Page 124 of The Dragon Queen

“Protect her by getting moving.” Soren’s voice was far harsher than it usually was. “It’s madness bringing a first year cadet on a mission like this.” His eyes widened as he stared at me. “Perhaps you and the little queen should go back. I never got a chance to prepare you properly, lass. One sword play lesson isn’t enough for what we intend to do.”

“No.” I was tugged from Flynn’s grip and held against Brom’s chest. “Pippin isn’t going anywhere. You’re not taking her from me… Us. Here, I can keep her safe. Here, I know that none of them will try to get to her.”

“Them?” Ged looked up from the map. “What them? We don’t need shadowy cabals trying to take Pippin from us. We’re wandering around amongst the remains of a dead dragon, using a map a master criminal gave us. We’re going to kill ourselves before anyone else does.” His eyes slid over the cave walls. “What if the cave collapses and we’re still in it? What if?—?”

“Unhh…”

I bent over, feeling that sharp pain again. Right now I was cursing the day I was born a woman because this was unbearable. My menses were normally messy but straightforward and over in three days. I wasn’t even bleeding, so why…? My teeth sunk into my bottom lip, trying to bite back a cry. Was I already pregnant? If so, what was this pain? Gods above, had my womb quickened and before I even realised I was with child, was I losing the baby? A groan escaped my lips despite my efforts.

“Pippin…!”

Brom’s voice echoed throughout the cave, but I couldn’t heed it. Something drove me on.Don’t touch, the bones of Drathnor said.Leave!Yet my palm slapped down on one smooth rib bone turned purplish white by the mushrooms’ glow. It burned my palm like it was made of ice, not bone, searing my flesh. I tried to pull away, but my fingers refused to obey. The waves of pain were coming faster and faster now, some terrible pressure building in my abdomen. My spare hand pressed down on it, as if that would help. Nothing did.

“Pippin! Pippin!”

They shouted my name, tried to tug me backwards, but as my body shook, I felt the hot burst of something inside me. Not my womb, but my nose, it appeared. I felt the blood flow, caught sight of one drop falling free in slow motion, and then I was gone, replaced byher.

They kept referring to Drathnor as male, perhaps due to her size, but now that I was inside her body, her mind, I knew differently. My flanks convulsed and the big gouges on the cave floor weren’t naturally occurring, but from my claws as I strained with all my might. The eggs, that’s what preoccupied me. I was dying, the slow seep of blood from my side making that clear, but I could not let the growing cold swallow me whole. If I died with them inside me, they would not survive.

My daughters, my sons, I thought of them as I marshalled the last of my strength. Stifling back a roar, because I did not want to alert my enemies to what I was doing, my head rose, my whole body feeling like it rippled as I bore down and birthed the first egg. I spunaround, sniffing at it, and saw that it gleamed like a vein of bright gold. A queen…Tanis, I thought, pressing my forehead to the side of the egg, but not for long. The next wave of pain heralded the birth of my next child. My back arched, my claws raking the air as…

My hand closed around a curiously rounded rock found within the ribcage of Drathnor.

“Pippin!” Someone tried to turn me around, but I refused, not until I’d dug it up. Another gleaming crystal egg shone in my grip.

Whatever it was, how I’d known it was here, I couldn’t dwell on, because it appeared some of our fears had a basis in reality. Our heads all jerked up as we heard the muffled roar of explosions.

“The general…” Brom said. “He’s started the bombardment already?” And that was very bad news for us. The walls shook, the roof of the cave as well, as rocks began to fall around us.

“We need to go, now!” Ged barked, wrenching me back towards the entrance, only for our exit to be blocked by the partial collapse of the roof.

This way,Glimmer said, turning and scurrying off deeper into the cave.

“I am never,ever, ever going into another cave,” Ged gasped as we clambered out of a hatch cut into the floor of what looked like a warehouse. We saw the shapes of bags of flour and other goods stacked up around us. “Ever. I’m sorry, Pippin, but if you want to go off on some hare-brained scheme again and it includes caves, you’re on your own.”

“Perhaps we could focus on successfully completing this hare-brained scheme first?” Soren said. “Then we can debate what we will and won’t do in the future.”

“So where do we head now?” Flynn looked over Ged’s shoulder. “Looks like that way.”

He pointed to a large door. We crept closer, dislodging the bar and then stepping out onto the streets of Blackreach. Water drippedfrom a downpipe and the alleyway stank of rotting refuse, but we were forced back against it seconds later.

“We’re under attack!” someone shouted and we watched guards in the duke’s livery go running past, swords in hand. Flynn drew his own, a dangerous smile on his face. He was obviously spoiling for a fight.

“Keep your head!” Soren hissed, nudging his fellow rider, and we all stayed perfectly still as the last of the guards raced past. Several heart beats went by until we dared move again.

“Yes,” another voice drawled as a hooded man stepped out from an adjoining side street. “Keeping your head would be wise.” We all jerked our weapons from their scabbards, but Glimmer stepped forward. “You got caught up in this as well, little queen?”

That’s when I realised who this was. Draven flipped his hood back and surveyed the lot of us with a frown.

“I went to the trouble of infiltrating the city to try and resolve this issue with my uncle once and for all, only to find the lot of you here. Care to explain why you’re not back at camp in your tents?”

Chapter 60

I sucked in a breath, ready to answer him when another wave of explosions shook the city. We all stared as dragons flew past the right hand side of the city before veering off.

“Change of plan.” Draven sounded curiously calm. “Get Pippin and Glimmer back to camp and I’ll take care of my uncle.” He turned to me when I went to protest. “I heard you loud and clear. Every word you said before Rex and the others hit me hard, I just couldn’t show it in front of the other riders. You’re right, Pippin. The entire city doesn’t deserve to die for my uncle’s sins.” He jerked out his sword. “This was always about him and me, so I’ll bring the fight to him.”

“Hate to get in the way of your noble self-sacrifice,” Brom drawled, “but we can’t go back the way we came. The explosives you had the riders drop resulted in the collapse of Drathnor’s cave.”

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