Page 4 of Storm of Fury
It was too much temptation, even for the doubt that afflicted her.
Bryn finally bequeathed a smile upon the princess. “I’ll bring your pretty little princeling to you in chains. I’ll even make him beg for mercy, if necessary. Now. What were the names of the trio that are searching for him?”
Two
Lightning laced across the sky,lighting the common room of the inn in Grøa as Tormund sank onto the bench and shook off his wet cloak. “That is one hell of a storm. Anyone you know?”
Sirius watched the skies through the windows, the black leather eyepatch he wore obscuring one eye. He’d lost it in the battle to overthrow Queen Amadea, though it did little to weaken him. The Blackfrost was still considered the most dangerous maledrekiin the northern lands.
“It’s not adreki-driven storm.” Sirius’s eye narrowed, as if he was seeing more than mere lightning. “Though I’m not sure it’s entirely natural. Stay here.” He pushed to his feet. “I want to see if I can find our informant.”
“Storms like that bring trouble,” Haakon muttered as Sirius strode toward the door.
“If trouble wants to mess with the Blackfrost, then my coin is on him. Do you think the old man was telling the truth?”
In the last village they’d stopped in, an old shepherd had seen a goldendrekifly overhead one night. And now there were rumors one had been seen walking the streets of Grøa in human form.
A great deal of hunting dragons—or in this casedreki—was following rumour of myths and trying to sort the truth from the lies.
“I think—” Haakon took a thoughtful sip of his ale. “—that this is the best lead we’ve found in the past month. Árdís claims the golden scales she, Rurik and Marduk wear are rare amongdrekikind. There is only one other she knows of, and he lives far to the south in sunbaked lands where strange animals roam.”
And the shepherd had sworn the creature was as gold as a polished kroner.
“But why here?” Tormund mused. “We’re not so far from Iceland. A day or two’s flight for adreki, no doubt. If Marduk wanted to escape Queen Amadea, then why would he risk being caught so close to his own lands? Why Norway?”
“Be patient. Perhaps when our informant arrives, they’ll have the answer.”
“I think they’ll haveananswer,” he grumbled, “with the amount of good gold you’ve been offering of late.”
“I have an enormous overbreddrekiworking for me. Sirius can smell when a human is lying, he tells me.” Haakon winked, but a commotion near the door caught both their attention.
The door banged loudly against the wall, as if torn from someone’s grasp.
A stranger appeared, clad in a dripping cloak that covered their entire body, the storm lashing their clothes around them. Tormund wouldn’t have paid them a second glance except for the glint of a sheathed knife at their hip. Dangerous, then.
But more than that, there was a crackle in the air, and he didn’t know why but he felt a little breathless.
Lifting his hand and staring at the way the hairs along his arm rose, he slowly returned his gaze to the newcomer just as they flung the hood back from their head.
Holy. Shit.
His breath caught. His eyes popped wide open. And someone, somewhere, stole every thought in his head.
Haakon’s elbow dug into his ribs. “Enjoying yourself?”
“That is one hell of a woman,” Tormund breathed, eyeing her from head to toe.
And there was a significant amount of woman in between.
The stranger stood a good inch or two over six feet tall, with straight shoulders that bore an almost regal stance, and thick red-gold hair that tumbled down her back in a mess of a plait. She rested a hand on the hilt of the knife at her hip as she shot an angry glance around the room, and he couldn’t help noticing there were plenty of curves half-hidden by the cloak.
Haakon whistled under his breath. “She looks like she could wrestle a bear.”
“Hush,” Tormund said, shooting him a glare. “That’s my future wife you’re talking about.”
“Future wife?” His cousin burst into laughter. “Or tonight’s pursuit?”
“Either.”
