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

stumbled slightly as they walked along the icy path, and they laughed much too loudly at the terrible jokes their friends made.

After about half an hour, I figured it was best to try and move on, but as I was about to tell the girls my plan, a single male caught my attention.

He was tall and thin, with a bald head and bright icy-blue eyes. He wore a dark-blue tunic and pants to match, with boots, a sword on his hip, and a satchel strewn over his shoulder.

What caught my eye, though, was the fact that his sword didn’t look well-used. He clearly wasn’t in a warband of any sort based on how nice and pristine his weapon was, and there were no visible scars on his body, either.

The male also wasn’t stumbling like most people in this area. He walked at a reasonable pace headed deeper into the caverns, and every few steps he looked around as if to make sure nobody had noticed him.

He was definitely trying to blend in, and to most people, he did, but not to me. I knew exactly what he was doing, and whether or not he was involved with the dragon trade remained to be seen, but at the moment, he was our best option.

“Ladies,” I said. “There’s a man heading further into the caves. He’s tall and bald, do you see him?”

“No.” Kas shook her head, but then she narrowed her eyes as she looked closer. “Wait, yes.”

“Okay, don’t stare,” I said, and the strawberry-blonde casually looked down at her drink.

“He looks suspicious,” Eira said, and she turned to lock eyes with me. “He’s not drunk like everyone else here. And that sword is too nice to be in a warband.”

“My thoughts exactly.” I grinned.

“Oooh, does that mean we found one of the traders?” Asta asked, and she smiled and bounced up and down slightly on the seat.

“Maybe.” I nodded. “We can’t say for sure, not yet at least. But right now, I think it’s in our best interests to follow this guy and see where he goes.”

“How are we going to follow him without him noticing?” Kas whispered. “He keeps looking around.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “Let’s split up. Asta, Eira, you two go ahead. Walk quickly and act like you belong here. Turn into random caves if you need to, and then you can wait for us to pass by and come back out again.”

“Good idea.” Eira nodded. “As long as we act oblivious and drunk, he probably won’t pay too much attention to us.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Kas, you’re with me. Let’s go.”

“Come on,” Eira said, and she pulled Asta up by the arm, grabbed their half-full drinks, and quickly spilled some on Asta’s chest.

“What the fuck!” Asta exclaimed, and I was surprised to hear her curse. “Why did you do that?”

The white-haired elf girl tried to brush away the booze, but it had already seeped into her tunic, and from the side of her armor, I could see the fabric cling to her wet breasts.

“To keep up appearances,” Eira said. “We need to smell drunk.”

“Oh.” Asta blinked, and then she frowned. “Well, you could have warned me.”

“That wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.” The redhead grinned.

Before I could even blink, Asta took her drink and splashed Eira with it.

“Nice,” the warband leader laughed. “Okay, let’s go.”

“We don’t have to do that, do we?” Kas whispered after Eira and Asta disappeared into the crowd.

“No.” I shook my head. “Just carry your drink and stumble a little bit.”

“Got it,” Kas agreed.

The sorceress and I stood up and joined the crowd as we headed further into the tunnels. The men were loud and obnoxious as they stumbled along the street, but we simply laughed along every now and then to keep up appearances.

The man we were tailing didn’t seem to notice us when he looked back, or if he did notice us, we were playing the part well-enough that he believed we were simply drunk and walking in the same direction as him.

I scanned the crowd and eventually found Eira and Asta about ten paces ahead of the man. I wasn’t sure how they’d managed to get that far in front of him, but I wasn’t surprised, either. The two women were resourceful, and I knew they’d be able to handle whatever task I threw at them.

The ice caves seemed to get a little bit darker as we walked, and I realized it wasn’t the caves themselves, but it was getting dark outside. We’d been in Jotunheim all day, and while I thought we were on a similar schedule to the Asgardian one, I figured the days here were probably a little bit shorter with the perpetual winter.

There were still vendors here and there, but eventually, it seemed we entered the part of the city where people lived.

There were houses carved into the sides of the ice caves, and tunnels led to more and more houses.

Eventually, Asta and Eira drunkenly stumbled down a tunnel to the right, and the bald-headed man continued going straight.

Kas and I made sure to keep our distance, but there were still plenty of people around, so it wasn’t too difficult to remain unnoticed. Besides, this was the area of town where people lived, so it wouldn’t be too strange for several people to be walking in the same direction for a while.

After Kas and I passed the tunnel where Eira and Asta turned, the two of them reappeared behind us.

“Hey,” Eira whispered as she and Asta caught up with us. “Have you seen anything yet?”

“Not yet.” I shook my head. “He hasn’t seemed to really notice us, but we’re entering where people live, so we can’t follow him through here forever.”

“Right,” the redhead sighed.

Suddenly, the man