Dragons of Asgard 2

by Jacobs, Logan

  Besides, if he, Inger, and Uffe, were inside the dragon cages, they’d be able to slip out and help attack if we needed it.

  I gave Blar one last pat on the head, and then he and the twins retreated to the back of the cart while I flicked the reins.

  The cart bobbed up and down as we slowly made our way down the long, uneven road, and the farther we got, the more destroyed the area seemed.

  “What’s that?” Asta whispered.

  I looked to the right, and off in the distance I could see there was a large skull in the field. I immediately knew it was from a dragon, and my heart sank. These arseholes hadn’t even buried the creature after it died.

  “It’s a dragon skeleton,” Eira said grimly, and I had to close my eyes and look away for a moment.

  “How awful.” Asta frowned.

  “Look!” Kas gasped, and she pointed in front of us.

  I looked up to see there was now a large wooden structure off in the distance. That had to be where we were headed, so I took a deep breath and steadied myself to make sure I was in character.

  Once we were close enough to the building, I quickly scanned the area to see what all was around that could possibly be useful in a fight, but I didn’t see much. There were a couple more broken carts, plus four or five that appeared to be in working order. I saw some of the horned horse-like animals similar to ours grazing a few hundred yards away, and there was a pile of rusted swords, shields, armor, and various other metal scraps.

  For a second, I wondered why I didn’t see any dragons outside, but then I realized the animals being kept inside was another thing done purposefully. If a dragon flew over this area and saw another one imprisoned, it would intervene. That wasn’t a risk they could take.

  Dragons were almost like pack animals. They looked out for each other, even if they didn’t know one another. Even Asta said the dragons here never fought, since they were like one large family.

  I wasn’t exactly sure what to do now that we’d arrived at the building, but I held my head high and tried to act like I did.

  I parked our cart next to the ones with all their wheels intact, and then the girls and I hopped off.

  “Kimber!” someone yelled, and I looked around and found a tall, older elf standing in the doorway of the large wooden building. “You’re late. Get in here.”

  I wasn’t sure what our names were, so I just nodded and gestured to the girls to follow. We all walked toward the man, and I thought about the little dragons in the back. They’d have to get inside on their own, which made me nervous, but I knew they could handle themselves. I just had to have faith I’d trained them properly.

  The girls and I walked up to the man who waited for us, and I got a good look at his face. He was old, which was saying a lot for an elf, since they were like Asgardians in that they didn’t age very quickly, if at all, so this man had to be ancient. He had thinning long black hair, deep set green eyes with wrinkles around them, and his body was scrawny and frail looking.

  I wondered just how old he was and how long he’d been doing this. Was he the boss?

  “What took you so long?” the man muttered as he led us inside.

  “We had some difficulties with the buyers,” I said.

  “I’m sure you took care of it, right?” he asked with a glare.

  “Of course,” I said. I wasn’t sure how this guy usually talked, but I thought if I kept things simple it wouldn’t matter too much.

  “The boss won’t be happy to hear about us losing business,” the elf grumbled.

  He led us down a small hallway, then out into the huge open area of the building.

  My breath left my chest as I was overcome with the emotions of the dragons around me. There were cages everywhere, and each one was filled with dragons of different colors and sizes.

  Along one wall hung at least a hundred cages for baby dragons. Not all of them were full, but there were at least a dozen tiny dragons trapped behind those bars. One dragon was silver, and I saw two deep-purple ones as well.

  I guessed they sold most of the babies, but they kept the ones they thought could bring them the most money if they bred them or trained them.

  Aside from the babies, there were plenty of other dragons around. Large cages filled the building, and of the eight I counted, six were filled with full-sized adult dragons. The cages most likely had spells on them to keep the dragons in, otherwise I didn’t see how a full-sized dragon couldn’t bust out easily.

  The first cage I looked at contained a large red female with bright white eyes that glared at us through the bars of her cage. There was another I thought was male, and he looked like burnished gold. His scales shimmered in the light that came in through the windows, and I admired how beautiful he was. There was also a deep, emerald-green male, and two purple females I thought might be twins.

  The last cage in the corner contained a large male dragon. He was a deep brown color, and his emotions reminded me of the ones the dragon in the cart had felt. He was resigned to his life behind bars, and I knew he’d been there the longest of everyone. He’d given up hope of being saved, and now all he felt was perpetual sadness, fear, and hunger.

  These arseholes didn’t feed them nearly enough, not that I’d expect them to. They didn’t care about the dragons as living beings, they only wanted to make a profit off them. They’d probably chosen the females and males they had specifically for breeding purposes, which made me feel sick to my stomach. Dragons were highly intelligent, and they understood what was happening. It wasn’t as if they sought out the other as a mate, they were forced to reproduce with them. It had to have been horrifying for all of them.

  My whole body shook as I experienced the fear and pain of the animals surrounding me, and I clenched my fists in an effort to contain myself as I tried to focus on the goings on around the dragons.

  There were at least half a dozen other elves there. Some sat at a table, drank mead, and played some sort of elven game I wasn’t familiar with while a few others raked grass and dung from empty cages.

