Hard Boiled

by T L Christianson

  She nodded. “What if something goes wrong?”

  I frowned. “It won’t. Second, we need to get you and George out to Range Camp, so you need to be ready to go when we come back. And finally, I’ll have to hide your disappearance until I can bring you back.”

  “Okay,” she said, as her cute little brow came together. I wanted to kiss her even though she was driving me mad.

  Freaking George!

  The waiting was already fraying my nerves without adding George’s fabrications to the mix. Concentrating, I called out to Corbin’s dragon to check on his progress.

  We are near, the beast responded.

  I stood at the sound of the door creaking open.

  “All right,” Corbin shouted, clasping his hands together. “It’s go time! You ready?”

  I agreed, nodding. “One last thing…”

  “What?” he asked impatiently.

  “The plan has changed a little. You’ll need to take Sydney along with you and George to Range Camp. Are you up for that? I’ll take them if you can’t.”

  “Dude, it’s no problem. An extra passenger is no sweat,” he smiled at Syd playfully. “Besides, Choryth likes you.”

  “Okay, thanks, man…” I said, sneaking a quick peek back at Sydney’s reaction to his comment.

  She stood watching us, but didn’t say anything.

  The nerves were coming on—I always got the nerves before a mission, and I always pushed through. But Syd wasn’t a soldier, and just looking at her frightened, pale face reminded me of that.

  She hissed, “Be safe!”

  “We’ll be back. We’ve got a rough climb, so it’ll be a few hours.” I wanted to reach out and kiss her, but I hesitated, and then it was too late—we had to go.

  Corbin and I made our way through the dining hall to a storage room where our tunnel began. It was easy to lever off the boards with a pry bar a few days ago and we were able to hide the hole with a pre-existing shelf that stood there. Another obstacle we’d taken care of was a collapsed part. We spent days digging our way through using just our gloved hands and an avalanche shovel.

  Tonight, I went first, entering the cavern bent over. Everything would be easy until the caved-in part. That section was so tiny, I found myself crawling on elbows and knees, pushing the backpack of climbing gear in front of me. After the cave in, the passageway narrowed further, and I had to move past claustrophobia to keep going.

  The space tightened, forcing me to squeeze through on my belly.

  To make matters worse, the tunnel was hot, wet, and long—too long.

  We continued to inch over the wet surface. The dirt turned into a slime that stuck to our hands and clothes. I was struggling, but I knew we were almost through the smallest section.

  Near the end of the passage, I slowed for a moment.

  Corbin roared, “Fuck! This is tight—keep moving, or I’m gonna lose my shit!”

  Fair enough. I pushed myself to move faster.

  At that point, I began to second guess this plan, but thankfully, the rock gave way to a much larger passage.

  Climbing out, I stood and stretched before aiming the headlamp atop my helmet around the cavern. Drops falling from above echoed as they hit the ground, and I could hear water flowing somewhere nearby.

  I looked at the map on my phone as Corbin pulled himself out of the niche we’d crawled through. He stood and began looking around.

  I shone my light to our left. “Okay, the cave should drop off over there. That’s where we need to go down.”

  “Yeah, let’s see how deep this puppy is,” he said, down climbing the pitched floor and peering into the abyss. “It’s doable, maybe ten meters… a little more. I have ascenders to get back up and pulleys to hoist George out—there’s no way we’re climbing up that slippery shit tonight.”

  I searched the area. It was almost large enough for a dragon… if Eondian weren’t off sleeping in the woods after a night of shameless dragon sex, I’d be tempted to fly down instead of climbing.

  “What do you think? Dragon or rappel?” I asked as I pulled out my rope and began setting up a pulley system for the return trip.

  Corbin gazed around. “Nah, Choryth would hate this. Rappelling is probably easier.”

  When I was done rigging, I found Corbin checking my pulleys and knots.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  “Yep, you going to just hand line it down, or are you going to clip in?” Corbin asked, motioning to the dark, slippery slope.

