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- Herausgeber: Lindsay McCafferty
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Sprache: Englisch
Drangrere is under attack, and not even dragon riders are invulnerable.
On the front lines, or rather skies, is the dwarf, Kade, a shy but dedicated dragon rider for Drangrere, along with his green-scaled mount, Emerald. He is content to serve his team and protect his kingdom from goblins, trolls, and other dangerous enemies.
But attacks on settlements are increasing. The king has grown lax about defenses, focusing more on swiftly expanding the borders of Drangrere, despite the risks. Princess Griffin, though, is willing to listen and support the riders in whatever way she can.
Kade must step up to help defend the kingdom with all the bravery and fierceness of a dragon because a sinister force is on the move that won’t hesitate to destroy a complacent adversary.
Enter the first book of an epic fantasy trilogy. This coming-of-age tale is filled with action, adventure, friendship, and a touch of romance. Perfect for any lovers of both dragons and dragon riders.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Axes and Wings: A Dark Horizon
© 2025 Lindsay McCafferty
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form, including for AI training, without written permission from the publisher and/or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
To be used by AI companies, this book must be acquired legally. Downloading the book from a pirate site and using it to train an AI model does not count as fair use.
The story, names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are from the author’s imagination and are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, and events is intended or should be inferred.
First Edition (2025)
Cover & Title Page designed by MiblArt
Interior format made using Atticus
ISBN-13 (eBook): 979-8-9854011-9-6
authorlindsaymccafferty.com
Table of Contents
Preface
“Iwanttowrite a book with dragons for fun.” That was the thought that started this in 2023, the Year of the Dragon. After watching House of the Dragon and rewatching The Hobbit movies, I searched for any books with dwarf dragon riders. I was thinking about how dwarves like gold and dragons like gold. What if there was a story that combined The Hobbit and House of the Dragon? My search didn’t yield anything, so I imagined the kind of story I wanted. This book is the manifestation of those musings.
Thank you to MiblArt for creating another marvelous cover and the title pages.
One
Firelightgleamedinthe dark valley. Kade leaned forward in the saddle and looked around one side of Emerald’s green neck. A homing pigeon had flown in after midnight with a message that Hoeckan, a dwarf settlement on the southern outskirts of Drangrere, was under attack from trolls, and the soldiers were too few and overwhelmed.
Kade had been woken from a deep sleep, armored up, and saddled Emerald. The dragon riders of Drangrere were always on call, day or night.
The chilly night air banished any sleepiness left in his body, and he had to bring his elbows in and hunch behind the saddle pommel to stay warm. Fur-lined and woolen clothes only helped so much when the wind was driven against his body through the spaces of his armor. Even the thick blue scarf wrapped around his head couldn’t stop the cold from biting at his face. Emerald didn’t mind the icy wind. At least the flight wouldn’t be long.
He adjusted his leather goggles with glass lenses and looked to Alden, the captain, and his black dragon, Onyx. The other four riders on the team were on either side of Kade and Emerald. He pulled on one of the harness buckles, where it made his steel tasset dig into his thigh. Straps went around his waist and each leg and clipped to the saddle on either side.
As they approached the settlement, the bitter smell of smoke irritated his nose through the scarf, and he took shallower breaths. Kade spotted five trolls. Soldiers attempted to fight them off and stay clear of destroyed and burning buildings. The wooden wall had been breached at the gate and in one other place. Despite being built twice as thick, it wasn’t a match for the trolls.
The creatures wore shirts, vests, and loincloths fashioned from fur pelts. Trolls had gray skin and were massive, although not as big as an adult dragon. They had sparse hair on their heads and green patches on their skin that could be mistaken for moss. A sixth troll lay dead in a heap on a smashed building, pierced by several spears.
They could only be killed by weapons like heavy spears, halberds, poleaxes, or a well-aimed bolt from a ballista, which Hoeckan was still in the process of setting up, five on the walls and one in the center. And trolls were vulnerable to dragons.
Adrenaline rushed through Kade, and his heart rate increased as the team neared the moment they would go into battle. It wasn’t fear. He didn’t know why he would be afraid when on the back of a large fire-breathing dragon with long, sharp talons and teeth. But this job was hazardous. What he felt was anticipation to get this done without any harm being inflicted on the team.
Alden sat up in his saddle. The riders wore silver gloves so they could give signals to each other in the dark. He gestured to Shona and Jaheem and to Kenji and Barret to fly ahead, and then he turned around and held his palm up to Kade. That meant to stay on overwatch. Kade nodded and pulled his spear out from its holder on his back.
