41
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My involvement in the slaughter of Queen Tonn and the attempted freeing of her and Prince Tadgh meant that I was escorted right back to my room, placed there, and wasn’t allowed to leave due to the guard that stood on the opposite side of the stone and had grumble-threatened me five times already.
Which was fine.
I was soaked in a mix of Tadgh’s spray of blood, sweat, and possibly some fear-induced tears that had started to stream down my face as I watched Queen Tonn’s body bubble up under the acidic spew from the Kelpie.
What happened after that? I wouldn’t know.
Because Raegan did what Raegan always did – he started barking commands at everyone around him.
Unfortunately for me, the first one he barked was right at Killian – who thankfully wasn’t a Kelpie and was just a plain idiot – and commanded him to get me out of that mess.
I didn’t fight Killian as he dragged me up the stairs and dropped me off in my room like I was some package that arrived at it’s destination.
Again, that was fine.
I didn’t really care.
It was shock. Possibly. This strange haze that took over me and left me staring absently at the corner of my room? Yeah, likely shock. Or just general confusion as to what the shit happened to such a wonderful night.
I knew what had happened to a wonderful night. It was the same thing that always happened.
Raegan.
I wanted to be furious at him, yet again, but I couldn’t bring myself to.
Not because he was Raegan and I was a blubbering fool when it came to him, simply because I was too shocked to do or say anything.
So in that odd pool of confusion, I walked over to the paned-walls, sat myself down at the one that overlooked the grassy-meadows the best, and leaned against the cold glass.
I nearly screamed when a grey blur flew past, a parrot of silver feathers and red tail stopping itself just short of flying directly into the glass.
“Urram?”
His voice was muffled behind the pane, but it was still grating and demanding enough to somewhat make out his words. “What – and then you – we need – soon.”
I cocked a brow as I pushed away from the wall, trying my best to convey that there was no way I would understand a single sentence from his beak.
“Why must – always when I – can’t you – stop looking at – CAW!”
The caw was less a word and more of an agitated noise as he rammed his little body against the glass. The pane didn’t even register a hit, remaining solid and unimpressed with his attempt.
“That’s really not going to work– Urram, no!”
He transformed, his feathers stretching, rounding, and sharpening until they were scales of molten silver placed chaotically across a body of leathery hide, his wings wide and flapping as he tried to maintain the hovering that taking to such a size demanded.
“Don’t you dare!”
He dared.
Urram, grey eyes narrowed, slitted-pupil as sharp as a blade, parted his mouth ever so slightly, ducked his head, and flew at the glass.
I was left screaming as the room exploded with shards of it, tiny weaponized pieces of shrapnel that flew in every direction. A few actually managed to make contact with my skin, sliding along my arms and one pricking at the highest peak of my cheek.
“Come, Little,” Urram bellowed, his voice renewed and thrice as powerful as it took form on a slithering tongue. “We are leaving. Before the King destroys Saoghal once and for all and takes you with him.”
I remained sitting, my knees to my chest, my head still burrowed in my lap as the adrenaline of somehow surviving the shattering of my wall leaked away.
“Move quickly, Olivia. The guards will be wanting to investigate the noise, soon–”
“You are going to help me with something, Urram,” I declared as I lifted my head from that position, a new plan taking form in my otherwise scrambled mind.
One of the scales above Urram’s eyes twitched as if he was capable of cocking a brow.
“We’re not leaving.”
“Little–”
“You’re going to take me to the dungeons.”
“I will not–”
“You will take me to the dungeons or I will throw myself off the height of your back.”
“I will just catch you,” Urram huffed. “Your threats are empty and pathetic.”
I glared at him and he glared at me.
I, a small human reduced even smaller to a pixie, blonde hair waving in the subtle breeze that plagued my room thanks to Urram. And Urram, the thousands upon thousands of pounds of pure muscle, scales, and hide, wings still fluttering, smoke blowing from his nose.
One of these days I would need a reality check, but it wasn’t today as Urram growled, coughed out an ember, and let his head fall heavy. “Fine. Get on.”
“You know I can’t.”
“Pity, that.”
Fisting my hands, I slammed them to either of my hips. “Urram!”
His tongue lashed out from behind his heavy lips, a third eyelid sliding down and clearing his moon-light eyes before he angled himself close enough so that he could pinch the yellow dress that still clung to my body.
“Ouch,” I cried as he managed a decent hold. The pain was nothing, though, in comparison to what he did next.
My caraid simply threw me out of the castle.
I was incapable of making a single noise as air whistled through my ears and punched into my mouth, possessing my throat and making any attempt at speaking completely useless.
Seconds later I heard him approaching, only for his body to drop right beneath mine, his wings to change their angle, and my ass to slam right against his spine.
“That was unnecessary,” I growled.
“Until you can climb on yourself, it was necessary,” he hissed. “And fun.”
I rolled my eyes as Urram rotated the limbs on either side of him, halting our quick descent to the ground and instead catching a current of air that he latched on to and began to circle the castle.
“If I take you to the dungeons, are you going to do something stupid?”
Yes. “No.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Then why did you ask?”
Urram said nothing in response, though his body did wriggle beneath me as if he planned on coming up with a retort sometime soon.
He might of, too, if he didn’t round the next corner of the palace and arrive in the exact location he had once blown a hole through to rescue me from the very same dungeon.
“Don’t wreck this wall,” I warned him.
“I am not a fool,” he growled back.
“There,” I said as I leant against him, my finger pointing to one of the walls as if Urram could somehow see me on his back. “I think that’s a servant side-entrance.”
“Or a plumbing tunnel.”
I stiffened. “Ew. Do you think it is?”
Urram huffed several times, smoke smothering the air around us, which made me believe he was laughing.
“You’re not funny.”
“Says you.”
“Hey! I’m funny.”
Urram grumbled as he altered his flight, our path slowly bringing us towards the ground. “Be safe, Olivia. I wish to hear at least one joke from you before you die,” he said as he lowered us to the ground, the grass dividing itself as the gusts from his wings blew debris in all directions.
“You are so cranky today,” I bit back as his body shook the ground, those two powerful hind legs pressing deep into the earth and leaving Urram-sized footprints.
“You and your stupid plans make me cranky.”
I laughed as I slid off of him, my legs shooting with pins and needles as the integrity of my shin bones was challenged. “My plan isn’t stupid.”
He swung his tremendous head around to glare just once at me with his serpentine eyes before he was gone on a harsh breeze, leaving a small, bickering parrot in his wake.
“I prefer you at this size,” I retorted, flicking some of my hair behind my shoulder. “Your crankiness is easier to accept when it is so tiny.”
Those avian eyes blinked at me several times. “I will remain nearby. Scream if you need help.”
Then Urram was gone, pushing off of his twig-like talons and flying his way through the stretching black sky above. I was smiling to myself as I turned away from him, thankful for a lot of things of Saoghal but none more than my caraid who kept me on my toes.
Considering my hair, that somehow was brighter than usual and nearing white, and my gown that was quite literally a ray of sunshine, it seemed silly that I started to creep through the small clearing of grass beside the dungeons.
All someone would have to do is open their eyes from a nearby window or even half-way across Saoghal and they’d see me, my body like the fog-light on a lighthouse as I moved through the sea of verdant grass around me.
Either no one saw me, or they were on their way to collect me, as I arrived at that door on the side of the palace. Crossing my fingers and begging to gods I didn’t know nor understand, I pulled at the stone handle and hoped that it was not sewer that came spewing out.
It wasn’t.
It was a clear, easy passage right into the dungeons.
Right to Tadgh.