Page 91 of Dragon Fight

I settled Glimmer on my lap as my men entered the carriage. Pulling out the stone egg Cynane had given us, I held it up, watching the iridescence shift in the moonlight that filtered in through the window beside me. The dragons had said these stones contained all the memories of dragonkind. Surely this one would possess some sort of instruction manual as to their use. And if not this one, then another, or another: the eggs we’d found at the ruin Flynn had taken us to, or the other just outside of Emberly. They might be what we needed to possess the answers we sought.

Once we were all settled in the carriage, Ged rapped on the roof to get us going. There was only one way to find out and that was to try.

The carriage slowedand drew to a stop. But when we opened the doors, it wasn’t the familiar sight of the keep that greeted us. Brom stepped down from the carriage, followed by the other men, all looking cautiously around them. As I leaned forward, I smelled a very distinct odour. Although it was much fainter than around the tanneries, it was still one I would forever associate with Marcus. As though my thought had summoned him, he strolled into view, tossing our carriage driver a coin. The man took off before we could say otherwise.

“Hello, lovers,” he said, with a smirk. “I had word that you were all busy little bees tonight. I’ve some information to share about your boys… if you’re willing to do a trade.”

54

“Atrade?” Brom’s tone was ferocious, as his hand slammed onto the hilt of his sword. “I think you’d find we’d be much more amenable to deals if we hadn’t essentially been kidnapped. You’re Marcus Lighthands?”

Marcus performed a bow with plenty of flourishes, the effect ruined by his raffish smile.

“Can’t exactly waltz up to the keep gates and announce myself, can I?” he shot back, then looked up towards where I still sat in the dim interior of the carriage. “Please, my lady, do come down from there, so that we can conduct our business.” ’I moved to the doorway of the carriage, and Flynn handed me down. Marcus’ eye gleamed with appreciation. “Well, look at you, lovely. A pretty boy in the day, a beautiful woman in the night.” He took a step forward but Brom’s sword, all of their swords, were unsheathed, stopping him. He made a show of lasciviously licking his lips. “You’d be damn near perfect.”

This one is dangerous, Glimmer told me from the carriage, where she had moved to the doorway and was eying the man steadily.He dreams of you.But before I could interrogate that, there was a feral response to Marcus’ taunting.

“She is,” Soren growled, “and she belongs to us.”

I shouldn’t have been as affected by that as I was, yet I found my cheeks flushing nonetheless.

“Well, if I’m to go home alone, then let's get down to business.” Marcus glanced over his shoulder at what looked like a garrison behind us. I knew, academically, that there were many of them spread throughout the city, ready to be deployed if we were ever attacked, or even to protect the city from internal conflict, but I failed to see why Marcus had engineered for us to be brought to this one. “Your lads are in there.”

“What?”

We all looked over the darkened garrison more closely.

“Then we’ve no need to conduct deals with thieves in the night,” Brom said stiffly. “The rider corps outranks the whole of the standing army. No one inside that garrison can deny us access to any part of it.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin, flipping it to Marcus like he was a messenger boy on the street. He caught it and bit the edge before raising an eyebrow, his expression verging on a sneer, showing he caught the inference in Brom’s gesture.

“Right you are, Wing Commander,” Marcus said, turning to go.

“Hold on.” I placed a placatory hand on Brom’s arm. “We need to find out what he knows before we go in.”

“Pippin—”

Glimmer, is Marcus telling the truth?I asked my dragon.

She glided down from the carriage, then moved closer to him. Marcus watched her every step with wide eyes as she came to stand before him.

“Well, aren’t you pretty…” He was going to reach out and pat her like a dog but she bared her vicious fangs at him, stopping him in his tracks. “And vicious too. Just the way I like my women. So, beastie, am I lying?”

He believes what he is saying is true, Glimmer told me, then I was treated to a memory she’d plucked from his brain. Of Marcus standing close to another man, the two of them having an intense conversation under their breaths, before coin was traded surreptitiously, their eyes on the street around them.

“Glimmer confirms that he believes it to be true.”

“So I’m not to be savaged by a miniature dragon? Well, that’s a relief,” Marcus said. “Now do you want to hear what I have to say or what?”

He was met by silence, but as we all looked at each other, we knew we did. Tonight seemed to be a night for people telling us what was happening, and we needed to know what had happened to the boys.

“The lads were moved to the garrison. Came in hooded, so no one could see them, but I’ve got a contact whose wife works in the garrison laundry. Said those lads weren’t the only newcomers that have walked through the gate. Been a complete change of personnel.”

“What? That can’t be right.” Brom frowned, then went on to shatter the credibility of what Marcus had said. “Soldiers are rotated regularly through the different garrisons across Nevermere, but never all at the same time.”

“That was reason enough to get my attention,” Marcus said with a nod. “The woman said they weren’t the usual soldiers either. They wear the king’s uniform, but…”

I didn’t know what he meant by that, but my men did. Each one of them stiffened, swords returned to scabbards, tension filling their bodies.

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