Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
SOFIA
Lumi left two days later, a few hours before sunset. Sofia sat on the lip of the cenote, watching the sky for an hour afterward, as if the shapeshifter might appear again with news. It was an impossibility, but she couldn’t bring herself to retreat into the cenote.
When she heard the footsteps coming up toward her, she expected to see Flor, but it was Jacinta who rose over the lip, Delio and Jorge on her heels.
“Where’s the dragon?” Jacinta asked, and Sofia only gave a confused nod to her right. Chalia had tucked herself in between the trees only a few yards away, her body only semi-hidden among the tall ferns and bushes.
Jacinta barely acknowledged her before marching over to where the dragon’s head poked up.
She blinked into the dusk light at the woman standing before her.
Sofia watched intently, unsure of what the woman was doing.
Jacinta stood with her hands on her hips.
Delio and Jorge stood just behind her, looking like guards.
Sofia hadn’t even known the shapeshifter had made friends with either Delio or Jacinta.
Clarita had only moved the shapeshifters into the larger cenote while Lumi was on her mission. She was just as anxious to get news of the city as the rest of them, but the two groups hadn’t been fast friends, barely able to communicate with their mixture of king’s tongue and dragon-tongue.
“What’s going on?” Sofia asked, coming to stand beside Chalia, facing down the other three.
“We’ve been talking,” Jacinta said. “Lumi may be bringing us news from the city, but we also need information on the dragons. We know that Chalia isn’t the last dragon. So where are the rest?”
“I’ve already told you, she wo—can’t say,” Sofia said, folding her arms across her chest, eyes glancing between their faces. She wondered who had been talking and where the rest of the resistance and shapeshifters were. Where were Micael and Clarita?
“We’re not asking you,” Jacinta said, her eyes focused on Chalia. “We’re asking her.”
Chalia let out a snort that sent Jacinta’s hair blowing back over her shoulders.
Unease crackled in the air, and Sofia swallowed.
“I will not betray my people,” Chalia said, her voice lower than Sofia had ever heard it. It scraped against her mind.
“You say you came to help us, and now you won’t do anything?”
“I saved your people.”
“And banished mine to death!” Jorge snapped, stepping forward. Chalia flinched, and Sofia felt her blood boil.
She shifted forward and pushed her hand into Jorge’s chest as hard as she could. He stumbled back, half in surprise.
“Do not talk to her like that,” Sofia said. “She did not bring the king’s men to your tribe on purpose. The chief commander and the general were to blame for that. Not her.”
“We need to know where the dragons are,” Jacinta practically yelled. “And that information is sitting right there.” She pointed at Chalia.
The dragon growled, and Sofia felt icy mist slide across her skin.
“By all means,” Sofia snapped, “tell the god what she should and shouldn’t do! I’ll bury the pieces she leaves of you, out of respect.”
Chalia stood, not quite able to come to her full height between the trees, but her neck stretched out, and she bared her teeth.
Her talons bit into the soil, and a growl rumbled through the air.
Jacinta had to strain her neck to look up at the dragon’s scowl.
She had the decency to at least go a little pale.
But Jorge’s face had turned red, and Sofia watched in horror as his hand reached down for the dagger at his belt.
“What in the gods’ names is going on up here?” Micael’s voice boomed through the clearing. “Are you trying to bring the king down on us all?”
Jorge’s hand dropped immediately, and Jacinta fell back. Delio looked anywhere except at Micael.
Micael stood at the top of the cenote, shaky from his ascent.
A second later, Clarita and Flor came running up the stairs behind him, both ready for a fight.
Flor only relaxed minutely after she saw Sofia standing across the way.
Clarita glared at Jorge, as though she already knew what had happened.
“Everything is fine,” Sofia said, the words like sand in her throat. “But I think it’s best if I’m the only one to talk to Chalia directly from now on.”
Micael didn’t speak for a minute, his gaze appraising. He nodded. “That sounds like a solid plan.”
Clarita’s face was pinched, but she nodded. Though the way she was glaring at Jorge, Sofia wondered if the man would get away so lightly.
“Well, go on,” Micael said, waving at the three of them. “You’re done up here.”
Jacinta, Delio, and Jorge slunk away, though Sofia saw the glare the shapeshifter threw over his shoulder at her. Clarita slapped him across the shoulder as she followed him back down the stairs.
“Are you and Chalia okay?” Micael asked, his shoulders slumping now that the others were gone.
