Dragon Quest

by Craig Askham

Trescothick laughed, pushed the door so the old fashioned bell rang, and held it open for him. Ben hesitated, and the older man rolled his eyes.

  “That was such a trillionaire thing to say. Now get your arse in here so we can do this, then you can buy me the finest steak dinner in LA to say thank you for all the times I’ve saved your life in the short time I’ve known you.”

  It was Ben’s turn to laugh. He shook his head and stepped into the shop.

  “Why the hell not?”

  The door closed behind them, and the bell rang again with a finality that told Ben there was no going back. He heard the sound of Trescothick rubbing his hands together behind him, then both of those hands landed on his shoulders and gave him a gentle shove forward.

  “That’s the spirit.”

  A Message From The Author

  Well, what did you think? You’re well and truly hooked now, right? Thanks again for coming along on this journey with me. It means a lot.

  Now get up and leave. Seriously. Go and have some fun while you wait for Book 4. There’s a whole world out there. Don’t forget about me, though. And don’t worry about paying for the feijen; it’s on me, as ever.

  Before you go, though, click here to subscribe to the newsletter. Book 4 is nearly done, and there’s an excerpt for you to read in a second, but if there’s not a live pre-order page for it yet then it means you’ve read this before I’ve had a chance to create it! Well done, you! So your best bet is to sign up to make sure you can pre-order it the moment it’s available.

  What, you’re still here? Oh, you’re waiting for that Book 4 excerpt. Right you are, then. Without further ado, may I introduce you to Book 4 of the Portal Hunter Chronicles - Dungeon Quest.

  You’ll have noticed the title theme by now, I hope…

  Oh, and if you turn the page and it’s blank where the blurb should be, that’s because I haven’t written it yet. Those things are hard, you know! Just turn the page again for the actual excerpt.

  Aaaand…turn the page.

  Dungeon Quest: The Blurb

  Yep. Not written yet.

  Turn the page again…

  Dungeon Quest: An Excerpt

  The deer lifted its head and tilted it, listening. Idella Breck held her breath, counted to ten, and worried it was the sound of her thudding heart that her quarry could hear. Drawing back the string of her bow, she screwed her left eye closed and took careful aim with her right. It was now or never.

  Another ten seconds passed, and still she stared along the shaft of her arrow. Any time you like, she thought, getting angry with herself. Sensing the danger had passed, if indeed it had ever suspected it was in danger, the deer dropped its head and continued eating. Idella let her breath out slowly, wishing she’d never watched Bambi as a kid. She’d never been this close to a deer before; there weren’t many left back home, after all. That was the problem, she realised; being here was like being let loose in a zoo. She was looking at the deer as a creature that made her cry in a movie, when she should have been looking at it as anybody else on this planet would have been. As food. Tonight’s meal. Nothing more.

  A twig snapped somewhere behind her, and Bambi took flight without a second thought. Instinctively Idella let her arrow loose, and two seconds later it was buried in the poor creature’s flank. With a bleat that broke Idella’s heart, it carried on a few yards and then collapsed to the dirt, gasping for breath.

  “Decent shot, my lovely.” The voice came from behind her, and he sounded amused. Forcing all Disney thoughts from her head, she strode purposefully over to her stricken quarry as if she was unaffected by what she’d done. A sharp hunting knife found its way into her right hand as she went, and her tight grip on the bow made the knuckles on her left turn white. Kneeling down, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she slit Bambi’s throat. She waited by its side with her eyes closed, hearing the deer twitch as it died and taking deep breaths to make sure her voice didn’t shake when she spoke. All the while, she kept her back to the owner of the voice. Finally, she opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.

  “Would’ve been a better shot if you hadn’t stepped on that twig with your size tens, Coriam,” she said.

  Coriam Tusker stepped from the bushes, hands held up in surrender. He was boringly handsome in a way that did absolutely nothing for Idella, with dark blonde hair lengthened with expensive extensions he wouldn’t be seen dead wearing back on Earth. It was fashionable here, though, so he wore it scraped back into a ponytail in order to fit in with the locals. His teeth were the thing that, like most visitors to Vangura, gave him away; straight and white like a movie star’s, the handiwork of an average dentist.