“Stay above, Em,” Kade called to his dragon.
He kept his left hand wrapped around the bar on the pommel of the saddle and gripped the spear with his right. The cold air was now the furthest thing from his mind. Emerald circled above the settlement as the other dragons began their descent to attack. They positioned themselves to be upwind of the smoke.
An enormous troll raised its stone club to crush the soldiers in front of it, but then Onyx swooped in, scooped the brute up with the talons on her back legs, and closed her jaws around its neck. Blood showered the ground as she ripped into the troll and dropped the body. Only she could pull off that move because of her large size. Being one hundred and ninety years old with tons of fighting experience helped, too.
Jaheem’s red dragon, Ruby, stooped onto a troll with a stolen dwarf halberd and knocked it to the ground. The weapon went flying end over end down the street, and soldiers dived out of the way to avoid getting hit. As Ruby delivered the killing bite, another troll roared and ran at her, its stone spear raised. Jade, Kenji’s dark green dragon, struck it from the side.
The other two trolls gripped their clubs and watched the skies, their attention off the soldiers and residents and on the circling dragons overhead. The dwarves on the ground backed off, giving the dragon riders room to work.
Topaz, Shona’s light blue dragon, stooped at a troll, but it had figured out the game. This was far from the team’s first battle, though. As Topaz swooped close by, the troll stepped to the side and swiped at him with its club, but the agile dragon twisted out of the way at the last moment.
A juke. Smoky, Barret’s swift gray dragon, attacked the distracted troll a couple of seconds behind Topaz. But he didn’t pin the brute all the way down, and it raised its club. Barret threw his spear, and the weapon sank into the troll’s chest, making it drop the club. Then Smoky went in for the kill.
The light blue dragon quickly pivoted and stooped at the last troll, but it was in a tight space. Shona yelled for Topaz to fire, and the brute screamed as flames enveloped it. It stumbled back a few steps and fell on a burning building.
Kade smiled. The trolls were dead. The team was unscathed. Dwarves below cheered. Then Kade saw a shape lurking on the edge of the tree line south of Hoeckan. Emerald turned her head toward it, too. Something large and gray hid in the shadows. Another troll.
“Go get it, Emerald.”
She stooped toward the troll, and it ran into the woods. Emerald glided over the trees, searching for a large enough clearing to get the drop on it. Kade spotted one up ahead. “There, girl. Get in front of the troll.”
Emerald folded her wings and raced to the clearing. His dragon was only sixty, but she was skilled in battle. As she turned around, the troll appeared at the tree line but not far enough out for Emerald to attack.
Kade aimed and threw his spear at the same time that his dragon pulled up to avoid the trees. The troll cried out as the weapon slammed into its left shoulder. The injury would be devastating because the heavy spearhead had the force and momentum of a dragon behind it.
Emerald turned and dived back toward the clearing, but the troll ran into the trees again and headed toward the Dragon’s Tail Mountain Range and wild lands. Kade spotted Ruby and Topaz flying toward him. They joined him in the chase, but the troll was nowhere to be found. It might have hunkered down in the woods or hidden in a cave. The three eventually turned their dragons toward the settlement.
Hoeckan was fairly new, built for its proximity to a coal mine. Because most of the structures were wooden, the trolls had destroyed half of the buildings and homes, and several bodies lay scattered. Without the dragons, it could’ve been worse.
The riders had done their duty, and Kade was proud of his team. But then the cold crept back in. They were only managing an increasing recurring problem and not fixing it.
Two
PrincessGriffinstoodin the skywalk, watching for the dragon riders’ return. The long hallway stuck out from a mountain and had open windows on one side. Griffin could see her breath in the chilly February morning air, but she was warm in her blue long-sleeved dress, blue fur-lined cloak, and black pants.
She rubbed the silver dragon pendant on her necklace with her fingers as yearning filled her heart whenever she thought of those creatures. Drangrere’s standard featured a dragon, but the members of the royal family weren’t allowed to be riders. It was too dangerous. But a girl could dream, and for twenty-seven years, Griffin had.
To fly through the air and view the world from the back of a dragon must be breathtaking. She would love to see the stronghold from above, as well as the Blood Spear Mountains. The views from the two tall watchtowers didn’t suffice.
And the fights would be exciting. The dragon riders primarily defended settlements from trolls or goblins, and sometimes, they aided travelers and caravans. But the last two could only be helped if the riders noticed trouble while out on patrol, or someone got to a settlement and sent a message to the stronghold. They also chased off any wild dragons that strayed into Drangrere. Although, that was rare.
