The Steel Dragon 3 by Kevin McLaughlin & Michael Anderle

Author:Kevin McLaughlin & Michael Anderle [McLaughlin, Kevin & Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 9781642027785
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2020-02-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Four

“So, is there anything I need to keep in mind about dwarves?” Kristen asked her two companions. They’d landed a few blocks away from La Face De Beouf and approached the restaurant.

“They’re a feisty people, make no doubt about it,” Windlock said. “That’s why I wanted us to approach on foot. If a dwarf sees a couple of dragons flying overhead, they’ll assume the worse.”

“Do you mean they’ll be scared?” She felt clarity was important as she needed to know even vaguely what to expect.

Larry chuckled. “You have never met one, huh? Dwarves don’t do scared. You have to remember that they were created by mages in the first dragon war.”

“You’re saying they have a chip on their shoulder?”

Windlock nodded. “That’s a good way to think about them. They were made for war and for all we know, they might have been able to win it, but they quit. They refused to continue fighting the dragons on behalf of the mages who made them.”

“Why?” She’d never thought about that intriguing truth before, not that she knew much about that almost forgotten history.

He shrugged. “No one knows exactly. The dwarves say it was because they realized they were committing murder, but that doesn’t exactly check out because in the centuries since, they have killed more than a few dragons who wander into their territory and make too big a scene.”

“And the Dragon Council allows that?” It seemed contrary to everything she knew.

“The Dragon Council is, first and foremost, interested in staying in power.” Windlock rubbed his chin. “They don’t really care if a few dragons die. Would your president go to war over the death of a single person?”

“I suppose not,” Kristen admitted. “Although I don’t know. I think it’s possible it could happen.”

“I suppose it would be for dragon kind too,” he agreed. “If someone from the Dragon Council was killed by dwarves, for example, it might be enough to anger the rest of them, but historically, the only dragons who tango with dwarves are those like the two killed in Rangeley. Fools with nothing to lose on a grudge mission.”

“What would happen if, say—and this is purely hypothetical here—but what if a dragon investigator were killed by dwarves while investigating a runaway mage responsible for the deaths of two said dragons?” Larry made his tone sound like it was a joke but she wanted to know the answer to the question.

“My plan is to not engage the dwarves. It seems like we beat the other dragons here so hopefully, we can all reach an agreement before they arrive.”

“And that should be possible, right?” Kristen wondered more and more about the insanity of this plan. The dragons she’d met weren’t exactly known for their ability to compromise. Far from it. In fact, she would say virtually every dragon she’d ever met—even the ones she liked—were used to having their way, period. Of course, the certainty of this was cemented by the fact that she was exactly like that. While she might have different priorities, the obstinacy—or was it arrogance?—persisted.

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