Dragon Breeder 3

by Dante King

  Saya nodded, let Elenari go, and began to prod distractedly at the fire.

  “You got any coffee on the go, Saya?” I asked.

  Elenari shook her head. She looked at Saya and I, then said in a voice that was stuffed with bravado, “Coffee? I don’t think so. I do not know about the two of you, but I am in need of something far stronger.”

  * * *

  Less than an hour later, as I was just finishing off my third cup of the formidably alcoholic liquor known around the camp simply as ‘trooper’s brew’, I noticed the smoke coming from the tent.

  “Holy hells, what is going on in there?” Elenari cried, springing to her feet at the same time that I registered the smoke.

  “Wayne!” I said, running to the entrance of the tent.

  I ripped open the flap. More smoke, lung-blackening and impassable, billowed out. The tent was thick with it. So full that the smoke was almost like a solid thing pressing outward. Despite this, Elenari and I attempted to take a few steps into the suffocating murk, but almost at once found ourselves driven back by the fumes. Cursing and spitting, Elenari and I staggered back outside.

  When she had regained the power of speech, Elenari croaked, “It did not work!” She attempted to walk back into the roiling clouds, but Saya grabbed her by the shoulders and stopped her.

  “Wayne! Our son!” she croaked, tears from the smoke and from a gut-wrenching sadness tracking down her face. “He is gone!”

  As Elenari’s lip quivered and she looked on the point of collapsing into grief, the tent suddenly exploded outward, flung away as if it had been ripped up by the pegs by some giant hand.

  Out of the swirling, billowing gray smoke stalked a dragon.

  “Holy shit,” I said, my voice cracked from the smoke. “That’s Wayne!”

  The dragonling was the broken, white, black, and gray of wood ash. His scales were as rough and uneven looking as tree bark, so that if he had laid down in the ruin of a burned down house, he would have blended in and been invisible to spot. That was saying something, really, as Wayne was now four feet tall and twenty feet long. A pair of stubby black horns protruded from his head. Wings as black as the space between stars were folded behind his back. Set in a ridged and scaled head were orange eyes that glowed like the heart of a slumbering volcano.

  Wayne exited from the dissipating fog that had been contained within the tent, but then he burst suddenly apart into black smoke before solidifying again.

  “Damn, that was a neat trick,” Saya said, her eyebrows raised.

  Wayne gurgled happily at our amazement, his growl seeming to emanate out of the earth itself it was so deep. With no hesitation, he hunched low and then bounded into the air.

  Elenari, Saya, and I watched Wayne flying through the air above our heads; doing circles, flipping around like an otter in water, changing from solid to smoke and then back to solid. Bursting apart into a gray haze and then turning solid once more.

  “A Smog Dragon,” said a matter-of-fact voice from behind us, and Penelope came to stand next to Saya, Elenari, and me. “What a truly incredible sight!”

  “You did it,” Saya said softly to me. Her mouth hung slightly ajar, as we all watched Wayne gamboling through the air above.

  Elenari managed to drag her eyes from the fantastic sight of our offspring and embraced me hard, so hard that I thought she was going to squeeze out the little breath I had managed to regain.

  “You did it,” she said, echoing Saya’s words, her red hair tickling my cheeks, her voice muffled due to her face being pressed into my chest.

  “We did it.” I pushed her gently away so that I could stare into the depths of jade eyes. “We did it. All of us.”

  Then, I pulled the pinkish-white crystal on its chain from the depths of my shirt and summoned Garth.

  The Pearl Dragon burst into physical being and leapt instantly into the air. He could tell through the sharing of the mental pathways of my brain what had happened. What was more, I could also feel the presence of another mind within the consciousness that I already shared with Noctis and Garth.

  It was Wayne.

  Almost I reached out to the newest addition to my strange dragon family, but restrained myself at the last minute. Watching him, shooting through the sky with his brother as they roared and snapped good-naturedly at one another, I thought it more prudent to let them play and get acquainted.

  “Well, well, you made it I see!”

  I turned and saw Ashrin grinning at me, her dark eyes sparkling. Behind her marched Jazmyn, Renji, Tamsin, and the bearmancer. Renji had a firm hold on the bearmancer’s upper arm and was pushing her ahead of her.

  “In the fuckin’ nick of time I wager,” Jazmyn said.

  I winked at her, then turned my attention back to the bearmancer.

  The mysterious woman was still cloaked, with her shawl wrapped firmly around her head, obscuring her features. All of the women were gazing up at the cavorting dragons.

  Leaving my two sons to continue with their aerial banter, I strode over to the bearmancer and pulled the shawl off her face.

  Due to her being able to summon a bear the size of a tank, I had expected the woman to have a face like a smashed crab. I could not have been further from the reality if I had tried.

  The bearmancer had small, neat features, a squarish jaw, and a shaved head. Her eyes were large and the deep, dark color of good red wine. I saw that she wore a series of silver rings around the edges of both her ears, as well as a stud through each nostril.

  I looked her over carefully, but those red eyes of hers stayed glued to the ground.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  The bearmancer’s lips remained clammed up.

  I sighed. “Okay,” I said, “but I imagine that my colleagues here are going to be taking your ass straight to the General. I don’t know her very well, but she strikes me as a fair woman—albeit one that does not suffer fools. You might want to consider how much your name, and the information that you say you have, is really worth before you get there.”

  “We are taking her to see General Shiloh,” Ashrin said. “I think you should come too.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I’d like to be there. You got here fast. Did you leave the squads behind?”

