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“The fuck it does!” She bucks in my grasp. “You know nothing about my relationship with my mother or my country. And I fail to see what kidnapping me or anyone else will achieve for you. My mother will be dead or imprisoned soon, and there’s no one to pay a ransom for me, so if you’re not going to eat me or kill me, you may as well let me go.”
I fly on, my wings beating slowly and steadily. The other dragons keep pace, each soaring some distance away. I wonder if their captives are as talkative as mine. My brother Varex seems to be having trouble keeping hold of his.
This plan of mine was an impulsive one, but I’m convinced it will work. It must.
We’re gliding over the sea now. Dark water dappled with white foam surges below, and the sky above is a riot of color. The torn clouds glow amber and rose and gold. I like to think that the heavens themselves are paying tribute to the fallen—
“I’m hungry.”
Fucking humans. I ignore the girl’s comment and flare my nostrils, drawing in breaths of the salt-tinged evening air. The glory of the sky cannot fail to—
“I’m hungry.”
“You’ll have to wait.”
“But I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and that was just a piece of fruit and a tiny wedge of cheese. I was baking all morning and part of the afternoon, making pastries for the wounded soldiers, so I skipped lunch, and I’m so hungry I feel sick. Can’t we turn around and go back? Maybe I can find some berries, or pilfer a pie from someone’s windowsill—people do that, don’t they? Leave their pies on windowsills to cool? I saw a picture like that in a storybook once… do you know what a storybook is? Have you ever read a book? Of course you haven’t, because dragons can’t read—”
I growl low in my throat and tighten my claws again. The girl gasps with pain, but she keeps talking.
“Listen, I don’t know what you plan to do with me but if I die of hunger before you achieve it, that will be a disappointment for both of us. I need food, and I need it now.”
“I’ll feed you when we reach our destination. Humans don’t die of hunger after a few hours without food.” I say it confidently, but in truth, I’m not well-versed in the habits and care of humans. I shall have to do some research when we get to Ouroskelle. Perhaps one of the elders can—”
“Where are we going? What kind of food do you have there?”
By the bones of my ancestors, am I never to finish a full thought again? “We have meat, berries, and vegetables. And sometimes fish.”
“Do you have tea?”
“What the fuck is tea?”
“It’s a drink. I’m very fond of it. I drink several cups a day. A light fruit tea with breakfast, something darker and stronger during the morning, cold sweetened tea with lunch, spiced tea with honey for the afternoon, and an herbal blend to promote sleep in the evening. I take that last cup with a little milk.”
“But… what is it?”
“It’s hot water flavored with different kinds of leaves depending on the taste and properties you want.”
Hot water… with leaves.
I’m regretting my choice of human. Regretting it deeply. If I could go back and snatch a different one, I would. Why did I have to choose the fluffy pink girl on the tower instead of a decent peasant woman with simple clothing and some common sense?
I glance over at Varex and am astonished to see his woman climbing up his foreleg. She manages to claw her way over his shoulder and swing astride his neck. Did Varex suggest that she ride him, or did she get the idea herself? Her red hair streams behind her as they fly, and even though Varex does a few swerves and dives, she stays firmly lodged on his back.
“I’m thirsty,” complains the Princess.
I stifle a groan.
The flight to Ouroskelle has never seemed so long.
4
It’s dark when we land. Thanks to the patches of cloud strewn across the night sky, there’s not much starlight or moonlight. The dragons can apparently see in the dark; they don’t seem to want or need a light source. As a result, all I can discern of our destination is a heaping, mountainous bulk.
The black dragon soars into a rocky tunnel. Cool wind rushes beneath his wings and across my face. We break out again, into an open space, but only for a second, and then we’re weaving between rocky pillars, dark columns flashing by on either side at breathtaking speed, and I’m so sure we’ll crash into one of them that I almost scream. He streaks upward, skimming close to the face of a cliff until he reaches the top. He darts into a cave, flying a little way in before he drops me.
I suck in a sharp breath, expecting to tumble painfully onto the rocky floor—but instead I land on a thick mat of soft, feathery grass. At least, that’s what it feels like. Everything is deep, inky black, except for the roundish entrance of the cave, which is a lighter, chalky sort of black, a window into the night.
I hear the dragon land, his claws scraping against stone, his wings flapping in the dark. He exhales, and a puff of superheated air illuminates the cave briefly. Rock walls covered in symbols surround me, and I’m lying in a gigantic nest.
