Right as we formulated a plan, the gods sent a gift from the heavens. A leather pouch landed on the ground before us. Whether it was my nose or my dragon’s, I smelled the savoury scent of jerky, and went scrambling across the floor to grab it.
Only for the Executioner to drop down beside it.
I shrank back, putting my body between the dragon and him.
“You kill me…” My tongue tripped over my words. “The dragon will feed well, and then he’ll grow big and strong and find you and tear your head off.”
“Can’t have that, can we?”
I watched him crouch down, unable to believe my eyes, before he handed me a piece of dried meat. The dragonling bobbed and creeled, desperate for it, but I was scared it was too hard and dry for his little gullet. Chewing it up and then spitting it into his mouth, I’d seen birds do the same, so as the assassin passed more jerky around, that’s what I did. My dragon gobbled that down and then opened his mouth for more. Chew and spit, chew and spit, we all worked to do the same thing until finally the dragons went quiet. The little beast crawled up my chest and slipped into my shirt, nestling against my ribs.
“You’ve come for me.” Kael sounded grim, even as he held his dragon tight. “Leave my friends.” I wanted to correct him, claim the bond of brother, when Dain shot me a dark look. Kael was distancing himself from us to avoid the Executioner’s irebeing directed at us as well. “Leave the dragons and you can kill me, take my head to the Duke.”
“And why would I do that?”
We all stared blankly. The three of us had done everything we could to stay out of the Duke’s executioner’s way since the moment we banded together. Those dark eyes seemed almost amused as he looked us over.
“I won’t become one of his riders.” Kael held the dragon closer to his chest. “I won’t.”
“Your father’s a cunt.” The Executioner’s blunt statement had us all staring. “Don’t do a thing he says unless I’m forced to.” His blunt fingers scratched at his greying beard. “Just make it look like I do.”
“What…?”
We all knew the story of Kael’s mother. I knew my brother was seeing those events all over again as he stared at his mother’s killer.
“Elsie has been after me to find you.” Kael’s mouth fell open at the Executioner’s words. “Every time I come to town, she tells me to scour the streets and find her son.”
“My mother…” Kael’s mouth worked like mine had when I was finally hauled out of the lake my father had tossed me into, but it wasn’t air he was sucking in, but hope.
“Is living very comfortably at an estate at the border of Harlston, so do you want to come to see her or not?”
Chapter 6
Kael
My heart beat hard and fast as I held my dragon closer. He radiated a warmth I’d never thought I’d feel again. Then this grizzled old bastard had to say those words.
“You lie.” The dragon’s head popped up at that. Probably because my growl was a fair approximation of his. The beast’s eyes swung around to take in the man who destroyed my life, and he let out a throaty growl of his own. “You just want the dragons for my… the Duke.”
“You think I’d give those beasties to that prick?” The Executioner shook his head. “Bad enough that him and his sister are planning to overthrow the king and replace them with his nephew. Can’t imagine what he’d be like if he got his hands on dragons as well.”
His lips thinned in a way I knew well. I wore the same expression often enough.
“Look, I’m not going to sit in a hole in the ground and argue this out.” He pulled something from his belt that had us all stiffening. “Not sure about you lads, but I’ve got a rope, and I intend to use it to get out of here. If you want to go back tothe city and try to hide three growing dragons, be my guest. Otherwise, I’ll meet you out the other side of Drathnor’s cave. Your mother doesn’t like if I’m gone for long, and I intend to get back to her by morning.”
I watched him like a hawk as he tied a loop in the rope before throwing it upwards. With a tug, he seemed satisfied it would hold his weight and then he climbed up without another word.
How could the assassin’s words seem even more unreal than the dragon in my arms? See Mother? I’d grieved for her. Built a cairn up on the hills around Blackreach like poor people did, unable to afford a burial plot. Each day my heart ached from the absence of her, only for me to remind myself she was never coming back.
“He’s lying.” Lorien scrambled closer, a sleepy peep registering from his shirt. “He is. Why would the bloody Executioner help the likes of us? He’ll knock us on the head and take the dragons as soon as we step out of the cave.”
“No, he won’t.”
Dain rose to his feet without further explanation. As he wrapped his hands around the rope and pulled himself up, we followed along behind him, half expecting the rope to be cut off midway. Instead, we clambered up and outside of the hole and back onto solid ground.
“So which way is the entrance the Executioner talked about?” Lorien asked, but before he could answer, he turned around. “Hey, what’s that?”
For a moment I thought it was another dragon’s egg, but at closer inspection, it was an egg-shaped stone. Lorien’s hand went out to take it, only for Dain to stop him.
