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“No. How did it go for you? Did you find your answers?” Gabrio asks.
“Which ones?”
“Your reproductive questions.”
“Oh. That. You’re in the clear. Vampires can’t get pregnant.”
He lets out a long breath. “And the address? Did you get what you needed?”
“I’m all ready to get back to the palace and do my duty.”
Gabrio looks surprised. “You sound eager to take on your role. What changed?”
I have vampires to talk to. I’ll start with Rool—Where were you born? Who were your parents? Who is the oldest in our kingdom?—then I’ll speak with Mato, to see if they have any information from that period. I want to know more about these legends of doorways opening up.
“I have a lot on my mind. That’s all. So how do we get out of here?” I ask.
Gabrio looks at Master, who stares back at him.
“What?” I say.
“You are not going to like it,” Gabrio replies.
“I’m not getting inside that thing.” I peer down the gaping mouth of a thorn serpent poking up from the dirt floor. Its tongue is army green and covered in a thick slime. “What is that smell? It’s like rotting fish.”
“They eat decomposing flesh in the ground,” he says like it’s just so obvious so why am I even asking.
“You really expect me to crawl in its mouth?” I turn my head away from the smell.
“It is the only way to leave,” explains the scholar standing with us. His fur is almost completely white, and his skin is dark brown. Gabrio says he’s their serpent wrangler.
The wrangler rings a little bell, and two more serpents push up through the dirt floor. “Do not worry. They have no teeth.”
“I’m still not understanding why any sane being would ride one.” I make a sour face. I’ve seen dog crap that’s more tolerable.
One of the serpents snaps at the air, as if demanding food.
“You do not ride them,” explains the wrangler. “You will go inside its mouth, and it will swallow you.”
What?
He continues, “But because they only consume decaying flesh, they will burrow to the surface and spit you out. They consider anything living in their soil to be a contaminant.”
I stand there staring at the three stinky, slimy mouths.
“How did Alwar fit inside one of these?” I ask.
“These are the smaller ones, babies if you will. The largest can grow hundreds of feet long.”
“Lake, you must get inside if you wish to leave,” Gabrio says.
I have pressing business, so staying isn’t an option. Also, this hole in the ground is possibly the creepiest place I’ve ever been. Even worse than the dungeon at the Blood Palace.
“Okay, so once I get in, how do I breathe?” I ask.
“You hold your breath,” Gabrio says. “But you’re a vampire, Lake. You do not need to breathe.”
Funny because ever since my sexual experience with Bard and Gabrio, I’ve been breathing. I wonder if it’s just a reflex left over from being human. After Bard healed or did whatever he did to me, I actually feel almost normal again. Less like a monster, more like Lake.
