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

None of us really knew what we were going to be facing once we cleared the ratfolk township and entered the tunnel beyond. We were heading out beyond the Mystocean Empire’s frontier, into the unknown, and I figured it best to take on a little food and check our gear.

This had been met with an impressed approval by Jazmyn and Ashrin. I was sure that it might have looked, to them, like a relatively inexperienced Rank One dragonmancer was showing some hard-earned wisdom.

I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I had learned these things through watching movies like Kingdom of Heaven, and reading The Art of War and The Prince.

After we had stopped for our brief rest and a final weapon check, we hurried onward.

That final stretch of tunnel that led down to the ratfolk’s township flashed by us. Before I knew it, Pan and I had burst out into the open air of the gigantic cavern.

“Take to the air,” I instructed. “We’ll reconvene on the roof of the temple and make sure that the coast is clear.”

Pan launched himself upward, as silently as an owl taking off. The more time I spent with the Tempest Dragon, the more I came to believe that he really was stealthier than his two brothers.

“It is one of the many powers and benefits given him by the type of Etherstone that you used to bring him to maturity,” Noctis told me as Pan flapped his way soundlessly upward, heading for the monolithic temple in which the ratfolk had foolishly sought to contain the wild dragon. “Obviously, this stone contained the essence of a storm, which is why Pan became a Tempest Dragon.”

“Why would that mean that he can move so silently, though?” I asked as Pan, and the six other dragons following her, banked left and slowed as they approached the temple. “A thunderstorm isn’t known for its stealth. Quite the opposite in fact.”

“You are too narrow in your thinking, Mike,” Noctis said, with his usual devastating honesty. “Do you ever hear a storm building? More often you smell the rain, or feel the freshening wind, just before it strikes. Tell the seamen that suddenly find the head of the storm rising over them that it is a noisy thing. Storms make the gods’ own noise when they strike but, more often than not, they come and go with very little fuss.”

He was right, as usual, but we alighted on the great flat expanse of the temple roof and had to stop our chat.

I slid down from Pan’s smooth back and stepped onto the roof. While the dragons lay flat so as to minimize the outline they showed against the rock wall, I crawled with the rest of the dragonmancers over to the edge of the roof. Together, we scanned the previously unsurveyed far side of the enormous cave.

“I see sentries,” Saya said, almost immediately. “Over on the western—no that would be the southern side, wouldn’t it?”

Ashrin made a soft noise of concurrence in her throat.

“I see them too,” Jazmyn said. “Not many. They look like they’ve just been stationed as a rearguard. A screen of skirmishers to watch the ratfolk township and make sure that no other Empire forces appear without warning.”

“Are they ratfolk or kobolds?” Renji asked in her slow, thoughtful voice.

“Look like kobolds to me,” Ashrin said. “The way they move, the way they slink, but we’re too far away to be certain.”

“Doesn’t matter what they are,” I said. “We have to take them down. I want to preserve our secrecy for as long as we can. How many of them can everyone make out?”

After some careful individual scanning, we concluded that there were an even dozen of the scouts. They were strung along in a line on the far side of the township, beyond which we could make out a large, lone tunnel that we guessed was where Elenari, Antou and their soldiers had gone down.

“Right, we take out those scouts as quick and clean as hawks taking out rabbits, then we make our way quietly into the tunnel beyond,” I said, backing slowly away from the edge of the roof in a prone position. “Once we’re through there, we reconvene and assess what to do next. Sound good? Any objections?”

No one said anything. Jazmyn and Ashrin, who I was looking to for guidance in this situation more than any of the other women, seconded my plan with a nod.

“Good,” I said. “Everyone takes out two scouts bar me. I’m going to take down the last one and head straight through to the tunnel ahead of you guys. If there’s anything particularly shitty waiting for us down there, I’ll turn back and warn you. Otherwise, head through behind me and keep an eye out. I’ll signal you from a vantage point.”

Chapter 21

We remounted our dragons and dropped from the back side of the temple with all the fuss of seven leaves falling from a tree. Flying low over the tops of the ratfolk’s crude dwellings, we cut through the wider streets when we could, heading for where we knew the scouts to be. When we were only seconds away, I made a hand motion above my head, ordering the formation of dragonriders to break and take out their targets.

Pan cut hard right, ripping past the edge of a building by such a small margin that I heard his claws scrape the stonework. Then, he popped up over the edge of a two-story hovel, and I sighted my target: the lookout on the far right of the line of scouts.

The creature was most assuredly not one of the ratfolk, and so I assumed it must be a kobold. It was reptilian in appearance, with a long, high forehead that curved backward and turned into a blunt horn above the back of