Her royal status couldn’t stop her from enjoying the company of the dragons. Griffin spotted five shapes in the sky. She grinned. They were all back and heading to the eyrie. Griffin picked her skirt up and hurried down the skywalk to meet them, her guard trailing after her. The dragon wings protruding from the sides of the helmets that the royal guards wore distinguished them from the soldiers.
Griffin stopped at the door. “Wait in the hall,” she told the guard. He was new.
“Yes, Princess.”
She entered the large, cavernous room as the dragons entered one by one through the big doors and went to their nests. The tightness in her chest left after she saw that all the riders were unharmed.
Crystal, a white dragon with pale blue eyes, barely lifted her head to acknowledge the others, even when Topaz nuzzled her. Poor thing. She missed Ada. Crystal was curled up in her nest, which was a dip carved into the granite floor and filled with hay and large brown and black terror bird feathers.
The mountains had been filled with red granite with golden-and-black flecks, so most of the stronghold was carved from it. Although in the eyrie, the polished floors were full of patterns of scratches from the dragons’ talons. The massive space was lit by skylights and windows. It had, to a certain extent, been a natural cave that was expanded. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and stalagmites jutted up here and there next to the walls.
Griffin went to Kade as he dismounted. The riders wore long-sleeved chain mail shirts and lighter armor than the soldiers. Each pant leg was one of the kingdom’s colors, blue and silver.
Kade undid the chinstrap of his helmet and removed his headgear. He had brown eyes, straight black hair that went past his ears, and a short beard. He always said that shorter hair was easier to deal with as a dragon rider. Otherwise, he would have to tie it back or braid it, like a few of the others did.
Kade noticed she was there and bowed his head. “Hey, Griffin.”
“Did you all take care of the trolls?”
“Yeah.” Then he frowned. “One got away with my spear in its shoulder.”
“Oh, well, you have extras. That’s not a big loss.”
Kade shrugged. “I still would’ve preferred not to have lost it.”
Wheels creaked as Jaheem and Barret closed the big doors. There were two on each side to make the process easier. Emerald made a rumbling noise like a purr and stared at Griffin with big green eyes. While Kade took off the saddlebags, the weapons, and the saddle, she petted the dragon on her head.
“Good girl. You’re such a sweetie pie.” Warm breath from Emerald’s nostrils blew over her.
A lot of dwarves feared the dragons and saw them as ferocious beasts, but Griffin loved everything about them. Their magnificent presence, their intelligence, their amazing ability to breathe fire, and the horns on their heads and rows of spikes on their necks and tails that made them look so fierce.
Emerald had the body of a regular adult female dragon, as well as her sister, Ruby. Crystal and Smoky, who were mother and son, had more angular physiques, although the white dragon was small for an adult female. Jade was bulkier, and Topaz’s spikes and horns were longer.
Kade set the saddle on its rack and opened his mouth to say something, but then several royal guards walked into the eyrie, along with Griffin’s father, King Magus. Kade bowed.
Her dad was fifty-five and had ruled for twenty years. He had brown eyes, brown wavy hair that was graying and went past his shoulders, and a long beard that went to his chest. The other riders stopped what they were doing.
Alden went to greet him. The captain of the dragon riders was forty and had brown eyes, long, straight, dark brown hair that was partly braided back, and a short beard. He bowed his head. “My king.”
“I thought you all would have been home earlier.” Her dad glanced nervously at the dragons and kept away from the nests. He didn’t come to the eyrie often.
“We stayed for a while to help with the cleanup. The trolls breached the gate and broke through one part of the wall. Hoeckan’s ballistae weren’t set up yet.”
Her dad nodded and seemed unfazed. “It sounds like we’re on the right track with the new defenses if, besides the gate, the wall was only broken in one place. Were the trolls dispatched?”
Alden’s eyes filled with frustration. “One escaped, but the others were killed.”
Griffin’s dad grinned and clapped his hands together. “Very good. You and your team make Drangrere proud of your brave service. How severe was the damage to Hoeckan?”
Alden frowned. He wore that expression constantly lately. The wrinkles on his face seemed to be deeper and the shadows under his eyes darker. Griffin wondered if he had slept sufficiently lately.
“The trolls destroyed half of the buildings and killed over a dozen civilians and soldiers,” Alden said.
“But the coal mine is fine, right?”
The captain furrowed his brow even more. “Yes. But it will take weeks to rebuild and fortify the settlement. We also need to talk about building an eyrie on the other side of the kingdom to help with patrols and protection of the settlements farther away.”
