Dragon's Run Read online

  Dragon’s Run

  Rise of the Horned Serpent~Part 3

  Daniel Potter

  Contents

  The Story So Far

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Map of the Seven Saved Lands

  Thank You to My Patreons

  Also by Daniel Potter

  Copyright © 2019 by Daniel Potter

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, character and events are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1986, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  If you have any questions, comments or complaints about this work you can email [email protected]. If you’re interested in hearing more from Daniel or want to be alerted when a new book comes out please click here.

  Cover by Radovan Zibkovic

  Copy edited by Richard Shealy

  Created with Vellum

  The Story So Far

  Previously in Dragon’s Cage, Yaz’noth sent Yaki, accompanied by his servant Guro, to Golden Hills to retrieve the quicksilver he needs. Ishe remained behind as a hostage in his lair. Yaki isn’t even off the ship before she learns that the sun-worshiping priests of Golden Hills can detect her artificial heart as evil. Only after enlisting the help of Grandmother Willow, whom she once served as shrine maiden, could she escape the docks.

  While reacquainting herself with the city, Yaki meets a scribe, Gama, and saves him from a fatal injury inflicted by his friends. In return he helps her get into a party where Yaki hopes to find a noble dupe to help her steal the quicksilver. She manages to catch the eye of Mitsuo Nishamura, a highborn noble with no inheritance and hooks him by playing off of his two jealous cousins. However she’s force to abandon him as her heart attempts to burn a hole out of her chest. Gama and his friends help her escape.

  And so begins a delicate dance. The priest hunts Yaki even as she continues to court Mitsuo, who she learns is secretly betrothed to another noble, Risu Hara. After giving the priests the slip with a new magic charm, Yaki manages to break up the pair by appealing to Mitsuo’s vanity and wanderlust. He commits himself to stealing the quicksilver by bringing her a small sample. It looks delicious and Yaki cannot help herself. She drinks it and as the fire rages through her veins, she realizes that her heart isn’t mechanical at all: it’s a dragon’s heart.

  Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the conspirators in Golden Hills, Ishe has escaped Yaz’noth’s clutches…

  Chapter One

  To have a destiny is like being on a river: no matter the twists and turns, you will arrive at the ocean one day. The trick is to not get eaten along the way.

  Seek Fire, Chief of the Turtle Clan of the Low Rivers Tribe, Lorekeeper

  Ishe stumbled to a stop against a tree, her fingers digging into the rough bark as she struggled to remain upright. Traitorous legs, she thought as the limbs trembled. Her very core felt jostled; each of Hawk’s bounds down the mountain had been like a new blow to her still-healing torso. The dead run that followed threatened to eject her heart and lungs entirely as she gasped for air. Now, safely beneath the concealing branches of the pine forest, her body screamed for rest.

  Ahead, Hawk slowed to a halt before turning back, her gray eyes narrowed with annoyance. The giant woman had a ponderous gait, but Ishe still had to push nearly to a sprint down the slope to keep up. That had always been the way of life with Hawk. No matter how tough or strong Ishe made herself, she’d always be “little” next to whatever Hawk was. At nearly eight feet tall with muscles seemingly composed of solid rock, there was nothing like her in all the Seven Saved Lands.

  Ishe sucked down air and tried to gather enough breath to speak. “Just… need a… moment.”

  Hawk trundled up and thrust out her hand at Ishe. “Get up.”

  Glancing up, Ishe winced, not recalling when she’d sunk to her knees. She grabbed the offered hand with both of hers and was hoisted onto her feet. The furry legs wrapping around Hawk’s torso shifted as Blinky adjusted himself to peer at Ishe over Hawk’s shoulder.

  “Crrrk?” Blinky asked.

  “Go back to sleep.” Hawk patted one of the spider’s many legs affectionately.

  The spider somehow managed to make a series of clicks sound disgruntled.

  Seeing that Ishe stood on her own two feet, Hawk turned away and made to begin walking again. “We can walk; some movement is better than none.”

  Ishe stole a look back at the mountain before hurrying after Hawk, but the trees blocked the sky. She had no idea if Yaz’noth had noticed the empty cage. Hopefully, he’d settle in and make a meal of the Odin Sphere, forgetting all about her. Ishe’s legs screamed at her as she staggered after Hawk.

  After settling into a rhythm, Ishe found the extra breath for conversation. “Hawk, what about the others? The crew are still in there. Those who didn’t die in the escape attempt.”

  “They will find their own way in time.” Hawk did not slow down.

  Ishe chewed on that for a few steps. “They’ll be all right, then?”

  Hawk sighed like a wind through a mountain pass. “That depends on their own stories. Our story parts from theirs for now.” The words contained a sourness to them.

  “Stories?” Ishe huffed. “If I remember Sparrow’s tellings of Low Rivers stories, somebody usually dies at the end.”

