Dragons of Asgard 6 Chapter 3

I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the empty chest.

Where the fuck was it?

“There’s nothing here,” I whispered in disbelief.

“What are we going to do?” Preyna asked, and her voice shook with emotion.

“Do you think the Elf King already has it?” Kas pushed, and I could sense her anxiety increase.

“He must.” Eira shook her head. “There is no other explanation.”

“Odin told us many men had failed to get the stone before,” Asta said in a low voice. “And he said nobody knows about it anymore…”

“Except the Elf King.” Kas pursed her lips.

“Fuck” I sighed, and I pushed my hand through my hair. “We were too late.”

“Do you think the Elf King has already started the process of bringing Vinrar back to life?” Kas asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “But we can’t allow that to happen.”

“What do we do?” the Valkyrie pushed. “We have no way of knowing if the Elf King has already brought Vinrar back or not.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “But if there’s anything we can do to prevent it, then we have to try.”

“What are you suggesting?” Preyna asked.

“I think we need to go to the Elf King’s palace,” I said.

“Right now?” Asta gasped.

“Yes.” I nodded. “We can’t just allow the Elf King to have all the tools to bring back Vinrar and do nothing about it.”

“Rath is right,” Eira said, and a fierce look of determination settled on her face. “We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t at least go see if the spell is already complete.”

“And what if it is?” Asta whispered.

My heart dropped at her words, and I knew she could feel it because of our soul bond, but I couldn’t show it. I needed to let them all know that even if Vinrar was back, there was still some fight left in us. If we had to fight the original dragon trader himself, we would do whatever it took to end the dragon trade.

“Then we’ll deal with that when we get there,” I said firmly. “For now, we need to go.”

“We can’t just waltz in there.” Kas shook her head. “We need to put an invisibility spell on.”

“Okay, let’s do that real quick,” I said.

“Take my hand,” Preyna told the Valkyrie, and she held her palm out for the strawberry-blonde to grab.

The two of them began to mutter in the old language, and after a moment, red and golden sparkles fluttered all around us. Asta and I took the hands the two women offered to us, and then Asta’s silver sparkles joined them before my own rainbow sparkle mixed in as well.

The magic swirled around all of us, and a second later, it sort of exploded outward as the spell was completed.

“We’re ready,” Preyna said, and she gave me a hard nod.

“Alright,” I agreed, and I turned to Blar at my feet. “You ready?”

The little dragon hopped up on my shoulder and gripped onto my hip with his back legs. Then he closed his eyes, and a portal appeared.

Kas picked up Uffe, Inger landed on Asta’s shoulder, Svass curled up on Eira’s neck, and Elding held onto Preyna’s back as we all linked hands and stepped through.

The familiar feel of the grass in front of the Elf King’s palace hit my feet, and a shudder ran through my whole body.

The sun was high in the sky, and it lit up the incredibly ornate palace once again. It felt like we’d been here far too many times, and just the sight of the large structure made my face pull into a grimace.

The castle itself was beautiful, with large domes and lovely brick and marble, with gold edging. But knowing what went on here made my heart ache for the dragons who’d been kept in the dungeon to rot. The Elf King didn’t do a lot of the torture himself, he had henchmen for that kind of thing, but I still despised him most of all. He was a king, for fucks sake. He was meant to be a shining example of justice and righteousness, but instead he’d disgraced his own crown and title.

He once called Odin a false king, but he was the true false king. The sonofabitch didn’t deserve that title by any means, and I hoped to take it from him sooner rather than later.

“Let’s go,” I whispered as I led my team across the massive lawn toward the stone courtyard.

The entire palace was dark. There were no lanterns or candles lit anywhere, and the wind blew just enough to cause a rustle of the leaves on the trees.

There were no guards, either, which was unusual.

“Where is everyone?” Asta asked in a low voice as we crept through the courtyard toward the large double doors of the palace.

“I don’t know,” I said, and my eyes narrowed as I continued to look around for any signs of life. “I don’t see anybody at all.”

Previously, when we’d been to the Elf king's palace, there were plenty of guards around to make sure nobody got in or out. I knew the large silver dragon he once had in his dungeon wasn’t there any longer, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t replaced him with another dragon to torment.

