Page 418 of Kingdoms of Night

“I’m fine,” Werian said, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. “I’ll be fine, little fox,” he said to Rhianne. “She must realize we will not retaliate. That we are on her side.”

“But your shoulder…” Isa started. Blood stained his entire tunic and the right side of his trousers now. If Werian had been human, he’d have already been dead.

The dragon glanced at Viridi, then looked him up and down like she wasn’t sure about him.

He held out his hands and spoke in his language. The sounds were strange and lovely.

With an odd rumbling, the dragon closed her eyes and began making sounds at Viridi and then at Werian.

“Is she speaking to you?” Viridi asked Werian. “Can you understand her? I spoke to her in the dryad tongue.”

“It’s an old tongue and she understands it. I believe she is sorry for hurting me and for attempting to attack us all, if I am reading her sounds and body right. It’s an old fae art and I am poorly out of practice.”

The dragon huffed a breath that smelled like citrus and charcoal, then she curled up like a massive cat and promptly began snoring.

Viridi grinned and Werian chuckled as Rhianne shook her head.

“Stay here and heal, Prince Werian. Princess Rhianne, he needs you. I will go for Nico. Viridi will come with me.”

“Are you sure?” Viridi asked.

“No, we must come with you,” Rhianne said, but her attention was all on Werian.

Isa didn’t hold it against her. Her husband was still bleeding profusely. “No. The two of us will find out what we can and make a plan.”

Viridi’s hand warmed her back as she climbed over the side of the ship. The rope ladder grated against her chapped palms as she hurried down to the bobbing skiff. Maybe Nico was simply off in the forest. Maybe she was jumping to terrible conclusions.

The two sailors in the skiff—one who looked like he’d been in the sun since the beginning of time, and the other who had ears like a hare’s—listened as John ordered them to row Isa and Viridi ashore and to keep them accompanied as needed.

What was happening to Nico right now? Isa gripped the edges of the plank of rough-grained wood that served as one of the seats in the skiff.

Viridi’s hand appeared on hers. She looked up into his dark, gorgeous eyes. “We will get him back.”

“But…” There was definitely hesitation in his gaze.

He took a breath and looked away.

The sea grew angry and Isa and Viridi took up oars to help out the two sailors. Isa pulled on the oar as a wave lapped over the edge and soaked her boots and the bottom of her skirts. She still had ash under her fingernails from Viridi’s clothing, and there were splinters in her thumb and palm from … well, she wasn’t sure, but the irritation blended into the aches and pains of the day’s events. All of it was nothing to the way her stomach soured and twisted over her thoughts of Nico and what they could be doing to him.

If he was even alive.

She rowed harder, muscles crying out as she obeyed the quick commands of the sailors. The tide fought their struggle to reach the sand, but at last the skiff’s bottom scraped the shore and they jumped out and looked toward the Brunes’ ship.

The sun-tanned sailor set the last oar inside the skiff.

Isa studied the Brunes’ ship, watching one man move up the mast and climb into the crow’s nest. They were still anchored at that same line of rock that served as a dock. She could have sworn the man was looking at her, but it was much too far to know that.

Isa put a hand on one of the two long daggers Rhianne had given her. They were a comfort, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to use them. She was rusty with fighting after serving the Brunes daily until her body refused to move. She couldn’t simply walk up to the ship and ask if they had Nico. That was a good way to get killed.

Instead she veered toward the forest. They could take a less obvious route toward their pinnaces and ship, watching. Then they could decide how to manage this. Viridi could certainly do something with that wild power of his.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

VIRIDI

“I’m stunned there is such a crew of humans,” Viridi said. “This is why my people must expand their horizons. We have never trusted humans, and hold far too many prejudices.”

He kept talking about this and that, trying to stop the jeweltrees’ whispering from growing too loud, too strong.

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