Dragons of Asgard 2

by Jacobs, Logan

  “Oh, yes.” I nodded, and then I shared a quick glance with Kas, Eira, and Asta before I followed after the boss.

  Instead of heading outside, though, he walked around the building and seemed to inspect all the cages and equipment around.

  “Where are we with the buyers in the dwarf realm?” the boss asked as he narrowed his eyes on the little dragons inside the cages on the wall.

  Inger was still in the cages with them, but the boss didn’t seem to notice. She was clearly a dragon of this realm, and while her coloring was beautiful, I didn’t think she was one of the rare dragons they could charge extra for.

  As we walked closer to the large dragon cages, though, I hoped the boss wouldn’t notice Blar.

  The little blue dragon looked different than any of the other dragons here, and with how much coin rare dragons seemed to fetch, I was sure the boss would take a special interest in him. Thankfully, when I looked I didn’t see Blar anywhere, so I figured the little lizard had been smart enough to try and hide somewhere.

  “We are meeting with Feverhein tomorrow,” the old elf answered the boss’ question. “He is traveling to our usual meetup spot, so we will need you to enchant more room into the cart.”

  “Fine,” the boss sighed. “And they’re taking all the large ones, you said?”

  “That’s right.” He nodded. “It will be our largest deal of the year.”

  “Good,” the boss sneered as he looked around at the dragons. “We need to get rid of these. Our inventory needs an update.”

  It seemed they were planning a large deal with some dwarves from Svartalfheim. And from the sounds of it, all these dragons would be going. That meant they’d be after more, and I had no doubt the ones they went for would be babies. These arseholes clearly didn’t take large dragons very often, and it appeared they only went after the rare ones.

  “We’ll need a dozen more infants tonight to satisfy their order,” the old elf said.

  Nobody spoke, and I glanced over to the old elf and saw he was staring at me with narrowed eyes.

  “Oh, of course.” I nodded. I hadn’t realized he’d been talking to me, and it was hard to keep my temper with everything I’d just heard. Once again, I had to force my teeth to unclench before I answered.

  We continued to walk around the cages, and the boss pointed at things with his cane and ordered the older elf to make improvements to this or that. It seemed he was a more hands-on boss than I’d originally thought, which was good because at least he was talking, but he hadn’t said anything else useful. The most interesting thing he’d talked about was his dealings with the dwarves.

  I was hoping he would have brought up the Elf King in all of this, but if the Elf King was a client of his, he wasn’t on the agenda for today. Still, I waited, listened, and tried to see if he would reveal any other information I could use to help our mission.

  This boss seemed to be one of the largest in Alfheim, possibly the largest, but I doubted he was the only one. And if there were others, I was sure they were rivals. Nobody wanted to share their profits, especially not men like this. All they cared about was the money, there was nothing else in it for them. Unless, they liked the cruelty of it all, which I wouldn’t put past them.

  “At least we’ll finally be getting rid of this useless piece of shite,” the boss said as we approached the cage of the old brown dragon. “How long has he been here? A decade?”

  “At least, sir,” the older elf said. “He’s sired many children for us, though.”

  “With his colors, he’s only bringing down the value,” the boss sneered. “I’ll be glad to be rid of him.”

  “Actually, he’s not going tomorrow,” the old elf informed him.

  “You said we were getting rid of our entire inventory.” The orange-haired elf glared at his subordinate.

  “All but him.” The old elf nodded.

  “And why is that?” the boss asked with a cocked eyebrow.

  “He’s too old.” The elf shook his head. “Feverhein requested dragons five years and below. He says it’s more difficult to break the older ones’ spirits.”

  My fist clenched as the man spoke. The poor brown dragon’s spirit was one of the most broken I’d witnessed. I couldn’t imagine him putting up a fight anymore. Maybe once, years ago, but not now. He was resigned to his cage, and his treatment inside of it. I could feel his pain and anguish, but there was no fight left in him.

