Zak looked down, biting his lip. He didn’t want to beg the guard not to pull on the trap, but gods, he didn’t want him to do it, either.
“Okay,” Myrian said. “I’ll stop. Just don’t hurt him.”
The guard grinned up at her and gave the trap a little twist.
Zak hissed and clenched his eyes as the pain flared. He felt it up into his stomach and his throat, filling his mind. Somewhere far away he heard the guard chuckle. Then he felt the guard let go and step back.
“Bastard,” Myrian hissed.
The guard chuckled harder. “I hope there is no camp in the mountains,” he said. “I would love to take a turn with you. Peel away those little white scales and see what’s underneath. I bet you’re nice and pink underneath. And is your little bushy silver down there as well?”
“Nah,” the other guard chimed in. “I’ll bet you a rasher of salt pork she’s as smooth as a white plum down there.”
Despite the agony, Zak felt the old dark anger roiling up inside him once again. He’d never killed anyone before, but the way he felt right now, he thought it might be easy.
Then he saw something, like a small animal moving in the shadows behind one of the sandstone pillars. The guards’ backs were turned to the rest of the throne room. They hadn’t seen anything. And had Zak, really? Perhaps it was just his pain-riddled imagination, hoping for something that wasn’t there.
But then something small and furry moved out of the shadows. No, it hopped. A rabbit?
He was unable to hide the surprise in his eyes, and the guard saw it, turning around. Zak wondered if what he saw was real, but the guard confirmed it for him.
“What’s this?” he asked, laughing. “The next shift was supposed to bring us something to eat.” He raised the crossbow. “But it looks like dinner has come to us.”
The rabbit began to grow, then, rising up from the floor to take human form in less than a second. And there, in the diffuse glow of the torches, stood a short, naked young woman. Like the rabbit, her hair was a light brown, both the locks that fell about her bare shoulders and the curly patch between her legs. Also like the rabbit, she was a bit plump, the torchlight glistening off her bare breasts.
“Mayhap you boys are hungry for something more than food?” the rabbit woman said teasingly. She walked towards the throne, sitting on it, then turning to cross her legs over one of the armrests. “Hm,” she said. “The seat is a little rough. Good thing I like it that way.”
The guards looked at each other. Zak could see them trying to work out what to do. Should they call for help? No, it was just a helpless girl. A pretty naked one at that. Why not have a bit of fun then, if she was up for it?
“Who are you?” one of them asked.
“Just a scared little rabbit,” she said, batting her eyelashes. “I was a servant here. When the sun went dark and they all went mad, I transformed and hid. The ones that didn’t die all ran away, leaving me here all alone. Until you came. And I decided to finally show myself. A girl can get very lonely.”
Zak didn’t know if they believed her story. He didn’t know if he did. He wasn’t even entirely sure this was all real or just some fevered dream.
But the guards seemed convinced enough. They began to walk towards her, to the wide area in front of the throne where she sat. Zak wondered how many people had stood in that very spot, asking the king for something, giving him council. And he wondered what all those kings might think about a rabbit woman lounging naked on their throne, seducing a pair of snake shifters while black and white dragons adorned their walls.
He didn’t have long to consider the absurdities of the situation or what the Wildfire ancestors might have thought about it all. Because as the two guards stepped into the center of the room, the woman deftly curled her hand under the right arm of the throne and pushed something there.
Zak heard a loud click. The stone floor beneath the guards’ feet spiraled open, revealing a patch of sand beneath the floor.
The guards both looked down with surprise, then back up at the girl on the throne. One opened his mouth to say something, but never got a chance. The sand sucked him down like a crab flinching back into its shell.
The remaining guard simply looked at the spot where his comrade had been standing only a second before. Then the sand took him as well, slurping him down like the mouth of some hungry animal.
The woman on the throne reached under the stone arm once more. There was another loud click and the stone spiraled closed across the floor. It was as if the guard had never existed.
She swung her legs down from the armrest and got up from the throne. Then she headed across the span of floor where the two guards had been standing only moments before. She walked towards Myrian and Zak as if going for a morning stroll, with absolutely no self-consciousness about wearing nothing and in no apparent hurry to help free them.
She stopped, looking first at Myrian then at Zak. “Who are you?”
“Friends,” said Myrian.
The woman smiled wryly. “The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend,” she said.
“Not necessarily,” Zak said. “But in this case it’s true. I’m Zakarai.” He thought for a moment about adding his last name, but in the last second decided against it.
“I’m Myrian Moonglow,” Myrian said. “And you’re no servant.”
“This is true,” the woman said. “I’m Thalia Wildfire.” She gave a little curtsey.
“Could you help us down?” Myrian asked. “Zak needs help.”
“Some of what I told the snakes was true,” Thalia said. “When the sun went black, the few of us that were unaffected fled. I heard you tell Fareek that we’re in a camp in the mountains. That was a lie, one you had no way of knowing. But it turns out your lie was true.”
“Please,” Myrian said. But Thalia didn’t move from her spot.
“After we left, but before we could return, the snakes moved in,” Thalia said. “We planned to attack at dawn, to reclaim the palace. I came here to scout. That’s when I saw the two of you get captured.”
