Free Dragon Bones And Tombstones (Book 2) by Craig Halloran Page B

dragons, free world. Enslave the dragons … destroy the world.
    Finnius dabbed his head again before stuffing his handkerchief under his robes. His sweating slowed from drops to a fine haired trickle. Finally, he felt comfortable. “Yes, High Priestess.”
    Selene’s face darkened, and her eyes were like burning coals.
    “We lost then, our numbers decimated because we were careless.” She poked him in the shoulder. “One, we didn’t have enough dragons.” She poked him again. “Two, we didn’t kill enough before we started.”
    He could see the regret in her eyes, the anger, a fire deep in her mind, as if the battle was still going on. In a sense, it still was. Most of the world didn’t know that, though. The strange thing was that she spoke as if she had been there. But, the Great Dragon Wars took place hundreds of years ago. Selene looked much too young to have lived that long.
    She continued.
    “As for the Green Lily Dragon, well, if he doesn’t submit to my will, turn from his better nature, then what is left of him will fetch a fine price on the markets. Those yellow humps, just a couple of them garner enough gold to fund a war.”
    There was that feeling in his gut again. Sympathy? It can’t be.
    “No chance he’d be sold as a pet?”
    “The poison is worth more than all the rest of him.”
    Dragon Hide. Claws. Scales. Teeth. Wings. Every bit of it was a high priced commodity.
    “And the blood?” he asked.
    She didn’t answer at first. She just sat and sat and sat, making part of him wish he were elsewhere, anywhere but there.
    After several minutes passed, Finnius cleared his throat.
    “Ah,” she said, “I keep all of that.” She stretched out her arms as she got up and said, “Keep up the effort, Finnius, and I’ll show you things you never could have dreamed of. But for now, I’m going to reveal a little more. I’m going to show you what is next in store for Nath Dragon.”

 
    CHAPTER 14
     
     
    The reveling of the goblins didn’t show any signs of slowing, and I was tired of waiting. And their chants were getting annoying.
    “TUMBA—TUMBA—TUMBA—TUMBA … ”
    I wanted to shoot them all. Stupid sing-songing goblins. Brenwar might disagree with me, but he pretty much disagreed with me most of the time. The longer the goblins sang, drank, ate and fought one another, the worse I felt for the dragon.
    As she lay curled up in her cage, the goblins danced around the bars and taunted her. And why not? After all, they had captured her. But the swill they drank gave them a little too much courage. Now, if I'd seen a lock on the cage, I could have shot it with an arrow and shattered it. But this cage was solid steel bars bolted down into the stone. No lock or door in sight. The truth was, I didn’t have any idea how we’d get the dragon out until we got down there. I punched Brenwar in the arm.
    His popped open his eye and asked, “What are ye’ thinking, Dragon?”
    “How are we going to get the dragon out? She's sealed in that cage.”
    “Well, we might just have to kill them all first, and figure it out later. Or we can interrogate another after another until we figure it out.”
    “You think you can take thirty goblins and whatever or whoever that thing on the throne is?”
    He peeked over the wall.
    “Certainly.”
    Now it was my turn to grunt. The throned man, humanoid or whatever it was, bothered me.  It had barely moved an inch the entire time I’d been here. It just sat in its robes, hands and feet covered, moving its head in slow nods and shakes when the goblins spoke to it. It was big, too, bigger than me, not that it bothered me. I wondered if it was the winged-ape.
    “Do you think it’s a mage or a cleric? A sage or druid?”
    Brenwar rested his war hammer on his chest, leaned back along the wall, and shrugged.
    “It doesn’t matter what it is…” he licked his thumb and ran it along his blade. “It will be dead soon enough.”
    Being around Brenwar didn’t