Ash Princess

by Eve Langlais

  When Gorri left, she stood over the stranger and wondered if she should take Milo up on his offer of help. The stranger was awfully huge. Big enough he dangled off the edge of her bed. It should be noted her bed wasn’t big and barely accommodated her.

  She pulled her worn washcloth from the peg she hung it on to dry and filled a basin with water. One thing they at least had plenty of. She dabbed at his face, cleaning the dirt and blood from the skin, avoiding the wounds because it would involve removing his clothes.

  She couldn’t have said why she hesitated. She’d seen naked people before. Tended many of them, too. Yet she knew those people. It was different somehow with the stranger.

  And she was being foolish. He needed medical assistance, not her acting like some kind of flustered novice. Prying him out of his things proved challenging because of the ropes at his wrists.

  He remained unconscious. She ignored Gorri’s warning and untied the tethers, stripped the man of the suit he wore, and found him in another outfit underneath. Real fabric, and not patches of it cobbled together. She stroked it. It was the finest she’d seen in a while.

  The pants came off with no issue, as did his vest, but the shirt took some work given his injuries and the weight of his upper body. A fine sweat coated her by the time she’d stripped him. Maneuvering a limp body proved more strenuous than expected. But for some reason, she didn’t call for help.

  She tossed a strip of cloth over his man parts, keeping her gaze averted, more for her modesty than his. Only then could she assess the damage.

  She looked, and looked again, trying to make sense of what she saw. His clothes bore huge rents from claws, and those marks were matched to his skin, but where she’d have expected them to be bleeding and oozing with infection, they were actually scabbing over. The flesh had knitted itself together, the edges of the seams an angry red but no sign of pus. How was this possible? She could have sworn she’d seen muscle and bone.

  His breathing had also gotten better since she found him, no longer a ragged exhalation. Surprising given the air in Diamond was poison for most, even in the tunnel networks where some of it managed to infiltrate despite their best attempts. Not that it mattered much anymore. Those that couldn’t survive breathing the air had died a long time ago. Only those that could adapt remained.

  Despite his odd healing, she cleaned him, wiping the dried blood, baffled at this enigma.

  Who are you?

  She startled as she realized she spoke aloud, especially since the stranger replied.

  “Cam.” The man blinked, long dark lashes framing almost black eyes without the hint of the blue present in his hair. “Who are you?” he asked, his timbre low and slightly raspy.

  “Kayda.” There was no harm in giving her name. After all, if he lived, he’d find out easily enough, as there wasn’t anywhere for him to go. Nowhere safe at any rate.

  “Kayda.” He rolled her name on his tongue.

  “And you are Cam?” she queried to be sure.

  “Yes. How did you find me?”

  He struggled to rise, and she suddenly remembered Gorri’s warning. Too late to put back on the rope. Instead, she assisted him in sitting, noticing the wince as he managed to get upright.

  “I came across you by accident.”

  “Where?” He rubbed at his face. “Actually, it matters less where you found me and more where I am.”

  “Somewhere you should have stayed away from.” The words slipped from her without thought.

  “Am I still in the Diamond Kingdom?”

  He was aware of where he’d been travelling. She nodded. “Yes. And you are from?”

  “The Marshlands.”

  “Which is in Sapphire?” Best to confirm.

  “Not anymore. The Marshes are now their own kingdom. State. Fiefdom. Whatever you want to call it.” He coughed. Hard. She tossed him a cloth knowing what to expect. When he was done, he grimaced at the mess in it. “Gross.”

  She went to grab it, but he closed his fist around it. “You shouldn’t look at that.”

  “I assure you I’ve seen it before.” Just not recently. The ash sickness started with a cough that got harsher and harsher—bloodier, too, until the person expired, their lungs too full of fluid to breathe. It took her mother. It wasn’t something she ever forgot.

  She tugged the cloth from Cam’s grip, and he reluctantly allowed her to take it. She tossed it onto the floor beside his dirty clothes.

  Returning to his side, she felt his forehead.

  “I don’t have a fever,” he grumbled.

  “You might not know if you did,” she retorted. Although he proved correct. His skin remained cool and dry.

  “I’ve got a good constitution.”

  “Evidently or you’d have died already.” She pointed to his chest. A muscled chest that drew the eye. “How does it feel when you breathe?”

  “A bit tight. But it will pass I’m sure.”

  She snorted. “Doubtful. Did no one warn you that the air in Diamond is toxic?”

  “They did.”

  “Yet you still came?”

  His lips quirked in a masculine fashion that caused a strange tingle. “What can I say? I’m a man who likes to live on the edge.”

  “And fall off it apparently,” she quipped.

  For a moment, he looked taken aback, and then he grinned. Widely. “I guess I did. Lucky for me I landed somewhere soft.”

  “Is that what you call a rampaging river?”

  “It was a bit brisker than I’m used to.”

  “The good news is it cleaned out your wounds. The surprise is no infection set in. However, I should warn you that the same taint that’s in the air is in the water, too.”

  “I would have been surprised if it wasn’t. Is all the water in this place affected?” He nodded toward the washbasin.

  “Yes.”