  I studied each of the men to see if I could find the boss, but none of them seemed like the leader type. They all looked dirty, like they’d been working in the building all day, and I suspected they weren’t even dealers, but most likely just hired hands for labor.

  I hated to think of the kind of men who would take a job like this, even if it meant money in their pockets. It was foul and cruel, and the more I looked at these men, the more I felt they were the unsavory type to simply not care what job they did, or who got hurt by it.

  If they were hired hands, though, then the group we’d taken out was probably the only group of dealers the boss had. The man we’d interrogated the day before said the dealers sold the babies just after sunrise so they didn’t get caught with them. If that was a legitimate concern, then I supposed it made sense to only have one group of dealers at a time.

  I wondered what would happen to the men if they were caught, though. The Elf King had dragons himself, so there was no way he’d actually punish them. Unless, even his guards didn’t know about his dealings. He probably tried to maintain a good appearance for the public, and even if he got his dragons from these men, it was the boss he most likely did business with. The Elf King wasn’t exactly the kind of client one would simply pass off to their lackeys.

  “What are you standing around for?” the old elf asked, and he looked at my team with a terrible sneer. “Get ready for your next delivery.”

  “Right.” I nodded. “What do you want us to do?”

  “You know, you get dumber every time I see you,” the elf snapped, but then he pointed to the back wall where there were a dozen or so plants growing. “Tie the leaves into a bundle for your smoke bombs, you imbecile. Or do I need to show you how to do it, again?”

  “We can handle it,” I assured him.

  “Then handle it.” He glared at me before he walked away, and I heard some of the men at the table chuckle at our expense.

&nbs
p; We’d apparently gotten in trouble with the manager, but I didn’t care. He wasn’t the boss, and as long as he didn’t realize we weren’t who he thought we were, our plan was working.

  I glanced over to the wall filled with the baby dragon cages and suddenly saw Inger in one of them. The little red dragon was inside a cage with a small green female, and I saw Inger nuzzle the green dragon’s face softly.

  If Inger was inside, the others had to be, too.

  I took another look at the cages as the girls and I walked to the back of the room, and I found Blar inside the cage with the dark green male. The little blue dragon was hidden behind the male’s tail so nobody could see him, but the green dragon looked at me, and I nodded so he understood we were on his side.

  Uffe was inside the cage with the older brown male. I hoped the little dragon’s presence would give the big male some hope, but when I focused on his emotions again, I found them to still be helpless and pained. I didn’t think there was anything I could do to make the poor creature feel better, not until he was finally free, and even then, he’d spent so long inside a cage, it would be a transition to be free once again.

  After I knew the little dragons were okay, the girls and I walked over to the table with the plants. They were all the same, about three feet tall, with large yellow and purple leaves that smelled incredibly familiar.

  There were a few leaves already bound and drying on the table, so I discreetly picked up one of the bundles and sniffed it. I realized then where I knew it from.

  That was the scent of the torch the man had thrown at the dragon in the dungeon, the one that had put him to sleep. Whatever this plant was, the smoke it produced had some sort of sleeping effect on dragons, possibly other animals as well.

  “Asta,” I whispered while we worked. “Do you know what this is?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen this plant before.”

  “Never?” I asked, and my brow furrowed as I continued to wrap the bundle in my hands. Even if we were going to destroy the plants the first chance we got, we still had to look busy and do the work. We didn’t know how long we’d be here before the boss showed up.

  “I don’t think it’s from Alfheim,” the elf girl said.

  “Why do you say that?” Eira asked, and I caught her eye as we both glanced to the side without moving our heads so it didn’t look like we were talking.

  “I lived in the woods for a long time by myself,” Asta replied, and she licked her lips as she studied the plant in front of her. “That’s how I learned to make such wonderful tea. I used to pick all the herbs I could find and try them in different ways. I’ve seen every herb in Alfheim, and I’ve never seen this one.”

  “Maybe it’s from a specific area,” Kas suggested.

  “That’s possible.” Eira pursed her lips together. “But if that was the case, then I imagine most elves would know about it.”

  “This is the same substance the guard in the Elf King’s dungeon used to put the dragon to sleep,” I explained. “I think Eira’s right. If this came from Alfheim, more elves would know about it, especially since it has the ability to take out dragons.”

  “So, this is how they’re stealing the babies,” Kas said with a small shake of her head.

  “I think so.” I nodded just enough for the girls to see.

  “They use this to put the mothers, and the babies, to sleep,” Eira said. “Then they steal the babies but keep the mothers alive so they’ll keep having babies they can steal.”

  “Fuckers,” I growled in a low voice, and my fists clenched around the bundle of leaves in my hands.

  These arseholes were going to pay for what they’d done, but I took another deep breath so I could control myself. It didn’t matter how angry I was, we needed to wait for the boss to arrive before we attacked.

  “Are you four done yet?” the old elf asked as he walked up behind us.

  “Nearly done,” I said.

  “You know, I rather like this more agreeable side to you,” he said with a terrible, rotten smile. “Maybe breathing in all that policking smoke has finally caught up with you.”

