“Go?” Vigholf asked her. “Go where?”
“I don’t have time for a litany of questions. Let’s just move.”
Izzy and Branwen scrambled to their feet, grabbed their things, and set off. Reluctantly Vigholf and Rhona fol owed. But Annwyl caught Rhona’s arm and held her back a moment while the two younger females went on. Unwil ing to leave Rhona alone with a woman he was sure was completely insane, Vigholf stopped as wel . Gods knew what the Mad Queen would say to her.
But she seemed quite clear-eyed and level-headed when she told Rhona, “Cal my niece a whore again, Cadwaladr, and I’l slit your throat.” And with that, the queen walked away.
Vateria returned from the dungeons, her servants busy wiping the blood from her hands, neck, and face.
“What is it?” she asked her mage.
“They’re dead.”
“Who is?”
“The platoon I told you last night would be bringing Annwyl the Bloody here.”
“How do you know that?”
Her mage smiled, and she casual y flipped her hands, slapping her servants in the face. “Forget I asked.” She peered at the powerful Dragonmage. “Can’t you just . . . get her?”
“She’s protected from Magicks.”
“By that bitch Dragon Queen?”
“No. By the other gods.”
“Oh. I see.”
“If we want her dead, it’l have to be the close-up kil I’m afraid.”
“And how are we supposed to do that when she’s already kil ed a platoon of Laudaricus’s men?” Junius smiled. “Wait until she comes to us.”
“Wait.” Vateria shook her head. “Are you saying that mad cow is coming here? To my palace?”
“I believe so.”
She clapped her hands together, and cheered, “My toy is coming to me!” Which made Junius laugh.
They were climbing up and across the side of a mountain, fol owing Annwyl. Rhona stil didn’t know why. In fact, she felt like they should put Annwyl out of her misery like a diseased animal. Then again, Rhona liked her head right where she had it. On her shoulders and securely attached.
Iseabail suddenly dropped, motioning them al down. After a moment, they saw them. Sovereign sentries, in formation and on the march. At first, Rhona thought they were coming out for them, but she saw they were merely guarding a nearby fort. Vigholf pointed to the ramparts of it in the distance.
To be honest, Rhona thought Annwyl would want to kil them al . It seemed to be her answer for everything. Yet she didn’t move, she didn’t give any orders. She simply waited. Rhona had never thought the queen had it in her to wait for anything.
When the sentries had moved past and they felt they could go without being seen, they got to their feet and, keeping low, started up the mountain again. Where Annwyl was going, though, they stil didn’t know. But she kept moving until she abruptly stopped and looked down at the ground.
“Oh, sh—” was al she managed before the earth beneath her feet opened up and swal owed Annwyl whole.
Chapter 25
Izzy caught hold of her queen’s arm but barely. Lying facedown on her bel y, she held on to Annwyl with everything she had. Unfortunately she felt the ground beneath her begin to give.
“Shit,” she yipped, not wanting to alert any soldiers nearby but not exactly seeing a good ending to this situation. Especial y when al she saw beneath Annwyl was nothing but blackness. A very deep-looking blackness. “Shit.”
“Don’t panic,” Annwyl had the nerve to order Izzy as she dangled there.
“I’ve got you,” Brannie whispered loudly while gripping Izzy’s legs. “I’ve got you!” Izzy almost believed her cousin, too, until the land gave way beneath both of them and they were plunging into darkness, the three of them screaming until forearms they couldn’t see in al this black wrapped around Izzy and Annwyl and held them.
“Hold on,” Vigholf told them; then he was diving straight down. She didn’t know why, though, until she heard warning shouts from above and felt arrows shoot past their heads.
Sovereign soldiers. And they sounded real y pissed.
But it was so dark. Could the Northlander even see? She hoped so. Because as fast as he was moving, if he hit a cave wal , her and Annwyl would be nothing but a flattened queen and her loyal, flat squire.
It felt like they traveled for miles, down and down, Vigholf moving with unerring skil , so Izzy was going to assume he could see just fine. After what felt like forever and a day, Vigholf landed. Someone unleashed flame and a row of torches roared to life, lighting up a ledge that overlooked another nasty drop.
Vigholf placed her and Annwyl on that ledge. “Are you al right?” he asked.
“Fine. Yeah.” Izzy smiled a little. “Thanks for that.”
He nodded and winked at her.
A few moments later, Rhona appeared, dropping a stil -human Brannie next to Izzy.
“You’re an idiot!” Rhona snapped at her cousin, and Izzy thought about punching Rhona in her snout. Gods, she was being a right bitch tonight.
“I forgot! No need to get nasty,” Brannie told her.
“How do you forget you have wings? Who forgets that?”
“I was taken by surprise.”
“You’d have never survived that drop if I hadn’t caught you, do you know that, cousin?”
“Wel —”
“Because you wouldn’t have!” Rhona flew closer. She and Vigholf didn’t bother to land on the ledge, simply hovered near it. “I seriously hope you’re smarter in actual battle!”
