Dragon Adventurer collection

by K V Deal

  I really didn’t have any hope that this was going to work. Sure, I could feel magic and different types of magic felt different. But tracking somebody by it?

  We walked past a group of adventurers standing near the exterior door. They watched us pass, talking quietly amongst themselves. Something about their posture felt very secretive...

  “What was that all about?” Carah asked as soon as we stepped out of the building.

  “Something about Jake.” Axle said. “I caught that much.”

  “We don’t have time for that gossipy junk.” Charlie crossed her arms over her chest, and she began to tap a booted foot. “You’re up, dragon.”

  “Yeah.”

  I glanced around. Sure, there were groups of Adventurers still around, but it was open enough now that I felt I could give it a try.

  I closed my eyes and tried to feel for magic. There was plenty of it. I had magic. My friends had magic. The other adventurers had magic. Hell, even the mayor's building had magic!

  I let out an annoyed growl. “There’s magic everywhere! A fat lot of good it does us, though!”

  “Well, so much for that plan,” Rachel muttered.

  She’s really starting to get annoying.

  Axle looked over at Rachel as she spoke then thumped a fist into his palm. “Right! Jake, remember when we went to save Rachel? You could tell there were Inquisitors in the building before we found any! How?”

  I frowned, thinking back. “Well, I felt those invisibility cloths they have.”

  “Exactly! There was a difference in the feeling! Maybe you can try to do the same thing here!”

  “What, feel for Inquisitors?”

  “That's not what...” Axle hesitated. “Actually, if there are any around, I wouldn't mind knowing.”

  “What he means,” Charlie said in an exasperated tone, “is that you should try to feel for the specific feelings of your stuff’s magic!”

  Oh. Right.

  “I'll give it a shot,” I closed my eyes.

  Now the question is, what should I try to find?

  I could try for my dagger, the breakaway one, but...it had never had a really strong feeling to it. But I knew something that did, the mace. That was one I’d felt strongly before since it had been used on me at least twice. I focused my mind trying to—

  “Ya see how he’s almost sniffing the air?” Charlie said with interest.

  I opened my eyes and glared at her. “Do you mind? This is hard enough without listening to you analyze me.”

  “Sorry,” she muttered, lowering her book.

  I closed my eyes again, trying to focus.

  There!

  It was faint, so much so that, at first, I thought I was imagining it. I opened my eyes eagerly.

  “I think I found the mace. Let’s get moving.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  Chapter 22

  I led our group through the streets of the city at not much more than a fast walk. It drove me crazy to move so slowly, but it was the best my hip could manage. We kept moving as the sun lowered in the sky to hover just at the edge of the horizon, bringing the sky to twilight.

  “Jeez, Jake! Stop for a second!” Carah called to me around gasping breaths. “I…” she took another ragged breath, “need a break!”

  If it had been any other member of our little group, I might have just ignored them. It being the half-succubus, I reluctantly slowed my pace before coming to a full stop in front of a small shop. Its windows were full of mining gear.

  That was when I realized that everyone had been lagging way behind. When she reached me, Carah dropped and sat on the sandstone cobbles.

  “Ya know, dragon...” Charlie panted as she half-jogged up to us, the others right behind her. “Ya might not be fast, but ya just don’t stop! I'm kinda surprised ya can keep moving like that with your hip all messed up.”

  I looked down at the mass of scar tissue. Now that she mentioned it, that joint was really starting to hurt.

  “Why are we even hurrying anyways?” Rachel complained. She let out an exhausted sigh. Her body shifted back to her normal self from the blond she’d transformed into. She looked at her hands and then waved them in exasperation. “Aw, fuck it!”

  “Well, we’re running because of Jake,” Axel replied. But if you think about it, there’s also the fact that we need to take care of this now.”

  “What's the rush?” Rachel hooked a thumb at me. “The bloodhound, there, can track them, right? So, it's not like they can get away.”

