“Um. Nice,” he said, coughing.
“These are incredibly valuable.” She plugged up the flask again and slipped it into her satchel. “They’re the only known antidote against a basilisk’s gaze. If the creature meets your eye, these will save your life.”
“Thank you,” Lucian said, gazing at the people seated around him. “Can we drink it now, as a precaution?”
“Definitely not. Basilisk tears are their own kind of poison. If you drink them without being envenomed first, they’ll kill you.”
“So I should be careful when hunting through your satchel for water, then.”
Emilia laughed and then listened intently as one of the people began to speak to her. He was a boy, really, no more than ten or eleven years old. The child waved his arms about in excitement, repeating a word over and over as Emilia frowned and strained to understand. As she listened to the child, she absently twirled a bit of red hair around and around her little finger. A smile stole over Lucian; she seemed to know just about everything.
To think he’d come here to protect her.
“Oh, I got something.” Her eyes brightened. The worn, weary look she’d sported yesterday had begun to vanish. Lucian drew nearer.
“What?”
“That word—felash. It’s a bit ancient and formal, but I think it means ‘guardian.’ ” She frowned. “That’s…interesting.”
“You say that like it’s bad.”
“I was thinking about the altar. If it had been meant to ward off the basilisk as evil, it would have borne the crown of the sea king, but the two eggs symbolize something sacred. Now this word, guardian. It could mean—” Emilia pressed a finger to her lips, her brow furrowing. “They’re not feeding the basilisk to keep it away from them. They’re honoring it as a sacred protector.”
“Why would they do that?” Lucian felt a cold lump forming in his stomach.
“Well, think about it.” She met his eyes. “Their practiced culture has become endangered. The empire often assimilates those territories it takes. If the basilisk keeps people away—”
“Then it keeps the empire out.”
Lucian imagined this place with the basilisk gone. The island had no rich resources, but that might not be enough to stop expansion. Crotian territory fell under Pentri rule, and they had a reputation for being like a large fish, swallowing everything smaller in its path. Maybe the soldiers wouldn’t come at once, but they would come. And when they came, they would not bring mercy.
Lucian bolted to his feet. The islanders regarded him warily, and Emilia blinked in surprise.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have to stop this,” he said. He ran away, unthinking as he broke through branches. Emilia’s cries soon died behind him. He wasn’t worried about her now. She’d be safe with the people.
But the people would not be safe so long as Hyperia stalked their lone guardian. Teeth gritted, Lucian raced through the forest and prayed to the blue above that he was not too late.
Come on. Come on. Come on.
Ajax waited in the tree, crouched fifteen or so feet off the ground. His calves screamed from the pain of his position, and sweat studded his hairline and the band of his pants. Grunting, he shifted his weight to hold the spear against his left arm. He scratched his chin, then plucked at the rope tied about his waist. He tugged on it, and in the trees above him Dog gawped in reply.
“Stay there. Good boy,” Ajax muttered. If all went well, Dog was going to get a jaw rub tonight, his favorite thing. As if anticipating it, the dragon began to puff in enthusiasm. Ajax wrinkled his nose at the acrid smell of smoke. “Stop blowing embers! You’ll give us away.”
“Gawp.” Dog sounded chastened. Good.
Ajax chewed the inside of his cheek as he scanned the dense forest, waiting for Vespir and that tiny dragon of hers to come careening around the bend with the basilisk in tow. Maybe Ajax had been stupid, and she’d run off laughing to herself about the good trick she’d played on the bastard. Oh sure, she’d be deferential and doe-eyed around the legitimate contenders, all yes, my lord-ing and no, my lady-ing. But Ajax? What’d a bastard piece of trash like him matter?
He felt that low, familiar hunger. His nose twitched, and his sweaty grip tightened on the spear.
Wouldn’t they all gape to find him the victor? Wouldn’t they all realize what a mistake it’d been to write him off?