Once we got to the double doors of the palace, I carefully pulled on one of the handles and found it to be unlocked. I glanced back at my girls, and each of them had a confused look on their face.

“I know.” I nodded. “I don’t understand either, but we need to just push on and see what we can find.”

If anything, the Elf King would have something in his study. We’d found plenty of information regarding his plans there before, and that was exactly where I intended to go first.

I stepped onto the cool marble floor of the palace and made my way to the left where the Elf King’s study was at the end of the hallway. It was even more eerie inside the palace than it was on the outside. There was absolutely nobody there, and just thinking about how we could be the only ones in the entire place gave me the absolute creeps.

Where the Hel was everybody?

It didn’t make sense that they would be gone, especially with the king usually having prisoners in his dungeon. His henchmen were always running around here doing something for the dragon trade, but there was no sign of them, either.

I knew the Elf King tried to keep his involvement in the dragon trade underwraps so his citizens didn’t find out about it, but even still, the palace was inexplicably quiet.

The very faint sound of our footsteps was the only noise I could hear as we carefully and slowly made our way down the hallway toward the king’s study. Half of me expected to find him there, but when we got to the door, I noticed it was already cracked. I carefully pushed on the wood, and the door creaked as it slowly opened to reveal an empty room.

There were some papers on the large desk that were in disarray, and a couple of books were taken off the shelves, but everything else appeared to be intact.

“This is getting stranger and stranger,” Kas whispered as we stepped inside the study and closed the door behind us. “Where is everybody?”

“I have no idea,” I said with a shake of my head.

“It’s the middle of the day,” Eira pointed out. “Could they be off on some sort of business?”

“Maybe, but where?” Kas asked. “And why wouldn’t they leave some guards here at the very least?”

“It looks like they might have left in a hurry,” Preyna said with a gesture at the papers on the table.”

“He very well could have,” I agreed. “But then, where is everyone else?”

“The fire is cold,” Eira said, and I turned to see she was crouched down by the chimney with her hand on the coals.

“It seems the Elf King hasn’t been here for a while.” I pursed my lips.

“If he’s not here, then where could he be?” Kas asked. “Asta, does the King have any other palaces?”

“No other palaces.” Asta shook her head.

“You’re sure?” I pushed.

“Yes.” Asta nodded. “And I don't think he has any relatives that he could go to, I believe he’s the last of his line.”

“Good,” Eira muttered under her breath.

“But he has all the resources to build whatever he wants,” the elf girl pointed out.

“Maybe he’s at one of the camps where he’s been keeping the dragons?” Eira suggested.

“That’s possible,” I said. “If he’s going to cast the spell, he needs to be with people who know what he’s doing.”

“Do you think our attack on the Vinrar society sped up the process?” Kas asked. “Could he know about that?”

“That was only hours ago,” Asta said, and her yellow eyes widened with horror. “Do you think he could know already?”

“Maybe,” I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “He has people everywhere.”

“We could have killed one of them, and when they didn’t return, he knew something was wrong,” Eira said, and her lips pressed into a thin line.

“You’re probably right,” I said. “He knew we were onto him already, that’s why he sent the dragon to Asgard.”

“He was probably on edge,” Preyna said in a low voice. “And if one of his henchmen didn’t make it back within a few hours, he would take that to mean we’d infiltrated the Vanaheim Gods as well.”

“That’s quite possible,” I agreed. “I can’t say for sure if he knows about that, or if he’s just trying to speed up the process since he knows for sure someone is after him now, but either way, he’s working quickly, which means we need to as well.”

“What do the papers on the desk say?” Preyna asked. “Maybe they can give us some insight into what he’s doing.”

“Let’s see,” I said, and I walked over and looked at the scattered papers.

There was nothing of importance there, only ancient lore about dragons and where they came from. It was describing Alfheim as the ultimate home of the dragons, and the text said after Nidhug, it was Alfheim that bore dragons into existence.

“This is old lore,” Asta said as she peered over my shoulder. “Why would he be looking at this?”

“Why does the Elf King do anything?” Eira asked with a sneer.

“I don’t see how this could help him with the dragon trade.” Preyna pursed her lips. “Not unless….”

“Unless what?” I asked.