  He eyed her. “You don’t look sick.”

  “Because I’m not. I’m one of those immune to the effects of the taint.”

  “One? You mean there are other survivors?” His brows arched. “We thought everyone in the kingdom must be dead.”

  “Almost. There aren’t many of us left.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  To her surprise, he actually sounded sincere.

  “Sorry, for what? You’re not the one who killed us.”

  “How come you haven’t left the kingdom? The Marshlands might be a bit savage, but you could have carved out a new place for yourselves.”

  “We can’t leave.”

  “What do you mean can’t?”

  Her turn to ask questions. “How did you get over the lava river?”

  “You mean the big crack in the ground? A giant tree made a bridge.”

  “You mean we can cross?”

  He shook his head. “Not on the one I used. It fell in the hole.”

  Her lips turned down. “That’s a shame.”

  “If it’s a bridge you need, just build one.”

  “We would if we could.”

  “Why can’t you?”

  She pointed to the wounds on his shoulders. “The dragons won’t let us.”

  Chapter 5

  It took Cam a second to grasp what Kayda had said. Mostly because he was sure he’d misunderstood. Obviously stunned by her long hair and delicate-featured beauty to the point he didn’t hear her right. “Excuse me? What won’t let you leave?”

  “The dragons,” she stated without a hint of mockery. Yet she had to be joking.

  “Dragons aren’t real.” They were the monsters in fictional stories. The impossible creatures featured in ancient literature. They guarded treasure, and princesses, from those who would steal them.

  “Maybe they don’t exist in your kingdom, but I assure you, they thrive in ours.”

  “They? How many are we talking?”

  She rolled her shoulders. “Impossible to tell, but enough of them that they have us pinned inside the tunnels.”

  “They hunt humans,
” he stated to ensure he understood her correctly.

  “They hunt anything they can get their claws into.”

  The word claws made his healing wounds twinge. “These marks…” He fingered the damage. “You’re telling me a dragon did this?”

  “So it would appear.”

  The facts matched. Giant flying lizard. How could he not make the connection before?

  “Holy fuck.” He slumped forward since there was no wall or headrest to lean on. “The damned thing plucked me from the ground like I weighed nothing.”

  “It’s how they hunt. What is surprising is the fact you escaped. That doesn’t happen too often.” Not that she seemed impressed. More curious. Her gaze perused him as if she couldn’t figure out how he’d managed it.

  “I got lucky, I guess.” He rubbed his face, feeling the beginning of a beard, the rough whiskers poking from his jawline. Give him a few days and he’d have enough to stroke. “Let’s ignore the dragons for a second. They aren’t the only reason you’re stuck here. Diamond’s problem started with the ash, right?”

  “That is correct. It and the poison in the air are the byproducts of the volcano that erupted and is still going more than twenty years later.”

  “Why didn’t you evacuate when it happened? Surely your people could have fled.”

  “At first, they didn’t believe it would last and thought the fallout would be contained. By the time they realized how dire the situation was, it was already too late.”

  “Because of the dragons,” he surmised.

  “Dragons and other things that crawled from the rift the volcano created. Then there was the poison in the air. It sickened the plants, the animals, the people.”

  “Not everyone obviously.”

  “Too many of us, though. To remain safe, we abandoned our homes and moved into the tunnels that crisscross a good number of the mountains.”

  “Because the dragons can’t come after you in here.”

  “Not the big ones. The little ones we can handle.”

  The incredulity had him muttering. “Dragons are real, and they can fly. It seems impossible. I mean the size of them alone.” He remembered the shadow he’d seen with its massive wingspan.

  “They weigh less than you’d imagine. While we’ve not managed to take out many of the large dragons, we have had success with the less sizeable ones. Their bones are quite light, extremely sturdy without being fully solid. They are comprised of an intricate matrix system that is quite durable and light. Everything about them has adapted to allow them the ability to fly.”

  “And track down prey despite the lack of visibility. They are probably hunting via heat signature,” he mused aloud.

  “Gorri says it might be motion or scent.”

  “Who is Gorri?”

  “One of the people, along with Milo and Lila, who helped carry you.”

  Meaning there were at least three other survivors. “Your friend Gorri obviously hasn’t hunted outside much. To hunt via motion implies the dragons can see through the ash, which seems unlikely, and as for scent, given they emerge from above the air currents, we are more likely to smell them first.”

  Her nose wrinkled. “You are right about scenting them. It’s very distinctive and not very pleasant.”

  “Other than flying and being able to carry off people, what else do they do?”

  Rather than immediately reply, she stared at him. “Aren’t you going to check on your wounds at all? Ask me what we plan to do with you?”

  “I will. Eventually.” He offered a slow smile. “But seriously, dragons. Do you have any idea how radioactive that is?”

  While not one for fanciful notions, there was a certain appeal in being the heroic knight that rescued a damsel from them. He cast a covert glance at Kayda with her long hair tied back from her face, the angles of it sharp, probably from lack of proper meals. Her brows light like her lashes. Her lips pale and her eyes the palest blue he’d ever seen. He noted the pointed tip of an ear peeking from her hair.