  “Then you know the dangers of living by the proveniprovidence of the spirits. All stories require sacrifice.” Hawk said.

  “Not Coyote stories.” The words came as Ishe thought about the seam in the lock that had burst open.

  The mention of Coyote seemed to generate a physical coldness from Hawk. After passing under several trees in silence, Ishe considered the conversation ended.

  Yet as the pair crossed a stream, Hawk jumping and Ishe crossing via a slippery fallen tree, Hawk spoke again. “I have heard your mother’s stories from the time before Coyote broke the world. I watched Madria pray to him, and he did answer her. Opposing crews would make mistakes; freak accidents would open up opportunities. I do not doubt his power.”

  Hawk looked up to the greenery above as they slowed to a stop., “But remember that we had no friends except the gold and jewels in our hold. Even the world-breaker did not stand with Madria on that deck as she faced the dragon.”

  “Coyote had grown… displeased with Mother,” Ishe said before her brain could stop the words. The dream with Coyote spooled out in her memory. The forest in front of her faded from view as her mind’s eye consumed her vision. A sea
of bones gently rolled out to the horizon. Mother was within that sea and not the nine hells that resided beneath the city of the Golden Hills.

  “And you think you can keep the Destroyer happier?” Hawk asked.

  Ishe’s tongue itched; it would be so easy to give Coyote what he wanted. The price to tap into the vast power beneath his many masks. Did he intend for Mother to die? Or had that been a lie for being unable to save her? How much power did a nearly erased god really have? The terrible mask with the dark teeth loomed into her view, grinning with malice. Ishe forced her mind to swap out that skeletal visage for one clad in fur and flesh, sporting a wicked grin with a twinkle of mischief in his amber eyes. Ishe’s lips spoke: “Don’t call him that. He doesn’t like it.”

  “Then he shouldn’t have killed his brother, listened to the Fool, and destroyed the world.” Hawk’s tone took on a sharpness.

  And how are the destinies you’re saddled with working out for you, Swooping Hawk? The thought growled across her mind; Ishe recognized it as not being her own. She swallowed the words before they reached her tongue. Instead, she managed to twist the topic. “Mother sails on the sea of bones now.”

  She looked up at Hawk, who still gazed upward but not at the sky. “There are worse fates.”

  Curiosity got the better of Ishe. “Do you know what will happen to you afterwards?”

  “I will first go to the All-Father and return his blessings. Then I fill find each of the Seven and ask for their forgiveness and accept their judgments” Her gaze shifted down to the ground. “Or I may wander this earth forever, seeking something I shall never find.”

  “Oh,” Ishe said, and chewed on her lip for lack of anything else to say. Watching Hawk contemplate her own mortality gave her an unsettled feeling. Hawk returned Ishe’s gaze with a steady stare, uncertainty dancing in the flinty gray eyes.

  The slightest smirk quirked at the corner of Hawk’s lips as a decision crystalized in her features. “Beware your sister when you meet her again. She’s been adopted by the Death Panther and is caught in the web of a powerful story. A story that may call for your death if this one does not.”

  Ishe moistened her lips and found her mouth had gone dry as she looked up at Hawk. Her mother’s first mate had never had this many words with anyone except her husband. “I’m not planning on dying anytime soon, Hawk.”

  “If you have to die, make sure it in the name of your own story, that it accomplishes a goal you believe in. I am here because my story involved Sparrow’s death and I did not allow it to continue.”

  “How did you do that?” Ishe asked.

  “I killed my story.” A silence settled as Hawk examined her huge hands, as if looking at blood that had never faded away. “We will not speak of this again.”

  Ishe shut her mouth; questions had so crowded her tongue that none could escape.

  The surrounding light dimmed for the briefest of moments. Both of them glanced upward. Yaz’noth knew.

  Hawk wiped her hand on her leg. “Enough rest. We are still a day’s walk away and words travel swiftly.” Without another word, she set off deeper into the valley.

  Following after, Ishe did not see much of the passing greenery, the book of her mother’s life dancing through her head. How do you kill your story before it had been written?

  Chapter Two

  Da’s dead and it’s that arsehole old man Fin’s fault. Always telling us bout the fugging sun and hills of grain. Da told me he’d show me the sky. Says it’s not right for a boy to grow under a mountain. He’s been digging a tunnel just for me. The master knew it. He was waiting for us.

  Sev, of the Third Generation

  Yaz’noth glided back to the mountaintop where he had left the Little Rhino, with a pleased rumbling in his throat. At least the Valhallan armor plating was exceedingly delicious: refined iron seasoned with numerous other metals that made Yaz’noth wish his head resided there. The meal almost made up for this utter mess of a day. He’d had to crush his best captain, and who knew if the Dragonsworn would actually manage to kill all the survivors? At least Ishe hadn’t managed to tip her cage over and roll down the mountain. Poor thing was probably half frozen to death. That little dance had taken a bit longer than he’d estimated. Damn those Valhallan little boats. Fighting multiple Odin Spheres at once would be a serious puzzle. The new shield crystal would help, but it would be quicksilver that would provide that extra margin of error.