“Well, perhaps he was using this to perfect his spell on the dragons,” she said, and she reached down and picked up one of the pages that talked about the dragons being creatures bound and created by nature and how they were inherently magical.

“You think he’s using their bond with nature to control them?” Kas gasped.

“I don’t know.” Preyna shook her head. “But that’s the only reason I can think as to why he might be looking at these papers.”

“I wish I knew what books were missing off the shelf,” Kas said as she looked around the room.

“I’m not sure we have any way of telling,” Preyna said. “But if we cannot find out where the Elf King is, these papers might be a good place to start.”

“What do you mean?” Eira asked. “Can you do a spell with them to find him?”

“Maybe.” Preyna nodded. “The papers will have the Elf King’s essence on them. We may be able to use that to track him.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “We don’t know where any of the dragon camps are, but if we can find them, then if we can find out where he’s at. We may be able to stop him if he hasn’t started the spell yet. For now though, we should continue to check around the palace.”

“I don’t think we’ll be able to find him here,” Preyna said as she glanced back at the door. “It feels very empty.”

“I don’t think he’s here.” I shook my head. “But if he is, he might be in the dungeon, or at least one of his henchmen might be there.”

“Oh, yes,” Kas said. “There is usually one down there moseying around.”

“The elf with the long black hair is usually moving dragons around,” Asta said as a visible shudder ran through her body, and a wave of fear hit me from our soul bond.

I knew being in the king’s dungeon was upsetting for Asta in general since she’d been kept there for several weeks before we met, but seeing that arsehole had to be even more upsetting.

The bastard was always the one moving and torturing dragons, and I wanted to knock him out as much as my women did.

Blar and the rest of the dragons got up from the fireplace where they’d been laying and made their way back over to the door so I could lead them out and down toward the dungeon. I was more confident now that there was nobody in the palace whatsoever, but I still wasn’t going to announce our presence, just in case.

I made sure to be extremely quiet as we walked, but it was difficult given the enormity of the area and the marble of the floor, not to mention the sheer number of people and dragons in our group. Our footsteps seemed to echo off everything, but I didn’t see a single person the entire time we were walking through the palace. Eventually, we got to the dungeon doors that I recognized, and I quickly opened them and led my team down the large narrow staircase.

Svass lit our way with her fire, and my heart beat out of my chest as I held my sword at the ready, but once again, as soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs, we found the place to be empty. There wasn’t even anybody in the dungeon cells, which was surprising given I’d heard people in there every other time we’d come through.

It was hard to imagine the Elf King was able to keep his involvement with the dragon trade a secret since there were people in the same dungeon where he kept the dragons, but I knew the two were separated by a good bit of brick, and the poor dragons would probably be beaten if they ever made too much noise.

The dungeon was completely made of brick, and it was cold and smelt of the earth. I looked around curiously as we made our way down the long dungeon hallway. I half expected to see the elf with the long black hair, but I didn’t see anyone, and when we eventually got to the area where he usually kept the baby dragons, there was absolutely nothing.

“This desk is where we found information before,” Kas said when we stopped to look around. “Maybe there’s something in it now.”

The strawberry-blonde opened the desk drawers, but there was absolutely nothing inside, not even any sort of paperwork or writing utensils.

“That’s odd,” Asta said.

“Yes,” I agreed. “It is. They must have moved the operation.”

“If that’s the case, then I have no doubt we’ll need to use those papers from the Elf King’s study to find him,” Preyna said.

“Do you think you could perform the spell?” I asked.

“I’m not sure I can do it alone.” Preyna bit her lip. “The EK has enchantments on him to keep us from tracking him. It would be better to have someone else’s input.”

“We need to speak to my father,” Kas said. “He’ll know what to do.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “But while we’re here, we should look around some more.”

“Good idea,” Eira said.

“What are we looking for exactly?” Asta asked.

“Anything that might clue us into where the Elf King is or how he plans to perform this spell,” Eira said.

“Yes.” I nodded. “We may be able to find something hidden around here.”

“Maybe there’s some secret rooms like there were at the Vanaheim palace,” Kas suggested.

“I bet you’re right.” Preyna nodded.

“Is there a way you can magically find it?” Asta asked.

