Free 6.0 - Raptor by Lindsay Buroker

to Ort and then Zirkander. “You two have another team member.”
    “Yes, Sire,” Ort said.
    Zirkander merely shook his head, his expression still bleak.
    “Ort, see to getting a dirigible ready. No, make that one of the airships, so fliers can come and go from the deck. Take two with you and leave room for others. Sardelle and Zirkander will try to get a soulblade and those command words, and then meet up with you for the hunt. Everyone else who’s going—” Angulus looked at Tolemek as well as Kaika, “—will go on the airship and start out scouting the skies around the cavern. Scouting only . You will not engage until Zirkander and Sardelle are there to help. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, Sire,” Ort said, with others echoing him this time. Cas felt too numb to say anything.
    “And you two—” Angulus waved at Sardelle and Zirkander, “—don’t take too long on this sword hunt. Get the command words. That’s the important thing. If you don’t find a soulblade, go back later, after the dragon has been dealt with.”
    “Yes, Sire.”
    “Dismissed.”
    Cas almost bumped into Tolemek when she turned to walk out the door. He raised a hand, as if to stop her, as if to stop all of this, but when she looked sadly up into his eyes, his shoulders slumped, and he lowered his arm. He didn’t want to fight—she saw that. She didn’t know if it was a good or a bad thing. She hoped she hadn’t just condemned herself to a deeper hell.
     

Chapter 4
    C louds drifted past, leaving moisture on Sardelle’s cheeks as they passed through them. The flier occasionally wobbled or dipped, responding to some air current, but Ridge quickly compensated. The Ice Blades loomed ahead of them, wreathed in thick clouds, the top half of the mountains still blanketed in snow, despite spring’s progression in the lowlands.
    It’s very noisy , Tylie informed her. Not like riding on Phelistoth.
    Tylie rode in the back of Lieutenant Duck’s flier. Ridge had picked him for this detour to the mines, though grudgingly so. He hadn’t wanted to bring Tylie at all. Given the rough nature of the mines, Sardelle couldn’t blame him, but she needed to come to pick out a soulblade, to see if they could find one that would waken and accept her.
    Phelistoth doesn’t have propellers, Sardelle replied.
    I prefer flying on his back.
    Sardelle couldn’t imagine how Tylie even stayed on the dragon’s back when they flew. If not for her harness, there were countless times when she would have been thrown out of Ridge’s flier. Dragons must swoop and dive just as crazily when they battled each other.
    Do you know where he is? Sardelle asked. If anyone could find a dragon, it ought to be another dragon.
    General Ort and the airship team had left at the same time as Ridge and Duck had hopped into their cockpits, but they had soon left them far behind. Given the languid pace of that craft, Sardelle couldn’t imagine it catching up with a dragon. Perhaps that was a good thing, at least for now. She and Ridge could finish their errand and join the others before they found Morishtomaric.
    Phel is in the mountains. I think he’s hiding. He’s not answering me when I call to him. I hope he’s not injured. What if Morishtomaric is hunting him? He’s mean. Why would he want to fight when there are only two dragons in the entire world?
    I don’t know, but Morishtomaric sounds like a stoat’s hind teat.
    Such foul language , Jaxi said. Should you be teaching a young woman such profanity?
    Aren’t you busy monitoring the ground down there, Jaxi? Ridge asked for a warning if the sorceress shows up and starts flinging fireballs.
    I can watch for her and monitor your profanity at the same time. I have an expansive mind.
    You have a nosy mind.
    Many words can be used to describe the cornucopia of wealth that is a soulblade.
    I’m not going to argue with that.
    “Sardelle?” Ridge called over his shoulder. “Any sign of trouble?”
    Jaxi?
    I don’t