Legions of Bone: Dragon Rider Book 3

Chapter 15: Squeaky Joint Killer

Hey, guys *waves*

I'd just like to say that this whole gloom and imprisonment wasn't supposed to go on for as long as it has. It was only supposed to be seven chapters long, but I needed relationships to develop and needed other foreshadowing and things to happen before she could leave and it just got out of hand. But I SWEAR, there are only a few more chapters and I've been working overtime to try and post multiple chapters so we can move on to the fun, war stuff. 

 So, please, just hold out a few more chapters with me. Also, I was thinking about posting a little sneak peek because I feel so bad, lmao. So if you guys have any certain things you want to see leave a comment. : )

Holland

"Our system is useless," Holland snapped, pacing the icy room. Water dripped from the ceiling, slid down the black, frozen walls to puddle on the floor. The lights flickered every once and a while, but the more the room thawed, the fewer outages they had.

His mom watched as he paced, her stark blue eyes grim and knowing. One ivory finger taps her folded arms, anxious. She always said his pacing made her anxious.

Ahren said, "it's the only thing we can do short of giving her Silent Stone."

Holland whirled. "Absolutely not. No Silent Stone."

Silent Stone was the worst thing for her. He knew exactly how powerless Norah would feel with those manacles on. All the bloodied memories that would surface.

"Norah already has enough chains," he growled. "She doesn't need more."

"I wasn't suggesting it," Ahren amended, the brown armor clasping his body was dull. Just as dull as he was for suggesting such bullshit.

"And I doubt it'd do much anyways," Farren agreed, standing beside Cedric in deep grey armor. "It took over two hundred souls to trap Etin, I doubt a simple stone would do anything but piss him off."

Cedric stared at the throne, hand to his chin, his brown eyes narrowed in deep thought. "How trustworthy is Dagen?"

Holland felt like a bee. Buzzing and hopping from flower to flower. Thought to thought. "When it comes to Norah, he's completely trustworthy. Everything else," he grumbled. "It depends on his mood."

"And the guards," Ingren asked, eyeing the crack trailing down the ice thrown like a spider web. It spread, forming a pattern of fractures through the whole thing. "What do they think happened?"

Farren sucked in a breath. "I talked to them. They think she had an outburst."

Holland paced faster, his turns sharpened. That lie didn't sit right with him. It poured trembling, hot anger into his veins. It was painting Norah as some deranged girl who couldn't control herself. Who was on some psychotic breakdown. But he knew it was something that the guards would believe.

"Is Riveta with her?" His mom asked him.

Holland nodded. Norah had still been unconscious when he left.

"What is it?" Her eyes slid to Cedric stewing on some kind of thought. The wars with Novak was the last time Holland could remember seeing his friend so unsettled.

"Etin didn't kill us when he could have," he said warily. "It would have created chaos among the Dragon Riders if I had died. And would have drawn too much attention if Holland had."

"He wanted to taunt us," Ahren said. "To belittle us."

"Ruffle our feathers," Farren agreed.