The Rogue Retrieval by Dan Koboldt Read Free Book Online Page B

wings unfolded from her back.
    â€œIt can fly ?” Quinn asked.
    â€œI guess I should have mentioned that.”
    â€œOh, shit!”
    They turned their horses and fled back to the tree line. Quinn wasn’t sure they were going to make it. He could already feel the wind from her wings.
    â€œStay with me!” Chaudri shouted. She plunged down the trail they’d followed up here. The wyvern was still right over them, her claws just above the treetops. They lost the trail and got into denser woods. Branches started whipping Quinn in the face and body. One nearly slapped him right out of the saddle. He crouched low and just let his horse run.
    Part of the last two weeks had been intensive horse training. At this pace, they risked breaking a horse’s ankle, but there was nothing to do about it. Any slower and the wyvern would drop down through the trees like a bird of prey. If he fell or the horse went down, that would probably happen anyway.
    God, it was better not to think about it.
    â€œKnew I should have asked for more money,” Quinn shouted to himself. He ground his teeth together and spurred the horse onward.
    He couldn’t say how long it was before the wyvern finally broke off and flew back toward her nest. Evidently she’d put enough of a scare into the interlopers to satisfy any territorial ambiguity. Quinn and Chaudri reined in, panting for breath. Their mounts licked at the snow, their flanks lathered and heaving.
    â€œThink we gave them enough time?” Chaudri asked.
    â€œI hope so. I’m not doing that again,” Quinn said.
    They picked their way back to the rendezvous point. Quinn was drenched in sweat, but the cold quickly seeped in to chill him. And it still hurt to breathe.
    A few hours in, and I definitely hate this place.
    On the bright side, Logan and Kiara rode up a moment later. Logan had something in his arm, a white sphere about the size of a watermelon. “Look what we found.”
    That had to be it. Quinn didn’t know a thing about Alissian magic, but the sphere was too symmetrical, and gave off a slight hum. “Thank God,” he said.
    â€œWasn’t easy to get, either,” Logan said. “Hatchling in the nest tried to bite my arm off.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Tough little fella.”
    â€œPlease,” Quinn said. “You should meet his mother.”

 
    â€œThe den was about four hundred square feet and littered with bones. Some of them were fresh, and a few looked to have been horses.”
    â€”­ R . H OLT, “S UR VEY OF THE A LISSIAN H IGHLANDS ”
    CHAPTER 4
    EGGBREAKING
    T he wild dogs had fallen quiet during the wyvern’s show of force, but something told Quinn they were still nearby.
    Logan held up the egg so they all could see it. “Feels almost like glass,” he said.
    â€œMaybe it’s a miniature version of the barrier,” Quinn offered. “Like a voodoo egg.”
    â€œIn voodoo, you break a curse by burning or destroying the effigy,” Chaudri said. “Will it burn?”
    â€œNo, but it might break,” Logan said. “I’ll have to do it on the ground.”
    He dismounted, found a bare patch in the snow for the egg, and drew his sword. Then the yipping of the wild dogs rose up again. All around them—­and they sounded hungry.
    â€œMake it fast,” Kiara said. “Bradley, covering fire!”
    Quinn took up the bow lashed to his saddle. It was a modern compound disguised as an Alissian longbow. A high-­tensile resin gave it a seventy pound draw, with a concealed cam to provide the let-­off at full draw. He’d learned to bow-­hunt with his grandfather, back in Nevada. Made the mistake of mentioning that to Logan, and now look where it got him.
    He fumbled an arrow out of the quiver and nocked it. The familiar grip of the bow was comforting, and the glow of the fiber-­optic pins was just enough to aim by.
    He