All for the Egg of a Dragon
by James Robert Steinhaus
The copper-headed baton came down. The sound of cracking ribs echoed through the room.
He screamed.
“Caster, tell me now where that egg is, or I’ll have Brother Bo break the rest of them,” the old priest said. “You are already going to have difficulty healing that at your age.”
“You have no intention of letting me live after this.”
“I have no intentions, one way or the other. I will do whatever I have to, to get that egg before it hatches. You living or dying doesn’t matter to me at all.”
“I can’t let you priests destroy it.”
“So, you finally admit it is here. I have no intention of destroying it. If that was my intent, I would have razed this place eleven years ago when I became sure it was here. Instead, I got myself assigned here, and I have been protecting you and this place. I even poisoned the old head priest when he got onto you and would have burned you out.”
“How did you know?”
“That was supposed to be my expedition to that cave. My brother stole both my notes and my funds and left me with a geas on me not to follow him or take revenge. You see, that was my brother you killed. Not that I blamed you for that. In fact, I have you to thank. That geas would have prevented me from taking the egg from him.”
“If you have known I had the egg, then why have you not acted?”
“Two reasons. You had it well hid. I was not sure that if I forced you to tell me where, I could hide it from others as well. Then there was the fact that you made excellent bait. Three men have come to town looking for you and the egg. Not suspecting the local temple knew of you, they did not guard from us and were easily dispatched.”
“Just like you will dispatch me.”
“I have no need to kill you, you are no threat, you are a stone mason and porter, not a warrior, and an old man to boot. By the way, how did you get the best of my brother?”
Caster considered. An outright lie would get him killed, but the truth might reveal the wrong things. “Not being much of a threat, he left me to last. But I knew the ruins, and he didn’t. He didn’t know where to step and I did. He should not have chased me there.” He coughed and pain from his rib racked him.
“That sounds like him. Now, I can take you back to the temple and begin applying hot iron, or you can tell me where it is.”
Caster spat, then said in a voice dripping with anger. “Under the floor. I buried it, then built the house over it. The earth is soft, and it is less dirt than its mother buries her eggs in. You going to kill me now?”
“If Brother Bo reaches the egg without mishap, then you can live.”
“It’s there, no traps. My tools are in the closet there.”
In moments, his own hammer slammed into his perfectly fitted stones, cracking them with ease. Brother Bo was strong and knew exactly what he was doing. Then the shovel started tossing dirt, with little care for where it landed in the house.
The shovel clanked.
“That would be the chest with the notes in it. Lift it out and you can get the egg.”
Four more shovels of dirt and the big man lifted the chest out, still with a few shovels of dirt on it.
“It’s made of gold!” the big man said.
“We scratched it when we found it. It is only coated in gold. The shell is sandstone.” Caster looked to the old priest. “Your brother thought that might be so she could pass it more easily.”
“Makes sense. Though there is nothing in the books on them being coated in gold, if it is just a coating to pass more easily, the mother probably strips it off.”
Brother Bo knelt down and reached into the hole and lifted the gold egg the size of a small pig with an effort. Then he set it next to the chest. Standing back up, he said, “Kill him now?”
The priest opened the chest. “No. There are questions I want answered and dead men can’t tell me what I would like to know, especially about these notes. They are not just what my brother stole from me, but others. But it will have to wait until after the ritual. Break his leg so he doesn’t try and flee between now and when I have time for him.”
“You don’t need to do that. I am not going anywhere.”
“You say that now, but long before I get back, with the egg no longer holding you here, you would flee.”
Fast as striking a snake, before Caster could raise another protest, Brother Bo kicked out, shattering his knee.
A scream ripped from his throat, and he crashed to the floor.
The two men left, Brother Bo carrying the golden egg and the old priest carrying the chest.
“Damn you, you bastard. This won’t heal!”
A splint might not help the joint heal, but would prevent him from injuring it further. With agony from chest and knee, he pulled himself to the woodpile.
He leaned against the large sandstone cornerstone of his house, next to the woodpile.
Those fake notes and the fake egg he created the weeks after the priest arrived should keep them busy for the three days left before the hatching. He had designed those notes to keep them chasing their tails for weeks, trying to make sense of them.
In three days, a gold dragon would be born.
Only one human could bond with it and become immortal. He patted his cornerstone.
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James Robert Steinhaus is a 60+ year old man from Kentucky currently staying at his wife’s place in the Philippines. Much of what he writes is why people do evil things told from their point of view using fantasy and science fiction, though not all. They can be found on https://reamstories.com/jamesrsteinhaus or https://jamessteinhaus.substack.com/p/a-list-of-my-fictions-currently-on and you can find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/james.steinhaus.1