Dragon Tear (Agents of the Crown Book 5)

by Lindsay Buroker

  Borti glared at her, his fists clenched, and Jev stepped forward in case he needed to restrain him again. But Eysinor, now that she had decided to leave, moved quickly. With a few galloping steps, she reached the entrance and sprang out of the cave, almost as if she were herself a dragon launching into the sky. She landed far down the trail and disappeared around a bend. Jev didn’t expect to ever see her again.

  Borti dropped his head, his shoulders slumping. Jev hoped he would be able to recover from his loss in time but well remembered how devastated he had been by Vastiun’s death. And he still missed his brother’s presence. Dealing with their father had been so much more bearable when it had been a task they’d taken on together.

  A shadow fell over the cave, and the dragon landed outside. Her green scales gleamed in the sun, and her wings were still spread, as if she was reluctant to fold them to her sides ever again. After having them pinned there for months, that wasn’t surprising.

  Her head lowered, her long neck as flexible as a serpent, and she peered into the cave. Jev doubted she would step inside, not into this former prison.

  “She’s offering us a ride home,” Zenia said, her lips stretching into a broad smile as she spoke. “And to help us if there’s trouble there.”

  “Thank the founders,” Jev whispered, some of the tension bleeding out of his muscles.

  He rushed forward to hug Zenia, glad she was here and had a special bond with the creature. Also glad the dragon hadn’t eaten her.

  She hugged him back hard, and he sensed her delight at the dragon’s return. He kissed her temple and hoped their future together would be far less fraught. But if the troll shaman was to be believed, that less-fraught future couldn’t start yet.

  18

  The salty breeze tugged at Zenia’s hair as the dark blue water of the Anchor Sea passed below. Their speed was amazing, especially compared to the week the crossing had taken in Targyon’s steamer. Their new friend might be a young dragon, but she was large and strong by Zenia’s standards, with a wingspan that stretched fifty feet or more. Her muscles rippled under her sleek green scales as they flew, her physical power awe-inspiring even without her magic factored in.

  A brown smudge appeared on the horizon. Kor.

  There was a gray smudge too. Low clouds or fog? Or—her insides tightened with worry—smoke?

  Any trouble at home? she asked silently, touching her dragon tear and then touching the sleek scales beneath her, realizing it made more sense to direct her thoughts straight to the dragon. The dragon that didn’t seem to have a name. Would she mind if Zenia gave her one?

  Later. Zenia focused on thoughts that would convey her question without words. She imagined a troll’s face and the battles they’d been through in the marsh.

  A feeling of grimness emanated from her ally.

  Jev had been riding behind Zenia the whole way, his hands resting lightly on her waist, his thighs touching hers since they rode astride as if they were on horseback. They were close enough that she felt it when tension abruptly entered him. Had he seen the smoke?

  “I think there’s trouble,” Zenia said.

  “That’s not what I wanted to hear,” Jev said.

  The dragon shared a vision, something Zenia couldn’t yet see with her own eyes. Ships in the harbor—dozens of them—and troll troops marching down from the mountains, heading for Alderoth Castle. More trolls were pouring off the ships and battling soldiers and watchmen on the docks. Kingdom ships burned in the harbor, and more flames rose from the rooftops in the city.

  In addition to the trolls, ogres stomped through the streets in twos and threes, attacking Kor’s subjects with axes, swords, and giant rifles like cannons. Were they allies of the trolls? Or paid mercenaries? The vision also showed her a few humans attacking the local watchmen, and rage filled her at the thought of their own race fighting with Kor’s enemies.

  Had this invasion just started or had it been going on for days? The dragon didn’t know.

  “Definitely trouble,” Zenia added, aware of Jev leaning over her shoulder and trying to see past the dragon’s head.

  “Trolls?”

  “They seem to be spearheading it. Yes.”

  “What is it?” Rhi called from behind Jev, the wind almost stealing her words.

  She, Cutter, and Hydal sat on the back half of the dragon. Only Borti had chosen to walk back the long way, to collect his rats, let the captain and crew of the kingdom steamer know what had happened, and take the slow journey back to mourn his brother’s passing. Zenia wished there had been more time to talk to him, to thank him for coming to help and to tell him how sorry she was that Horti had died.

