“As the heir apparent, they will wonder where I’ve gone. They’ll come looking for me,” I said, sliding a glance towards Sadie. I had to strain my ears to hear what she whispered out of the side of her mouth.
“Get ready, Sirris.” Out of the corner of my eye I watched as, similar to my own scales, the fine dark hairs along her neck and arms flattened to shiny brown disks. I wanted to scream that it was too risky. There were humans on the shore of Hollow Top Lake, and they weren’t ever going to be ready to see what she would become.
But looking at the steadily advancing Seascrill, there to make sure I’d made my last swim, I realized there were just too many of them and I wasn’t ready to die.
Sadie continued to whisper, her voice growing deep and raspy, “When I make the change, you’ll need to be scrambling onto my back, quickly. I’m hoping the shock of seeing what I am will slow them down and buy us enough time to get beyond the range of those hand bows.”
I looked back at the leader of the Seascrill, raising my staff threateningly, and calling my magic and sending it coursing in blue fire along its length. It proved enough of a distraction. They weren’t watching Sadie as long as their eyes were on me. When they realized what was happening, they took several unsteady steps back on their newly formed land legs, uttering cries of alarm as Sadie completed her transformation into her true form, a copper-colored dragon the size of a small bus. Her tracksuit hung in shreds and her backpack was looped about her gleaming, scaled neck.
She tried to buy us more time yet, by opening her jaw wide, her needle-like teeth gleaming as she roared at them, sending them backpedaling for cover. We were out of time as I scrambled with a complete lack of grace onto her back, using my legs to clutch at her sides, my fingers holding tight to the raised bony protrusions running along the back of her neck. Sadie’s leathery wings spread wide, the span easily fifteen feet and catching the wind as they moved. And then we were rising into the air to the top of the boulders and away from the shore where the Seascrill were already recovering their wits.
Leaping forward, they swung their weapons up and opened fire. I screamed, leaning low across Sadie’s neck as I felt the whir of those sharp darts just past my shoulder. We cleared the rim of the small rock enclosed bay, and Sadie gave a growl, a great shudder moving along her length that nearly unseated me. Above the rocks we continued up at a sharp angle, heading for the relative cover of the clouds to hide us from the sight of any humans along the shore who might be watching a monster take to the sky.
It seemed such a short time later that the damp mists of the clouds were brushing my cheeks. I moved my hands along Sadie’s sweat-slicked scales to adjust my hold. When my hands encountered something wet and sticky, she gave a long, low rumble in her massive chest. I pulled my hand away from her side long enough to glimpse the dark crimson dampness coating my fingers. I stared in horror at the bloody evidence. Sadie had been shot.
CHAPTER TEN
Sadie’s wings dipped suddenly, and I screamed as I tried to hold on. The ground was rushing up to meet my face way too quickly for my liking as we came in for a rough landing. We’d cleared Drae Hallow and Shephard’s Mountain. We were near Bear River Falls and the springs hidden behind them. I gave a small scream as Sadie stumbled and went down along the cliffs, skidding several feet through the dirt. The impact jarred my tenuous hold. The next thing I knew, I was flying over her head and tumbling along the ground. Rocks and dirt found places on my person I didn’t care to think about. When I finally gathered my wits, I turned to see how Sadie was faring. She was crouched on her hands and knees, the last of her coppery scales fading from her back and arms as she staggered to her feet, her eyes wild. A smear of bright crimson along her shoulder caught my eye, and I was up and running. I hadn’t imagined it. She’d been hit while we were escaping.
“Sadie, hold up. You’ve been shot.”
She glanced up at me, and I knew I was getting an earful before she opened her mouth and spit out the mouthful of dirt she’d collected during her less than graceful landing.
“No kidding. Figured that out, did you?” She gave a sigh of disgust and reached up to remove the backpack from around her neck, jerking the zipper open. Her hands dived deep, and she removed a pair of stretchy jeans and a long-sleeved tee, groaning when the rough fabric brushed against her wound as she tried to pull the top on over her head.
