Excerpt: Rapscallion's Hammer (Divica Book 2)

Suddenly Kieta looked up at Regan, a light of recognition burning bright over her head. Her mouth opened and closed a few times as she tried to get the words out, then she bit her lip again and looked down at the shards of the hammer.

“Kieta?” Regan put a hand on her knee, tilting his head so he could try and catch her eyes. “What is it?”

“I just…” She stared at the shards as if in a trance. “That dragon seemed determined to kill me, maybe for a good meal, maybe on orders to keep Rapscallion’s Hammer safe. But after the hammer broke… It looked like it was ready to do anything it could to get away from me. And there was a moment there where I was almost certain it recognized me.”

“What’s the point here?” Dayen asked, obviously not really interested.

“The point is that it was under a spell of some sort, maybe controlled by that hammer? But after the hammer was gone it seemed to come to its own consciousness well enough to know it was time to flee.”

All three men gave Kieta a blank stare. She rolled her eyes in irritation and picked up a piece of the hammer, thrusting it toward them.

“This was the link that gave the Defiler control of the dragons!” She said it plainly so there was no way they could misunderstand. Clearly she was exasperated by the fact that they did not get it as quickly as she did.

“All of them?” Glomme blinked at the hammer. “That is incredible! I am so glad I was able to be part of this liberating moment!”

“No, Glomme,” Kieta sighed in irritation. “Not all of them. Just those that were controlled by Jesterius.” She shifted on the ground, looking excited about this prospect. “When the Dragon Gods started to—disappear—the dragons started to turn against the world. Some people said it was their divine rage being wrought on the world for what happened to the gods. But think about it.” She was smiling brightly now. “If I am right about this and we just freed the entire race of copper dragons, then that gives us a whole other reason to find the missing relics. The Defiler gained control of these items of power after the Dragon Gods…”

“Died,” Dayen supplied.

Kieta shot him a dirty look. “Disappeared. That explains why they were considered cursed by Shadow. Not all dragons were evil, and I refuse to accept that some of them had the ability to be evil at all. If this is true, if we destroy these relics, then we are freeing the dragons from the Defiler’s grasp!”

All three men stared at her blankly, stunned into silence.

“Died.” Dayen repeated his word slowly, watching Kieta and ready to move should she strike out at him. “Why can’t you say it? It’s not so hard. They died.”

“You’re an ass,” Kieta growled at him.