Ajax would be the youngest emperor ever crowned in the Etrusian Empire’s glorious history, and he would wear that gold circlet with pride. Lysander would kiss his boots if he asked. Soon. All he had to do was hold his arm steady and not piss himself with fear.
Ajax perked up as he heard the high call of a dragon echo off the trees. Then, soon after, the soft, dull thud of footsteps. Heavy, monster-size footsteps.
“Don’t get scared,” Ajax whispered to Dog, gritting his teeth against his own tremors. “You hear me? You get scared, I’ll never forgive you.”
Dog whined. Vespir didn’t expect Ajax to be tied to his dragon. Once he stabbed the basilisk’s eye out, he’d scurry up the rope and jump into Dog’s saddle. One quick dive and a slice of his blade, and the head would be off before Vespir could turn around on dragonback. Nice girl, to help him like this. Too bad there could be only one winner.
Another squeal, this time nearer in the forest. The footsteps were growing louder now, and a deep, booming roar shivered the leaves and the branches around him. Ajax pressed a hand to the trunk and breathed. This was fine. Fine.
Karina and Vespir burst into view, the girl tucked against her dragon’s back as they barrel-rolled through the trees. Brilliant. Partly it came down to the dragon being small, but Ajax had never seen handling like this. Vespir seemed more dragon than girl, insanely impressive when you realized she didn’t saddle her mount. Ajax let out an involuntary whistle of appreciation. Genius. Sheer genius.
Ajax didn’t have the talent, but he knew how to make use of it.
He’d calculated perfectly. The basilisk’s bobbing head would come right up next to him. His stomach swirled as he hefted the spear to his shoulder. He would have half a second to blind the thing before its gaze met his. He could try closing his eyes when he thrust, but if he missed, he’d get eaten. Bad alternative.
Thud. Thud. The beast drew nearer, and Karina sailed right past his nose. Vespir’s triumphant eyes met his for half a second. Yes, she’d done it. Couldn’t be better.
The world around him seemed to hold its breath as the basilisk stepped into his space. The creature’s eye would be level with his arm. Two steps more. Just one.
Ajax swallowed, clenched his jaw, steadied his nerves. A single thrust, and no one would call him bastard again.
He’d show his pig of a father what he’d squirted out.
Ajax brought back the spear as the venomous yellow disc of the monster’s eye hove into view and—
“Stop!”
Someone screamed below, and Ajax froze. The basilisk came to a grinding halt. Ajax felt the spear tumble out of his grip.
Oh. Shit.
Before he could move, the basilisk’s eye pierced him straight through. His vision began to melt; it felt like a swarm of bees was stinging his blood and bones. A buzzing scream reverberated in his ears. He opened his mouth, but no sound emerged. Ajax mercifully broke eye contact with the thing when it turned, interested more in whatever had shouted on the ground. He fumbled for the rope and tugged repeatedly, his grasp becoming clumsy. Hot tears streamed from his damaged eyes. He lost feeling in his right arm, which collapsed at his side.
Ajax screamed, the poison boiling through his system and slowing his tongue. He felt his brain start to burn.
Above him, sounding a hundred miles away, Dog made horrible noises. Ajax wavered on his feet and fell backward off the branch, saved from the fall by the rope tied around his waist. Dog sw
ooped up into the sky, Ajax’s limp body bashing into branch after branch until finally he was pulled up into the world above, the sun screaming across his skull. Ajax’s tongue swelled, filling his mouth.
He could only see flashes of images. The treetops beneath.
The sea and the sky.
Vespir, circling underneath on dragonback.
Vespir’s concerned face.
The back of Dog’s head, while hands tied him tight to the saddle horn.
No. No.
Unable to form words, Ajax howled as his dragon swung toward the horizon. Even dying, hatred swelled within him. Hatred for the basilisk, for the damn fool on the ground who’d screamed. Hatred for the servant girl with her dark, worried eyes and her damn helping hands. Ajax had been robbed of his victory, and now even his damn life.
He couldn’t decide which was worse.