  “Radioactive?” She mulled the word aloud. “In Diamond, we prefer the term icy.”

  His lip tilted at a corner. “Learn something new every day. Wait until I tell my sister I saw a dragon. She will freak.”

  The light in her expression died.

  He didn’t need to read her mind to know why. She didn’t think he’d ever see Casey again. As if. He wasn’t about to die without goading her about something he’d done that she would envy. “Tell me more about the dragons.”

  “What else do you want to know?”

  “What do they eat? How do they fight? Weaknesses?” He wasn’t even sure she could answer, although she seemed pretty knowledgeable about their general structure. He found it odd that she’d been allowed to care for him, a man, alone. If Casey found someone, he’d have been standing over them to make sure they understood she wasn’t to be touched. Yet no one appeared to be nearby, and Kayda didn’t seem concerned at all.

  “They eat anything that moves. When they fight us on the ground, they like to lunge with their heads, but that’s often a feint for their tails. Knocking their prey down allows them to pounce and tear with their teeth and claws,”

  “They obviously like to carry their prey away,” he said wryly, his shoulders twinging in remembrance.

  “That’s because they don’t eat on the ground where it’s ashy. They usually take their dinner back to their lairs.”

  “Lairs?” He snorted. “It was a ledge on a mountain covered in bones.”

  “Call it what you like, then. The supper table. Nest,” she hotly retorted. The spots of color in her cheeks contrasted the paleness of her skin. Had it ever been kissed by sunlight?

  “So they don’t eat where they hunt and are savage when they attack.” Which he knew firsthand. “What kills them?”

  “Their biggest threat is each other. Dragons like to fight in the air, to the death. The loser is the one that falls to the ground and then gets ripped to pieces.”

  “Savage.”

  “By our observations, they are territorial.”

  “You’ve dealt with them yourself?” he asked.

  “A few times. Less than I used to.” Her lips once more turned down. “We don’t have the numbers to go after them intentionally anymore. Not to mention, every time we kill one, another soon takes its place.”

  “But they can die?” It seemed important to clarify.

  She nodded. “Yes.

  “What’s their weaknesses?” Because the next time he encountered one, he intended to be the one walking away.

  “Damaging the wings will obviously ground them. Their necks are the softest part, but that said, the skin is still very tough. Proper impact is needed to penetrate. Eyes, of course, are vulnerable. But even if you blind them, they are still dangerous. When it opens its mouth, a well-thrown projectile can lodge itself in the palate and cause it to panic.”

  The more Kayda told him, the more intrigued he became. She obviously either had the experience she claimed or at least studied the knowledge available.

  “What’s the best way to take them down?”

  “In the early days, there used to be hunters who went after them with spears. Three for each side to pin the wings and then they shot it in the head with guns.”

  “Was it effective?”

  “Only until the bullets ran out. Then they had to use daggers and swords.” Her lips turned down.

  He got the feeling things didn’t end well.

  “Sounds like they’re tough, but not impossible to kill. I don’t suppose you have a stash of grenades?” he asked hopefully.

  She shook her head.

  “Machine gun? Rifle? Spear?” Each query saw more shaking.

  “What do you have in way of defense?”

  She pointed to the sheath at her hip. It held a pitted machete.

  He stared before saying incredulously, “That’s all you have?”

  “When people die outside the tunnels, their weapons don’t ma
gically return,” she snapped. “And it’s not as if we have the means to make new ones.”

  “Fuck.” He said the word slowly. The situation was even more dire than he could have imagined. No wonder she claimed they were fucked if all they had were dull blades to fight with. “I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”

  She snorted. A derisive sound. “Go right ahead and make all the plans you like. But I should warn you they will fail. We fought hard when the dragons started killing us. Daily hunting parties went out with one purpose. Eliminate the dragons.”

  “I’m going to take a wild guess and say it didn’t work.”

  A sad shake of her head. “When the snow melted and the air turned to poison, they spilled from the lava rifts, so many of them, as if they’d been thriving underground.”

  “And now they’re thriving above it. Fuck.” The threat to the Marshes and everyone in it had just increased, and they didn’t even know it. “I am going to assume, given all you’ve told me, that there isn’t a way to get a message out of here.”

  She arched a brow.

  “Yeah, I guess not.” His brow creased in thought.

  He had to stop the spread of the ash poison and now also keep a dragon—of all the fucking things—from claiming new territory. Both problems appeared to have one root cause. The volcano. But how did one stop a force of nature? And even if he did, would that solve the problem with the dragons?

  “Where is the volcano that started all this shit?”

  “I think that’s enough of me answering questions for you,” she said, clasping her hands. “My turn, starting with, who are you?”

  “Cam.”

  She stared at him.

  He had to admit he was enjoying teasing her. Probably not the smart thing to do given he didn’t know her and what she wanted from him.

  “My name is Cam, currently from the Marshlands, more specifically the capital city of Eden. Formerly of Haven, which is now an outpost of the Marshlands. But before that I lived in Emerald.”

  Her mouth rounded. “You lived in the Emerald Wasteland?”

  For some reason, this made his lips tilt. “I did. Not a great place. I don’t recommend visiting.”