She mumbled, “The bugger winged me as we were taking off. Good thing he had lousy aim or we might have been having a crash of a different kind.”
I moved in and helped her the best I could, relieved when she grudgingly accepted. With Sadie, you never knew.
“We need to get that looked at. It’s bleeding pretty good. I think it’s more than just a light graze.”
Sadie slanted me a dazed look, and I realized she was shivering and her lips were tinged blue. She’d lost her jacket in the change and being shot had taken a toll. She was clearly exhausted and in no shape for a run back down the mountain—not just yet. I looked at the falls, roaring only a few feet from where we stood. “The springs. Let’s take a breather, warm you up, maybe get that wound washed out in that healing mineral water, and then when you are a little more yourself, we can head out.”
Sadie’s mouth was open to protest when she suddenly snapped it shut. “Fine. But an hour at most. That’s all I need. I think we need to let the others know about the crazies running around the mountain trying to kill you.”
I gave her a guilty look. “Well, some of them at least.”
Sadie rolled her eyes, bending down and trying to snag the pack with her fingers and missing twice. She was almost done in. I stepped up, snagged the pack and took her arm, slinging it over mine.
“Come on, Dragon Warrior. Let this Mer-woman take charge for a change and get you warm.”
Sadie gave a dark chuckle. “Who made you boss?” she teased.
I laughed back, but not in a funny, ha-ha way. “No one. Not yet, they haven’t. I’m meaning to make sure that never happens. I have all the throne I need right here on Shephard’s Mountain.”
Sadie was a lot taller than me. By the time I made it to the mouth of the cave beneath the falls, I was gasping for breath and Sadie was growing heavier by the moment. Beneath the cover of the rough tonnage of water from the Bear River racing over the cliffs, I stood in the entrance to the caverns and looked back the way we’d come. Through the icy veil of water, I saw movement where we’d been just minutes before. I could just make out three figures as they broke free of the tree line and into the open. I didn’t need to see them better to know who stood there, looking frantically around—looking for me and Sadie, the Dragon, I knew. But they wouldn’t find us, not where we were. Their sense of smell out of the water was not as good as mine, being half Onlander as I was. I turned away from them, and together Sadie and I staggered through the warming mists and into the cave and the healing, mineral-rich waters.
An hour did wonders for her waxy complexion and blue tinged lips. I still had my jacket. I had to insist she shove her longer arms into it later as we dressed. The wound really had been just a scratch even though it had bled like crazy. The jacket was a tight fit, but by the time we stood on the other side of the waterfalls where the Seascrill had stood earlier before they’d given up, Sadie looked more herself. Shifting and being shot had taken a lot out of her, but she’d recovered quickly enough. She started down the trail ahead of me. I hesitated. She looked back at me, one dark brow raised. “What are you doing? We have to get the car somehow and let your dad know what happened.”
“I’m not going back—not yet.”
“What do you mean? Sure you are.”
“I have to go back all right. To Tarus. I have to stop remaining silent. I have to make the Council see I can’t be what they demand.”
Sadie looked at me incredulously, like maybe I had a loose screw bouncing around inside my head. “Are you nuts? Did you just miss the part where we almost died?”
“I missed nothi
ng. But that’s just it. They’ve lost us. They think I’m running to my family. If I’m quick, they won’ be expecting me and so they won’t be looking. I can’t miss the opportunity to sneak back to Tarus unseen.”
“How are you going to get there, to Deep Lake? We’re miles away from there now, on the other side of the mountain.”
I glanced towards the roaring falls and the river they emptied into. “Not exactly. You presume all rivers run above ground. The Bear River runs down the mountain, and it also runs beneath it and empties on the other side into Hollow Top Lake and then, if you know the way, into Deep Lake. Mirra showed me the way.” Which was a bit of a lie. She’d told me about it. I’d never gone that way myself. And I knew well the chances of that river branching in the dark beneath Shephard’s Mountain were pretty good. I could get lost down there if I wasn’t careful.
“What if you’re wrong? What if you go back and get in trouble and there’s no one there to help you? You’ll be on your own.”
