The Dragon's Prize by Sophie Park

with a dizzying array of food.  Roasts and salads and soups and freshly baked breads lined the top of the table and steamed, waiting to be eaten.  At the head of the table, on the other side of the room, sat a fat man in rich golden clothes.  With him were several of what Sandra thought were more mercenaries, who were tearing into a roast goose with ferocity.
    Not really knowing how to evaluate all of this, but knowing something was deeply wrong, Sandra headed forward.  Mira sensed the wrongness, too, and clung close to Sandra’s back.
    “Hello!  Welcome!  We don’t get many visitors in Velmar!”  The man at the end of the table greeted them warmly, waving them over with greasy fingers covered in rings.  “What brings you to our fine town?”
    Sandra warily approached the mayor and his guards.  Four of them were eating with the mayor and another two were standing at the corners of the room, watching her with hands on their swords.  If the ones outside were anything to judge by, she was better than they were, but against six?  She didn’t like those odds.
    “Lord Mayor, I am a royal guard on a mission from the queen.”
    “Oh!  How lovely!  Please, sit!  Join me!”
    It was the middle of the afternoon.  The food smelled good, but Mira’s cooking was only getting better.  Trapped rabbit might not be roast goose, but Sandra felt that she would be better served by remaining standing.
    “Sir.   I’m sorry, but we can’t stay long.  We require feed for our horses and supplies for ourselves, and we will be out of your hair.”
    “I… oh.  Your mission does not involve Velmar?”  His face looked sad, but Sandra couldn’t shake the feeling that his eyes lit up at the information.
    “No, sir, it does not.”  Sandra considered her previous statement.  “We will pay for the supplies.”
    “Well then!  The general store should have everything you need.  Why have you stopped here?”
    “I…”  Why indeed?  “The city seems deserted, lord Mayor.”
    “Oh.  Well, posh.  People are just homebodies… of late.  I’m sure if you knock on doors you’ll find what you need.”
    “Yes, sir.  Excellent.”  Sandra turned to go.
    “What’s happening here?”  Mira blurt the question out.
    “I’m sorry?”  The mayor’s face fell significantly at the question.
    “Look, there’s something wrong!  Everyone is scared to come out, and there are all those… umm… bodies?”
    “Pssst!  What are you doing?”  Sandra leaned over and hissed in Mira’s ear.  All of the guards at the table were looking at the two of them now.  They put down their food and scooted their chairs out from the table.  Ready.  For what?
    “I have to know!”
    “Ladies, please, I’m sorry. I did not mean for you to see our city in such a condition.”  The mayor stood.  On that cue, all of the guards at the table also stood.  “Ours is… a sad tale.  But I’m sure I wouldn’t want to bore such important visitors with it.”
    “Try us.”
    “It’s… alright, it’s actually not that complicated.  There’s a troll.”
    “A troll?”
    “A troll!”  The mayor’s jowls shook when he shouted.
    “You have, like, fifty… guards here.”  It was a guess.  She hoped it was less.  She also almost said ‘mercs’ instead of ‘guards’, but managed to hold her tongue on that.  She didn’t want him to know she knew.
    “More like sixty.”  The mayor looked at the guards in the room.  They nodded.
    “How have you not killed it by now?”
    “We’ve tried!  You must have seen the results of that outside town.”
    “Those were all guards?”
    “Maybe half of them.  The others are civilians that it has been terrorizing and killing.”  The mayor hung his head.  “I’ve tried and tried to stop the foul beast, but alas, I cannot.  Do not think I let my people live in fear lightly.  I’ve tripled the guard since it started attacking our fair city, and still it