Her dad shook his head.
“My lord, please. We have three hatchlings and two eggs. When settlements nearer to the eastern border are in trouble, my team can’t always reach them fast enough to prevent significant damage and loss of life. And because we’re building new ones faster than normal in wilder areas, the attacks have been at a higher rate.”
“Daddy,” Griffin said, “maybe we should build another eyrie for the good of the kingdom. Jorungir and Vuustwern have two.”
“No,” he said firmly and put a hand on Alden’s shoulder, but his face was stony. “We are at more peace than we’ve ever been now that we have an alliance with King Bogden’s faction of goblins in Gristnak. The new wall design is proving its worth, and with enough ballistae, settlements should be nigh impenetrable. The trolls will learn to stay away. In the meantime, we can focus more on mining riches and resources and expanding the kingdom. Building another eyrie is unnecessary and costly.” He patted Alden’s shoulder.
“The farther we expand into the wilderness, far from the stronghold, the harder our ability to protect the settlements will be. And this new process of building almost everything from wood first. Respectfully, my lord, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Even when extra ballistae are set up, the trolls know how to avoid them.”
Her dad pressed his lips together, and his eyes grew darker. “Do you seek to make me and this kingdom look weak, Captain Alden?”
“Of course not, your grace.”
“Are you saying that your team is ineffective at their job?”
Alden raised his eyebrows. “No, your grace, I’m just—”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about. Keep up the great work,” her dad said tensely and left with his guards.
Alden sighed. He looked even more weary. “You all can rest. The saddles can be cleaned later. Nice spear throw, Barret.”
“Thank you, sir.” The rider’s blue eyes lit up, and he looked proud of himself. Barret had ginger wavy hair that went past his shoulders and was in one large braid, with two smaller ones next to it. He had a short beard with a braid under his chin.
“Kade, grab a new spear before we go on another call for help,” Alden said as he walked by.
“Yes, sir.”
“Princess.” Alden bowed his head to her.
“Make sure you rest, too, Captain,” Griffin said.
Alden nodded, but his thoughts seemed to be elsewhere. He walked with a slumped posture.
Griffin went up to Kade. “Was it really that bad at Hoeckan?” she asked.
He grimaced. “They’re not that far, but the defenses weren’t fully constructed. That did them no favors.” He put his weapons on the rack on the wall. The single-headed axe and the knife would go to his quarters with him. The rest of the team left the eyrie, and the dragons lay in their nests to nap.
Perfect. They were alone. “Is Alden right?”
Kade opened and closed his mouth and seemed hesitant.
“We’ve been friends for years. I know I’m the princess, but it’s just us. You can tell me.”
Kade nodded. “Yes. Your father may believe that building with wood first is faster and can be as protective as stone if it’s thick enough, but it doesn’t always work. It can still be smashed through, which probably emboldens trolls to attack more often, and then once the brutes are drawn in, they have more conflicts with older settlements. And more ballistae make no difference unless a troll is caught by surprise. It would be nice if we could go back to building with stone first and not hurrying to move dwarves in. The mild winter this year isn’t helping either. Another eyrie would help us with patrols and dealing with attacks. And I worry about Hoeckan. There’s a pass in the Dragon’s Tail Mountains that opens into Raggerath. King Nafrag’s goblins could stroll right in, and Hoeckan would be a sitting duck. Can you talk with your father about it? You may have more luck convincing him.”
“I’ll try. But he’s dead set that his plan will work. And he won’t admit that he’s wrong.” Griffin wanted to believe her dad that everything was fine with the settlements, but she knew to listen to Kade. They had known each other since they were children, after his father had been reassigned to the stronghold. Kade was like a brother to her. At twenty-five years old, he could’ve been a good suitor for her were he not a dragon rider.
Speaking of relationships. “Have you introduced yourself to Maysie yet?”
Kade blushed and looked away. “No.”
“Why not? She’s pretty, and Jane said that she’s nice.”
Kade stroked Emerald’s neck. “I don’t know what to say to her.”
“You can start with, ‘Hello, my name is Kade, and I’m a badass dragon rider.’”
“How is that so easy for you?”
Griffin smiled. “Because I know how to be bold and speak up for myself. That’s how I get what I want.”
“You always get what you want.”
Except for riding a dragon. She was still working on that one. Griffin patted Emerald one more time and frowned. “I’m not sure about the second eyrie and changing how the settlements are built.” She pointed at him. “Go and meet Maysie the first chance you get. Don’t make me force you.”