  “Oh, would ya quit whining!” Charlie snapped. “The reason it has to be now is that we don’t know if they’re gonna regroup. We press them now, and we keep the upper hand!”

  “And we don’t know if Jake has a range on his tracking,” Carah added. “Oh! And, of course, you remember the Inquisitors? They may be quiet today, but we should probably deal with this before they try to take advantage of the situation.”

  I winced. With everything that had been going on, I HAD forgotten about them.

  Thinking they might interfere didn't help the anxiety I was feeling. It set my tail to rattling.

  “Dragon! Chill! We gotta take a break, or we're gonna be no good if we get into a battle!” Charlie snapped.

  “I'm not thinking about finding the mace,” I snapped back.

  That wasn't entirely true. Now that she mentioned it, the thought was in my head, but before she’d said it, that hadn't been what I was thinking of!

  “Sooo...” Carah said loudly. “Anybody else notice we’re heading towards the marina?”

  “Actually, were a bit off course for the marina. We are heading towards the river, though,” Axle responded quickly.

  Charlie and I exchanged annoyed glances. It was pretty damn obvious that the two of them were trying to distract us.

  Still, arguing with either of them or going back to my beef with Charlie, really didn't get me any closer to getting my stuff back.

  I crossed my arms and looked off into the distance, where I could feel my mace. “So...is there anything important off in that direction?”

  “Rachel? Ya know that part of the city better than I do.” Charlie looked over at her cousin.

  “There really isn’t anything over that way,” she shrugged. “It was slums before everything changed, and as far as I know, it's been abandoned since then. The biggest thing I remember about it is stories about people getting mugged there, and how glad people were that it was down river,” she grimaced. “They threw some nasty shit in the river back then...”

  Axle sighed. “It’s probably not abandoned anymore—either Chosen or somebody else.”

  “Even if it isn’t people, there'll be something there,” I muttered, thinking back to the creatures we had run into in another abandoned section of the city.

  Carah's stomach grumbled. “Maybe more of those salamanders? Those things were delicious!”

  Rachel wrinkled her nose, turning a bit green as she looked at Carah. “Eww!”

  Carah looked at her in confusion.

  “Not the little lizards. Think of the mythical giant fire lizards. Their steaks are actually pretty good,” Axle explained.

  “Still, lizard? Still eww.” Rachel crossed her arms and looked away.

  “Whatever,” Carah muttered, looking annoyed.

  Charlie rubbed her forehead with an arm that bent into an almost boneless loop. “Why is that important to ya two? Ya know what? I don’t care. Let's get moving.” She rose to her feet. “Lead the way, dragon!”

  I picked up the trail.

  As we walked, a dirty smell began to waft around us. I wrinkled my nose. “This place smells like an outhouse,” I muttered.

  “Yup. Nice, isn’t it? Welcome to old Riverwake.” Rachel drew her sword, her eyes flicking back and forth, as she watched the shadows in between the towering buildings around us. “This is the place I was talking about, the slum.”

  “Did it always smell like this?” Carah gagged, reaching up to pinch her
nose shut.

  “Oh, it always reeked, but it only got this bad after the change. You know those pots? The ones that take care of bathroom needs? Supposedly this part of the city didn’t get any, so people just used buckets and dumped them.” Her eyes flicked toward edges of the street. “I wouldn't step in the gutter. Just saying.”

  Oh. Gross!

  And worse? I was pretty sure the mace was up in one of the towering buildings up ahead. The feeling was coming from a point somewhere up ahead and a ways above us.

  Hopefully, The Chosen had at least cleaned their base up a bit.

  “We're close to the river...” Axle's long, pointed ears quivered.

  The next corner we turned proved Axle right. Looking down the alleyways between the buildings to our right, we could now see the last of the sun’s light reflecting off the fast-moving water that was right behind the sandstone building.

  “That’s not all we’re close to.” I narrowed my eyes, and my tail beginning to lash as I started stalking forward. Well, for one step at least, then pain lanced from my hip.

