Dragons of Asgard 3 by Logan Jacobs (first ebook reader txt) 📗

Preyna and I made it to the front room, and there were two guards posted near the door. Each of them wore a black tunic with a golden waistband that held the sheath for their greatswords.

I glanced back at Preyna, and the sorceress nodded to me with focused brown eyes before we carefully slipped by the guards.

As much as I would have liked to snap their necks right then, we needed to remain invisible for the time being. We had to figure out what the elf King was up to, and if he knew his palace was under attack, he was bound to immediately hide whatever he was doing with the dragons.

I wanted to find the dungeon, but I made sure to take note of everything as we made our way through the castle.

The palace was eerily quiet as we used the moonlight to navigate the hallways, and just when I was about to turn around and head another direction, I noticed two double doors at the far end of the hall.

A tall plant adorned either side of them, but what caught my attention was a large seal set between the two doors. It was golden, and on it was a strange sigil I hadn’t seen before. It looked almost like elf ears, with a tree in the middle of them.

“The seal of the elf King,” Preyna whispered.

“That must be his study,” I said, and I waved for her to follow me as I headed toward the end of the hall.

We reached the doors, and I was about to push them open when Preyna put her hand on mine to stop me. For a brief second, a spark of electricity shot up my hand at her touch, but I took a deep breath to steady myself.

“Wait,” Preyna said, and she closed her eyes and gently pressed her hand against the door.

Golden sparkles spread out from her palm to cover the entire door before they disappeared a second later.

“Okay.” The sorceress nodded. “It should be safe now.”

There was a small creaking sound as the door opened, and I held my breath and put my hand on my sword, ready for guards to swarm the area, but nothing happened.

Preyna’s light-brown eyes caught mine, and after a brief pause, we entered the study and closed the door behind us.

The large chambers had a bookshelf on one wall and a desk near the other. There were several more shelves behind the desk, and each was adorned with various dragon paraphernalia. There were paintings of eggs, golden plated dragon claws on display, and the jawbone of an adult dragon nearly took up the entire length of the wall above the shelves.

“What is all this?” Preyna asked.

Blar glared at the display and then turned his head away.

“I know, buddy,” I said, and I reached up to stroke under his chin before I turned to Preyna. “I don’t like this. I didn’t think he’d be so blatant about his obsession with dragons.”

“I doubt it seems odd to anybody who visits,” Preyna said, and she pursed her lips. “This realm is known to be the home of dragons, so it probably looks completely normal. I’m sure visitors assume he’s simply proud of his home realm.”

“You’re right.” I nodded. “If only everyone knew what he was really involved in.”

“Yes,” Preyna said, and she looked around the room curiously. “I know you wanted to find the dungeon, but do you think we can find anything in here to help us?”

“We’ll try,” I told her. “Help me look around.”

“Of course,” the blonde sorceress replied, and she walked over to the bookcase and ran her fingers along the spines of the volumes.

While she searched that side of the room, I made my way over to the desk and rummaged around. I tried the shelves first, but I didn’t see anything other than what was blatantly on them, and my nose wrinkled as I took in the sight of the dragon carcass on display, so I moved to the drawers of the desk.

The first couple of drawers proved to be nothing more than some deeds for other properties and a list of people held in the dungeon and their offenses. Some of them were entirely petty, such as speaking ill of the King, but I just shook my head, put the paper back, and moved on.

I pulled open the top right-hand drawer, saw it was only ornate pens and trinkets, and then closed it again.

When I opened the drawer below it, however, my interest piqued. A piece of paper sat face up, and across the top were the words ‘Ancient Stories of Dragons and their Origins.’

I reached for the paper, only to realize there was a large stack underneath it, so I pulled out the entire sheaf and set it on the desk.

Blar hopped from my shoulder onto the work surface and sniffed at the papers as I rifled through them.

There had to be hundreds of pages regarding dragon lore, and my eyebrows pulled together as I thumbed through them and quickly scanned the words.

“What is he up to?” I wondered aloud.

“What did you find?” Preyna asked, and the blonde sorceress made her way over to the desk so she could look at the papers. “What is this? Dragon lore?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “A lot of it.”

“Shouldn’t he know about dragons?” Preyna asked. “Why would he have this?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, but just then, I flipped over a page and saw the words ‘Garm’ and ‘Helheim,’ so I stopped and picked up the paper.

“What is it?” Preyna asked as I scanned the document.

“It’s instructions,” I muttered.

“Instructions for what?” the sorceress asked.

“How to get someone out of Helheim,” I said, and I turned the paper around for her to see.

“What in the world,”