“We can try,” the sorceress said. “Kas, do you want to join me”

“Of course,” the Valkyrie agreed, and she took Preyna’s hand.

Preyna spoke first, and after she made it all the way through the series of words, Kas joined in. Red and golden magical sparkles swirled around the two of them, then suddenly, they landed on the floor.

Instead of evaporating like usual, though, they stuck.

“That should do it,” Preyna said. “The magic will lead us to hidden doors.”

“Look, it branches off up there.” Asta pointed. “One leads further into the dungeon, and one leads back up the stairs.”

“Hm.” I pursed my lips. “Let’s check the dungeon first, we can follow the other trail afterward.”

“Why am I not surprised the Elf King has multiple hidden rooms in his palace?” Eira asked with an eye roll. “Odin was right, there’s something wrong with this arsehole.”

“Come on,” I said, and I led my women down the hallway further into the dungeon. The magic trail led to what appeared to be a plain brick wall inside a small cell, but upon closer inspection, I noticed one brick that protruded just slightly more than the others.

I pressed on the brick, and the wall clicked and opened next to us.

“This gets creepier and creepier,” Asta whispered.

Svass used her flame to light our way, and we made our way down the narrow staircase hidden behind the door. The air grew cooler as we went further underground, and part of me hoped to find the Elf King here, but once again, there was nobody.

The sight of the room was all too familiar, and I realized it was a shrine to Vinrar, just like the one in Vanaheim. The room had multiple benches set up and a podium to the right with a huge portrait of the original dragon trader himself just behind it.

“This must be another meeting room,” Preyna said as she looked around.

“I guess they took turns hosting,” Eira sneered.

“Ugh, where do they keep getting these portraits?” Kas asked, and her face pulled into a grimace as she looked at the gigantic picture of Vinrar on the wall.

“There’s a podium,” I said as I walked across the room. “Maybe there’s something there.”

“If the Elf King had a meeting room at his palace, why did they have the meeting at the Vanaheim gods palace last night?” Asta asked.

“Perhaps it’s like Eira said.” Kas shook her head. “They must take turns hosting.”

“Yes, but then why wasn’t the Elf King there?” Preyna asked.

“He knows we’re after him,” I said as I stood in front of the podium and found it to be empty. “He must have felt like it was too risky for him to go to the meeting, especially after we ended his attack on Asgard earlier than he planned.”

“You’re probably right.” Preyna pursed her lips. “He is a bastard, but he’s not utterly stupid.”

“There’s nothing else here,” Eira sighed as she circled the room. “No papers or anything.”

“Let’s go to the next room,” I said.

“Okay, but first can we destroy that portrait?” Kas asked as she pointed at Vinrar’s smug face in the painting.

“With pleasure,” I said, and I pulled my dagger from my hip and handed it to the Valkyrie.

“Really?” she asked, and her eyes went wide as she took the blade. “You don’t want to do it?”

“I want you to do it,” I assured her.

Kas smiled before she stepped up next to the portrait. She glared at Vinrar for a moment, and then she let out a small yell as she reared her arm back and stabbed the sonofabitch right in his cocky face.

The Valkyrie pulled the blade downward, and the canvas made a terrible ripping sound as she split the portrait of the bastard in half.

“Whew, that felt good,” Kas said as she turned back to me, and she blew a loose curl away from her face.

“Good.” I smiled. “Now, let’s go.”

Preyna led us back out of the room and to the stairs leading to the main part of the palace.

We followed the magic sparkles to the wing with Elf King’s study where we’d just come from, but instead of leading to his study, they led to a large door beyond.

Inside was a bedroom larger than my entire cottage. There was a huge four post bed with a deep green velvet bedding on it, ornately carved side tables, a fireplace opposite the bed with a tall bookshelf next to it, and an oversized wardrobe to our left.

“This must be his room.” Asta wrinkled her nose as she looked around.

“It appears that way,” I agreed.

“The sparkles lead to the fireplace,” Preyna said with a point.

We followed them over to the large fireplace, but I didn’t see a way for us to get inside whatever was behind it.

“What do you think?” Eira asked after a moment.

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “The brick was obvious, but I don’t see a way in here.”

“What about these?” Asta asked, and she reached over and grabbed one of the fireplace pokers.