  “The city is on fire,” Jev yelled back. “Trolls!”

  Curses followed that announcement.

  “We have to do something,” Jev said. “Will the dragon help?”

  Zenia hated to presume, so she attempted to frame the question in images, as she usually did for the gem. She envisioned the dragon swooping through the harbor and breathing fire onto the troll ships, then flying through the streets of the city and snatching up those ogres and hurling them away from their human victims.

  A feeling of excitement came from the dragon tear—from the dragon—and Zenia sensed her eagerness to go into battle, to show what she could do now that she was free.

  “I think so,” Zenia said.

  “Good. What can we do?” Jev gripped his sword hilt. Maybe he wanted to charge into the battle as if he were on a war stallion, cleaving down enemies left and right with his blade.

  Zenia didn’t think it would work like that from the back of the large dragon. How would he reach down to their enemies without falling off?

  “I’ll let you know if I figure it out,” she said.

  “You may have to let me off someplace where I can be strategically useful.” Jev gazed at the scene ahead. What the dragon had shown Zenia in a vision was now visible, though the smoke obscured a lot of the city and the harbor. “I wonder where my father is and if there’s trouble at Dharrow Castle.”

  “Do you want me to ask her to fly there first?”

  Jev hesitated. “No, the city has to be our priority. And Alderoth Castle and the king.” His grip tightened around her waist. “Targyon. Can you tell if he’s safe in the castle? Or is he doing something stupid like leading troops into the city?”

  As the dragon swept closer, powerful wings taking them toward the harbor, Zenia envisioned Alderoth Castle and Targyon in her mind, trying to convey Jev’s question.

  After a slight pause, the dragon shared a vision of her own. There were trolls scaling the walls of Alderoth Castle, and guards lay dead on the parapets. A whole platoon of trolls had already made it inside, and they were using a battering ram on the front door of the castle.

  “Dear founders,” she whispered.

  Jev squeezed her arm. “Zenia?”

  “The castle is under attack. Trolls are already in the courtyard. They’re about to break down the front door.”

  Jev swore. “Can you take me there? We need to find Targyon. Make sure he’s not—” He looked down at the massive dragon flapping her powerful wings under them. “She won’t be able to go inside the castle. Drop me off, will you?”

  Zenia nodded, conveying to the dragon that they needed to go to the castle courtyard. “Anyone who wants to fight there can get off. I’ll stay with her, and we’ll help where we can.”

  “Thank you, Zenia.” Jev hugged her from behind and kissed her cheek as the dragon flew up the slope from the harbor and toward the castle.

  Zenia patted his hand, but worry knotted her stomach at the sight of all the fires burning below. And at the smoke pouring from one of the towers in Alderoth Castle.

  She willed their flying mount to head straight for the courtyard, but the dragon was far from a simple trained horse. She took a creative route, swooping down at a squadron of trolls running up the hill to the castle. Twin trails of smoke wafting from her nostrils were the only war
ning of what she had in mind. As the dragon flew in from behind the trolls, pulling her wings in tight for a soundless dive, she opened her maw and poured forth flames.

  Zenia felt a faint rumble reverberating through the dragon’s body as she exhaled forcefully. The trolls screamed as fire bathed them, and they fled off the road. But there was no cover on the cleared hillside, and the dragon swept left and right to finish them off, leaving little but smoke and ashes behind.

  Zenia gulped in awe. Even though her dragon tear had used its power to incinerate things before—usually dresses—something about this raw fiery magic was far more impressive. And terrifying too.

  “I’m glad she’s on our side,” Jev said.

  “Me too.” Zenia patted the smooth scales beside her thigh.

  A familiar sense of smugness emanated not from her dragon tear but from the dragon herself.

  Another tower in the castle erupted in flames and smoke, and Zenia lost any smugness she might have felt. Fortunately, she didn’t have to urge her new ally to hurry. The dragon understood and flapped her wings hard. They surged over the castle wall and into the courtyard.

