Page 94 of Kingdom of Rot & Ruin
“What?” Shava asked, barely sparing a glance back at me as she pulled me along. In my stupor, I wasn’t keeping up. “Speak up. You’re muttering.”
“Twins,” I continued, lost in my own thoughts. “Fucking dragon princetwins.”
She stopped so suddenly I crashed into her, banging noses. We didn’t waste time on apologies or rubbing bruises appendages. She stared at me, knowing what this meant.
“You mean?—”
“One lives his life mostly with the queen in the palace; that’s Prince Zion,” I began. “The other lives his life mostly as the dragon. That’s Zariah.” Lost in the revelation, I babbled mindlessly. “I can’t believe all this time … it makes so muchsense.”
“W-wait for me!”
A terrified, snot-nosed voice filled the passageway, jerking both of us out of our shocked stupor.
“You’re fucking kidding me …” I growled, recognizing it immediately.
The pasty Noble stopped in front of us, panting hard with his hands on his knees. His blond hair stuck to face, sweaty and sticking up every which way. His eyes were brown, the only hint of his mud parentage. Had his mother been a reaped girl forced against her will like so many of the others? Why had my own experiment and the princes’ worked, but this Noble’s hadn’t?
He scratched nervously at his wrist, the skin red and inflamed. I glanced down at it, and Shava was quick to catch the movement. He’d change eventually, just like all the others.
“The d-dragons … they were rampaging everywhere. I didn’t know where else to go. The queen is so angry with me! What could I have done? Did she know I nicked one of her spoons a week ago?”
He trailed off in thought, pudgy face quivering.
I ignored him. There were more pressing concerns.
Shava saved your ass. You owe her something.
I hated owing anyone anything, but she had proved her usefulness.
Just proves I did an excellent job choosing her.
And yet …
“You are quick thinking,” I pushed out, before I could think better of it. I couldn’t see Shava’s reaction in the darkness, and that was for the best. I didn’t want any sappy declarations or misunderstandings.
Shava gave me a dubious look, but there was a ghost of a smirk at the corner of her mouth. “We need to find another way back through one of the branching tunnels and plan what to do now. Hopefully, they don’t find us. There are more passageways, but we haven’t explored them. The queen will send Fireguards after us.”
And that was why I liked her: pragmatic and not prone to hysterics.
“And perhaps then we can discuss why there aretwodragons,” she finished, the look on her face saying she didn’t quite believe it either.
“Agreed,” I muttered, though I shot the Noble a harsh look. There was someone I wouldn’t mind sacrificing for some bloodmagick experimentations.
BOOM. BOOM.
The Noble yelped, and the ground shook, nearly throwing us off our feet. Dirt and pebbles rained down on us, the roar of the dragons muted but audible above us.
“Shit, they’re still going at it,” I said to no one.
“They could cave the tunnel in!” Shava exclaimed.
The Noble didn’t wait for us. He took off down the tunnel as far as his pudgy legs could take him.
Which wasn’t far. Especially without a torch.
We caught up to him in seconds, nearly running him down.
“What are you doing? MOVE!” Shava pushed him in the back, a little harder than he was prepared for. The man squealed as he hit the ground hard.