“I am! It al just happened so fast!”
“It always happens fast! That’s the point!”
Brannie’s head dropped forward. “I’m sorry, Rhona.”
“I don’t want your apologies.” The tip of a talon lifted Brannie’s chin so they looked each other in the eye. “I want you to be careful. You can’t always count on one of us to catch your ass before you fal to your death, now can you?” And then Izzy understood that Rhona was just worried for her cousin. Izzy’s mum often yel ed like that sometimes when she saw her eldest daughter leaping from dragon back to dragon back hundreds of feet above the earth.
“So no matter what form you’re in, always remember what you are. Understand?”
“Aye, I understand.”
“Good.” Rhona flew to Annwyl, but as she passed Izzy she seemed unable to stop her wings from whacking Izzy in the face.
Brannie winced and mouthed, Sorry.
“I real y hope this is where you wanted to be, Annwyl,” Rhona said, hovering near her.
“I think it is. It’s an underground shortcut to the Septima Mountains.”
“How do you know that?”
“It is. Trust me on this.”
How could Rhona trust the woman when she was convinced she was bat-shit insane?
“Move out,” Annwyl ordered, grabbing one of the torches to help light the way. Iseabail and Brannie fol owed, also grabbing torches, again without question, which was real y starting to disturb Rhona. Gods, was she this bad? Was this what Vigholf was always talking about? Of course, she’d never had someone completely crazed as a commander, but she’d like to think that even as a soldier of Her Majesty’s Army, she’d at least question a clearly insane queen.
“Are you al right?” Vigholf asked her, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Now that it was no longer in braids, it had become unruly.
“I’m fine. Not happy, but fine.” She nudged him back a bit and urgently asked, “What are we going to do? She’s—” She touched the side of her head with her talon.
“But what if Annwyl’s right? What if this is the way to Gaius Domitus?”
“Then instead of dying in these caves, we can be kil ed by the Rebel King? None of these options make me happy, Vigholf.” He moved in closer. “What would you have us do? Even if you were the type to put down an ailing queen—and we both know you’re not—there’s no way Iseabail or Branwen wil let that happen.”
“But—”
“You of al soldier dragons should understand this, Rhona.”
“Aaargh! I knew you were going to throw that in my face.”
“And Branwen is loyal to Annwyl. You can see that your cousin wil protect the queen with her life. Would you kil your own cousin, too?”
“Of course not.”
“Then we keep moving and hope Annwyl’s right about al this. Pray even. Perhaps the war gods wil shine on us tonight.”
“And why would they start now?”
Austel the Red wasn’t surprised to find that Éibhear wasn’t in the tunnels. Although that was where Éibhear spent most of his time. He was a big, burly dragon, and he was real y good at moving big, unmovable things. And he’d be moving up the ranks a lot faster than he was if he had his head on straight and wasn’t so busy wasting his time on Celyn and past history.
But try to tel him or Celyn that. Two of the most hardheaded dragons Austel knew. Yet they were good friends. Loyal . . . at least to him.
Honestly, such worry and bother over a female. A human one at that! They could buy a woman for al the trouble they’ve been through over some .
. . wel , to be blunt, some stray. In the big scheme of things, she was nothing more than a dog that wandered in from the cold. But that didn’t mean one had to make her a pet.
Austel final y found his friend in a smal alcove, far away from al the activity of the bigger caverns. He sat down next to him.
“You al right?”
“No. They’re not saying it, Austel . . . but they don’t think Briec’s going to make it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know my brothers. The last time Fearghus looked like that, Annwyl . . . and now he looks like that again!”
“So what are you going to do, Éibhear? Sit here, worrying about something you can’t fix? Or get off your ass and help the rest of us lowly privates finish that bloody tunnel? The sooner we get that done, the sooner we can get your brother back to your mum. I bet she can fix him up right.”
“She couldn’t save Annwyl.”
Austel frowned. “But . . . someone saved her, right?”
“It’s a long and complicated story.” When Austel ’s frown grew worse, Éibhear rushed to explain, “She’s not the undead!”
“Al right, al right. No need to yel at me.”
Éibhear let out a breath. “Sorry. That was rude.”
And Austel almost laughed at him. To Éibhear that was rude. To the rest of the dragons in this world? It was nothing. Gods, would Éibhear go through his entire life being such a goody two-talons? How was he supposed to make it in the military when he was always so damn nice and accommodating? Unless, of course, you were Celyn. Then you got nothing from the royal but punched in the face and cal ed al sorts of names Austel didn’t even realize that Éibhear knew.
Austel real y wished that Cadwaladr cousin of Éibhear and Celyn was stil around. The sergeant. She kept the pair of them in line, but now that she’d gone off somewhere, they were getting worse and worse by the hour. Those cute triplets kept trying to stop them, but they didn’t have the same terrifying demeanor as their sister.