Page 122 of The Queens and the Kings
Or would it?
A sudden stretch of quiet made his neck prickle. He half spun in time to see Britt march to a rowboat, reaching for the line that secured it. Pedr made it to her side in two seconds, fisting a hand over hers.
“No!”
She spun, shoving his chest so he stepped back.
“Why?”
The muscles in his jaw twitched, working hard. He attempted to say,They’re going to kill you,but the words wouldn’t release. The parameters of the curse continued to change. Worsened, in fact, preventing him saying anythingassociatedwith the Wyvern Kings or the Siren Queens.
Was it a sign of increasing power for the Wyvern Kings, thus greater challenge to the Siren Queens? Or something else entirely? A tremor ripped down his body, wavering his arms.
Britt calmed enough to whisper, “You can’t say?”
He swallowed hard and shook his head. Hesitation took flight through her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he rasped, amazed the words came through.
Britt softened. “Pedr, give me something to work with. Wehaveto go after that wyvern. It’s too far west to be an accident, and if they’re taking another ship toward Kapurnick, we have to stop them. Or figure it out!”
Pedr warred with himself. His annoyance deepened. They needed to figure it out, but couldn’t while plagued by this curse at every step. Another half-hearted attempt to speak around it and say,I know, I’m trying,resulted in nothing but anuuungand a scowl.
“I know you can’t tell me, and I know that you want to help. But you’ll have to consider, at some point, to either trustme or dump me. I can’t do whatever you want without more information.”
Only when he turned his mind from fear of danger and the Wyvern Kings, latching it onto the arcane and whathecould do, was he able to growl out a broken, “You can’t fly on wings. It might be too conspicuous in the daylight, even when invisible.” Before she could protest, he held up a hand. “But I can send you.”
The curse tightened, because his thoughts strayed to the ship with the wyvern.
“How?”
With a twirl of his finger, he said, “Arcanist, remember? I’ll borrow from Himmel. She lets me do it all the time.”
Denerfen peered out from her curtain of hair, saw him, and fluttered to Pedr’s shoulder. The light weight compared to Drake was welcome. The dragul’s tail slipped along his shoulder. Soothing and enjoyable. Pedr could understand the draw of bonding with a dragul, but had no desire for the commitment.
Britt sighed with a smile. “He likes you better than me.”
“Because he has taste,” Pedr retorted.
“You really can send me over there?”
“It’s notthateasy,” he muttered, grateful to speak at all. “Even with Himmel’s help, it won’t let me send you wherever I want. I have to be very thorough and focused. You don’t just show up. A ride without wings. You’ll drift over the ocean, subject to all the wind and weather. If something goes wrong, I won’t know you need help unless I ride close enough to see you, which will allow them to see us through a spyglass.”
“Unless you’re invisible.”
“Yes, but that’s another layer I’d rather not add. It’s dangerous.”
“Sounds like it.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “If conditions deteriorate, it could almost be a death sentence.”
“Almost,” she quipped, “if my brother weren’t the Arcanist of the Sea, eh?”
Pedr rolled his eyes. As always, he didn’t confirm her praise. “Fine,” he muttered, teeth tight. “Based on what I can feel, there’s a chance they’re using land arcane to hide the wyvern. Which sounds like Jordaire.”
“The wyvern was flying.”
“But it’s not anymore, and there’s active arcane that’s not mine. It all means something.”
“That the wyvern is inside the ship?”
