by Logan Jacobs
The dragons slept near our feet as we watched the market, and I could hear Blar snoring lightly underneath me.
We’d certainly made it to a different part of the market.. This area had a lot of pubs, as well as weapon and armor vendors, but surprisingly, it was still extremely busy.
There were more single males, or groups of men traveling in this area. Most of them 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 turned down a small tunnel to the left.
The girls and I continued to walk, and after we passed the tunnel, we quickly backtracked and peered down into it. The man was the only one walking in there, which was bad news for us. There was no way we’d be able to follow him easily now.
“Shite,” I breathed.
“That tunnel is much smaller than most of the ones around here,” Asta noted.
“It does look that way,” I agreed.
The tunnel was just a few feet taller than the bald-headed man, and only wide enough for three or four frost giants to stand inside. It was dimly lit, and the man seemed to disappear into the darkness after just a moment.
“We’re going to lose him,” Eira urged.
“You’re right,” I huffed. “Everyone be quiet and follow my lead if we get caught.”
“Right.” Kas nodded.
If I wasn’t sure about this guy being a criminal before, I was definitely sure now. This dark, dingy tunnel wasn’t somewhere I thought a regular Jotunheim citizen would venture. The man’s sword had to be worth at least a hundred gold pieces, and he clearly didn’t belong in this part of the neighborhood.
Not to mention, there was nobody else in this particular tunnel. Every other tunnel we’d passed by had at least a few people moseying in and out of it, but he was the only one inside this tunnel, and that seemed incredibly suspicious to me.
“How are we going to be able to see?” Asta whispered.
“She has a point.” Eira bit her lip. “We can’t exactly have the dragons light our way like we did earlier.”
“Are you forgetting about the spell I used when we went to Svartalfheim?” Kas asked. “Give me just a second, and I’ll make it so we can see in the dark.”
“I did forget about that,” Eira said. “Good idea.”
Kas rolled her eyes, but then she held her hands out and whispered something in the old language. I was always fascinated by her spells, and I wished I’d known more of our mother
tongue. I hadn’t bothered to learn a lot of words, only the basics, but Kas was definitely fluent with all the spells she did.
I closed my eyes as red magic sparkles swirled around me, and once I opened them again, I was able to see further down the tunnel than before. There was a curve just past where my vision had been limited before, but I could see it now, and I figured the man had to have gone that way.
“Come on,” I whispered, and I carefully led the girls into the darkness.
The busy street disappeared behind us, and as we walked, it was immediately clear this tunnel wasn’t like any of the others. All the other tunnels we’d passed were lit up, but more than that, they seemed to have houses built into the walls, where this one had nothing.
That was the truly eerie part. There were no vendor booths, no storefronts, or homes carved into the ice. There was nothing down this tunnel, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up the further we got into the place.
With a cave system so vast, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for there to be a tunnel or two that didn’t lead anywhere except maybe out, or to another part of the cave system. However, I didn’t get that feeling from this tunnel.
We made it to the corner the man had turned down, and up ahead I could see him still walking along. He was less cautious now, and he seemed utterly unconcerned with who might be behind him. He wasn’t in any sort of a hurry, either. He walked along leisurely, and I wondered just what his involvement in this was.
Most criminals I’d met weren’t leisurely people, they tended to get things done fast, but this man didn’t seem to be walking with any sort of quickness.
The girls and I watched as the man walked up to what seemed to be the end of the tunnel, but once he got there, he grabbed onto a large chunk of ice that stuck out from the wall and slid it to the side.
There was another cave at the end of the tunnel, and inside I could see it was the same room as the one I’d been in as the baby dragon. The walls were lined with shelves full of dragon eggs, and the little baby I’d seen was now in a cage on a small desk at the back of the room.
There were four other frost giants in there already, and they sat on stools made of ice and went through some chests. They carefully removed eggs and placed them on the shelves next to the others.
“Bastards,” Eira breathed.
“They must have just got more,” Kas added.
“Probably to make sure they have enough for the King,” Eira said.
“But where are they getting them from?” Kas mused, and her violet eyes narrowed on the cavern at the end of the tunnel. “Do you think they’re going to Alfheim themselves?”
“It’s possible,” I whispered. “But it seems we’ve definitely found the right place.”
The man we’d been following opened his satchel, and then he pulled out a large green egg and handed it to one of the other giants.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying because we were too far away, but the man held the egg up and turned it over in his hands to get a good look at. He nodded and handed it back to the man we’d followed, who then put the egg on the wall.
“Do you think that guy is the one getting them all?” Asta asked.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head and narrowed my eyes even more.
“So, what’s our plan here?” Eira asked. “Right now we have the element of surprise.”
“Right,” I agreed. “Let’s have Kas use her invisibility spell so we can sneak up there and attack without being seen.”
“Good idea.” Asta nodded.
“Give me just a second--” Kas started to say, but she didn’t get to finish.
Svass had stepped on a slippery patch, and the little dragon let out a high-pitched squeal as she flew a few feet across the ice, but what was worse was that she got scared and instinctively breathed out a small fire blast.
Kas’ violet eyes landed on mine, and they were wide with horror.
“Maybe they didn’t notice,” Asta whispered.
