Page 13 of The Queens and the Kings
Not pillaging?
Destroying?
With deepening astonishment, she watched it spiral, twirl. It screeched. Unlike true dragons, which were long extinct, wyverns had no fire. By reputation, any wyvern could smell the tiniest creature, even in the rain. When no dramatic plungeor attempt on her life resulted, she relaxed. The wyvern didn’t mean the draguls harm.
Wonder replaced the original flush of fear.
Awyvern.
Visceral majesty emanated from the creature. It was hauntingly beautiful, despite the lashing teeth and frequent bellows. They lived on the mainland, too far away from Kapurnick to journey on their own. So why was it here? Their wings couldn’t accommodate so many hours flying without a reprieve, and they avoided the ocean as much as possible.
“How?” she breathed.
Denerfen mimicked her quiet uncertainty with a muffled sound. He shuffled under her curtain of hair, heading to the other shoulder to peer out between rain-soaked strands. Out of sight and hearing below, Malcolm would be gathering Kapurnickkian sailors to mount a defense. They couldn’t possibly, but General Helsing would demand the attempt.
The wyvern spiraled the peak to their west, bursting over the top with a roar. She whispered, “It’s . . . beautiful.”
Moonlight pierced through thinning clouds, glinting off the wyvern’s stormy wings as they cut in and out of the clouds, seamless with the teeming storm. Britt stepped onto an established footpath to the dragul homes. General Helsing would be furious that she left. Rolf, the other Keeper, would demand she stay put. She could hear his weathered voice chastising her.
Don’t go to the caves and lead the wyvern to the draguls!
She dismissed the heedless and imagined concern. If the wyvern meant the draguls harm, it would have attacked already. Some distant ancestor bound the two creatures, despite the sheer vastness in the wyvern’s unequivocal size.
Aboomricocheted through the night, drawing her gaze. Fireworks erupted in tens of streaking colors. The flying colorsscattered into miniature, arcane wyverns. They chased the true wyvern amidst the broiling clouds, probably an attempt to scare it away. They didn’t last longer than fifteen seconds in this damp environment—not even Pedr’s arcane could solve all problems—and the wyvern was abigproblem.
Pedr’s arcane fireworks must have done their job, because the wyvern’s call calmed. Its wings ceased zipping through fractured moonlight. It meant something that Pedr tried. He loathed drawing attention to himself. She tucked her questions away to ask him later.
Denerfen nudged her earlobe with his snout. She put a hand on his shivering body. He jumped to the end of her shoulder, nostrils flared. With another squawk, he bounced off her shoulder and took to the air, scenting it. He called to the dark night as he flew. Stars appeared in the breaking clouds.
“Come back,” she whispered.
The wyvern did not return.
Denerfen aimed himself toward hidden nooks and crannies straight ahead. He flew into a cave, causing a flutter of color to ignite. Draguls erupted from the crevices, welcoming him with excited cheeps and squeaks.
Britt veered off the path that strode along the ridge, chaining from one peak to another, and toward the dragul cave. She’d check on them, but of course no harm came to them. A darker hint of movement drew her gaze west.
There.
The wyvern winged away, riderless, heading into the western storm.
Rolf, the lead dragul Keeper, met her at the bottom of the mossy stairs a short time later. His white eyebrows knitted together, forming grooves between his wrinkled eyes as she squelched off the stairs. Denerfen remained with the other draguls, feasting on rich, mulchy foods Rolf painstakingly ground together. She descended far more carefully than her ascent.
Rolf grunted a greeting.
“They’re fine?”
“Completely.”
“Good.” He eyed her. “They missed you.”
“Not as much as I missed them.”
His fuzzy eyebrows lowered. “Rumor says you’re leaving again soon.”
“Gets around that fast, eh?” she muttered, then tilted her head. “Will that be a problem?”
Rolf sucked on his front teeth. After a prolonged silence, he shrugged. “You brought Tesserdress back alive, which means you have my unswerving loyalty. Go, if you must. We’re fine here.”