  “What did you say it was, thirty feet?” I asked, gazing toward the slippery drop. “That’s right on the edge… Uh… I’ll use a figure eight.”

  He raised his brows, “Pussy.”

  “Shut up,” I told him, pulling on my climbing harness and clipping into the rappelling device. I began to walk backward down the surface, trying to avoid the wet section.

  “You’re going to hand line down?” I asked, shining my light up at Corbin.

  He laughed, “Hell no. I’m not crazy.”

  We’d both been climbing for a while, so this little drop was nothing, and once my feet touched the bottom, he wasn’t too far behind.

  From this point, we could see the orange light filtering through a rusty metal gate. I neared it and gripped the metal, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “What do you want to do about this?” I asked the Eton Prime.

  He shrugged and kicked it, then kicked it again. After several blows from both of us, the thing broke forward with a crash. Crawling through, we found ourselves on a narrow ledge above the main room of the jail. I recognized it from Sydney’s memories, but I was not prepared for the smell. It made me almost gag, so I tried to breathe through my mouth.

  “George!” I called out, hesitant to make too much noise. “George, are you here? George?”

  Someone below hefted something heavy against their cell, and I cursed under my breath.

  But before I could call out again, George hushed me, “Shhhhhh. Someone heard all the ruckus you made.”

  “Are you alone, or is there anyone else down there?” I asked.

  “I think… I think the other two died in the pit,” he told me, defeated.

  The sound of heavy footsteps in the corridor announced the arrival of a guard. He lumbered below us, and I recognized him. It was Ed, one of the Militia lifers. He was breathing heavily as he looked around.

  “George… What’s with all the racket?” he asked, shining a heavy-duty flashlight toward each cell before shining it through the grate in the floor.

  “I threw my chair at the door! While you’re here, bring me a steak—medium-rare, with horseradish and a pint.” George ordered before laughing at the improbability of his suggestion. His laughter turned to a troubling cough.

  Smart, I thought silently. Telling the truth without telling the truth.

  “How’s Ed in here?” Corbin whispered. “I thought only the Key Keeper had the key to the Lockup?”

  I shrugged.

  We sat crouched in the darkness, holding still and trying to breathe as quietly as possible.

  “Well, keep it down.” Ed gazed around the room one last time before tucking his uniform shirt back into his pants, sucking in as he did. It didn’t help much because when his gut relaxed, the shirt came untucked again.

  Corbin and I shared a look.

  “We don’t have time for this,” he whispered.

  I held a hand out and mouthed, “Wait.”

  One little movement, breath, or sound could give us away.

  We held still until we heard the main door slam shut.

  “Okay,” Corbin said, as he set up another pulley system to heave George up from the jail.

  Nodding, he gave me the ‘go’ sign, and I quickly hand-lined down. When I hit the floor, I rushed over to the far cell. “George, we’re here to break you out…” I whispered. “I’m going to try to pick the lock.”

  “You’re Sydney’s bondmate?” he asked. “I can feel the connection even withou
t my wyvern.”

  I unzipped a pocket and pulled out a protein bar and energy gel. I tossed them both under the door and got to work on the lock.

  “Start eating. You need to be able to climb out,” I told him.

  After about twenty minutes too long, the door to his cell opened.

  George crouched before me, clothes in tatters and covered in dirt. He stood and smiled at me through his grimy overbite as if I’d popped by for tea instead of breaking him out of prison.

  Under the filth, he had reddish-blond hair and blue eyes.

  “Oh, this is brilliant!” he exclaimed, rubbing his hands together and gazing around the room. “How’d you get…” his eyes followed the blue climbing rope into the darkness above. “Oh, well, that’s unexpected.”

  I was half tempted to leave the scoundrel here. Beneath my friendly façade, distrust and anger simmered toward this man. However noble his reasons, they would never justify his actions. The only thing keeping me going was the information he had in his brain. Information that I was sure had nothing to do with the dragon realm.