  “Must have,” I said as I finished wrapping the bundle in my hand.

  “Hurry up,” the elf grunted. “The boss will be here for an inspection any moment. You’ll have to explain to him whatever trouble it was you had today, and why you’re missing two of your crew members.”

  I didn’t think he’d noticed, but apparently he had, he just didn’t care. Dealers probably came and went pretty quickly. It seemed like a dangerous job, especially if there was actually some sort of anti-dragon slavery resistance in Alfheim like the man we’d interrogated had implied.

  The old elf walked away, and the girls each turned to look at me.

  “Let’s see what we can find out,” I told them. “Wait for my signal.”

  “You got it, leader,” Eira said with a wink.

  I smiled back at the redhead, finished wrapping the bundle of leaves in my hand, and then straightened my shoulders as I turned around and looked out into the open area of the building.

  The dragons in the cages stared at me with suspicion and curiosity now that my little dragons had been whispering into their ears.

  “Rath,” Asta said, but before I could turn around to speak to her, another voice rang through the building, and a figure appeared in the doorway we’d come through.

  “Hellooooo,” the man hollered. “How are my babies today?”

  My eyes narrowed on the man. He didn’t know it yet, but his “babies” were about to be free.

  And he was about to join Ove in Helheim, only, of the two of them, he was the one who actually belonged there.

  “Kimber,” the new elf said, and he turned to grin at me. “I hear you have something to tell me?”

  Chapter 27

  It took everything I had not to attack the man right then. His mere presence bothered me, and not just because he was the leader of this awful dragon slavery ring. I wouldn’t have liked the guy even if he’d been the nicest elf in Alfheim because he looked fucking ridiculous.

  He was tall, with bright-orange hair that hung down to his shoulders in thick effeminate curls, and his dark blue eyes flickered back and forth as he walked toward me. He wore a short, bright-white tunic under a vibrant orange cape held onto his shirt with golden clasps, with golden pants underneath, shiny white boots, and a long purple cane with a golden handle. His outfit was clearly expensive, but that didn’t change the fact that it was the most horrendous set of clothes I’d ever seen.

  “Oh, Kimberrrr,” the man drawled, and he hit one of the dragon cages as he walked by it so the poor red female inside sunk as low as she could to the ground. “I don’t like to be kept waiting, you know.”

  Even his voice was awful. It was high-pitched and nasally, and the sound of it grated on my nerves.

  “There was a problem with the buyers,” I said calmly.

  “A problem, you say?” he asked, and he hit the old dragon’s cage as he walked by it.

  Even though the male had been there a long time, I sensed the deeply rooted fear he felt at that sound. The cane was familiar to him in the most terrifying way possible.

  “They attacked,” I informed him, and it was technically the truth. I just left out the fact we were the ones who’d attacked.

  “And two of your group members simply didn’t make the cut?” he asked with a raised orange eyebrow.

  “I’m afraid not,” I answered.

  “Too bad,” he said sarcastically. “I was starting to get used to having Jornei and… oh, what was the other one’s name?”

  “Kwelvc, sir,” the old elf said.

  “Yes, Kwelvc, that’s it.” He feigned a frown. “I was getting used to having Jornei and Kwelvc around. Then again, Kwelvc is a terrible name. It’s no wonder I couldn’t remember it. Probably best he’s gone.”

  The boss turned to the table of workers then and pointed his cane at them.

  “Yo
u two. You’re dealers now. Report to Kimber, here.” He turned to flash me a smile. “Try not to kill any more of them, will you? Good help is so hard to find, you know.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I said, and it took all my willpower to keep my teeth unclenched.

  This terribly effeminate man had no regard for anything, not even his workers, and I didn’t understand why they didn’t just rise up and take the business from him since he seemed incredibly weak. This was certainly not the kind of man I’d work under, and based on the appearance of the work hands, they could easily pin this arsehole down and beat him with his own cane.

  Honestly, I was shocked the man didn’t know the names of all the men who worked for him. This was a dangerous profession, if it could be called that, and I would have thought he’d want to keep a close eye on all of his workers.

  Then again, it seemed the old elf was in charge while the boss was out, so perhaps he was the one who actually kept things going around here.

  But that still left the question of why.

  The boss was such a prissy man, it seemed even the old elf could take him.

  I narrowed my eyes on the boss as he walked away. There had to be something about him that kept these men docile.

  Then I noticed his cane swirled slightly with magic as he walked. It was enchanted somehow, and it was most likely how he’d been keeping all these men in line. He was probably the one who’d enchanted the dragon cages as well. I knew they were magicked to keep the dragons in, but I assumed they were also enchanted to keep the dragon fire in. Otherwise, I was sure this man would have been burnt to a crisp already.

  Even still, my team and I had magic, too, and I wasn’t about to be scared of this man. He could have all the magic in the nine realms, and I’d still never respect him, and I wasn’t sure how any of these men could, either.

  “Oh, Kimber,” the boss said, and his long orange hair swayed as he turned his head around to look at me. “Are you coming along? You need to know where your next delivery is, don’t you?”