The Shores of Rethan (The Kingdom of Dragons Book 5)

IV - Ancient History

Rhenor was getting frustrated beyond belief. Even though they'd done their best to try to find where Kaz had been brought, they were nowhere closer to reaching their goal. It had been hours, and all they'd done was explore every corner Rethan had to offer with nothing to show for it.

And if anything, seeing the town from up close made him angrier. There was almost nothing to criticize about Rethan, from what he'd seen. The town was...nice. And peaceful. There was none of the oppressive atmosphere than choked most of Istamid's town and villages, none of the poverty like he'd seen in Sigallah, no major differences in wealth between the people living here, in fact.

And Rhenor hated to see it. He hated that the people living here seemed so unproblematic because it made it hard to hate them. And by the gods, did he want to. They treated Kaz like a damned animal. He didn't care what Corill thought. Dragons treated humans horribly, yes, but it was nothing compared to how these humans treated dragons.

"I don't think he's here," Elaya said, sounding as frustrated as Rhenor felt. "You can't just hide a dragon this big, so they must be keeping him somewhere else."

"We'll find him," Rhen replied, knowing that they both needed to hear that. Corill promised they wouldn't hurt Kaz, at least, though he wasn't sure how exactly they were planning on convincing a dragon to be a slave without hurting them. Kaz might go along with it, but that was only because he wasn't prideful and didn't want to hurt anyone, which weren't very common traits for a dragon.

"Damned right we will," Elaya practically snapped, but immediately her glare softened as she gave Rhenor a look of apology. "Sorry, I'm just.... I'm worried about him."

Rhenor nodded. He was worried too. He didn't want Kaz to spend any more time alone with these people, but since they'd made no progress finding him, he would have to. Hopefully, he would manage to hold on for a while longer.

"Okay," Elaya said, rubbing her eyes as she leaned against the wooden wall of the house behind her. "So, he doesn't seem to be in Rethan, but I didn't notice any ships that could carry Kaz, so we can assume he's still on the island."

Rhenor agreed that that was probably the case. Of course, Kaz might be hidden by magic, like that druid had done back in Frostrun, but if Corill was to be believed, only he could use magic around here, which made that theory unlikely.

"We need to go back to where they shot us down and follow the print marks."

In hindsight, that probably would have been the best way to go about this in the first place, but Rhenor was sure they were being watched, and he'd been worried that Corill would change his mind and lock them up after all if he felt like they were doing something suspicious.

"Right. Let's...."

She trailed off as her eyes focused on something behind Rhenor, who immediately turned. He immediately understood why she'd gotten distracted when he noticed Corill, his damned amulet, and a couple of guards walking down the connecting street.

And he was looking at them.

Rhenor huffed, trying to prepare himself for whatever the man was planning on telling them. Though if he once again suggested they leave Kaz to his fate, Rhen wasn't sure he would be able to resist punching him.

"I hear you've been exploring our town, to say the least," Corill said to them, his voice just as infuriatingly pleasant as before. Though it came off as less genuine due to the hint of annoyance hiding just underneath. "You wouldn't happen to be searching for anything in particular, would you?"

Rhenor rolled his eyes at the fatherly tone the man was now using. It had likely been meant to help them see reason, but it just came across as patronizing. He was about to snap back something rude, but Elaya got there first.