Hyperia had been patient as she stalked the monster through the brush, following the splatter of its poison blood. She’d been quiet as she tracked it to a glen in the center of the island, where it stopped to rub its jaw against a tree trunk, presumably to scratch away some of its crusted blood. She had not startled when a creature spun through the trees overhead and nabbed the basilisk’s attention like an audacious fly before a frog.
Hyperia had been a bit surprised to discover that the servant girl—and her dragon—were luring the basilisk away. So. Vespir had more spine than Hyperia had given her credit for.
Excellent. Honor demanded a challenge.
Hyperia had raced after the monster and the dragon, tailing them across thickets and down slopes. She was used to running three or four miles at a time, and her muscles did not burn as she pursued them. Her breathing remained light.
When they neared the cliffs, Hyperia understood the girl’s goal. Trick the monster into tumbling over the edge. She narrowed her eyes as she flicked her wrist, telescoping the spear to its full length. If she could find a good opening…Perhaps, if the monster plunged onto the shoals, she could summon Aufidius with a whistle and swoop down to claim her prize. There were three or four ways to go about this, and Hyperia saw them all clearly.
No need to worry. Victory was still within catching distance.
She came to a sudden halt as the monster slowed. Her lips pursed. Damn. If the monster smelled the trap, she would have to be cautious in her approach. Within the thick canopy of trees she couldn’t call on Aufidius, and now that she had no shield she must be careful. Hyperia began to slink into the trees’ shadows when—
“Stop!”
She whirled around, blinking at Lucian’s idiocy as he barreled along the path to reach her. His fists pumped at his sides, and sweat gleamed on his face. He’d clearly run full out to reach her. Had he been racing all over the island?
What was he doing? The imbecile didn’t even have a weapon; he’d left them behind because of his blasted principle or some other insipid reason.
“Don’t kill it!” he shouted.
Hyperia heard some kind of strangled cry up in the trees and then the rustle of branches. Probably a bird taking flight.
“What would you have me do, then?” she snapped.
“Leave it and go.” Lucian stopped, coughing and wiping sweat from his face.
“This is the worst attempt at sabotage I have ever seen,” she snarled. “If you think I’m fool enough to simply stop the Hunt because you asked nicely—”
“I won’t let you kill it!” He loomed nearer. His impressive size would be enough to intimidate the strongest men in her father’s army, but Hyperia was worth ten of any common soldier.
“I thought you vowed never to raise a hand to another creature again. So. How will you stop me?”
He did not respond, but the flicker of a muscle in his jaw showed that he warred with himself. She gave a tight smile.
Lucian swore. “Look out!”
Hyperia felt the creature at her back before she heard its footstep or the slavering hiss as it bent down to tear her to shreds with its teeth. Sprinting away, she rolled and came up behind a trunk, watching carefully. The creature’s blind side was turned to her. She could no longer see Lucian, but he was not her problem. Stupid boy. Don’t kill the thing? How did he ever expect to win an Emperor’s Trial if he wouldn’t even complete the basic tasks?
Hyperia crept around, looking for an opening—the basilisk still had its backside to her. Her foot struck something. Glancing down, she found a second spear. Hmm? Whose was this, then? She looked up into the trees, but saw nothing. Vespir’s, perhaps? Had the girl dropped it?
It wouldn’t surprise me. She seems to know dragons, but little else.
Hyperia had an idea.
While the basilisk hunted for Lucian, Hyperia got out from behind the tree, readied, and threw the spear. It whistled cleanly through the air, landing exactly where she’d wanted: in the center of the monster’s back. With a piercing roar, the basilisk turned, its tail whipping through the brush. Perhaps it had whacked Lucian. No. Hyperia would not be that lucky.
She stood on the path, catching the giant beast’s attention, and then darted toward the cliff. She rolled back into the brush as the monster bellowed and followed at a fast clip. Thud. Thud. Thud. The ground trembled with its approach, and Hyperia prepared for her last throw. When the creature passed, she would blind it, send it hurtling over the edge, and then find a way to claim her prize with Aufidius. Battling in this dense patch of forest would never do. She couldn’t get a clean swing.