  Okay, no stalking. Scar tissue doesn’t like stalking.

  I felt a hand on my side. “Sorry, big guy. Maybe we can find something that can help tomorrow in town…”

  I nodded and turned to look at my target. Three buildings down, there was a five-story building made from a gray, weathered stone. Water stains ran from the roof’s cracked, slate tiles to frame the dented and scraped-up front door. Windows started on the second story, but from what I could see from here, just about every one of them had been boarded up…from the inside.

  I jabbed a finger forward. “It’s somewhere in there. Up a few stories.”

  The others looked up at the building.

  “Really? You'd think they could’ve found a nicer place than this dump…” Charlie wrinkled her nose.

  “At least the gutter isn’t full of…ummm…you know…” Axle trailed off at the end of his thought as he fished for a better word.

  “Let’s move on from that.” Carah waved a hand as if brushing the thought away. “What now?”

  Axle looked around and then motioned us toward one of the alleyways. Inside, he pulled out the sparrow. He paused a moment, and he just stood there holding the clay bird. Then he looked up at us. “Is there a landmark or something we can give Gloria?”

  Rachel rolled her eyes. “Just tell her it’s in old Riverwake by the river.”

  “Not good enough.” Charlie frowned and looked out of the mouth of the alley. “There’s a shop in the ground floor of the building across the street. The sign says… Fraban’s Breakables.”

  Axle nodded and began to whisper to the bird.

  “Fraban’s Breakables? What a name…” Rachel shook her head.

  My tail lashed as I looked past the others out of the alley. This was all taking too much time. Now that I was this close, I really just wanted to kick in the door on that place and find my stuff!

  “Jake…” Carah reached out and touched my arm.

  Right, right. I knew what she was trying to tell me—be patient and wait.

  A growl slipped past my lips, and my tail lashed once. Spinning around, I turned to face the river. “How much do you want to bet there’s a way to sneak into that place from the river?” I asked her.

  She eyed the river. “No bet. That makes sense. Now, the question is, why?”

  “Why?” That surprised me.

  “Yup. There’s got to be an easier way to transport things around inside the city. Heck, nobody knew that they were moving stuff so they could have done it any number of ways. I mean, to take it by the river they need Changed who can breathe in water or something that can let people do that. It seems like a lot of effort for what feels like just too little payback…”

  “Great! More questions,” Charlie said from the side, shaking her head. Seems she had been listening.

  The was a shattering sound and then the sparrow was away flitting through the air on transparent blue wings.

  “Good. Now, can we go get them?” I shook my head.

  Everyone turned to look at me.

  “Jake, that’s suicide!” Axle said, startled.

  “He’s right, that would be just damn crazy!” Charlie agreed.

  “It’s how we’ve handled everything up till now,” I shrugged.

  Carah giggled. “He does have a point.”

  Charlie opened her mouth, probably to object.

  “Charlie!” Rachel shouted, grabbing her cousin by the sleeve and yanking her to the ground.

  Just in time to miss getting an arrow to the head.

  “Shit!” Carah was drawing my dagger, as she hurled herself across the alley to get behind the toughest thing she could hide behind.

  Here, with no dumpsters or anything else, that was me.

  Axle had his bow up, a furious look on his face, as he put a counter arrow in the air, aiming at a target that I couldn’t see. His arrow flew out of the alley and across the street. Its path sent it whistling up and through an open window across the street.

  As soon as it was past, a dark shape stepped back into the window and loosed another arrow.

  I heard Carah muttering behind me, and with a snap of her fingers, she gestured past me. The arrow caught fire mid-flight and burned to a crisp before it could reach us.

  With a twang, Charlie loosed a bolt at the attacker, as she pulled herself up.

  Her shot hit the woodwork sending splinters flying, but not doing a thing to the shooter. “Damn!”

  “Jake! Get that shield out!” Axle shouted as he loosed another shot. His aim was better, driving the attacker back into cover.