  They’d said themselves he’d been here over a decade, being forced to procreate with the dragons they caught. There was no denying he was already complacent. If anything, I would have thought that would have been a higher selling point, but whoever this Feverhein was, he must have thought older dragons were less malleable and probably worth less because of their age.

  To think about them as products made my gut turn, and I took a deep breath to steady myself.

  I remembered then that Uffe was inside the cage with the brown dragon last I’d seen him. I quickly looked over the cage, but I didn’t see anything except for the large, older dragon.

  He laid his head on his front legs and let out a small sigh.

  Then a loud thud sounded, and the poor dragon startled and immediately cowered down.

  “Quiet!” the boss yelled, and I realized the sound was from where he’d hit the cage with his cane. His teeth were clenched, and he sneered as he stared into the cage at the large dragon who now cowered in fear.

  I could feel the animal’s terror as he felt the eyes of the boss on him, and I wanted nothing more than to take it away from him in that instant. The emotion was nearly too much to bear. My heart rate accelerated while my breath caught inside my chest, and I tried not to become overwhelmed by the dragon’s feelings.

  “He’s been here far too long,” the boss said calmly as he looked at the old brown dragon in his cage. “He’s only costing us money. Just kill him. Now, tonight when you go…”

  The rest of the boss’ words trailed off as my vision went red, and my whole body started to shake with rage. This arsehole had just dismissed this dragon as if he were trash to be thrown away. He’d spoken of killing him as if it was nothing more than setting the table for dinnertime. There was no rage, no motivation behind the senseless killing except for coins.

  I couldn’t wait any longer. I yanked my sword from its sheath and swung at the boss.

  But before I could make contact with his head, I made contact with a small, skinny sword he’d pulled out from his cane.

  “Ah, Kimber,” he sighed as his dark blue eyes landed on mine. “I knew this day would come. You’re much too headstrong.”

  “And you’re an imbecile,” I growled as I pushed my sword against his.

  We both stepped back and held our weapons up at the ready. I kept my eyes on my opponent but shifted a bit to see if the old elf was about to attack, but he was already locked in battle with Eira.

  The redhead sliced and stabbed at the old elf, who had drawn his own blade and was countering her attacks with expertise. He’d had a lot of time to practice, it seemed, but I knew Eira could take him. She was the fiercest woman I’d ever seen, and the old bag of bones didn’t stand a chance.

  “I see you’ve gotten your crew on your side as well,” the boss sneered, and he drew my attention back to him. “I knew you were smart, but I didn’t think you were this smart.”

  “I’m not who you think I am.” I narrowed my eyes on the man and lowered myself in my stance.

  The boss looked me up and down before he flicked his wrist at me, and his eyes flashed with anger for a second as he stared at my face without recognition.

  If he could remove an enchantment that easily, then I needed to consider him a serious threat. I had no idea what else he might be able to do with his sorcery, but whatever it was, I knew it wouldn’t be good.

  “No, you aren’t, are you?” he asked rhetorically, and then he held up his weapon even higher. “I’m assuming you all were the little problem Kimber ran into this morning.�
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  “That’s right.” I smirked.

  “Pity,” the boss said with a small, terrible smile. “I rather liked Kimber.”

  I wasn’t going to bother pointing out he’d just assumed it was Kimber who’d attacked him. This man clearly had a fucked-up sense of reality.

  “I have a hard time believing you like anyone but yourself.” I took a step forward and swung at the man, but he countered well, and my blade once again clashed against his.

  “It’s true,” he said as he pushed against my sword. “I wasn’t that fond of Kimber. But he did the job well, which was all I really cared about. Now, you. You’re from Asgard, aren’t you?”

  Shite. I’d forgotten when he removed the enchantment it had removed my elf ears as well. Granted, we weren’t attacking the King in his palace, but I still couldn’t let it get out that Asgardians were attacking dragon traders, regardless of whether they deserved it or not.