I looked at the cavern at the end of the tunnel, and all of the frost giants were walking toward the door. Their faces were contorted with anger as they reached for their weapons and bared their yellow teeth.
“They noticed,” I whispered back.
Chapter 17
“Well, the element of surprise is out of the question now.” Eira shrugged and pulled her longsword from its sheath. “Guess it’s time to do this the old-fashioned way.”
“I guess so,” I agreed as I yanked my sword from my hip.
The redhead let out a war cry, and she charged forward with Svass in the air right behind her. Even in such a tense situation, I couldn’t help but think about how sexy she was when she went into battle.
I released a war cry as I ran toward the giants, too, and I could hear Kas and Asta running just behind me. The ice was slick, but we kept our footing well enough, though we weren’t moving as quickly as we usually would.
The frost giants were headed right toward us, too, and all five of them locked their eyes on Eira since she was ahead of the rest of us.
The men stepped forward and tried to swing at the redhead, but she wasn’t stupid, and she used the ice to her advantage. Eira slid underneath the giants and through their legs to land on the other side of them.
One of them let out a confused groan as he spun around, but Eira was quick, and she swung high to try and catch the side of his head with her sword.
These guys were huge, though, and they were quick, too. The frost giant grabbed Eira’s sword, and her blade barely punctured his terribly thick blue skin.
But I couldn’t focus on Eira right then. I was nearly head-to-head with one of the bastards.
The ugly motherfucker had his axe lifted above his head, and he brought it down with a ferocity I'd never seen in an opponent before.
I ducked and came up to the right of him so I could bring my sword down on his arm, but as ugly as the arsehole was, he wasn’t stupid. He spun out of the way just as my sword swung downward, and instead of hitting his arm, my blade collided with the ice below us, and chunks of the frozen liquid flew up into the air.
Before I could regain my footing, the man was on me, and he lifted his huge foot and kicked me square in the chest so I went flying into the room with all the eggs.
“Shite,” I growled as I stood up.
Eira was already locked in battle with the other frost giant in the room, but Kas and Asta were still in the hallway, thankfully. Although, they had another man out there with them so it was three against two, which only made me worry that much more.
These arseholes clearly didn’t care about harming the eggs. They were attacking with full force, which meant Eira and I were limited in what we could do since we didn’t want to put the eggs in danger.
Blar let out a huge fire blast at the man before he could reach me again, and I took that opportunity to flip my sword in my hand so I could send it flying like a spear.
My blade hit the guy in the chest, but it didn’t dig all the way in, and though I willed it to extend, he ripped it out just as it lengthened.
“Fuck,” I breathed, and I stood up and held my hand out.
“Looking for this?” the man snarled as he held up my weapon.
Blar breathed a blue flame into my palm, and my sword disappeared from the frost giant’s hand only to reappear in mine.
The giant’s eyes went wide as he looked at his now empty hand, but that only seemed to make him angrier, and his face twisted as he turned to me once more with his yellow teeth bared.
“I know you aren’t what you look like,” he sneered. “Whatever, whoever you are, you’ve fucked with the wrong giant.”
“I highly doubt that,” I said, and I propelled myself forward with a massive leap as I reared my blade back over my shoulder.
The man ran toward me, too, but I was faster than he was, and I was trying my best to keep him out of the room with the eggs.
A crash sounded behind me, but I had to force myse
lf to keep looking straight ahead. Eira was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and I knew she’d do her best to make sure the eggs didn’t get hurt.
The frost giant lifted his sword to try and counter my attack, but Blar let out a massive fireball over my shoulder, and the man instinctively pulled his hands up to cover his face.
His head was blocked by his sword, but his shoulder was open, so I came down on the bone with as much force as I could muster, and my blade dug deep into his flesh.
“Fuuuck!” the man screeched through clenched teeth, and he pulled down on his sword to try and catch me while I was close to him.
I was quick, though, and I yanked my sword out of his shoulder and jumped to the side just in time to avoid his massive blow.
His blade hit the ice hard, and even with his messed-up shoulder, he managed to muster up quite a bit of strength. The ice below us cracked loudly from the force of his swing, and I felt lucky it had been the ice and not my skull.
“Damnit,” I breathed as the eggs shook on the shelves.
This bastard was going to break all of the eggs if he wasn’t careful.
I needed to take him out, and fast.
I wondered why he’d be so incredibly careless since these eggs were for the Elf King, and I presumed they’d be making a profit off them. It didn’t exactly serve them well to break their merchandise. Then again, this guy didn’t seem like the sharpest tool in the blacksmith’s forge, so I doubted he was even considering the repercussions of his actions.
The giant yanked on his blade only to realize it was stuck in the floor, and once I saw that, I readjusted my own sword and swung low.
My blade caught him in the back of the knees, and even though it didn’t completely go through his skin, it cut through his muscles and tendons, and he fell to the ground as blood pooled around his legs. His sword was still stuck in the ice next to him, but he was too busy screaming in pain to notice.
I glanced back to the tunnel outside the cavern and saw Kas and Asta were still caught in battle with the three giants out there, so I quickly grabbed my sword and slammed it into the frost giant’s head where he writhed on the ground. The man’s eyes bulged out for just a second, and then his body went limp as warm blood pooled on the cold ice.