  I didn’t like the ideas he was planting in Sydney’s head. If even a rumor reached the Council that she’d been talking about the dragon realm, then she could be given the Stygian ceremony like George. The thought alone brought fear to even the most hardened of us. To be stripped of our dragon was to be stripped of who and what we were.

  I didn’t care if George wanted to mess with these ancient and unknown forces. After all, I believed in knowledge, and this should be studied—but by experts. Not by my very young, very inexperienced bondmate.

  I unclipped the spare harness hanging from my hip and helped the dragonless man maneuver into it. As I buckled it at his waist, I couldn’t help but notice how terribly thin he was.

  I clipped him in before asking, “Did you eat that food I gave you?”

  He nodded.

  “Okay, good. We’re going to hoist you up. Just try to keep your feet against the wall.”

  He nodded, “Back in my day, I was a British Marine,” he told me a bit loudly, making me gaze back toward the main tunnel.

  “Shhh…” I reminded him.

  As we heaved the older man up, I knew this would be a long and painful climb out. George was in his mid-fifties, starved and weak. He might not have the stamina to make it through the narrow section.

  18

  Sydney

  The waiting and cold were killing me.

  I found a camping blanket inside the duffel bag and wrapped it around my shoulders. Sitting on the duffel bag, I still shivered.

  Every time I reached out to Ashe, I could feel his mind in an active state of concentration. When annoyance joined his emotions, I knew he’d found George.

  George and Ashe were both smart but polar opposites. Ashe planned while George bumbled around until things came together. Ashe was quick and efficient. George lost his glasses when they were on his head and his keys when they were in his pocket.

  To me, these traits made my dad—George—endearing and charming.

  I curled up on the bag, trying to find sleep, but my exhaustion wasn’t strong enough to overcome my worry.

  Just as the sky began to light up in the east, the door to the alcove opened, and Ashe, Corbin, and George slipped inside. They were silent, sweaty, and covered in dirt.

  Corbin unlocked the gates and pushed them wide. Releasing his dragon, he began to rig a harness to the large beast. Ashe helped by attaching the camping gear to one side.

  When Corbin finished, he asked, “Sydney? You’re going too?”

  I nodded and then turned to Ashe.

  Gazing up into his worried expression, I whispered, “It’ll be okay. We’ll be all right.”

  He nodded before leaning down to kiss me. Instead of just brushing my lips with an innocent kiss as I expected, his mouth slanted over mine, desperate and fervent. He poured everything he didn’t say into that kiss leaving me speechless and breathless.

  When we separated, I searched his gaze. Was he afraid of getting caught? Worried that we’d be separated? Maybe, but he didn’t say it, and neither did I.

  The ‘L’ word hung heavily in my mind.

  I wanted to reach out to my soldier and tell him I loved him, but my thoughts were such a mess.

  Corbin led me to Choryth’s bent paw, and I climbed up first. I was followed by the Eton soldier himself and then George, wrapped in the camping blanket.

  Ashe met my gaze as I sat up on the dragon. The early morning wind blew frostily through my thin t-shirt and I shivered.

  We didn’t speak and he didn’t wave as Choryth dove off the cliff edge before soaring into the dark sky.

  I looked back over Corbin’s arm, getting one last look of Ashe before we rose higher into the still darkened sky.

  I still felt the sting of his stubble on my face and the taste of him on my tongue. These tangible signs of our connection only made my heart ache more for leaving him.

  I needed to get out of my head. I had to be alert and watchful to help Corbin avoid the patrol, but my thoughts kept drifting back to Ashe… hoping, and praying that this separation wouldn’t last longer than we thought. Because so far, this plan was going too well and, in my experience, luck never lasted long.

  Low clouds had settled in the valley overnight, providing cover as Choryth carried his heavy load. The giant dragon not only had horns like Aaraeth, but he also had a line of black spikes that lead up the back of his neck until they tapered to nubs between his gleaming amber eyes.

