Black Widow Canyon: Dragons West, #5

By J. A. Johnson

The year is 1874. Vince Browder is about to unleash a plague- and pestilence-breathing dragon upon an unsuspecting young nation. All that stands between him and the ultimate land grab is young Matthew Graham and a dragon of his own named Crazy Squirrel. Against seemingly impossible odds, Matthew is joined by a band of heroic individuals including the legendary Baxter Fleming; The Miracle Marksman, Francisco Ochoa; The Bolo Kid, Americus Freeman, Cordelia McKenna and, of course, Bax's faithful horse, Turquoise Bill. In a quest that will take our heroes from a quiet Michigan town, across a vast continent, to the twisted heart of a dead volcano deep in Death Valley, the adventure never stops.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. A. Johnson
• Release date: Nov 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215696903

Book preview

Table of Contents

Black Widow Canyon (Dragons West, #5)

PREVIOUSLY

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

About the Author

It was then that he recognized one of the men. It was Mr. Dardy, or at least what was left of him. He sat slumped in the chair behind the desk, looking for the world like an exhumed corpse. His right arm was gone, reduced to a nub at his shoulder. His skin, radiating up from the stump of his arm, was black and gray and shriveled... rotted. The decay extended over his shirtless torso. His neck was reduced to something reminiscent of a gnarled tree trunk. Many of his teeth had fallen out, his gap-toothed gums clearly visible in his lipless mouth. His lower jaw swung loosely, like a sign on rusty chains.

Matthew felt sick to his stomach.  Yet, in spite of Dardy’s horrendous condition, there was a burning focus in the man’s eyes. As the stryvog flew at him and the men cowered behind the desk with him, the lawyer worked his ruined mouth, uttering strange words to startling effect. There was a burst and a poof of smoke and light, just like a photographer’s flash, and the stryvog were reduced to ash. Their remains sprinkled softly to the desktop.

Bax and the others stopped midway between Matthew and Dardy. The lawyer regarded them with his desiccated eyes and said, Had I known you people were hell bent on coming this far, I could have saved myself some... discomfort and simply waited for you to come to me.

It’s over, Bax said. Matthew noticed that Bax and the others had spread themselves apart, at least as much as the confines of the car allowed. Bax and Cordelia remained in the center while Americus moved to the left, Ochoa to the right. They were still holding their weapons and looked ready to use them.

Dardy hacked and lurched slightly at the shoulders. He held his left hand before his remnant mouth. Forgive me. Laughing isn’t as easy to do as it used to be.

Cordelia aimed her revolver at Dardy. Tell your men to throw down their guns. Her voice was forceful, but Matthew thought that he could hear a squeamishness underlying her words. He knew she was feeling the same revulsion he felt at what Dardy had become.

Is that weapon supposed to frighten me? He stood slowly, and raised his remaining arm. Look at me! There is nothing a bullet can do to me that is worse that this! His gaze drifted beyond them to Matthew shrank further beyond the frame of the door, but not before Dardy’s gaze met his. Matthew’s eyes widened when Crazy Squirrel wound himself protectively around his shoulders. As impossible as it might have seemed, Dardy’s face became even more twisted as sudden rage welled up in him. The lawyer pointed directly at Matthew and Crazy Squirrel. Nothing can be worse than what that damnable brat and his dragon have done to me!

He turned to his four remaining men. Kill them! Bring the boy and that creature to me!

Available now in the Dragons West Series by

J. A. Johnson

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Dragons West

Book One: The Dragon’s Egg

Dragons West

Book Two: Boom Town

Dragons West

Book Three: Plague Dragons

Dragons West

Book Four:  High Plains Dragon

Dragons West

Book Five: Black Widow Canyon

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Coming soon in the Dragons West Series by

J.A. Johnson

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Dragons West

Book Six:  Death Valley Dragons

DRAGONS WEST

BOOK FIVE: BLACK WIDOW CANYON

J.A. Johnson

An Evanation Studios Production

Dragons West

Book Five: Black Widow Canyon

Copyright © 2022 by J.A. Johnson

Cover art © 2021 by J.A. Johnson

Previously published as The Wild, Wild Quest: An Epic Fantasy of America’s Old West

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This is a work of fiction. While reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the characters, incidents, and dialogs are products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the authors and/or publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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An Evanation Studios Production

For Min, Evan, and Alex

J.A. Johnson

PREVIOUSLY

After Matthew Graham’s parents and grandfather go missing, a mysterious crate arrives. Inside is what can only be described as a strange ostrich egg. When the forces behind his family’s disappearance arrive to claim the boy and the egg, an old family friend intervenes: a cowboy named, Baxter Fleming, the famed Miracle Marksman, with his fabled six-shooters, Mani and Sol.

With Bax’s help. Matthew escapes with the egg and a letter his parents had sent to the cowboy. They embark on a perilous journey west, pursued by the ghastly Undertaker Man and his stryvog; demon-like creatures that fear nothing but the light and are driven by one purpose. Find the egg.

Along they way they meet, Cordelia McKenna, owner of the riverboat, the Aurora and the M & H Circus. A trick shot artist and staring act of the M & H. Seeing that her new friends need to escape the local authorities, Cordelia offers Matthew and Bax passage on the Aurora.

They may have escaped one tangle, but they will soon learn that stryvog are are relentless and they are never far behind.