“I know. I don’t expect you to understand.”
Sadie’s expression grew mulish and then abruptly she sighed, her lips quirking. “All right. And here I always thought I was the stubborn one.”
“You are,” I challenged, giving her a fond smile. We were so different, but she was totally my best bud.
“Be careful, Sirris. Keep your eyes peeled for what hides in those weeds.”
I laughed and sent her a smile, but she was already heading down the mountain at a ground-eating lope. She’d recovered nicely from being shot and turning into her Dragon. But then, of us all, Sadie was the real warrior. Sometimes, I thought the rest of us were just along for the ride.
I turned to the falls and stripped down to my Gypsum suit, storing my clothes in my bag and hiding them behind a decent sized rock near the edge of the cliff face, the spray from the falls misting my cheeks and swirling about my head. It was at least a hundred feet drop to the pool at the bottom where the water emptied into and continued down the mountain into Breathless. It was also where the underground tunnel was.
It was a deadly dive for a human, but I was a Sylvan, and we were made of sterner stuff. I backed up a pace to get a running start. And then I was sprinting, leaping off the edge in a perfect arc and diving headlong into that icy pool at the bottom, my eyes already changing, my pupils widening. My legs fused in the mist to form fins and a tail by the time I twisted nimbly, pushing off the rocky bottom with my webbed fingers and swimming towards the dark shadows beneath the roaring falls.
It took me a few minutes, with my eyes adjusting as the darkness deepened to near absolute, but there was just enough light for me to make out the even deeper opening, small and at the very bottom of the river, a crack in the rocky wall I could just breach. There was a back current here, moving deeper into the mountain and underground. I shivered but not from the cold. There were so many ways this could go south if I was wrong about the path of the underground river, but if my sister could do it, so could I. My eyes expanded to maximum capacity. Even so, I navigated the thin tube mostly by feel, my fingers glazing the slick walls and hoping the passage stayed large enough for me to follow. I needn’t have worried. The river had been carving the walls beneath Shephard’s Mountain for as long as it had chiseled the length of the water chute above. And then there were the caves. Several times I surfaced, the lichens crawling over the rocky surfaces in the caves casting just enough of their own luminescent light for me to make out huge caverns and small rooms along the way where, if I’d had a mind to, I could have gotten out. But I wasn’t there to explore. Maybe another time I would if I lived long enough. Instead, I continued on, cringing when the river did indeed V in different directions at least twice, forcing me to backtrack along thin corridors, my heart in my throat.
When I emerged into a large lake and surfaced, I recognized the contours of Hollow Top Lake. I’d been underground for close to an hour. The day had faded to dusk, and I looked at the dark silhouette of the distant stand of trees, their dark shadows against the fading sunlight in the background setting them ablaze. It was gorgeous, but I didn’t have time to admire the view.
With one last look, I was under again. I remembered what Mirra had told me about the tunnel leading out of Hollow Top. I angled near the bottom, taking a hard right to the east and following the contours of the lake until I was nearly on the opposite side. I was searching for the large bed of pondweed and the massive pear-shaped boulder that rose from its depths a matter of yards offshore. I almost missed it, pulling up sharply when the weaving fronds of weed parted in the current and revealed just the tips of the moss covered rock. With an explosion of bubbles, I angled down, pushing the greenery away from my face until I was near the rocky base. The swirl of a current where there shouldn’t have been pulled me forward and into the next opening. Once more, my eyes widened to pull in the almost nonexistent light. Like before, the tunnel widened almost immediately, and I could surface into several tiny holes no bigger than a man, and one decent sized cave. It was less than a half-mile to Deep Lake and almost before I knew it, I was punching through into the waters of my home lake. I got my bearings, surprised to realize I was less than a hundred yards from my favorite rock. I had emerged into another field of pond grass, the fronds weaving above my head and working to conceal me. I rose in the lake with caution, ready to return the way I’d come if I had to. I didn’t want to meet up with any Seascrill. I was sure they wouldn’t be in the mood to talk. But the waters were clear, and I watched as several arm sized bass swam by along the river bottom, searching for a tasty meal. My stomach grumbled in protest, and I wished I had time to hunt. It had been too many hours since lunch, and I was starving. But that wasn’t why I was here, and spinning across the lake after a fish would have been a good way to alert any lurkers to my presence. I moved towards Tarus, sticking as close to the bottom and away from the open as I dared. Being trapped against the bottom posed its own dangers, and I had to be careful.
