Free Rise Of The Dragon King (Book 5) by M. R. Mathias Page A

looked to the king and smiled a genuine smile. “Yes, but collaring a dragon will not be easy. And on that note, I would like to have the honor of leading the quest to collar our wyrms. I know you have duties, and risking your life isn’t what the kingdom nee—”
    “Nonsense, Richard.” The king nodded, as if hearing Richard’s offer pleased him. “
We
will lead the expedition, and
we
will travel in luxury, until we can no more.” Richard wasn’t sure the man could spend a day outdoors, even in the mountains, without being scorched raw by the sun. He was as white as fresh linen.
    “I fought legions when Kar started breaking into smaller entities,” King Chad went on. “I am no castle-raised king, but I will ride to my battles in a carriage on my arse while being fed fruits by naked women, not in a saddle, and definitely not on my feet. And if you ask me why—” The king stopped and laughed, and then put a hand on Richard’s shoulder. “—I’ll answer: Because I can.”
    “What of the wedding?” Richard asked, knowing what the man would say.What any king would say.
    “We will spend the weeks between then and now organizing the party.” The king hugged him in a fatherly fashion. It was clear that he would have been a great father to a son, had he had one. “I think three days is a long enough time for the two of you to consummate the union. On the fourth day after the wedding, we will depart.”
    Richard laughed out loud, and so did the king. Richard knew the king was thinking he might get control of a dragon and try to abscond. By having a huge public wedding first, the union would be undeniable, no matter what happened on their quest.
    This was all fine with Richard, for once he was married, if something happened to the king, Richard’s son would be the heir. That meant that for eighteen years, Richard would be King Regent, and if he had it his way, he would have a dragon to help him hold his son’s throne the whole time.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    C lover urged Crimzon around toward the lake. She looked over her shoulder and checked that Aikira was there, and was glad that she was. She’d had no idea that the Outland girl had been orphaned, just like Crimzon, and that Clover’s son had taken her in and trained her. Clover’s previous thoughts of the young ebon-skinned woman dissipated, for here was what she could only see in her heart now as her granddaughter.
    Crimzon topped the hill that kept them from seeing the lake, and Clover was just in time to see the colossal that just missed Rikky foul its landing and send up a huge splash as it crashed, half in, half out of the water. Another of the beasts, this one with a robed figure riding it, was pouncing on Crystal, where she was struggling on the ground.
    Clover sent a thought to her dragon, and he complied by lurching them closer and sending a streak of blood-red lightning sizzling across the sky. It missed the wizard but arced deeply into the monster. For the brief moment it was touching them, Crimzon elevated the amount of power he was expending andcaused the colossal to rear up. This not only saved Zah and her dragon from being savaged like a mouse under a hungry cat, but it allowed Rikky and his speedy wyrm to get there and engage the thing, so that Zahrellion could tend to her dragon.
    Clover saw the injured beast slide into the lake and dive under the surface. At first she could see it by using Crimzon’s heat vision, but soon the thing was too deep to make out with those senses.
    Aikira blasted at the other beast from near Rikky, and soon the creature had a dragon on three sides of it and was thrashing and turning just to keep them all in its vision. The wizard riding the colossal wasn’t panicking, though. His attack hit Golden hard, then he sent Silva back-flapping through the air with another invisible fist of force. Clover had Crimzon bathe the beast in fire and was certain it felt a good deal of her wyrm’s violent heat before the pair