Dragon Breeder 3 by Dante King (motivational books for students txt) 📗

I made a face. “So the reports and the trooper’s idle talk say. It sounds to me like the patrols have only encountered enemy scouts.”

“No signs of any actual civilizations or settlements y-y-yet?” Rupert queried.

I shook my head. “But the fact that they’ve encountered kobolds at all would seem to indicate that the Shadow Nations still exist down there, right?” I asked the medic.

Rupert made an uncertain noise in the back of his throat. “Perhaps. Everything that w-w-we know about the kobolds would seem to suggest that they would be sympathizers in the Shadow Nations machinations.”

“Yeah, well, the patrol captains sound like they believe it’s only a matter of time before we come across a settlement, or something even larger. There was some whispered chat around Old Sleazy’s food market that, apparently, there are warrens deep beneath the earth where entire cities and civilizations once dwelt.”

“So, if the Shadow Nations still exist,” Bjorn growled, “it’s only a matter of time before the Empire runs into the bastards?”

I made a sound of agreement and turned to watch the soldiers coming and going, but a snapping of fingers made me turn to see Gabby motioning for my attention.

“What?” I asked.

Gabby drew a finger across his throat and held his hands out.

“Do we kill the kobolds if we find them?” I clarified.

Gabby nodded, his long auburn hair swishing in front of his eyes.

“There are no plans for conquest, as far as I’m aware,” I said. “Me? I’m only really concerned with getting far enough in to discover and find what we need.”

Everyone grumbled their assent. While a visit to new lands beneath the Earth might have interested some people, we all very much liked being above ground.

I slipped briefly into musing about the life that I had left behind. I thought about the friends I had made in the MMA gym, wondered what they were doing now and what they had made of my sudden disappearance.

My contemplation of my life in L.A. was broken a minute or so later, when Ashrin and Jazmyn arrived with their squads in tow.

“Sweet succulent sylph shoulder boulders,” Bjorn growled under his breath as the two dragonmancers and their coteries approached, “look at those mean-looking fuckers.”

A respectful hush fell behind Jazmyn and Ashrin and their six accompanying coterie members as they passed through the ranks of milling Empire soldiers, and it was not difficult to see why.

The dragonmancers, clad in their sleek insectile armor, were intimidating enough, of course. Their coteries though, looked just as deadly and capable as the women they were tasked to protect with their lives.

All six coterie members were male. Battle-scarred, weathered, and grim. They too were garbed in black armor, though theirs was more matte black in color and clunkier-looking than the shiny, lightweight stuff the dragonmancers wore. The breastplates, greaves, and vambraces of each man were etched with gleaming silver dragon-blood infused runes, which indubitably bestowed powers on the wearers. An assortment of weaponry hung from their swords belts and from straps worn across their chests and over their shoulders.

“Hey, Mike,” Jazmyn said, swaggering up with a touch more cockiness than when I had last seen her, “you want to tell your coteries to stop ogling mine and Ash’s lads? Their puppy dog eyes are making them feel uncomfortable.”

I glanced over at the six armed and armored men, with their stony faces and ready hands. They couldn’t have looked any more immovable and impassive if they had been chiseled out of basalt. They had come to attention behind their respective dragonmancers, hands resting on the hilts and hafts of their weapons. Their keen eyes moved ceaselessly around them, scanning for dangers and threats.

“Yeah,” I said drily, “they sure look like a bunch of blushing brides, don’t they?”

Ashrin chuckled. “We brought you something, Dragonmancer Noctis.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” I asked.

The two women moved aside to reveal Tamsin and Renji standing behind them. Both the hobgoblin and the djinn were looking quietly smug with themselves. Behind them, following like wary shadows, were their squads.

“You guys!” I said, delighted to see my two friends. “What the hell? I thought everyone else was supposed to be staying back at the base?”

“There was a change of plans,” Tamsin said, walking up to me with Renji just behind. “We’re coming with you.”

“And the others?” I asked.

“General Shiloh wanted to bolster the morale of the leading force that will be going ahead of you, so she ordered Saya, Penelope, and Amara to march up front with them.”

“What about Elenari?” I asked.

“The General wanted her to stay behind,” Tamsin said. “What with Wayne still needing her, the General didn’t want her to put her life on the line.”

“I bet Elenari loved that,” I said sarcastically.

Tamsin shrugged. “She took it better than I would.”

“She’s a mother,” Renji said. “Such a thing changes perspectives. She has more than just herself to consider these days.”

“True,” I said. “So, what made the General change her mind about you ladies coming with me?”

“We told her the truth.” Tamsin paused, trying her hardest not to grin lasciviously. “The mission requires us to be there. Two women need to be present with you at all times, ones with whom you’ve previously had or wished to have had relations.” She glanced at Renji for a moment before continuing. “You need to be able to test whether or not any substance you acquire actually revitalizes your seed.”

I felt a smile of my own trying to break out.

“On the spot?” I asked.

“If that’s what it takes,” Tamsin crooned, flashing her sharp white teeth.

“And, besides,” Renji said, the large septum ring in her nose jiggling to a fro as she smiled broadly and showed off her silver chompers, “you also need someone who can