When she did so, the entire ground beneath us shifted and turned until we were in a completely different room.

“Goodness,” Preyna whispered, and she grabbed the mantle to steady herself.

“The Elf King spares no expense when it comes to his secret lairs, apparently.” I shook my head as I looked around the new room we were in.

It was a large study with books lining the walls and a beautifully carved wooden desk with a matching chair behind it.

The desk was littered with paper, so I rushed over to it, only what I saw wasn’t what I expected.

I hoped to find something outlining more of his plan to cast the spell to bring Vinrar back, but what I found instead was just as bad, if not worse.

“What are they?” Ast asked as she looked over my shoulder.

“They’re torture devices.” My jaw clenched, and I crinkled the paper in my hand.

Every single page on the desk depicted some elaborate drawing of a device designed to torture either people or dragons. One was a large wooden cross with clamps to hold the person down while water was poured over their head until they nearly drowned. Another was a drawing of an incredibly large collar designed to be put on a dragon’s neck. The collar had spikes that would dig into the dragon’s neck if it tried to pull away from the chain it was attached to.

“Oh, no,” Asta gasped, and she put her hand over her mouth as her yellow eyes welled with tears. “How awful.”

“Some of these are for people.” Eira frowned.

“You sound surprised,” Preyna noted.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be,” the redhead sighed.

“He’s already shown he has no morals,” Kas growled. “I’m not surprised he would torture anything that irritated him in the slghtest. He’s probably used many of these techniques on his prisoners already.’

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Preyna said. “Especially if they’re vagrants or sentenced to death. Nobody would ever know, and he could still maintain his reputation as a good king.”

“How did he get that reputation anyway?” Eira asked, and her nose wrinkled with disgust. “Do people really think he’s a good king?”

“Nobody knows anything of his terrible deeds,” Asta said.”He’s not the greatest king we’ve had, but most elves don’t really think he’s that bad, either. He mostly minds his own business.”

“That’s how.” Eira rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t let anybody have an opinion on him, therefore nobody cares.”

“You’re probably right,” Preyna agreed. “Though, just the sight of him is enough to make me dislike him. Odin’s right, there’s something downright creepy about the man.”

“And this just ups the creep factor even more,” Kas said with a gesture to the desk filled with drawings of torture devices. “I bet he’s been working on these since he was a child.”

“I would guess you’re right.” I nodded as I looked over the papers. “It certainly looks like the illustrations are well practiced, and the notes are so detailed, they describe exactly how the device is made and how to use it.”

“Unfortunately for us, there’s nothing about what he’s currently working on with Vinrar,” Preyna sighed. “Though, he might have implemented some of these for the dragons in the camps he’s made.”

“He very well could have,” I said. “Let’s look around and see what else we can find in here before we go.”

“Good idea.” Kas nodded.

I rifled through the desk drawers, but it was just art supplies and more drawings of torture devices or speciefic pieces of them. The dragons managed to find a small tin of treats near the fireplace, and Kas, Eira, Asta, and Preyna looked around the shelves to see if they could find anything useful.

Just then, my stomach tightened into a huge knot, and I felt my consciousness get pulled in another direction.

I closed my eyes and opened them to the familiar feel of the silver dragon’s mind and body. He was still in a large cage in some sort of tent-like structure, but he was with more dragons than last time.

The black-haired elf I’d grown to know and despise stood next to him, and beside him was yet another elf with light-brown hair. The two of them laughed at something I hadn’t heard, but then a loud, frustrated scream filled the air, and the silver dragon I was in cowered in the back of his cage.

“Why isn’t this working?” someone shouted, and a second later, the Elf King pushed aside some fabric and huffed as he made his way over to the elf with the long black hair.

“What’s wrong, sire?” the henchman asked, and he inclined his head, though I didn’t know if it was out of respect or fear.

“This spell is not working,” the Elf King snapped.

“Sire, I retrieved all the items you wan--” the elf started.

“There must be something wrong with one of them,” he sneered. “Get me fresh ingredients, now.”

With that, the Elf King turned and marched back through the fabric curtain he’d just come through.

I blinked and returned to my body with a big, goofy grin on my face.

The Elf King’s plan wasn’t working out quite the way he’d hoped.