White Stag (PERMAFROST #1)

Chapter Twelve: Dragon Killers

"Hey! What are you—" I stopped midsentence as Lydian and four other men tumbled from the hole. His once-blond hair was plastered to the side of his face with blood and more blood seeped from a large gash on his shoulder. A dark stain covered one of his men's trousers and yet another through a tear in his jerkin. The other two looked dazed, but they weren't bleeding. Yet.

From above there was an eardrum shattering roar as the pursuing lindworm clawed at the opening and the melodic snores of the sleeping dragon before us came to a stop.

"Are you an idiot?" Soren hissed, slowly backing away from the waking monster.

"Idiot?" Lydian spat. "I wasn't the one who found the nest in the first place."

"Yes! But you were the one who followed me into it." Soren's teeth clenched as the lumbering dragon stood and stretched, then gazed down at us with beetle black eyes.

From above, the earth shifted and moved in spirals as stones rained from the sky. Cold dread formed a hard pit inside my stomach as the second lindworm descended on us, its fangs dripping red from its maw.

"So," one of Lydian's men said in a rather cheery voice. He looked younger than the seasoned men surrounding Lydian and his dark hair was cropped short around his ears, showing tattoos that spiraled his neck and scalp. "Who wants to slay a dragon?"

Lydian hissed. "This is not the time to be funny, Seppo."

The goblin, Seppo, just smiled. "Nonsense, it's always time to be funny." He unhooked a feather staff from a holster on his back, shaking the decorative metal shaft until three wickedly sharp prongs slid out from the top.

"You keep strange company, dearest uncle," Soren said, almost to himself.

"I could say the same of you, beloved nephew," Lydian said.

Then the lindworms attacked.

I rolled out of the way, back into an open area where my bow might be of more use. Odin's Ravens, how am I supposed to kill these things? To think I wanted to hunt them.

The red one lashed out at Lydian, its jaws dripping with venom. Lydian swung his greatspear, once, twice, backing the creature away from him. His eyes narrowed and I shuddered as his body changed, adapting from inhumanly beautiful to a monstrous predator. As his proportions lengthened I swallowed down my terror. The last time he was like this did not end well for me.

One of Lydian's men—the one who had blood all down his leg—stood with Lydian, swords out, trying to goad the monster into a corner. But the lindworm was smarter and whipped its tail around, smashing the goblin against the stone wall. The goblin fell to the ground, twitched once, and then lay motionless.

Another earthshattering roar filled the chamber as the blue one raged at me. The blue one is a girl. I skidded far away from her nest. The red is her mate. The blue one would be more dangerous then. The first rule of a hunter was to never get in between a mother and her children.

My arrow, still notched and ready, shot forward at the blue lindworm, but it broke into pierces upon contact with her scaly armor. Instinctively I reached down for my holster only to remember that my axe was somewhere on the mountain side, far away from here.

"It's no use." Seppo materialized beside me. "You need something stronger to pierce through the scales."
I grunted. "Thank you for the information. Now if you'll gladly excuse me," I said, lunging forward. The blue dragon was after Soren, who agilely jumped between the rocks that burst from the ground like a hunting cat. We shared a glance and understanding flashed through his eyes. The lindworm's scales would stop any blade but they didn't like the dragon's belly, throat, or forehead. All we needed to do was take advantage of the weak spots.