  Ashrin inclined her head. “That’s right. Took to dragonback to get the prisoner here more quickly. The coteries will be along by the end of the day I reckon, depending how quick a pace mine and Jaz’s squads set.”

  I smiled at the thought of my lads being put through their paces. I’d have to make sure that they found a barrel of ale awaiting them when they returned.

  “Shall we go?” Ashrin asked.

  I looked up at Wayne and Garth rollicking through the air. I smiled. It had all been worth it. There could be absolutely no question of that.

  “Yeah, I guess we should be getting back to work, huh?” I said.

  “Mike!”

  It was Elenari, walking quickly over to me.

  “What’s up?” I asked, smiling at the elf.

  Elenari held out her hand. In the middle of her palm sat a small gray gemstone.

  “Wayne’s crystal?” I asked her.

  The beautiful elf nodded. “I found it right where he curled up to sleep,” she said. “You best hold on to it and keep it safe.”

  I took the gemstone and held it up between forefinger and thumb. It was about the size of my thumbnail.

  “Ah, a lovely gray labradorite!” Renji said appreciatively, coming over to peer interestedly at the stone. The djinn had left the bearmancer in the capable hands of Jazmyn. “May I?” she asked.

  I handed her the little crystal.

  Renji turned the stone over in her hands, smiling to herself.

  “Mike,” she said, “let me have this set in a ring for you. I have talked to the blacksmith here. He is a worthy fellow and will do you proud.”

  “Sure,” I said. “I’d appreciate that. Anymore necklaces and I think I’d start to look like a jewel
ry store mannequin.”

  “You did it, Mike,” Tamsin said as she peered up at Wayne and Garth. “You really did it.”

  “I guess I did,” I said with a smile.

  “Mike, let’s go!” Ashrin called.

  I squeezed Elenari, Tamsin, and Renji’s shoulders in turn.

  “I’ll see you three later,” I said. “Time to go and introduce our bearmancer here to the General.”

  “Bearmancer?” Elenari asked, dumbstruck.

  “Renji and Tamsin will fill you in,” I said, and hurried away to catch up with the retreating forms of Ashrin, Jazmyn, and the bearmancer they marched between them.

  Only a short time later, the four of us stood in front of the imposing figure of General Shiloh.

  The bearmancer, still with her arms behind her back and her wrists bound, appeared at peace with her situation. She did not seem like someone who was thinking of making a dash for the nearest exit. To be fair though, trying to get out of a tent with only one exit while being completely surrounded by dragonmancers would have been the most pointless exercise that I could possibly imagine.

  General Shiloh sat at her heavy, squat desk with her feet up on the top of a stack of paperwork and regarded the bearmancer minutely, while Ashrin and Jazmyn regaled her with the story of what had happened down in the Subterranean Realms.

  The General did not betray a murmur on hearing about the ratfolk, didn’t stir so much as an eyelash at the mention of the wild dragon or the dragondust that had been harvested from it. She grunted when we told her about the discovery of the ratfolk settlement, but whether that was a grunt of surprise or of amusement I couldn’t have said.

  When Jazmyn finished with how we had come to be in possession of the bearmancer, after I had taken her down while she tried to flee from us, the General made an approving face and removed her boots from her desk. She got to her feet and walked slowly around the desk. She seemed to drag that unique menace with her that all military officers of a certain rank have; the kind of menace that could manifest itself as furious anger, quickly and without warning.

  “So bearmancer,” she barked suddenly, “that is the tale of how you came to be here, eh? You have information on where more of these Etherstones can be found and you wished to make a bargain? That is all very well and good, although, of course, that depends on what our side of the bargain includes.”

  The bearmancer said nothing. She simply stared ahead of her, at the canvas wall of General Shiloh’s tent. Her breath came steadily and, if I concentrated, I could hear the rush of her steady pulse, mirrored by the slight throb in the side of her neck. She was not scared.

  “I will keep the questions brief, friendly, and easy to understand, bearmancer,” General Shiloh said. “So long as your answers are the same, we need not implement more vigorous means of questioning. Understood?”

  The bearmancer nodded her shaved head.

  “Spiffing!” the General said. “Dragonmancer Jazmyn, if you would release our guest’s hands, please.”

  Jazmyn walked behind the bearmancer, muttered a couple of words, and then ripped the rope off her wrists as easily as if it had been string. I realized then that the rope must have been enchanted by dragonblood so it could hold the bearmancer’s wrists. If the bearmancer had enhanced strength, in the same way that dragonmancers did, she would have been able to bust out regular rope with no trouble whatsoever.

  “Your name might be a pleasant way to start this little chat,” the General said, reaching over her desk so that she could grab the jug of Hangman from the shelf behind it along with two pottery cups.

  “My name is Hana,” the bearmancer said in her lilting accent. “Bearer of Berne. Bearmancer of the Vetruscan Kingdom.”

  The General poured a couple of slugs of Hangman and passed one to Hana.

  General Shiloh back her drink.

  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 mention
ed 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 not worth being cut apart for.

  The moment stretched.

  Then, Hana nodded. “I can tell you where more crystals can be found,” she said quietly, her eyes still glued to mine.

  I let out a silent breath of relief. I was glad. The pretty shaven headed woman did not strike me as evil, or as an enemy. She just came from the other side of some invisible line that some egomaniacal emperor or empress had drawn on a map a thousand years ago. From what I could tell, she intended us no harm. Unless she showed herself to be an enemy, she did not deserve to die.

  I turned to face General Shiloh.

  The woman was staring at me with the sort of shrewdness that made me think she could read my thoughts. She snorted. Reached for the jug of Hangman’s.