  Rifles fired. At first, Zenia assumed the guards were shooting the invading trolls. The group she’d seen in the vision had made it inside, the battering ram cast into the trampled flower beds and the doors forced open, but others remained in the courtyard, fighting the castle guards one-on-one. Jev cursed, and Zenia realized some of those rifles were firing at them. At their dragon.

  “No!” she yelled, terror rising in her throat like bile.

  What if they drove the dragon away? What if they hurt her?

  “I think she’s deflecting the bullets,” Jev said as the dragon flew lower, preparing to land on the walkway leading to the castle doors.

  Flames flashed a few feet to Zenia’s left, then disappeared as abruptly as they came.

  “Or incinerating them,” Jev said.

  “Ah,” Zenia said, some of her fear fading. Though she still worried the dragon would feel unwelcome and leave.

  “Stop shooting,” Jev hollered. “Zyndar Dharrow here. I prefer to remain unperforated.”

  “And so does our dragon!” Zenia added.

  “Our dragon?” he asked as she spread her wings and landed.

  “Well, she’s under our protection. She deserves that.”

  “True, but I think it’s the other way around.” Jev gave her one last hug before sliding off the dragon’s back and landing in a crouch. Thankfully, the guards had stopped firing in their direction.

  “I’m going to help,” Rhi announced and slapped Hydal’s thigh.

  They slid off after Jev and raced toward the smashed open doors. They ignored the trolls fighting in the courtyard and charged into the castle. Zenia nodded, hoping they found Targyon and helped him if he needed it. She also hoped Jev found a weapon superior to the pitted sword he’d plucked up in the orc cave.

  A question emanated from the dragon. Where to next? she seemed to ask.

  “The harbor,” Zenia said, thinking of all those troll ships. “I want their escape route torched.”

  The dragon sprang thirty feet into the air with one mighty leap, and Zenia flattened herself, plastering her arms to her scaled back, to stay on.

  As Jev charged into the main foyer of the castle, yellow light flared ahead of him, and flames crackled in the air.

  “Down!” he yelled as a fireball roared toward him.

  He flung himself to the carpet, hoping Rhi and Hydal would react in time. As his belly hit, the flames soared over his head, searing his scalp through his hair. He roared in pain.

  As soon as he spotted the troll shaman who’d hurled the attack, Jev leaped to his feet and raced at him.

  The shaman squinted and raised his hands, lips moving as he prepared to launch another spell. Jev, afraid he wouldn’t make it across the large foyer in time, hurled his sword.

  The troll’s lips stopped moving, and his eyes bulged as he shifted from offense to defense. A blast of invisible power knocked the sword from its flightpath.

  But while the shaman was distracted, someone rushed up behind him, a green cloak flapping. Lornysh drove his flaming elven sword into the troll’s back. A scream echoed from the stone walls before the shaman crumpled to the ground.

  Lornysh calmly withdrew his sword from his foe’s back and nodded at Jev.

  “Good to see you,” Jev said, rushing to pick up his sword again. He also drew his pistol, acknowledging that it would be wiser to enter rooms with a little more caution. “Is Targyon here? Is he safe?”

  “I don’t know. I arrived shortly before you did.” Lornysh looked toward Rhi and Hydal as they climbed to their feet, their hair also singed. “I was dealing with the shaman when you recklessly charged in and distracted him.”

  “I nobly charged in, risking my life to assist you,” Jev corrected him.

  “Did you know I was here?”

  “No.”

  “I see.” Lornysh pointed his sword toward the main hallway leading deeper into the castle. “I heard fighting coming from the second level.”

  “Maybe the king is making a stand in the library,” Rhi said, jogging up to join them.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Jev said.

  Hydal, his bespectacled face grimmer than normal, gripped his pistol and nodded his readiness. Or maybe agreement that libraries were a good place to make a stand.

  Jev let Lornysh lead, frowning at the bodies they passed, fallen trolls and fallen castle guards. After having lived in the castle for a couple of months, Jev recognized a lot of those faces. His knuckles tightened around the hilt of his sword, and he couldn’t wait to drive the weapon into an enemy’s chest.

