Chapter 21 #2
And that was why I liked her: pragmatic and not prone to hysterics.
“And perhaps then we can discuss why there are two dragons,” she finished, the look on her face saying she didn’t quite believe it either.
“Agreed,” I muttered, though I shot the Noble a harsh look. There was someone I wouldn’t mind sacrificing for some bloodmagick experimentations.
BOOM. BOOM.
The Noble yelped, and the ground shook, nearly throwing us off our feet. Dirt and pebbles rained down on us, the roar of the dragons muted but audible above us.
“Shit, they’re still going at it,” I said to no one.
“They could cave the tunnel in!” Shava exclaimed.
The Noble didn’t wait for us. He took off down the tunnel as far as his pudgy legs could take him.
Which wasn’t far. Especially without a torch .
We caught up to him in seconds, nearly running him down.
“What are you doing? MOVE!” Shava pushed him in the back, a little harder than he was prepared for. The man squealed as he hit the ground hard.
“Get UP! We don’t have time for this!” I snarled at him, refusing to help.
Shava took off and I waited with ill patience, gnashing my teeth as the Noble shakily stood and shuffled off down Shava’s retreating torch.
Swearing under my breath, I took the rear.
BOOM.
A larger rock fell right in front of the Noble’s face. He hesitated.
“RUN!” I screamed, as another rock fell and clipped me on my shoulder. I grit my teeth and ignored the pain. While it was tempting to run ahead of the Noble and leave him behind, I wanted to ensure his survival.
I wanted to study him. I wanted to use him.
“GO!”
So I stubbornly stayed behind him, pushing my torch forward with one hand and him with the other. I grabbed his arm and kept him upright when he fell, and pulled him after me when necessary.
All the while, the roars of the dragons increased and the tunnel walls shook and groaned. Rocks and dirt fell until it was raining debris, making it nearly impossible to see.
“COME ON!” Shava called out from somewhere ahead of me, thankfully not too far.
BOOM. CRASH.
The tunnel collapsed behind me, and I shoved the man forward with all of my strength. Which, considering my blood magick, was considerable. My torch snuffed out and fell somewhere behind me .
“AHHH!”
His screams cut off abruptly. Hopefully not because he was dead.
Rubble clogged the air, choking my lungs and rendering it impossible to breathe. I put my robe over my nose, but it did nothing.
Hold your breath. Get out.
“Z! Are you ok!”
Shava’s voice didn’t sound closer; if anything, it was more muffled than before. The fresh breeze I’d felt before the cave-in had ceased to exist. A pit of dread opened in my stomach.
Trapped. You’re trapped. Not again.
I couldn’t panic. Panic wouldn’t save me.
It’s just like last time. But Shava can’t get in to save you.
Unsheathing my knife, I slashed at my forearm to activate my blood magicks. The glow illuminated the area briefly, but there wasn’t much to see: just rocks behind me, rocks ahead of me, and an unconscious Noble in between both.
I’d been so focused on completing rituals to survive fire and heat that I hadn’t yet done much work on building my strength. If I had, I might have had a shot at moving the rocks.
Hindsight was a bitch.
I pushed and dug and rummaged at them anyway, refusing to give up and die. How much air remained in this cave? Would it be painful to asphyxiate?
The ground rumbled again, and I welcomed it. If I was lucky, the dragons would crash right into our tunnel and smash us to death. It would be quicker than suffocating. At least, I hoped it would be.
Don’t give up.
Why not? Logically, there was no way out. And to think, there were so many experiments and trials left to be done, and so much knowledge wasted inside of my head. Should I have written it down for someone else to one day learn?
It didn’t matter now.
My head pounded, and I was on my knees before I realized it, sharp edges cutting into the flesh of my palms and knees.
It didn’t … matter … now.
Sleepy. Just lay down and die.
No.
Yes.
No.
Nothing.
Smack. Smack. SMACK.
I blinked, blinding light forcing me to screw my eyes shut again.
“Oh, no you don’t! I can either carry your unconscious body or kick along the Noble … not both!”
Groggily, I forced myself to open my eyes, the anger in Shava’s voice stretching a grin onto my face.
Hadn’t I been actively dying?
“Yeah, it’s so funny. Don’t touch that!”
I struggled to focus as I slowly sat up, wiping the grit out of my eyes with the neck of my robe. Shava had turned around and slapped the man’s hand, who had reached it out tentatively to pat the massive gold dragon next to us.
“You!” I accused, pointing a wildly waving a finger at the scaly menace in question. “We … have to talk.”
The dragon snorted embers out of its nose, and I lowered my finger lamely .
Glancing around, we were back at our home sweet home atop the canyon, with the city in the distance. My bags and satchels lay in a tattered, dusty heap outside the cave entrance.
But they made it, at least!
One hand on her hip, Shava brushed away a streak of mud on her cheek. Her eyes were tired, but she was still so beautiful and strong. I wanted to possess it. I wanted to take it for myself.
“The short of it is simple: Zariah fought off his brother, accidentally caving in your tunnel during the process. He then dug you out and brought you here.”
Well. That was relatively simple. It was annoying being constantly in someone else’s debt, though. I would work to rectify it immediately. Though the amount of food I brought back certainly at least took a chunk out, right?
“There are two of you, then?” I clarified, feeling that Shava had been rather nonchalant in skipping that point.
Shava waved her hand dismissively. “It’s like you said, isn’t it? Zion is the heir, Zariah here, the spare.” She gave him a half-sad, half-whimsical grin. Zariah growled, and ducked his head under a wing.
The Noble sniffed loudly, rubbing his nose with his sleeve. “Two princes. Two dragons. We are more cursed than we know!”
“Shut up, already. Or we’ll feed you to the dragon.”
Cerys emerged by the cave with D, already eyeing up the satchels of supplies next to me.
“No, this mud girl here said the dragon wouldn’t,” he insisted, but shot nervous looks between both.
“You’re surrounded by mud people, you ingrate,” I sneered at him.
He lifted his hands above his head in deference, his large sleeves falling down and exposing his arms .
“I’m sorry! I’m just hungry. And tired.”
Shava’s gaze sharpened just as much as mine. She saw what I’d seen: the smudge of gray ash on the Noble’s left wrist.