“How do you think Grimmoldesser and his wife met?” Keith asked Danielle, who was standing next to him. “Do you think it was like a rivalry between holy and cursed dragon at first? Or, maybe, Grimmoldesser kidnapped a helpless holy dragon.” Keith’s eyes lit up. “Oh, oh, oh! What if it’s the other way around? What if the holy dragon’s the one that wears the pants in their relationship?”

Danielle stared at Keith. “You know it’s because you ask question like these that we silence you all the time, right?” She exhaled upon seeing Keith’s expression. “It’s not the question themselves, it’s the timing. Right now, we’re waiting for a cursed dragon to emerge, and there’s a very high chance someone is going to lose their life after we engage it in combat. I’m trying to focus, and you’re distracting me with conversations meant to be had while drunk at a bar after a long day’s work.”

Keith scratched his head. “So…, you’re not curious about why a holy dragon is the mother-in-law of Grimmoldesser?”

Danielle’s expression darkened, but before she could say anything, her eyes widened. She raised her arm and pointed straight ahead. “Dragon!”

Keith’s gaze followed Danielle’s finger, and his brow furrowed. A black dragon had emerged from the palace entrance. Although he was positioned decently far away, making any dragon appear small because of the distance, for some reason, he felt like the dragon was a bit too small to be Grimmoldesser.

“It’s here!” Danielle shouted. “The cursed dragon is in sight!”

“Wait,” Keith said, squinting at the entrance. “That’s the wrong cursed dragon. I think that’s Grimmoldesser’s child.” He leaned forward and shielded his hand from the artificial light pouring down from the ceiling of the cavern. “Yeah, that’s definitely not Grimmoldesser. I might not be an expert dragon examiner, but I can tell the difference between a baby dragon and an adult dragon.” He raised his hands into the air and waved them. “Don’t fire!”

At the nearest ballista, two men exchanged glances with one another. “Do you want to do it?”

“Sure,” the other man said and nodded, grabbing the ballista firing’s mechanism. “Fire?”

“Yep,” the first man said. “Didn’t you hear? Danielle said the dragon was here, and Keith shouted at us to fire.”

“Don’t fire!” Keith shouted. However, due to the distance, it was hard to hear what he was saying.

“See?” the first man said. “He said fire.”

The second man nodded and activated the fire mechanism. The ballista roared as the ballista bolt flew forward, dragging a massive chain with it, the metal rattling and clanking as it collided with the interior of the siege weapon. Despite the massive weight dragging it down, the ballista bolt flew true in a perfect arc through the air. There was a very faint squelching sound followed by a pained roar. The second man jumped to the top of the ballista and did his best to look in the direction of the chain. “Where’d I hit it? Can you see?”

“It looks like you landed a direct hit on its wing,” the first man said and gave the second man a thumbs-up. “It won’t be able to fly with an injury like that. All the other shots should land more easily too now. If we had to rank who did the most work in hunting this dragon, I’d say you should get half of all the credit.”

The second man beamed and grabbed a lever attached to a metal bar on the ballista. More sounds of rattling chains filled the air, and pained roars began when the clanging of metal stopped. The man didn’t seem to notice as he pushed and pulled the lever, rotating the metal bar, causing the chain attached to the ballista bolt to slowly crawl back as it winded around the bar.

Keith gulped, and a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. He wiped it with his sleeve and stared at Danielle with a blank expression. “That’s not Grimmoldesser,” he said and pointed at the wounded dragon by the palace entrance. There were six ballista bolts embedded in its body, each one attached to chains that were being pulled taut. The ends of the ballista were hooked, meant to make the bolts easy to enter but difficult to remove without paying an appropriate price in torn flesh. “That’s the dragon that kidnapped us, Grimmoldesser’s daughter.”

Danielle furrowed her brow. The holy dragon was supposed to lure Grimmoldesser out of the palace, so why had his daughter exited instead? This wasn’t part of the plan! It was easy to fire the ballistae, but it was impossible to unfire what had already been fired—unless one was a time mage, which Danielle was not. “I think we’re screwed,” Danielle said and glared at Keith. “This is all your fault.”

“My fault?” Keith asked and pointed at himself. “How the hell is this my fault?”

“I’m not sure, but it certainly isn’t my fault,” Danielle said and shook her head. “And if it isn’t mine, then you’re the only one who can take the blame.”

“I didn’t even operate a ballista!”

“You’re the only one who knew that dragon wasn’t Grimmoldesser,” Danielle said. “It was up to you to stop everyone from shooting, but you failed, and now we’re all screwed unless….” Danielle’s eyes narrowed and she shouted as loud as she could, “Detach the chains! We got the wrong dragon! Load another bolt!”

“What are you doing?” Keith asked and pulled Danielle down.

“I’m making the best of a terrible situation,” Danielle said. “We almost killed Grimmoldesser’s child. Do you think he’s going to let us off? No! The only thing we can do is double down and prepare to shoot Grimmoldesser when he comes out.”

“Or … we can go inside and inform the holy dragon?” Keith asked. “Holy dragons specialize in healing, no? And since this is Grimmoldesser’s child, she’s also the holy dragon’s grandchild. There’s no reason for the holy dragon to refuse to heal her grandchild, right?”

“How will we get inside the palace if our souls leave our body when we leave the farm?”

Keith frowned. “You have a point.”