  “How did the trolls get into the city so easily?” Jev asked as they strode down the wide hallway.

  “A magical fog descended on the countryside this morning, letting them sneak their ships in from the sea,” Lornysh said. “They also had troops march down from the mountains on foot last night, so they could attack from both sides.”

  “From the mountains? Do you know if they attacked zyndar lands on the way?” Jev had to find Targyon before he could check on his family, but fresh worry churned in his gut.

  “I don’t. I heard that the watchmen that guard your borders and report intruders were killed a couple of days ago and that nobody learned about it in time to give advance warning.”

  Lornysh rushed ahead, springing into a skirmish at the base of the large staircase that led up to Targyon’s office and suite, along with the library and all the guest rooms.

  Rhi rushed past Jev to help with her bo. Jev spotted two trolls running in from a side hallway, blood dripping from short swords. Since they were open targets with nobody in the way, Jev fired at them. He struck one in the chest, but the other hurled a throwing knife at him.

  Jev jumped for cover behind a marble bust on a pedestal.

  The blade cracked against it, leaving blood spattered on the fine white stone. Jev fired again. The troll tried to dodge, but he wasn’t faster than a bullet. It struck him in the shoulder, and he spun around, grasping it. The troll started to run back the way he had come, but Jev fired again.

  After seeing the faces of dead people that he knew, Jev felt no mercy. These trolls were invading his kingdom and his king’s castle. For that, they would die.

  Across from him and tucked behind another bust, Hydal fired into the opposite hallway. A troll Jev hadn’t even seen staggered as a bullet took him in the chest.

  “Clear,” Lornysh called from halfway up the stairs, a dead troll at his feet.

  The butt of Rhi’s bo pinned another troll to the stairs just below him. Lornysh, his eyes like chips of blue ice, leaned down and drove his sword into the troll’s chest.

  “We have no need of prisoners,” Lornysh told Rhi when she jerked back in surprise.

  “It’s not like I was going to offer him a cell in your non-existent tower,” Rhi muttered, but Lornysh was already charging the
rest of the way up the stairs.

  Jev and Hydal joined her, and Hydal touched her back. “You’re doing fine,” he said, giving her a quick smile.

  “Of course I am.” Rhi sniffed and thumped her bo on the stairs. “And thanks.”

  “Stay close,” Jev told them. “Watch for attacks from the sides and our backs.”

  At the top of the stairs, Lornysh paused as a coughing fit took him.

  “Does that qualify as an attack?” Rhi asked. “Or is it just an elf with a hairball?”

  An acrid stench stung Jev’s nose as he reached the landing. A dark gray cloud of smoke hung in the air farther down the hall, in the direction of Targyon’s suites rather than the library. It smelled like something left to burn on a grill. At first, he thought it had to be scorched troll flesh—or human flesh if someone else was hurling fireballs—but he shook his head. It smelled more like burning vegetable matter than meat.

  “What is that?” Lornysh rasped, standing up and dashing tears from his eyes.

  His nose was more sensitive than a human’s, so Jev wasn’t surprised that it affected him more, but he figured he would be crying soon too if they went closer to that dark cloud.

  “I don’t know since the kitchens are downstairs,” Jev said. “I—” He halted when enemies burst out of the smoke hazing the hall ahead.

  Trolls. Almost a dozen of them.

  They ran at Jev’s group, and Lornysh sprang out to meet them, his fiery blade raised. Jev and Hydal shifted to either side of him so they had a clear firing line.

  Jev only got off one shot before the trolls reached them. Lornysh sliced into two of them with his blazing elven speed, but the others reached the group. They almost barreled through the group. Rhi cracked one troll on the head, but he didn’t slow. None of them did unless Lornysh’s sword was in the way. Maybe because tears streamed from their eyes, and snot ran from their noses.

  Jev fired at two more, bullets lodging in their torsos, but the trolls pushed through and ran down the steps. They stumbled and left blood behind, but they ran all the way toward the entrance of the castle.