Dragon of Earth and Rain (The Elementum Book 2) by H.M. Clarke

Author:H.M. Clarke [Clarke, H.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HMC Press
Published: 2025-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty-one

The candlelight wavered softly within the confines of the rented room, casting golden halos that danced over the walls, licking shadows across the floorboards and over the lined faces of the four conspirators who sat on the edge of their beds, shoulder to shoulder. A hush lay over them like a shared breath held too long. Ny Keena, Coinn, Darrion, and Roth leaned close over the scarred wooden night table, their voices low but taut with urgency, as if the very air might betray them.

Each of them spoke in turn, trading scraps of gathered intelligence like precious gems, every word another spark in the growing fire of their shared resolve. The tension in the room pulsed like a living thing, quickening with every detail uncovered. Darrion recounted the shifts of the guards; Coinn laid out a map he had traced from memory, marking entrances, exits, and hidden routes beneath the town. Ny Keena described the strange habits of those who patrolled the prison. And Roth, with a tightness in his jaw and a storm in his eyes, spoke of the rumors whispered in the taverns, rumors of dragons caged within stone and steel.

It was Roth’s voice that caught, just slightly, when he spoke of the dragons. “They use Lozan to control me,” he said, each syllable wrapped in barely veiled rage. “They think if she believes I will be killed, she’ll obey them.”

A muscle jumped in his cheek as he spoke, and Ny Keena’s gaze sharpened, catching the shadow in his expression.

“There are two dragons,” he added after a moment, the words sticking in his throat. “I don’t know who the second one is. But...” He trailed off, then met her eyes. “I think it’s Laufren. When she gave me Asher’s egg, she hinted that she might be removed from the Keepers in Oldeton. I didn’t think they would imprison her, though.”

The name fell like a stone into a still pool.

Ny Keena felt the cold rise up in her, a chill that had nothing to do with the night air. Laufren. Asher’s mother. She remembered the blue dragon’s face, the longing that haunted his eyes when he spoke of her. The way he carried her absence like a wound that had never healed. To know Laufren was here, imprisoned, likely suffering, it turned the edges of their plan into a blade.

“Then we have no time,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the flicker of the candle flames.

Their chance, their only chance, was during the next feeding. The dragons were taken to the cattle pens every seven-day, a detail Coinn and Roth had gleaned through hours of patient listening and careful questions. It was the moment when the Guild let down its guard, treating the creatures as beasts and not the sentient, sovereign beings they truly were. It was when Lozan would be outside the prison walls.

“We still need confirmation,” Coinn said. “When, exactly? And we need to know for certain that it’s Laufren imprisoned with Lozan.”

“I’ll get it,” Ny Keena said, the words out of her mouth before she had fully considered them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.