  He was a beautiful beast, and I realized that he was the first dragon other than Aaraeth I’d ridden. Choryth, like Corbin, looked like a brute, but deep inside, I had a feeling that they were both big old softies. I’d seen Corbin in Ashe’s memories as a small tow-headed boy with large dark eyes.

  The dragon growled deep in his throat as part of my thoughts seeped into his.

  I’m sorry big guy, I meant it all as a compliment! I told him.

  I found it amusing, he replied, snorting and cocking his head back, making me push against Corbin to keep away from the spikes.

  “What did you say to him?” Corbin asked, his arms bracketing me between him and the dragon.

  I turned so that the Eton Prime could hear me, “I was thinking of you as a child… from Ashe’s memories. Choryth thought it was funny.”

  Corbin gave me a tortured, close-lipped smile, an expression meant to make me laugh. Even through my nerves, it made me grin. Corbin and I were kind of similar in the fact that we were both lighthearted. Maybe our complementary nature is what balanced Ashe out—he did have a sense of humor, but he was always fighting it.

  “Look,” the Eton Prime whispered next to my ear, “There’s the patrol. Shield your mind.”

  I wasn’t sure if I could do it without Aaraeth, but I tried my best, picturing the smooth reflective bubble all around me.

  After we continued to move away from the patrol, Corbin began a sharp bank to the left, making me slide until we leveled out.

  “You okay back there?” he asked George, who still clung to him. I never heard a reply, but he must have been all right because neither spoke for a while.

  I was starting to get unbearably tired, so I laid my face against Choryth’s spiney neck.

  “You tired?” Corbin asked.

  I shrugged, knowing we were all exhausted from staying up all night.

  “Lean against me. It’ll be more comfortable than leaning on him,” he said as he patted Choryth on his neck before bracing me with his arm.

  There was no sleeping on a dragon, especially not in Corbin’s iron grip. The dude’s arm was like a steel band across me. I knew he was trying to walk a line between being helpful, but not too friendly. His thoughts were mostly open, and while he was curious about me, his main concern was to keep me safe for Ashe.

  When the arm holding me shifted, I blinked slightly, feeling nauseous after going so long without sleep. The air was still crisp, but the sun had risen, warmin
g my skin.

  We flew lower, gliding just above the trees.

  “We’re almost there.” The Eton Prime told me. I nodded and yawned as Choryth dropped into the trees using a method I thought of as the feather. It was where a dragon slowly zig-zagged down to land.

  As soon as the beast’s paws settled onto the soft forest floor, George slid off. Corbin jumped down before helping me slide off the beast’s side.

  George stood there in a stupor, his eyes wide and body trembling from the cold.

  I approached him and helped him sit down at one of the picnic tables.

  “Tell me what you need,” I said, pulling the blanket tighter around his shoulders.

  He reached out and squeezed my arm, giving me a thankful smile.

  I walked back over to Corbin, shivering and rubbing my arms as he began to unstrap the duffel from his beast.

  When it was free, he surveyed George and me. “I have to go—I need to set up an alibi for myself. But there’s a tent, sleeping bags, and several MREs for you both.”

  “Thank you, Corbin. Seriously,” I said as I looked up at him atop his dragon.

  A deep rumble came from Choryth as he turned his large head toward me, smoke puffing from his nostrils.

  I smiled and stroked the beast’s face, “And you too, Choryth, you great teddy bear.”

  Corbin shook his head with a smile as he prompted the dragon forward to take off. The wind from the beast’s wings pummeled me with pine needles and dust before they disappeared into the sky.

  I found the tent, relieved that it was fairly easy to set up even though it was camouflage and looked like it belonged to the military. I threw in two sleeping bags and motioned for George to crawl in first.

  Following, I slipped off my shoes at the door then slid in myself. Before I’d even zipped up my bag, George was snoring loudly.

  Usually, I needed a lot of sleep, so going with so little left me feeling loopy and jet-lagged. As I lay there after closing my eyes, I reached out to Ashe. His mind was heavily shielded, so I knew he must be inside Briony or with other Dragonborn.