The Toymaker's Hoard by Megan Derr

Author:Megan Derr [Derr, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Gay, bisexual, Graysexual, Fantasy, romance
Publisher: Megan Derr
Published: 2019-09-09T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Five

He could feel the ruin of his hoard before he arrived. It had been torn from the shop, from its home. It was a hole in his heart, a chasm in his mind.

When he arrived, the shop was in shambles. Somebody had broken the lock and torn everything from the shop that mattered. All his display pieces were gone from their shelves and glass cases. The back rooms had been ransacked, every basket, box, and shelf emptied. His gears, wheels, and other parts. His tools. All his jewels, gold, silver. The fine woods, fabrics. Every piece he'd been working on, including the gifts for Harren and Sula. No, no, no.

He collapsed on the floor of the workroom sobbing, curled in on himself from the pain and agony. Gone. His entire hoard was gone. All 7,876 pieces.

When he could manage to stand again, he went around the savaged workroom, fixing everything he could, looking frantically for any stray cog, screw, pearl, or bit of silk that might have been missed and left behind.

As he came up empty, the pain slowly turned into rage. Vidner. That fucking wyrm. Cadmus would tear out his heart and eat it in front of him. How dare that worthless little snake steal his hoard.

Growling, eyes turning the red-orange of hot coals, Cadmus heaved to his feet once more and headed out of the shop, leaving the broken door gaping behind him.

People started to greet him and recoiled in fear. "Where's Vidner?" Cadmus bellowed, smoke trickling from his nose and mouth, heat emanating from and driving people even further away.

Finally the daughter of the bakery woman said in a faint, trembling voice, "I think I saw him go down Butcher Street."

Cadmus rumbled approval and surged onward. Scales dotted his hands, neck, and face, itching under his clothes as they slowly spread. Ordinarily, he had a care, and even in an especially bad mood could force them back down. But right then, he didn't care. Let them see his scales. Smell the fire. Be afraid of him. When he found Vidner and whoever else had helped steal his hoard, Cadmus was going to burn them alive, reduce them to bone and ash.

He turned onto Butcher Street, nearly gagging at the smell. But then, beneath the smell of blood, meat, and rotting carcasses, he caught the barest trace of Vidner's old sea water stench. Because like all lindwyrms his favorite foods all came from the ocean. Tuna, dolphin, shark, and more. Stupid, awful ocean.

It was faint, and it was probably dumb luck he'd caught it at all, but it was enough to follow the trail. Stupid, he should have figured out where Vidner lived the moment he'd started up his harassment campaign. But he'd assumed Vidner was like any other wyrm and would eventually grow bored and move on. That would teach him.

An ogre with a blood-smeared apron tentatively approached, a deep scowl on his face. "Hey, there, dragon. You're scaring good folk—"

"Back off!" Cadmus roared, voice turned rough-edged as his draconic nature consumed him more and more.

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.