She walked towards Zak. “My husband has taught me much in a very short time,” she said. “About this palace and its secrets.” She nodded at the throne. “And about the world I lived my whole life in but knew so little about. For instance, how much the black and red dragons have hated each other across the centuries.”
“I don’t hate anyone,” Zak said, trying to keep his voice calm. His leg hurt more than ever.
She looked into his eyes. Her own were soft and hazel. He could see flecks of green standing out against the darkness in the flicker of the torchlight. And he could see something else in them as she studied him, looking as if she were trying to work out whether he was friend or foe. He saw a steeliness behind her gaze that belied her harmless appearance.
Thalia looked at him for a long time, then finally moved to put her hands on the great iron trap biting into his leg.
“The hunters sometimes used these in the forests where I used to live,” she said, her small hands moving across the mechanism. “They were smaller than this one. But every once in a while, someone from our village would wander into one while gathering sweetroot or berries.”
Zak heard a metallic squeal, then a fresh wave of pain. At first he thought she’d tightened the jaws even further, but then he heard the heavy clank of the trap hitting the floor. Thalia stepped back.
“We had one of these in the village,” she said. “A great rusty thing used to teach the young ones. My father showed me what it could do to a little rabbit’s leg once. He put a branch in the jaws and let it snap shut. He also taught me how to open one in case the worst happened.” She smiled. “I learned to keep a keen eye on the lookout whenever I went to pick berries.”
Zak slumped his head forward against the netting. He was sweating heavily now, thankful that the weight hanging from his flesh was finally free. The thing had started to feel like a part of him.
He watched as the fro
nt of her face began to transform, long whiskers sliding out from either side of her nose, her front teeth growing huge. But the rest of her remained unchanged.
“I brought no dagger,” she said, her voice now changed by her teeth extending far over her bottom lip. “But this should do.”
Then she leaned forward and began to gnaw at the netting. Zak thought at first it would take her all night to chew through the rope, but her razor-sharp teeth did the job in minutes.
As one of the strands snapped from her bite, Zak pitched forward, falling onto the floor. Thalia stepped over him and began working to set Myrian free.
Zak rolled over, grabbing his wounded leg. Even though it was already on the mend, he knew it would take a long time. The tips of the jaws had bitten all the way down to the bones of his shins, cracking them in several places.
Once Myrian was free, the first thing she did was run to where Zak lay on the floor. She looked from his wound to his eyes.
“Are you all right?” she asked, and he could see she was in pain just seeing him like this.
“I will be,” he said. He looked up at Thalia, whose face had shifted from half-rabbit back into her pretty, innocent-looking human shape. Though he now knew she was far more fearsome and resourceful than she looked.
“I hope you don’t make me regret helping you,” Thalia said. “Can he walk?”
“Not yet,” Myrian said. Then she put a hand on Zak’s chest. “Relax.” He found it difficult to do that under her touch. His heart thumped harder in his chest.
Now it was Myrian’s turn. He saw a soft white glow at the base of her throat. Her lower jaw stretched out into that of a dragon’s as she bent over his ravaged leg.
She took in a deep breath, then blew gently. Sparkles of white light, like those that lit the cellar beneath Everfrost Keep, flowed from her lips across the bloody indentations where the iron had punctured his flesh. He felt a warmth all the way down to the bone, then a powerful tingling sensation throughout his entire leg.
He watched as the holes sealed themselves, the pain completely disappearing. The black skin of his armor had been torn to shreds, but within seconds his leg was as good as new.
Thalia bent over Zak’s leg. “A handy talent,” she said.
It is indeed, Zak thought. Myrian’s face shifted back to human form, the jaws of the dragon replaced by her delicate chin and tiny lips. He wanted to kiss those lips. But he wasn’t quite sure what Myrian would think of that, and just now wasn’t an especially good time. But he saw something in her eyes that looked as if she might not mind at all.
“We need to go," Thalia said.
Myrian stood, extending her hand down to Zak. He took it and let her help him to his feet. He put his weight on his newly-healed leg. It felt wonderful, as if he’d never been hurt at all.
“Now what?” he asked.
“There are tunnels that lead from under the palace far out into the desert,” Thalia said. “From there, we’ll make our way to the camp where my husband waits. Follow me.”
18
MYRIAN
The rabbit woman had said she was Thalia Wildfire, and Myrian had no reason to doubt her. She had disposed of the snake men guarding them, set them free, and now led them through an underground tunnel beneath the palace.
She had opened the passage in a small chamber behind the throne room by pushing on a series of loose stones on the wall. Once inside, the door had closed behind them with the sound of grinding stone, enshrouding them in darkness.
“There are no torches down here,” Thalia had said. “Just feel along the wall if you need to.”
But Myrian didn’t need to. She could see well enough in the dark. It only took a few moments for her eyes to adjust. But Zak was still getting the hang of using his powers, and she could see by his upturned face that he was nearly blind in the darkness.
So she reached out and took him by the hand, feeling the warmth of his palm. That sent a small shiver up her spine. Something had passed between them back there. He had wanted to kiss her. She could see it in his eyes. And part of her had wanted him to.
