Page 62 of The Queens and the Kings
Britt caught her breath. “Den?”
Another chirrup came from farther down the path. She shuffled toward it, abandoning the light. He wouldn’t have sounded this cheery, wouldn’t have called to her, if it wasn’t safe. Taking heart, as she trusted him.
His energetic cheeps led her further down the path. Fingers brushing dusty rock on her left, she kept it as an anchor and ventured slowly. The pinprick of sunlight vanished into blackwhen she rounded a corner, but Denerfen continued his eager encouragement.
For the most part, the path remained clear. Only occasional stones she accidentally kicked and pebbles under foot. Britt palpated her way around yetanotherbend to find a pinprick of light on the other side. She gasped.
“You did it?”
The illumination winked out as Denerfen flew in front of it. He collided with her chest. She caught him as he squawked, flailing.
“Den!” she whispered. “You found the way through!”
A wyvern bellow carried far louder with cave acoustics transmitting it through the passage. They sounded livid. Though it feltlike the wyverns breathed down her neck, they must be far away.
Denerfen mewled at the back of his throat. A tinny sound, indicating apprehension. But his wings didn’t droop, and he didn’t draw his tail close, so she continued.
As they approached the distant light, it expanded. Other noises joined the rumbly ruckus. Shouts. Cries. The ground shook. Britt pressed her back to the sidewall and waited for the chaos to calm. Denerfen coiled close to her neck and hissed. No trickling rocks preceded a cave in. No giant shudder indicated the world was about to fall.
Outside, an indignant whip snapped like a reprimand. She shuddered at the memories the whip conjured. Utter silence followed.
Suchterriblequiet.
Britt shoved away from the wall and crept forward until sunlight fell onto her toes. The tunnel to the outside narrowed to a circle as long as her arm.
Sunlight dazzled her as she peeked out. She’d been in these caves for most of the day. She peered out on rock faces. Hearingnothing nearby, she crawled up and outside a step at a time. Over the top of a stone that hid this hole from sight, she stared down on a giant arena. An oval ground, formed by the steep mountains with skirts of loose rock, held many wyverns.
No.
Allthe wyverns. A quick count revealed fifteen, but overhangs made it likely that some hid inside. Pedr told her to expect nineteen.Males,he said.No females.
The steep, unscalable walls would be impossible for a non-winged creature to climb. Sheets of precarious shale waited to cascade at the first provocation, both announcing and destroying interlopers. The mountain rock seams appeared continuous from her vantage. No ridge or canyon to break them up and allow access. As if a giant rock had descended from the sky, smashed a hole, and bounced away. If one didn’t walk into this arena through a lucky cave entrance like this, then one must fly.
Wyverns littered the interior, most of them showing various stages of agitation. Moving slashes on the ground indicated running people. Wyverns chased them. Their powerful steps accounted for the trembling earth. Wings sprawled, they screamed after the retreating Keepers, who ducked behind rocks or into other caves.
Her heart leaped into her throat. Those people woulddie. The wyverns would tear them apart like chicken carcasses.
They didn’t.
If she wanted real details, she’d have to edge closer to the interior oval without leaving the hallway. Biting her bottom lip, she scuttled back into the cave. At first approach, she’d felt a stirring of air from the right side. Tentatively, she returned.
Ah. She’d missed another tunnel. A smaller one that lowered to the right and down.
“Come,” she whispered to Denerfen. He perched on a rock, staring into the newest abyss. “I think we can get closer.”
As before, she walked without the advantage of sight, but trusted Denerfen’s frequent chirps and noises. They eased into the belly of the earth. What felt like an hour later, she emerged out of a steep downhill trail and toward another rare ray of light.
Once in the dim illumination, Denerfen rejoined her shoulder. She hid out of the direct influence of the light, listening. Voices stirred, but she couldn’t make out individual words. This tunnel ended on a low-hanging entrance too small for an adult male. She could fit with grunting and groaning.
So why would it exist? Did someone else spy?
An old, metallic smell filled her nose, like dried blood. Had it been a feeding pit at one time? A tunnel where they shoved food? It could be a chute made by dripping water over years of rain exposure. She prayed it didn’t rain.
Britt crept closer to the voices, staying out of direct sight of the open slit. If the Keepers stared down, they wouldn’t see her.
Their words clarified.
“Livid beasts today,” one Keeper said.