I neared the domed city, seeing who was guarding the entrance. I waited behind a large wall of rock for several moments before I realized I couldn’t see anyone because no one was there. I frowned. That was odd. They should have circled around from the back of Tarus by now. Cautiously, I took a chance, darting for the opening, giving a sigh of relief and sending a cloud of bubbles wafting over my head as I entered the slim, short tunnel. Hopefully, I could convince the twelve guards guarding the pool into Tarus to let me in. I was the queen-elect, after all. Surely they wouldn’t have an issue with it. A frisson of alarm skated along my spine as I rose to the surface. I emerged in the darkened room, looking around in confusion. Where were the guards?
Something was wrong. I got out and snagged my bag where it still hung on a rack and changed as fast as I could. Just because it was empty now didn’t mean it would be forever. I moved along the building’s central hall to the doors that opened into the main courtyard of the market district. I held my staff ready, nerves sending a faint blue gleam of tension sizzling along its length. I was further alarmed to see no one about here, either. I knew that night had fallen. I hadn’t expected to see crowded streets, laughing children, and arguing adults haggling over a fair trade for their dinner, but there was always someone—some night owl or set of guards wandering about, even after dark.
Cautiously, I moved along the edge of the street, keeping to the deepest shadows cast by the faint light left over from the webs of the Silk Maidens, the vast colony of spiders that lived in the upper ceiling of Tarus. They were less active at night, causing the light from their webs to dim.
I was halfway to the palace when a noise across the street made me freeze in alarm, plastering my body against a building. Someone was coming. I had just looked around for a place to hide when two hands reached out of nowhere, one over my mouth and another about my waist, and yanked me backwards into an open doorway. I struggled against the strength in those arms, panicking as they pulled me into the building and out of sight. I stared through the darkened o
pening as a group of Seascrill suddenly emerged onto the street, their weapons drawn and their eyes searching for…me? But that made little sense. They had no way of knowing I’d followed them back at night, where I had no business being. I stopped struggling. Whoever held me prisoner didn’t want to be seen any more than I did. Maybe they didn’t want me dead, I hoped. Almost as soon as I stopped fighting, the hands fell away, and I whirled to get a good look at my attacker. It was one of the guards from the pool. A closer look at him, and I realized someone had beaten the snot out of him. He was covered in bruises, his eyes dark with pain and fear. A long gash ran along his side where a knife had grazed him.
“What’s going on?” I whispered.
“We are under attack. We change shifts at nightfall, another twelve to take our place. Well, the replacements arrived as planned, uniformed and armed, only by the time we realized we didn’t know our replacements, they were on us. They killed several. A few escaped into the tunnel. I managed to get away, back into Tarus. I’ve been hiding here ever since. They took the Royal Family—your sisters, and Dael. And Tarus Council, too. All gone. They’ve put out a curfew. Anyone on the streets past dark will be shot, no questions asked.”
I gasped. My sisters were prisoners! Would they keep them alive, and if so, for how long? It was the attack on the palace all over again. Only this time, it had worked. There had been no one there to sound the alarm. They’d been helpless.
“So the Seascrill are in charge? They’ve overtaken the city?” The Tarian guard seemed to hesitate.
“Not just Seascrill. All of them were masked to conceal their identity. But I could tell from the build and coloring that some of them are Tarian.”
That wasn’t good news. Along with a coup to take over Tarus, it sounded like they had traitors in their midst—those working for the Rebellion.
Rule 9 Academy Series Boxset: Books 3-5 Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy (Rule 9 Academy Box Sets (3 Book Series) 2) Page 64
