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

more noise than the odd rustle of a leathery wing or the thud of a footfall in the dirt of the road. They leapt through the dawn air, gliding in places and flying where the rickety buildings allowed. Within a couple of minutes, we were at the entrance to the Galipolas Mountain mines, and then we had passed through.

I led the way on the back of Pan. Now that I had four dragons at my disposal, I was responsible for ensuring they all got a fair share of whatever action presented itself. Noctis, being as old, wise and cunning as he was, did not need so much practice as the others did, but the rest needed to gain equal experience.

Pan was, as far as I could gather, faster and more fleet of foot than Noctis, Garth, or Wayne. Even running, with me on his back, the Tempest Dragon moved as fluidly as a shadow. He bounded over obstacles with ease, snapping his wings open for an instant to carry us over things that he might not have cleared without them.

Seven dragonmancers ran along in silence, the size of our dragon steeds forcing us to stay in a single line once we had entered the tunnels of the Subterranean Realms. The torches were still lit down here, where soldiers of the Empire kept a constant vigil. More than once, one of the braziers was blown clean out by the wind produced by the passage of seven dragons blasting past.

“You’re worried that we won’t succeed, father,” Pan said, after we had been traveling for almost two hours.

My son’s voice was as cool and mellowing as summer rain in my head. He spoke with the open, unbashful manner of a child to their parent.

“I wouldn’t say that I am worried, per se,” I said. “More like I’m dwelling on what might happen if we don’t succeed.”

“You shouldn’t do that,” said Pan.

“Yeah, I know,” I said as we continued pounding down the tunnel, toward the chamber in which we had fought with the ratfolk and put them all so decisively to the sword. “But knowing that does not make doing it any easier. It’s a little like trying not to think of a red elephant wearing a top hat when someone says that, whatever you do, you must not think of a bright red elephant in a top hat.”

“That is hard,” Pan said. Although he had been running for almost two hours straight, there was nothing in the voice that echoed through my head that hinted that he was at all tired.

“Yes,” I said, “it is.”

“From what little I have learned from Noctis and my brothers,” Pan said, “dragons are quite different to people. It sounds like, a lot of the time at least, humanoids see success as this thing that can be attained. Something tangible that can be hoarded almost like gold.”

“And dragons don’t?” I asked.

Somewhere, in a private room at the back of my mind, I thought I caught a sense of Noctis chuckling ruefully to himself.

“Dragons measure success only by longevity of life, I think,” Pan said. “An easy way to measure a thing. And this means that to be successful, all a dragon has to do is plow through and fight their way through any potential failure that might come into their path.”

I had to laugh at that. “That sounds nice and simple. To live is to succeed. To die is to fail. I’m not sure if that’s the way it works with us humans, because you have to remember that I am not a dragon.”

I was aware of Pan’s mental shrug, as indifferent and bored as any teenager that I had ever met.

“You may not be a dragon,” he said, “but you’re not just a man either, Father.”

I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if he had added a resounding ‘Duuuh,’ to the end of his sentence.

“You might be onto something there,” I said grudgingly. “You’re pretty switched on for an entity that is only a few days old.”

It was Pan’s turn to laugh at that.

“My body might only be a few days old,” he said as he launched himself so fast down the passage that he actually sprang onto the wall before bounding onward. “But I share the mind of Noctis. He has taught me much that is known only to dragons. He is a smart one. And almost as ancient as this world. Which is to say, very, very old.”

I snorted. She might have Noctis’s knowledge, but she had my sense of humor.

“Don’t fear, Father,” Pan said. “You need to open up that mind of yours and embrace the dragon mentality. You’ll be happy that way, I think.”

“And what mentality is that, smart-ass?” I asked.

“To know that to truly succeed is to get what you want—more life,” Garth suddenly butted in.

“While happiness is to want what you get—more life,” Wayne chimed in.

“Thanks for the advice, kids,” I said, with a mental eyeroll. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“We know you will,” Pan said.

“If you don’t, we’ll remind you,” Noctis said, putting in his ten cent’s worth.

“Excellent,” I said, hunkering down lower on Pan’s smooth neck as the passageway narrowed.

It seemed long ago that it had just been me and my own thoughts in my head.

It took us a little over three hours to reach the chamber in which the battle with the ratfolk had taken place. The cavern was empty of bodies now, though there was still a faint metallic smell in the air that hinted at blood, as well as dark brown stains across the dry dirt floor. The corpses had all been hauled to the surface by the highly efficient wagon teams and burned on the mass fires outside of Dodge City.

We halted briefly here to stretch and eat a morsel of food.