  “It got cut up!” I replied to Axel. “I don’t have it anymore!” I pulled out my great sword. It wasn’t much as far as cover went, but its wide blade was better than nothing.

  “Axle, we can’t stay here! We’re sitting ducks!” Carah shouted, still hiding behind me.

  “Damn it! Alright! Head into the building across the street. The plan is to take out whoever that guy is before he can alert—”

  The figure stepped back into view, but not with its bow this time. Pressing something to its lips, a loud piercing whistle echoed through the streets.

  “Oh, for—!” Charlie’s crossbow twanged again. This time her arrow hit its mark. The figure let out a feminine scream before falling back into the room.

  “Well, if the whistle didn’t let them know we’re here, that scream must have,” Rachel said as she drew her sword.

  “Axle! Now that they know we’re here, they might move the items!” I growled. “They did last time!”

  “That’s fine! As far as I care, they can have the damn things! We’re not going to run in there just to get killed!” Axle drew back his bow and trained it on the entrance to the alleyway.

  Let them have MY stuff? Hell no!

  “Aw hell, Axle! Why did ya have to go and say that!” Charlie called out from behind me. “After him!”

  I hadn’t even realized I was moving until I hobbled around the corner and out onto the street. Not that I had time to think about it. The sound of wood scraping on stone, made me look up. The windows on The Chosen hideout were being unblocked!

  If they finished that while we were out in the street, we were gonna be vulnerable. Those windows covered just about every angle away from the building which, to my mind, left only one place that was out of arrow range. “Hurry!” I called back to the others before limping at top speed toward the hideout’s beat-up, front door.

  They can’t shoot into their own door, right?

  I could hear footsteps beating the pavement right behind me as I reached the building. Hopefully, that was the others. I lowered my shoulder and slammed into the door. With a bang, it slammed inward. The room I lumbered into was a stark contrast to the outside of the building. In fact, except for a few issues, it was really nice—tall ceilings, whitewashed walls, and a clean floor. There were even some chairs and tables off in a corner with what looked like
some slices of bread and cheese set out in just such a way to be convenient for snacking. On the far side of the room was a hallway, lined with torches, that led deeper into the building.

  What were those few issues? Well, for one thing, the whole room smelled like sweat and metal—a lot like a locker room. And another thing was the mess of fully armored Chosen soldiers.

  Guess we’re in for a fight.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

  Chapter 23

  I gripped the handle of my greatsword as the Chosen rushed right at me.

  “It’s the damn dragon!” somebody shouted from in the mass of armored bodies. “In the Queen's name, bring him down!”

  It was right about then, looking at all those angry people running right at me, that I realized my current weapon might not be the best for fighting that many people. Especially since, in these tight quarters, I couldn't swing it worth a damn.

  The smart move would have been to retreat, head back outside to where I could really use this thing. But that would send me backpedaling into the rest of our team putting us all in arrow range. That really didn’t seem like a good idea either.

  Luckily, that guy yelling that queen again reminded me about another option I had. Though it pained me to do it, I dropped my sword to the ground and kicked it to the side. Then I reached into my ring and brought out my newest toy.

  Up till now, I’d always turned in anything I’d looted off of Inquisitors, The Chosen or the like. But after that last battle, I’d changed my mind. I’d never got back any of the stuff I’d lent out in that dungeon, so I’d decided to keep this beauty as interest on the loan.

  The front runner on The Chosen’s assault screeched to a halt as he saw the weapon in my hands. “One of the Queen’s fangs!”

  Guess he knows how sharp this thing is.

  Sadly, for him, the people behind him didn’t share his caution. They rammed him, knocked him over, and tumbled over themselves, as they tried not to trample him.

  Not thinking, I tried to rush forward to take advantage of their slip. The lancing pain from my hip reminded me why it might have been better to wait for them to come to me. I stumbled, trying to plant my feet before I fell flat on my face.