  “I nearly fell asleep waiting for you to take your shot,” he told her, dropping his arms back down to his sides. “If I hadn’t stepped on that twig, your little friend over there would’ve heard my stomach rumble anyway.”

  “Idiot,” Idella mumbled, and stood up. Gesturing towards the carcass of the deer, she offered him a grim smile. “Just for that, you can carry my little friend back to camp.” With that, she strode away with purpose, picking a trail through the trees that looked like it headed in the direction of their makeshift campsite. Thoughts of a stupid movie from her childhood started retreating to the nether reaches of her mood, to be replaced with a growing sense of satisfaction at a job well done. The three of them would eat well tonight, and maybe even for a few nights after this as well. She couldn’t say for sure, though; having never killed a deer before, she had no idea how long its meat would last. As long as possible would be good, if it meant not having to do that again for a while. Tregurtha, her former guide and teacher, had told her she had a natural aptitude with the bow and arrow, and she’d been proud of that since the moment he’d said it. Now, though, she wasn’t so sure. That deer was the only thing she’d ever killed, and the way it made her feel now made her question whether she should be here at all. She’d spent so much money just to be able to get through the portal, to a deadly world where people murdered each other with very little consequence, and had passed every single tests Stillwater had set her in order to finally be let loose without Tregurtha constantly by her side, that to get queasy about killing a deer within the first five minutes of being without him seemed more than a little pathetic. A shaft of dappled light played onto the dirt up ahead, and when she reached it she paused to look up through the gap in the tree canopy. It was still an hour or so until dusk, and the light breaking through was warm and sunny, but the view past the branches was of the tops of two glorious moons, one behind the other like its shadow. Her breath caught in her throat. She’d never seen anything so beautiful in her life. Coming from the pollution-ridden shithole that was Earth, that wasn’t really saying much, of course. But still, it was the most amazing thing she’d seen so far on Vangura, without doubt. Two huge moons, visible in daylight and hanging low in the sky, framed by green-leaved trees that were vibrant and alive in a way that hadn’t been seen on Earth in a generation. This was why she spent every one of her spare pennies coming here. This was why she’d put herself through those silly tests. And this was why she lived on the seventy-first floor of a rundown apartment block in Northampton, staring out of a grimy window at nothing but smog, when the amount of money she earned should have afforded her a nice big house on the outskirts of London, with a manicured lawn underneath its own protective biodome. Grow the hell up, Amy, she told herself, hoping it was okay to think her real name even if it most definitely wasn’t okay to say it out loud. You’re breathing air without having a mask strapped to your face, on a beautiful planet with no guns, bombs or reality tv, and all you have to complain about is having to kill a deer so you can eat? Get a grip, for the love of God! She smiled, trying to remember the name of one of this planet’s many gods. For the love of Kiplogat, Idella!

  “Hey, Idella?” Coriam’s voice came from nowhere, yet again. She could tell straight away from his smug tone that he was about to mock her.
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br />   “What do you want, Cori?” she sighed, breathing in sweet air and trying to concentrate on the rustling and chirping of the forest. Nothing he was about to say could bring her down; she was a fierce, independent, cold-blooded killer who fit right in on this savage world. “Spit it out, man; I’d quite like to make it back to camp before nightfall.”

  A howl of laughter ripped through the forest, startling at least a dozen birds to flight and causing Idella to jump out of her skin.

  “That’s going to prove quite tricky,” he called out, and she shook her head in frustration.

  “And why’s that?” she demanded, through gritted teeth. He laughed again, and this time the sound of it seemed further away. She realised her mistake just as his playful words made their way back to her.

  “Because you’re heading in the opposite direction, my lovely.”

  *****

  Dungeon Quest: Pre-Order

  Thilak’s Tits! You shouldn’t be here!

  Dungeon Quest isn’t ready yet, but I promise it won’t be long.