skulking about. It was time to bring the battle to their main force and clear the way for Sheila and Rick to free Mei.

Once Mei was clear, I was positive we could win this thing, no matter the odds. Dragons were scary tough, remember? And something told me Mei would be right smack dab in the middle of their army next to good old Boudicca.

I took a moment to steady my hands and calm my breathing, then headed for the only doorway left open to me.

A moment later, I rounded the corner, head held high. I gotta say, I’d been prepared for a lot, but what I found after rounding that bend surprised me more than I’d thought it would.

The room was stuffed with so many bodies I thought the seams might just burst under their combined weight. I was right. There were at least a hundred Iceni in there. Maybe more. And right in the middle was some sort of old lumber sawing table that had been turned into a makeshift altar with Mei tied down on top of it.

She was covered in so many chains it was a wonder they weren’t suffocating her, and to top it off, she had a gag in her mouth, as well. Next to her was some sort of shadowy figure. I could barely make out the shape of a woman’s face in the cloud, complete with glowing red eyes and a wicked smile. The shadowy figure was chanting something in a language I didn’t recognize, and wisps of magical energy were flowing all around her.

That, I figured, was Boudicca. Arlan was standing next to her, barking commands at his troops.

My heart sank seeing Mei tied up like that. Her face was strained, and even from this distance, I could see