  At least he’d done it without losing a hatchling. He tried not to hold it against Ishe and Yaki that they had killed two nearly two-century investments. Hammer would do his best with younger wingmates, but it would be decades before they had the experience of their lost siblings. That was the trouble with dragonkind. Dragons were too slow: slow to grow, slow to adapt, and slow to act. In a way, the Golden Hills had done him a great favor in cutting off his head. He’d awoken a blank slate, free of his previous incarnation’s hang-ups and habits. Who cared if he had to learn draconic from salvaged books or the White Queen of the South thought him to be some sort of abomination? He’d show them all. The Great Wyrm’s Empire would be a pale shadow compared to his once he retrieved his head from the Golden Hills. Although, judging from the scraps of legends and history, his most trusted Dragonsworn who had brought back his self had been more of a canny bully than a scholar, the thought of remembering the days of the Grand Wyrm’s empire had him salivating. How many mistakes could he avoid by seeing the empire’s decline with his own eyes? Had the Grand Wyrm truly ruled though pure fear and made that last a thousand years?

  His thoughts drifted to Yaki. Had the girl realized what she carried in her chest yet? He would give much to be there for that moment. Would she thank him for his kindness or would she spit on his very existence? Yaz’noth chuckled to himself. Predicting the actions of the Silver Fox’s children was proving more difficult than he’d thought. Ishe clearly hated him, but that was an important first phase, according the books She would require patience. Probably that threat to replace her bit by bit was coloring her view. That had been his temper running away with his mouth again. Replacing anything but Ishe’s heart would be counterproductive.

  Of course, if he did that, he’d have no leverage on Yaki. And if both procedures worked? Well, then he’d had to deal with both of them at once. No, better off keeping one of them mortal for now. It would all be much easier once Ishe fell in love with him.

  Yaz’noth landed heavily next to her cage. “Did you enjoy the show?” He asked.

  No response. No half-witted barb or insult. She was there. He could feel the light of her crystal.

  A flutter of molten panic. Had she frozen to death? He hadn’t killed a human by accident in nearly three decades. Snaking his head down to peer into the cage, he noted its utter emptiness. But the tracking crystal still pulsed within its confines. He pawed at the cage once. The door popped open, swinging on its hinges. Narrowing his focus, he found the crystal in the chamber pot.

  Growling, he ate the cage and moved it into his forge. He felt every nook and cranny of the cage and compared it to his memory of building it. He quickly found the dents in the lock. His chest heated with anger and frustration; the cage melted into a gooey mass as he looked around.

  How had she gotten out? Bashed the lock. That shouldn’t have worked; it was steel! Too thin, though… But what next? She had boots and a jacket. Yaz’noth peered down the mountain and saw no humans clinging to the sides. Against the snow, the black coat would stick out like a sore thumb. It would take her several hours at least to get to the tree line without gear. He’d only been gone for an hour.

  Hiding somewhere? He peered down at dock, but it was clear except for Hammer and his little squad. Climbing down, he stuck his head beneath.

  “My lord?” Hammer ducked his head respectfully.

  Yaz’noth growled at him and kept searching, peering into all the nooks she could be hiding in. His claws itched to slam something or someone, but this had to be purely his own misjudgment. Th
e little girl had probably been so busy escaping, she hadn’t even watched the battle. Why had she had the audacity to even attempt escape?

  “Because she’s not afraid of you.” Yaz’noth said to himself as he slid down the mountain. “You’re already letting the rabble beat her. You can’t kill her. What more can you do other than put her back in the cage and what? Tell her she’s been a naughty girl?” Yaz’noth curled his tail and slammed it into the surface of the mountain. The rock exploded from the force of the impact and rained down below him.

  “My lord?”

  Yaz’noth looked up to find Hammer peering down at him with a worried tilt to his head. His big dumb eyes blinked stupidly. At least he didn’t have to worry about Hammer gossiping about his ranting. Yaz’noth cleared his forge of the plasma that was rapidly building up and blew a long stream of smoke to calm himself down. He reminded himself that two hundred years was an eyeblink of his lifespan. Anything that touched humans went awry in some fashion. He’d deal with this and make sure the contingency plans were in place.

  He gave Hammer a level gaze. “Tell Miss Cog that Ishe has escaped. Have the mountain searched. Got that, Hammer?”

  “Blackcoat escaped?” Hammer picked up his front paw and stared at it as if the girl was hiding under it. Yaz’noth fought down an urge to smack the mountain again.