  I had to make sure none of these arseholes got out of here alive. If even one of them managed to slip away, then it could be the start of a war between the two realms, and we needed to avoid that. Such an ordeal would only make it that much more difficult for us to catch the dragon dealers.

  “Where I’m from isn’t important,” I said, and I raised my chin slightly. “You might want to focus more on what I’m about to do to you.”

  “And what would that be?” he scoffed. “From where I’m standing, it looks like all you have is a sword, and soon, you won’t even have that.”

  The sorcerer smiled and waved his hand again while he muttered something in elvish, and as he did, my sword seemed to vanish into thin air. My hands clenched around nothing, and my heart beat wildly in response.

  But then I took a deep breath and smiled back at the man.

  “You don’t have any idea what I have,” I told him, and I held my hand out. “Blar!”

  “You’re getting yourself nowhere,” the boss said, but his words were cut off as my little blue dragon flew over his head and released a huge blue flame into my hand.

  Wherever the sorcerer had banished my sword to, it reappeared in an instant, and Blar landed on my shoulder with a smug look on his face.

  “Ah, I see what this is,” the boss said with a half-smile. “You’re not trying to stop me. You’re here for my merchandise.”

  “Dragons aren’t merchandise!” I yelled as I ran toward the man and slashed with my sword.

  The boss was able to deflect a few of my blows, but then he stumbled backward, and I caught him on the arm before he was able to counter the attack.

  He’d been incredibly confident up until that point, but as I sliced him, I saw fear well up in his eyes, just before rage took over.

  “You sonofabitch,” he growled as he ducked my attack and tried to stab upward at me. “This was a new tunic!”

  Bright red blood began to pool and stain his white tunic, and I smirked and countered his attack.

  This was exactly what I’d wanted. The man was not only angry, he was livid, and that meant he was about to make a mistake.

  He swung at me wildly, but I was ready, and I kept calm as I expertly moved my arms so my sword took each blow he tried to land.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blar and nodded at him, and the little dragon flew off my shoulder. The boss didn’t seem to notice. The orange-haired man still came at me with vigor, but I just focused on where his blows were going to land so I could catch each of them with my sword.

  After a few more strikes, I saw sweat bead on his brow, and with a final chop, he went too far. I stepped to the side as his tired body carried him forward, and he tumbled toward the ground.

  The elf realized he’d messed up, and he tried to move his hand to cast a spell, but I brought my blade down right on his wrist.

  His hand fell to the ground and landed in front of me while his body fell a few feet away.

  “You bastard!” he screamed as he held the stump where his hand used to be. Blood squirted from the open wound on his wrist, and his pristine outfit was now redder than it was white and orange.

  That didn’t stop the man, though. He raised his other hand and started to mutter something in elvish.

  Just then, Blar dove down from the ceiling and breathed a massive flame at the sorcerer, only it didn’t affect him as I thought it would. The man simply turned his attention toward Blar and began to cast at him.

  The boss must have had a spell on him to protect him from dragon fire.

  While his hand was in the air, I saw an opportunity, so I quickly crouched down onto one knee, pulled my dagger out of my boot, and threw it at the man.

  He looked up just in time to see it, and instead of it cutting into his wrist as I’d planned, it landed in a wooden beam behind him.

  “I grow weary of this fight.” The boss gritted his teeth and glared at me, and then he cast a spell on his other wrist so it would stop bleeding.

  “Blar!” I called the little dragon to me, and he landed on my shoulder. He’d been headed right for the boss still, and I didn’t want him to get caught up in any spells this elf had to offer. He’d already shown he was quite powerful. He’d managed to virtually heal his wrist in an instant, and before that, he’d made my sword disappear.

  I took a fighting stance, but instead of picking up his sword again, the boss simply stood up and stared at me with intense dark blue eyes. His clothes were still coated with blood and dirt, and his long orange hair was a disaster. He gritted his teeth as he looked at me, but I only smiled back.