As the basilisk ran forward, time seemed to slow.
Hyperia watched from the ground as it lunged into view, the yellow circle of its eye searching for someone to infect.
From back in the forest, Hyperia heard Lucian’s frantic bellow. The moronic boy still wanted her to spare the demon’s life.
She prepared to let her final spear fly—
The ground shook violently. Hyperia tumbled to her knees, the spear bouncing from her hand. The basilisk skidded to a halt, a hilarious sight for a creature its size. As it tried to turn back, the cliffside gave way beneath the brute’s feet. With a deafening roar and a billowing cloud of white dust, the entire ten feet of rock and sand dissolved beneath the basilisk, and the monster plunged into the sea below.
Emilia kept her fingers dug into the soft earth, shaking with gratitude that no one had seen her. Meeting those islanders had stilled the chaos in her soul, for a bit. She’d felt the power bulging inside of her as she ran, pregnant with magic. She’d followed Lucian as fast as possible, wheezing all the way. She’d never been athletic, and time spent locked in a castle had atrophied what muscle she had.
But then she saw Lucian fall and the basilisk lean down to devour him, and she blazed with fury.
Apart from Alex, Lucian had been the first person in years to make her smile. Emilia would not let some wingless dragon have him.
When the thing turned and darted for the cliff—sparing Lucian, thank the blue above—Emilia had given the power its own way. All she could think was destruction, explosion, chaos, death, death, death…
She had never destroyed an entire ledge of earth before. Her arms trembled, and her hands were cold. Emilia needed to eat something, but…
First, there was the basilisk. She crouched in the brush and watched as Hyperia emerged from the forest to stare down at the monster. Had it fallen into the ocean below? Was it beyond reach? Emilia gnawed her lip as Lucian sprang from the trees and got in Hyperia’s face. He darted this way and that, his arms out, shielding the creature from her wrath. While the two shouted at each other, Emilia got a wild idea.
Why not…?
She plucked the shield from her back. Taking the spear in hand, she crept through the forest, invisible to the arguing pair. All she needed to do was come up on the basilisk’s side…
As Emilia moved forward, she heard the snap of twigs a
nd the shuffle of feet all around. She paused in her journey, looked back, and let out a breath.
Oh no.
If Lucian had run twenty feet farther ahead, he would’ve been killed. He’d just emerged from the trees when the giant creature simply fell. The entire cliff had dissolved; he’d never seen anything like it. A wave of white dust rushed over him, stinging his eyes. Arm across his face, he coughed and inched forward.
Hyperia. Had she fallen as well?
“Hyperia?”
“I’m all right.” The girl staggered out of the cloud of dust. Her face was streaked in white, her eyebrows powdered over. It lent her a look of blank surprise.
The basilisk. Had it died? Lucian breathed a sigh of relief. The beast screamed in fury and pain, but it was definitely not dead. It was trapped, probably broken on the rocks below, but its head emerged over the cliff’s edge. Lucian put up his shield as caution and crept closer to Hyperia. She couldn’t make a move now without going through him. He could at least block her.
“It’s trapped,” she croaked, coughing more dust from her lungs. But she began to smile as well. “Excellent.” She seized her spear. “Out of my way, Sabel.”
“You can’t.”
“You say that, but you haven’t given a reason why,” she growled.
“This creature guards the people on this island. It’s not terrorizing them.” He spoke quickly, his body instinctively falling into fighting stance.
“That doesn’t matter. The challenge requires the monster’s head,” she snapped.
“So that’s all it takes?” His temper flared. “They tell you to kill, and you do it without question?”
Lucian recalled Hyperia’s blood-spattered gown at last night’s dinner. The girl’s eyes lowered for the briefest instant, but she was firm as stone. Firmer, even. Unlike the ground beneath their feet, she’d never crumble.
“Yes. That’s all it takes,” she said. “Don’t be a fool, Lucian. Listen to it. That thing will never be able to crawl back up here.”
House of Dragons Page 11