Legions of Bone: Dragon Rider Book 3

Chapter 12: Deathbed

Sorry for posting late, my dragoneers. The person who proofreads my book just took a really long time to get through it. But it's all good now and I'm so excited for everything after this chapter. Shit just goes down and stuff happens and people meet people and the book falls into everything that I've been dreaming about for like a year. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! And I hope you guys can feel the energy I give off while I write this, lmao. 

Dagen

It was snowing.

Not a patina of frost, or a few wayward flames, but a dousing of white. Flurries rushed around him, landed on Dagen's nose or caught on his lashes. His cloak, embedded in cold-resistant runes Norah had created months ago, was the only thing that kept him warm. The wide, cobbled streets were clear of snow either by frost mages or however else Khalier cleared people-high layers of snow.

Dagen still hated the stuff. Snow left footprints to track. It fogged windows and people would rarely leave their homes, enjoying the white hell from inside before a crackling fire. Metal bars froze to his stiff fingers as he climbed up fire escapes or rails. His nose ran, forcing him to make noise and sniff.

And it was almost summer.

Raider City had snow once every blue moon, but winter meant freezing rain and ice. Spring in the city always meant increases in slave auctions. Raiders went off to distant villages when the grounds weren't frozen for the cages on wheels. It also meant a flooding of eager merchants selling goods since the seas were kinder. And when the merchants came, the sharks followed. Adam said they migrated, following the fish to warmer waters.

But Dagen just knew that spring meant extra caution. Guards would be wary of anyone approaching, no matter how innocent or disarming they looked. If Ultan's people ever caught him stealing it meant drowning in shark-infested waters or losing a few fingers or an entire hand.

Dagen made his way through the market streets, blending into the throng of dragons and people on their way to work.

"Do we have the things?" Eoin trotted beside him, eyes searching the foggy store windows with a determination of a boy given an "important" task. But there was fire in his eyes-- eagerness.

Dagen reached into his pocket, digging past the rings and things that caught his interest for the crumbled strip of paper. "We have one more thing."

He knew he didn't have to get everything on the list, Norah had even said it, but it was a challenge. To find specific things among hundreds of stores.

"Oh." Eoin skipped down the street, hands swinging. "She says the food sucks."

Easy enough.

There was a cafe seven stores down with bright, earthy colors. Bleary-eyed people trudged in and out, collecting around the cafe where the baristas rushed about. It was too easy to slip in unnoticed and steal a few boxes of food from the open selection of the giant refrigerator the cafe had.

Slowly, the people thinned and the streets emptied. With most of his work done, he took the main roads toward the giant building towering above everything else. A glass dome sat in the middle of the pale grey building. It looked as much like a capital as it did a building that could withstand a great war.

Dagen took extra streets, making sure creatures like Quinnlyn weren't following him, and found his way inside the Halls.

A bell rang and students bustled out of classrooms. Voices exploded, laughter boomed. People fell into two flows like salmon. Limbs brushed his and Dagen glared, feeling for unwanted fingers in his pockets.