  “I’m ready when you are,” I taunted.

  “You cannot withstand my power,” he laughed, and he held his working hand up and pointed his fingers at me.

  From his hand, a lightning bolt shot right out toward me. The bright silver strings of electricity crackled as they came for me, but I ducked just in time, and they hit a pile of hay behind me and lit it on fire.

  “You will regret the day you showed up here!” he screamed, and he continued to shoot lightning bolts at me.

  I ducked and rolled behind a wooden beam to avoid the bolts, but he kept hurtling them at me.

  I glanced around to see how the girls were faring, and I saw Eira had taken out the old elf man. He laid on the ground with blood all around his head, which barely hung onto his body by a thread.

  There were three other bodies of the work hands on the ground as well. One was a large male with a concave chest, and his wide and glassy brown eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling.

  Another was a smaller man, but that was all I could tell about him. His face was badly bashed in, so there was no way to distinguish his features.

  The last man was a tall, slender elf with white hair that was stained red with his own blood. He had a large slice across his face, and one single stab wound through his heart. I had no doubt Eira had taken that one out, since the kill was quick and efficient.

  After I saw the men on the ground, I quickly found the girls locked into battle with more of the workers.

  Asta had her weapon turned into an ax, and she chucked it at one of the men and hit him in the shoulder. He went down, and the white-haired elf girl ran toward him and jumped on top of him while she grabbed her ax. Then she lifted the weapon above her head and slammed it down into the man’s face.

  Kas had her greatsword out, and Uffe stood by her side. The strawberry-blonde slashed at a large man with golden-brown hair while Uffe shot large lumps of dirt at him in an effort to assist.

  Eira had two men coming after her, but Inger had decided to help now. The little girl dragon flew just above and next to Eira while the warband leader countered every attack the men threw at her. One tried to slash at her from the front, but she quickly caught his sword with her own. Then, when the other approached from the side with his dagger in hand, she shifted her weight and lifted her leg to give him a hard kick to the side of the head.

  Another lightning bolt struck the wooden pole I was behind and brought me back to the moment I was in. The girls
were clearly managing on their own, so I needed to focus on this arsehole.

  Blar was back on my shoulder, and I looked at the little dragon and pursed my lips. If this man was able to withstand dragon fire, that didn’t help us, but maybe I could use his powers against him somehow. If he thought he had a leg up on me, it might give me the edge I needed to take him out.

  “Come out and fight, you bastard!” the boss yelled, and another lightning bolt hit the post. “I haven’t got all day, you know!”

  “How quickly do you think you can make a portal?” I whispered to Blar.

  The little dragon closed his eyes, and a second later a portal appeared. It didn’t grow very large, just big enough for us to crawl through without it being seen behind the pole.

  I nodded to Blar. “You ready?”

  The little blue dragon nodded in agreement, and I grabbed my blade, got it into a throwing position, and hurled it from behind the pole right at the boss.

  As soon as the weapon left my hand, I crawled through the portal and came out the other side.

  We were just a few feet away from the man’s back, and I quickly stood up and got ready.

  I could just barely see over the elf’s shoulder, but it was clear he’d stopped my sword since it now hung in midair.

  “Too scared to come out, huh?” the boss taunted with a laugh. “Your sword throwing skills won’t save you now.”

  He assumed he’d just taken my only weapon away from me, which was exactly what I wanted.

  I nodded to Blar, and the little dragon breathed a blue flame into my hand. My sword appeared in an instant, and I watched the back of the boss’ head turn left and right as he looked for the blade. He must have thought whatever hold he had on it would prevent it from coming back to me, but he was sorely mistaken.

  “No.” I smirked. “But my slicing skills might.”

  The boss spun around quickly, and his orange hair flowed in an arc behind him as he did. His eyes widened, and realization dawned on his face just as I raised my sword and sliced through his long, pale neck.

  Blood sprayed from the wound on his body while his severed head flew to the right and landed against the wall with a thud.