That explained why I hadn’t picked up any signals regarding my ships being burned to ashes; my mind had been one hundred percent focused on the battle. Whoever started the fire in the harbor must have known that I was fighting the Warlock at that exact moment, and that would have been the perfect time for sabotage.
“Shit,” I muttered. “It looks like the Blood God still has one or two allies in Yeng who still draw breath. Not for long, though. When I find out who did this, I’m gonna hang the fuckers from the walls of Gongxiong with their own entrails.”
“A fitting punishment, although from what I’ve seen of your friend Layna, she could probably come up with something far worse,” Yumo-Rezu remarked.
I had to chuckle at this, despite the current circumstances. I imagined that Layna’s idea of justice for the saboteurs would probably involve eating them, or maybe forcing them to eat parts of their own bodies before feasting on what was left after the auto-cannibalism.
“Come on, we’ve got a long trek to make with those dragon bones,” I said. “Let’s go have a look at it before my Jotunn dismantle it. It’s far too bulky to carry intact.”
We walked back to the glacier, where my team of Jotunn was standing with the dragon skeleton held on their shoulders, as if they were pallbearers for some majestic coffin. Everyone was fast asleep, except for Friya, who was walking slowly around the Jotunn, her eyes locked on the dragon skeleton. She, like Yumo-Rezu, appeared to be able to sense its presence, and this sixth sense had roused her from her slumber.
I sensed it too, as I always did in the presence of dead things and bones. Even in this decrepit state, the skeleton radiated immense strength and power. It felt like I was standing next to a living kraken.
“Set it down there, boys,” I said to the undead Frost Giants. “I want to get a closer look at this thing.”
The Jotunn obeyed and set the skeleton down on the flat, glassy surface of the glacier. With the skeleton bathed in moonlight, it seemed to shimmer with a supernatural glow. The black night sky reflected on the mirror-smooth ice, creating an illusion of the behemoth floating in space. Yumo-Rezu, Friya and I walked slowly around it, taking in the glorious sigh.
I’d seen a good few lizard and snake skeletons before, and the dragon skeleton resembled these in a minor way, particularly in the shape of its head and jaws. Its skull was bigger than the largest wine wagon. Its jaw, the size of a castle drawbridge, possessed far more solidity in structure than any snake or lizard, and no reptile I’d ever seen had teeth like these. They were more like those of the saber-toothed panthers in shape, except more evenly sized, without the exaggerated canines. Each long, curved tooth was almost as large as a man.
The dragon’s ribcage was as large, if not bigger, than the entirety of my undead whale’s body. The torso was the size of a huge longhouse; a few hundred men could easily have stood inside it. Attached to the torso were four long, strong limbs, with the bones of the rear legs being longer and thicker than those of the dragon’s arms, which were huge too. A long, powerful tail, like that of an alligator, it seemed from the shape of the bones, stretched out to the rear of the dragon. From its snout to the tip of its tail, the dragon was perhaps two hundred yards long. The size of it was beyond astounding. Most impressive were the creature’s wings; its wingspan was longer than its body from nose to tail, and the bat-like wings looked as if they could have provided shade to half a small city when fully outstretched.
I walked up to one of the ribs and ran my hands over the bone, which was as thick as a tree trunk. As I touched it, a jolt surged through me, and my vision blacked out for a second. I blinked, but instead of seeing the glacier and starry night sky when I opened my eyes, I saw open, blue sky. The land so far below it was nothing but a carpet of indistinct green. Icy air was rushing against me, rippling across my scales. I was far higher than any harpy or eagle could soar. Far below me but above the distant ground, were little white splotches, like balls of cotton: clouds. The blood coursing through my veins was so saturated with raw power that it was like pure lightning.
In a flash, I was back in my own body, back on the glacier.
“You looked like you saw a ghost for a second,” Yumo-Rezu said.
“I did, in a way,” I said. “I saw into the past and became the dragon for a few seconds.” I turned to Friya, grinning. “You’re in for one hell of a ride.”
“I can’t wait,” she said, tracing her fingertips slowly across the creature’s bones.
“Neither can I,” Yumo-Rezu said, her eyes shifting from the dragon’s skeleton to Friya’s voluptuous form. She was looking at Friya in an interesting new light, one that got me feeling excited about something altogether different to dragons. There was a distinct hunger in Yumo-Rezu’s dark eyes, and a simmering desire. Knowing how Friya felt about girl on girl relations, my prick began to throb with the heat of excitement, as all sorts of fun possibilities crossed my mind. This, unfortunately, was neither the time nor the place for me to have a romp with the two of them, but I was excited about what the three of us could get up to in the near future, behind closed doors.
“You’ve both
