Page 16 of Mountain of Dragons and Sacrifice

His eyebrows rose. “Almost anything. There are a few things beyond my power.”

Like convincing the dragon to let me go. I wouldn’t ask for that, of course. “What’s my purpose? Why am I here? Can you tell me, or is it forbidden?”

“Right to the hard questions.” Evander’s steps faltered for only a moment before he returned to that slow, steady stroll, though his gaze swung away from me to stare ahead. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you just yet. You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

“I’m here in the Fae Realm surrounded by gnomes and dryads and whatnot. You might be surprised what I will believe.” I dug my fingers in the soft fabric of my skirt. Everything would be so much easier if the dragon, Evander, Phoebe, or someone just told me why I was here, since apparently I wasn’t here to be dragon chow.

Evander huffed a breath, shaking his head. His voice held a strangely bitter note. “Not this, I’m afraid. Not yet.”

It was as I expected. He couldn’t tell me what the dragon wanted with me or what would happen to me. So frustrating.

“Nessa.” Evander half-turned to me, halting. “I know you don’t believe me, but you’re safe here. No one is going to hurt you. Not even the dragon.”

Why did Evander have to sound so achingly compassionate even as he lied to me? And he wondered why I didn’t believe him. I gestured at the passageway around us. “Then where are the other maidens who came before me?”

I forced myself to hold his gaze, even though my knees shook at asking such a direct question. What would Evander—or the dragon—do to me if I didn’t keep my mouth shut the way I was supposed to?

Evander held my gaze with such a sadness in his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was low and soft. “Safe.”

I longed to trust the emotions I saw there. But I couldn’t. Shouldn’t. He was loyal to the dragon, and he’d say or do whatever he was told.

Even lie.

If the other maidens had been safe—if Clarissa had been safe—then they would have returned to the village. Clarissa would have found a way to tell me she was alive. Their families wouldn’t have disappeared only months after the maidens did.

At least I now knew where I stood with Evander. I could ask my questions, but he would tell me whatever the dragon wanted me to hear. I couldn’t trust him or anyone in this mountain.

After a moment, Evander tore his gaze from mine, a slight slump to his shoulders, as we set out along the tunnel once again.

We headed deeper into the mountain, away from windows and sunlight. Torches lit the corridors with an unnaturally clear orange that didn’t seem to give off smoke.

A gloppy, snarling sound came from the stone to our left a moment before one of those gelatinous stone creatures plopped out of the wall into our path. It waved its stone-colored pincers, blinking wide black eyes up at us.

Evander stepped forward, then kicked the creature, sending it tumbling down the corridor. At my squeak and flinch, he glanced at me. “Stone gremlin. They’re relatively harmless, though their pinch stings. Just kick them or whack them hard enough, and they’ll go away.”

The gremlin gave another grinding snarl before disappearing into the wall once again.

Stone gremlins. Great. As if this place couldn’t get any more weird.

We rounded a bend in the tunnel. As soon as we did, a roaring, splashing sound echoed from somewhere up ahead. The mouth of our tunnel brightened with sunlight that seemed to sparkle on water falling from above.

We stepped from the passageway into a spacious cavern. A large hole opened in the ceiling, letting in brilliant sunlight, along with a thin cascade of water. The water splashed into a pool at the center of the cavern before winding its way in a creek deeper into the mountain. Many passageways and tunnels branched from the cavern, so many that I was likely to get lost if I tried to navigate on my own.

I tilted my head back, gaping upward at the waterfall. A few glittering snowflakes drifted down through the waterfall’s mist.

“Guards and some of the other servants live down those tunnels.” Evander pointed at a few of the dark openings. Then he gestured to a passageway that contained a grand staircase leading upward. “The dragon’s quarters are up there.”

I shivered, hugging my arms tighter to my body. “So they’re forbidden?”

Of course the dragon’s inner lair would be forbidden. He forbade people from so much as looking upon his face. It seemed the greatest of presumptions to set foot in his quarters.

Especially since he was likely up there right now, sleeping or doing whatever else a dragon did during the day.

“No, of course not.” Evander’s mouth gave that wryly tilted smile again. “I thought you’d like to know so you can make an informed decision on whether you want to wander up there or not. You are free to do so. After all, I go up there all the time, and I’ve never been eaten.”

Huh. Really? That didn’t fit with everything I’d been taught.

Still, unless the dragon demanded I attend him in his quarters, I was most certainly not going to wander up there of my own volition. The less the dragon even remembered I existed the better. Nor would I risk angering him by setting foot somewhere that might be forbidden, despite what Evander said.

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