Myrian leaned over and whispered in his ear. “I’ll guide you,” she said. She might have been able to breathe through the tunnel to make it light, but it might not reach very far ahead, and if they wanted to make good time, she didn’t want to have to stop every few hundred paces to light the way.
Thalia had shifted back into a rabbit and hopped down the narrow tunnel. With Zak in tow, Myrian followed.
As Thalia promised, the tunnel let out into the desert far from the palace. Myrian shifted into dragonform, lowering her neck so that Thalia could climb aboard. Zak shifted as well, and then they flew the rest of the way to the mountain hideout with Thalia guiding the way.
The sun had completely set by the time they landed at the base of a low mountain. Thalia slid off of Myrian, who transformed into a human once more. She looked around. Even with her excellent night vision, she saw no entrance anywhere.
Zak landed as well, a little rough, but much better. He was definitely a fast learner. He took human form and stepped close to Myrian. “Do you think we can trust her?” he whispered.
“It’s a little late for that,” she replied. “Besides, you probably shouldn’t bother whispering. Rabbits have excellent hearing.”
Thalia was far ahead, but she turned around to wink at them. “This way,” she said.
They followed her through sparse scrub brush, stepping past large rocks that eventually became small boulders the closer they got to the mountain. Myrian was growing impatient. The day the sun went dark was the longest of her life, but this one was coming in a close second.
But finally, Thalia led them to a sheer rock wall. She reached out, pushing all her fingertips against it. Myrian heard a deep grinding sound as the wall turned inward, revealing a passage.
I didn’t realize how many secrets the red dragons kept, she thought. But then, she knew about the long wars they had fought with the Nightshadows, all the blood that had been shed. They had probably developed all these hidden places and traps as a consequence of war. They’d probably even learned a few tricks from the Nightshadows themselves.
Myrian turned to look at Zak, who was squinting in the darkness. She worried about him. She hadn’t thought that much about it when Magda had sent them on this journey, but a black dragon recruiting a red seemed like one of the more difficult tasks they might face along the way. Now she really did think she should do all the talking, but she didn’t want to wound Zak’s pride once again. Perhaps he would have already figured it out.
“Come on,” Thalia said, ducking inside the dark cleft.
“You know the history between the Wildfires and Nightshadows,” she said, not bothering to whisper.
He turned his head towards her but didn’t quite look her in the eyes. “Yes.”
“Maybe…”
“You should do all the talking,” he said.
She smiled, not sure he could see it, then took him by the hand and squeezed. He squeezed her back. Another one of those tingling sensations traveled up her arm, all the way to her neck. She headed forward into the passage, leading him by the hand.
This tunnel was far shorter than the one that had led them out of the palace. Once inside, Myrian heard the heavy scraping of stone once more as the door closed behind them. But as it did, she saw torchlight not far up ahead.
They emerged into a circular chamber, with half a dozen more passages leading outward. Three men and two women sat around a fire, eating what looked like it might be boar. They all wore red scaled armor.
They did well to escape with so many, she thought. And yet the idea made her disheartened all over again. Even if this meager alliance somehow defeated Vish’Kazir, there would be so little to start over with, and she still had no idea how her own people had fared.
The largest man stood up from where he sat on a smooth-worn rock. He had black hair, dark eyes, and an impressive physique.
The k
ing, Myrian thought.
He looked at her, then at Zak, his brow furrowed. He did not look pleased.
“This is Myrian Moonglow,” said Thalia. “And Zak. This is my husband, Kal Wildfire.”
“Zak what?” Kal asked, his dark eyes set on Zak.
Myrian thought of butting in, of telling the red king that Zak was a Mossknot. That was at least half the truth, and it might make things go easier. She was supposed to be doing all the talking anyway. But Zak spoke before she could formulate an answer.
“Nightshadow,” Zak said. As he said it, he locked eyes with Kal. He seemed proud of his new name, as if really trying it on for the first time. He seemed to be daring Kal to say or do something in response.
Kal took a step towards him, and to his credit, Zak stood his ground. Though Myrian thought she saw the slightest of flinches.
Then Kal extended his hand. At first Myrian thought he meant to strike out at Zak, but his open hand stopped between them. Zak looked down at it, clearly wondering if it was some kind of trap, or perhaps a jest.
But then he extended his own hand and clasped Kal’s.
“These are dark times,” Kal said. “Thalia brought you here, so you must be a friend. And with all that has happened, we should set any petty feuds aside. We face a far greater adversary than each other.”
Myrian breathed a sigh of relief, trying not to show it. They’d had enough hardship along the way. At least Kal Wildfire wasn’t going to make this another one. But they had yet to tell him of Magda’s pact, to ask him if he would join them to run headlong into the face of the demon.
They stopped shaking hands, and Zak nodded. “Thank you,” he said. “I’m glad to hear you say that.”
Myrian was afraid he might launch into a pitch to recruit Kal, but thankfully Zak held his tongue.
“Are either of you hungry?” Kal asked, waving to the hank of meat on the stick, dripping fat into the low fire.
Myrian felt both hungry and nauseous. She was exhausted more than anything. “No,” she said. “Thank you.”
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