Page 5 of Realm of Thieves

“I suppose you could tow me to the boat and then you could shift back for the egg,” I muse, tapping a sword along my chin. “That way the boatsman will have to stay for your return.”

He seems to nod, and I slide the swords into the sheaths on my back and then step down into the small crater. The bag I carry with me was made by my aunt and is constructed like a net, which means it’s light to carry on its own but strong and expands to fit the largest eggs. She used twine enforced with threads of jormungander, a giantwater snake, scales pilfered from the rivers of Norland. Supposedly, anyway. Since I’ve never been there, there’s no way to verify it, and the Dark City is rife with counterfeit items.

I lay the net flat in the crater and then place my hands on the top of the closest egg, rolling it back and forth carefully until it’s in the bag. The shells are tough and leathery, but even so you need to be cautious. A broken egg can spell disaster if you aren’t able to rescue the yolk before the air alters its chemistry. I keep a flask on me for just this reason, so I don’t have to come back totally empty-handed if the worst happens.

Once the egg is nestled in the bag, I climb back out of the crater and do another quick survey of the barren landscape, looking for the stranger. He’s still nowhere in sight. Satisfied that I’m safe for now, I reach down and carefully haul the net out of the crater like my father used to haul up salt trout from the ocean. My muscles strain from the effort, but I push through it and then squat down and up so that I’m carrying the egg on my back, clasping the bag over one shoulder.

Sweat stings my eyes again and I glance tiredly at Lemi. Some days my body is weaker than others, especially when I’ve had a bad bout of my ailments. This is one of those days. Nothing I can do but accept it and keep going.

“Shall we go?” I ask him.

He snuffs at that, protesting that he wants to hunt more, but I start walking, the bottom of the egg bouncing off my ass with each stride. I go carefully, taking one step at a time across the rugged terrain, ignoring the way my muscles are starting to ache, the way that my armor is sticking to my skin. Perhaps the boatsman is doing me a favor by making me swim all the way back to the boat. I’m burning up.

I’m about a hundred feet away from the nest when the dragon’s roar fills the air, so loud that it reverberates in my bones, my heart rattling in its cage.

I cry out in surprise, trying to freeze in place, but my toe stubs into the edge of a rock and I’m falling off-balance, twisting to the side, the weight of the egg pulling me backward.

I land on my back, crushing the egg beneath me with a devastating crack, the red yolk spilling out around me like blood, just as the wingbeats from the mother elderdrage fill the air, blowing back my hair and filling my nose with sulfur and spice.

I lift my chin just enough to see her soar down in front of me.

Fuck me.

She’s terrifying.

She’s glorious.

And she’s looking right at me.

She lands just beyond my boots, her massive thirty-foot wingspan blotting out the glow of the volcanoes, her head lowered, showcasing the spiky scales that run from the tip of her flared nostrils over her expressive brows and down her neck and the length of her gigantic body. She takes a step forward on heavily clawed feet, thick muscles rippling under her pebbled skin, her movement shaking the ground, her ghostly silver eyes focused solely on me.

Lemi must have shifted the moment he heard her roar, but now he’s back and doing what he always does, which is to be a distraction and save me from certain doom. Though he could easily take down a person or large animal, he is no match for a dragon of this size, so he’ll get the dragon’s attention off me enough to let me escape before he shifts to keep from being caught.

But the moment that Lemi shifts in front of the dragon, she has her sights on him.

She raises a clawed foot and brings it down on Lemi just as I scream at him to shift and get away, my cry breaking in the air.

But it’s too late.

Lemi lets out a howl that shatters my heart, she pins him under her claws. Blood starts to seep out from under his motionless body, and Ichoke back a gasp, staring at the sight, willing it to be untrue. Willing time to start ticking backward. Willing all of this to be some awful dream.

But I’ve seen loved ones die in front of me before.

And they weren’t dreams either.

A rattling sound comes out of my throat and I’m choking on fear and pain, the agony of a heart being pierced, and I have to force myself to look away. I don’t want to look away; I feel I’m betraying Lemi if I stop staring at his unmoving body.

Oh fuck.

No. Please don’t let this be happening.

But I must. I bring my attention back to the dragon’s face and I don’t dare move, I don’t dare breathe, even though tears are running down my cheeks.

Lemi, Lemi, please not Lemi.

No matter how much I want to run over there, no matter how much I want to scream, to cry, I know if I don’t try to stay still, I’ll end up dead as well.

The dragon spears me with her gaze, her head coming closer and closer, until her nose is at the sole of my boots. She lets out a snuff.

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