Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,6

Or whatever. I glanced at the windmill, an ominous, dilapidated gray structure that looked to be a hundred years old, worried about Sindari’s warning about a dragon.

“I hope we kept one who understands English.” I walked up to Sindari, the prisoner still pinned on his back under a paw, after the others disappeared into the trees. I hadn’t missed that they had all run away from the windmill rather than toward it.

“I understand,” the kobold whispered, staring up at me. He had a split lip that was bleeding. “You are the Ruin Bringer. We didn’t do it.”

“You didn’t kill the pigs?”

He hesitated. “We didn’t take the children. I mean, we didn’t want to take the children.”

“But you took the pigs of your own free will?”

Another hesitation. “No. We were forced.”

“Why do I think you’re lying?”

He probed his bloody, puffy lip with his tongue. “Pigs are delicious?”

He’s not wrong, Sindari said. On Del’noth, we have wild boars that are succulent.

“Your kind would have an easier time hiding out in this world if you went vegan,” I said.

You don’t think the locals would also object to carrots being stolen from their gardens? Sindari asked.

“They might blame rabbits.”

The kobold looked confused.

“Kobold—uh, what’s your name?” Again, I thought of my mother’s advice to make friends with the magical, with those who weren’t criminals. I supposed I could at least be more polite. Maybe if fewer people loathed me, that would help with the issues I was reluctantly working on with the therapist.

“Bob.”

I raised my eyebrows, suspecting another lie, but this one didn’t matter. “Where are the children, Bob? Are they still alive?”

His eyes rolled toward the windmill. He couldn’t have seen it through the tall grass, but he was looking in precisely the right direction. As a full-blooded magical being, he would sense its magic even more easily than I.

“We took them there,” he said. “I do not know if they still live. He may have eaten them.”

“He who? Who’s been controlling you?” I should have asked that question first, but I dreaded the answer.

“The dragon,” Bob whispered. “If you go there, he’ll control you too. Or he’ll kill you like the other human who went there.”

Uh oh, was that the forest-ranger contact Willard had mentioned?

“Was it a black dragon?” I asked.

It didn’t make sense that Zav would be killing people, when he’d pointed out more than once that he wasn’t a criminal and that he was only here to take criminals back to his own realm for punishment and rehabilitation. But I would prefer to deal with the dragon I knew rather than some mysterious new dragon.

The kobold shook his head. “He’s silver and as big as that windmill.” Bob lowered his voice. “And meaner than a tragothor.”

Is that as mean as it sounds, Sindari?

Yes.

“He’ll kill you.” Bob grabbed Sindari’s leg. “Please let me go. He’ll kill me if he finds out I talked.”

I waved a hand for Sindari to release him. Unfortunately, I didn’t think the kobold was lying anymore.

I wished I had a way to contact Zav, not that he would deign to give me information about his fellow dragons. Or about anything. But he had given me a sample of his blood after I’d recovered his artifact for him. We hadn’t parted on antagonistic grounds, never mind that he wanted to cart me around the world as his slave-bait to lure magical criminals to him.

What’s the plan? Sindari asked as the kobold scurried away.

We check the windmill and hope the dragon doesn’t come home before we’re done.

And if he does? Neither of us is strong enough to kill a dragon.

I know. We’re going to optimistically hope for the best. I marched resolutely through the grass.

Sindari glided past me to take the lead. An interesting stance from someone with pee on her hip.

I’m not sure I believe that you didn’t anticipate that result.

His look back was not convincingly innocent.

4

As we reached the entrance of the windmill, its original door long rusted off, I looked one last time at the cloudy sky overhead. I didn’t sense a dragon, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be on his way.

There is an enchantment on the doorway. Sindari twitched his tail as he gazed into the dim interior, where rotten rails and planks from a decaying staircase littered the stone floor. Will your charm work on it?

I stepped close and gripped what I thought of as my lock-picking charm, but it had actually been designed to nullify enchantments just like this. No, not just like