“We’re okay,” she said, looking at Chalia, who had gone back to relaxing on the ground, though her tail snapped back and forth in irritation. “We’re good.”
Micael gave a grim nod and turned back to the cenote. “Make her some food or tea,” he said to Flor. “I’ll ensure no one else makes an unplanned trip up here tonight.”
He disappeared, and Flor turned back to Sofia, lips pinched tightly.
“Are you actually okay?”
Sofia nodded, then shrugged. Her heart was still pounding in her chest, but a part of her also knew Chalia wouldn’t have let anything happen.
“I’m sorry,” Sofia said, looking at Chalia.
“You don’t need to be. I can hold my own.” The dragon bared her teeth again, as if to reassure her. “Go rest and take care of yourself. I’ll be okay.”
Sofia pressed a kiss against Chalia’s nose before following Flor down the stairs into the cenote.
The main chamber was empty, though Sofia could just hear Micael berating Jacinta and Delio in the back rooms. They went to the kitchens, Sofia turning down a cup of tea, but allowing Flor to set a plate of meats and nuts in front of her.
There were a few more rations tucked on the shelves now that Clarita had moved her people in with them. Their numbers still amounted to a meager twenty, but the cenote felt more alive with the newcomers.
Lastly, Flor placed a small pouch in front of Sofia’s plate.
“What’s that?”
“Your monthly tonic herbs,” she said with a grin. “Clarita helped get the supplies.”
Sofia blinked, looking between Flor’s sparkling eyes and the pouch.
“I don’t need that.”
“Yes, you do,” Flor said.
“We’re in the middle of a war.”
“And you’re not an idiot. We don’t need you accidently getting pregnant. There is enough in there for the next sun cycle. Take it.” She pushed it closer to Sofia.
She was tempted to throw it back at Flor. She knew exactly what the other woman was thinking—who she was thinking of—when she handed Sofia the herbs. Instead, she bit the inside of her cheek and slipped the pouch into her pocket. She took a bite of food to avoid looking Flor in the eyes.
“What happened out there?” Flor asked after a beat.
“Jacinta, Delio, and Jorge apparently thought they could get Chalia to tell them where the dragons are.”
“I take it they didn’t ask nicely?”
“If only we all had the courage it takes to yell at a god,” Sofia said bitterly, chewing on the goat meat. It was smoked perfectly and delicious, but she could hardly appreciate it. Her mind was spinning.
“I can’t blame them for wanting to know. I want to know.”
“And you’ve asked. Plenty of times. I’ve seen the way Chalia reacts. One of these days, she’s going to fly off and not come back.”
Flor rested her head on her hand, looking just as defeated as Sofia felt.
“She just can’t betray her family,” Sofia said. “I get that.”
Her stomach twisted at the thought of her own family. She’d tasked Fox with finding them. Had he by now? Were they okay?
She couldn’t dwell on it. She needed something she could control. Something she could do to help.
“I think it’s time to read!” Sofia declared.
Flor gave her a blank stare. “Reading? Seriously?”
“I stole every book on dragons I could find from Harlow’s stash. Maybe there’s something in there.”
“You don’t think if those books gave away the location of the dragons’ hiding place, Harlow wouldn’t have already raided the damned place?”
“You’re assuming that man could find his own ass without the help of others.”
Flor only raised an eyebrow, and Sofia conceded with an exhausted sigh.
“It’s a long shot,” she continued, “but there’s a chance something is in there that we will understand. Something that he couldn’t. At the very least, perhaps I can learn enough to tease new information out of Chalia. Something to appease the others into leaving her alone.”
Flor threw up her hands, pushing herself up from the clay bench. “Fine. Let’s go read. At least it’s illegal.”
“See,” Sofia said, standing up and hooking her arm with Flor’s, “you’re seeing the fun in it.”
“Perhaps we’ll take the entire kingdom down by reading.”
“Why else would they keep it from us, if not to keep us compliant and ignorant? Let’s go commit some treason.”
It was just after daybreak the next day when Chalia sent Sofia a message that Lumi had returned.
She was bent over a set of books, trying to organize them by time period and authorship, a quill between her lips.
Her neck ached, and her hair was loose around her shoulders, occasionally falling in her eyes as she strained to understand the text.
Sofia had to stop herself from rushing up to the forest floor, though it would get her the news no sooner.
Instead, she passed the message on to Flor and Javi who were half-helping, half-napping beside her, and the three of them went to wait next to the lake.
Chalia had clearly told the others, because a moment later Micael, Jacinta, and Clarita emerged from the kitchens.