In yet another attempt to claim the egg, the Undertaker Man and his demonic stryvog attack the Aurora, sending the famous riverboat circus to the bottom of the Missouri River. Matthew, Bax, and Cordelia set out with the mysterious egg for St. Louis, where the West begins. There they hope to rendezvous with friends of Bax’s; Francisco Ochoa, aka the Bolo Kid, and Americus Freeman, wielder of Magna, the Unbreakable Blade.

Shortly after arriving, they intercept a telegram intended for Oliver Dardy is coming to meet with the Undertaker Man. Hoping to catch Dardy in town, our heroes split up to monitor the two possible meeting points specified in the telegram.

Drawn to the egg, the stryvog corner Matthew and Cordelia in the city’s dark back alleys. They are helped with the arrival of a mysterious stranger, the Bolo Kid.

The heroes regroup at the Liberty Hotel where, to their amazement, the egg finally hatches and a creature unlike any they have ever imagined is born.

The egg has hatched, a dragon is born, but the arrival of their relentless enemies has left our heroes no time to consider what it all means. The hotel is set ablaze. With it burning down around them, our heroes are forced to the rooftop. From out of the smoke filled night, the stryvog capture Matthew and carry him away, leaving Bax and the others to the inferno.

Escaping the blaze, Bax, and the others enter the cave system beneath the city in pursuit of Matthew and his kidnappers. The chase ends when our heroes emerge from the cave system only minutes too late. Oliver Dardy and his men are racing west upon their personal train, with Matthew as their prisoner.

With, Bax injured by a stryvog’s septic scratch, he and the others soon seek out the help of Mr.Chen, a friend of Cordelia’s and a possible expert on dragons.

Meanwhile, Dardy fares much worse when the dragon hatchling bites his hand while protecting Matthew; a bite that almost guarantees a slow, agonizing fate worse than death.

Deep in the prairie night, Matthew and the dragon pup escape the train, where they encounter an Indian youth named Iron Tooth who promises to take Matthew to his people.

Saved from the stryvog poisoning, Bax is told the true nature of the dragons and is informed that, at any cost, he must kill the beast before it it too late.

But first, he must find Matthew and his deadly pet. To that end, Mr. Chen supplies them with an old steam-car. Hopefully, it will be enough.

Bax, Cordelia, Americus, and Ochoa westward in their search for Matthew and Oliver Dardy. They Spells are cast, summoning a brutal hail, even a swarm of insatiable locusts. Old Running Wolf, Iron Tooth’s nearly blind grandfather bestows Matthew’s diminutive dragon with a name, at last... Crazy Squirrel. Matthew undertakes a Vision Quest and is confronted with the power of the Black Dragon and an ominous foretelling of Bax’s death. 

CHAPTER 1

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It was well past sunset as Bax and the others lay side by side, flat on their stomachs, atop the knoll overlooking Vince Browder’s hideout; Matthew close on his right, Americus to Matthew’s right; Cordelia and Ochoa similarly to his left.

His friends had not been understating the scale of Browder’s spread, Bax thought as he studied it through Americus’ monocular. The place was a veritable fortress. He wondered for the hundredth time as to what he should do with Matthew. The locusts were proof that nowhere hereabouts was safe. He’d just have to keep the boy close at hand and hope that they could get in and out of the place undetected.

Bax, we can’t stay here all night, Cordelia whispered. Someone’s bound to notice that the man you left hogtied in the gully is missing.

He knew she was right, knew that time was something they had in short supply. He glanced over at Matthew. The boy had come through a lot unscathed, just to get this far; due in large part, Bax knew, to that strange Graham luck. But would that lucky heritage be enough for what lay ahead?

Just then Crazy Squirrel slithered into view. Matthew was propped up on his forearms, and the dragon curled itself up between them. The small creature’s red glittering eyes were bright and vigilant. Bax realized then that, whatever reservations he may hold about the dragon, that Matthew could have no better protection than the creature provided. 

Bax looked to Americus. That small building there, you think? They were less than thirty yards from the building in question; a chuck house, set back at the edge of the compound.

Americus nodded.

All right then. Let’s go, Bax said as he scooted back down the knoll to where Turquoise Bill stood saddled and waiting. Bax took ol’ Turq by the reins, and they all struck out at a jog. To Matthew, Bax said. Stay close to me, pard. And if lead starts to fly, find something to hide behind. You got that?

I will, Matthew assured him.

The building cast a long, dark shadow that blended into the darkening cloak of night encompassing the hideout. As they rounded the base of the knoll, they were only a few feet from the concealing darkness. A quick sprint brought them unseen to the back wall of the building. Dark shuttered windows loomed before them like the eyes of a sleeping giant.

Bax moved before the horse and looked the animal in its mismatched eyes. Turq... The horse lowered its head to nibble the grass. Hey... pard, I’m talkin’ to you. The horse met Bax’s eyes. I need you to stay put ‘til I whistle for you. You got that?

The horse nickered, and its head bobbed up and down. Once more Matthew was amazed that the horse behaved in real life just as it did in the dime novels. And he will, won’t he? Matthew beamed.

Bax gave Matthew a roll of his eyes. Sure - unless he takes to one of his loopy spells. In that case I doubt even ol’ Turq knows what he’ll do.

Bax pressed his back to the wall. He drew Mani and held the pistol to his shoulder as he inched to the corner of the building, peering around it. The