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

take down a dragonmancer. It had been a while since I had been at the mercy of a case of the brown bottle flu of such severity, and I was quietly looking forward to waking up with a normal head on my shoulders the following day.

It felt like I had barely closed my eyes when I was being rudely roused from slumber.

“What the fu—” I grumbled.

“Get up, Dragonmancer Noctis,” General Shiloh barked, heedless of the sleeping forms around me. “Get your shit together and meet me outside, now!”

A hurried minute later I was outside, my pants thankfully on the right way and my fingers knotting my sword belt.

“What’s going on, General?” I asked, trying to shake the sleep from my head and get my wits gathered.

General Shiloh had not struck me as a woman to mince words and she didn’t do so now.

“Elenari’s expedition party, along with the others that she was with, have been surrounded by an extensive force of kobolds, along with three wild dragons,” the General said.

“What?”

The word popped out from between my lips without any thought.

General Shiloh raised one dangerous eyebrow.

“Did I stutter, Dragonmancer Noctis?” she said, her voice taut with suppressed stress.

I looked at the bear-sized woman standing in front of me. Despite her implacable demeanor, I could tell that she was worried.

“This is serious,” I said.

“You bet your ass it’s serious,” the General said. “It’s about as serious as it could be. Those troopers and dragonmancers are well outside our patrol area. They’re in an unmapped, unscouted area of the Subterranean Realms. It’s about as serious as it gets, Dragonmancer Noctis.”

I nodded distractedly as I digested these words.

Then, I set my teeth and locked eyes with the General.

“I’m going to find her,” I said. “I’m going to bring her back. Going to help get those soldiers out of there.”

General Shiloh crossed her massive furred arms across her chest.

“You’re doing nothing of the kind, dragonmancer,” she said. “You’re far too valuable to be going on any sort of rescue mission. If anything, I’ll be sending you in the opposite direction. Back to the Drako Academy.”

I had been looking forward to getting back to Drakereach, returning to my studies, sleeping in my own bed.

It looked like all that was going to have to wait now.

“With all due respect, General,” I said, “fuck that. I’m going. And nothing short of the ending of the world is going to stop me.”

Chapter 20

General Shiloh hadn’t climbed the ranks and made it to the pinnacle of the Mystocean armed forces by being a fool. She was as tough and intelligent and perspicacious an officer as any soldier or officer of rank could be. Not only that though, but she was reasonable too. She had not forgotten what it had been like to be young, full of vim and vigor, with a stubborn heart and a head full of ideals. She was well aware of the end game, of the master plan that the Empress Cyrene clearly had in mind for me, but she was not past remembering what it was like to care for one’s family, friends, and fellow soldiers.

I could only imagine what she might have accomplished, had she been born in another world and been able to pursue a career in American politics.

She surveyed my face for a full minute, while our two wills strove against one another, flashing and clashing in the air like almost visible fencing blades.

Then, with a slow steady sigh through her nose, she said, “Well, what the hell are you still doing standing in front of me, Dragonmancer?”

I straightened up. Something that might have been a smile had the circumstances not been so damn dire, but was more like a grimace, contorted my face.

“Just point me in the right direction, General,” I said.

General Shiloh looked like she was itching for a cup of her Hangman liquor. As it was, she crushed a half-smoldering log that had rolled out of our campfire under her heel.

Behind me, I could hear the rest of the tent rousing itself. Renji, Tamsin, Saya, and Penelope were chatting in low urgent voices. I could make out the sounds of buckles being fastened, clothes, and boots being hurriedly pulled on.

“The last communication from Elenari’s legion, and the legion that was being led by Antou, Bearer of Hulong, came from a messenger-drake only a couple of hours ago.”

“A couple of hours,” I said, “why didn’t anyone come and tell me?”

General Shiloh gave me a slightly cutting look and said tartly, “Because you’re a Rank One dragonmancer, and because the decision to send anyone anywhere resides with me and with me alone. I weighed up what we had to gain and what we had to lose as an Empire and decided that sending in an emergency team of capable dragonmancers was the right course of action.”

General Shiloh slapped at an insect that had landed on one of her beefy forearms.

“It was the second messenger-drake that convinced me that only the speed of a dragonmancer could hope to alleviate the peril that those in the Subterranean Realms find themselves in.”

“A second message came through?” I asked. I heard the tent flap get shoved roughly aside and the booted feet of three people come tramping toward where General Shiloh and I stood conversing.

The General nodded. Her eyes skipped over my shoulder, and something very much like pride shone briefly in them, with the speed of a fish flipping up from the depths of a lake only to vanish out of sight into the gloom once more.

“The first message simply said that Elenari, Antou, and their troopers had passed through the ratfolk township and moved further into the heart of the mountain. There was only one path to follow. They passed down a long