Page 51 of Realm of Thieves

“I can’t make the shot from here, but if we get closer I might be able to take them out.”

“How many arrows do you have?” I ask, eyeing the quiver, along with his sword on his back. I know in his boot he has his opal-glass dagger. “Maybe you should give the bow and arrow to me. That way I can protect you so you can concentrate on the eggs.”

He squints at me. “Only the arrows with the green end have been dosed with the serum. Have you even tried archery before?”

“Actually yes,” I tell him with a raise of my chin. “My father taught me target practice. We’d do so with the Soffers’ dragon figurines that he’d stolen, all lined up along the wall around our house.”

“And how old were you then?”

That was before we moved into the city. “Six,” I admit. “But I bet it’s like riding a horse.”

“And have you ridden a horse?”

I don’t say anything to that.

“Let me handle this,” he says, starting to creep forward. “You and Lemi concentrate on being a distraction. And if any dragons come for me when I’m not looking, you take them down. I don’t care how cute they are.”

That’s the thing about blooddrages. It’s easy to think they’re cute and harmless because they’re the size of a cat. But they’re quick and they’re vicious and they have a taste for blood. I’m not certain what they usually hunt here—I’m sure Steiner could have filled me in on their habits—but it’s the blood of something since your bare skin is the first thing they’ll go for. They have sharp claws and long, hollow teeth that will pierce your skin and suck you dry if given the chance. I’ve never personally been bitten, but I have been swarmed until they decided I wasn’t worth the trouble.

“All right,” Andor says. “Follow my lead and stay behind me. When I stop, you stop. Think Lemi understands that?”

“You just let me worry about Lemi,” I tell him, gesturing for him to go forward while I reach back and pull both ash-glass swords out of my sheath. “Let’s go.”

Andor heads straight out into the valley and I follow, keeping slightly to the side, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to see around his tall frame. The moment we step away from the relative shelter of the rift walls, the heat and wind seem to intensify, more of it blowing from the volcanic range. I pull up my neck scarf higher around my mouth and see Andor do the same, breathing becoming more hazardous with the flying dust and sand.

I trust Andor to keep focused on the blooddrages, so I scan the skies looking for anything that might be in flight, plus the fact that a sycledrage might poke its head out of one of the caves at any moment.

We’re about a hundred yards out from the row of nests when suddenly Lemi goes still.

“Andor, stop,” I whisper.

He stops in front of me and we slowly turn around.

The heavythwump-thwumpof wings comes from behind us. They sound heavier than an elderdrage…

“Lie down flat, quickly,” Andor commands, and the two of us drop down to the ground, Lemi copying us, just as the light seems to be eclipsed, a dark dragon-shaped shadow passing over us.

I don’t dare move, don’t dare look up.

It’s a deathdrage.

The largest and most formidable dragon to have ever existed, one that I have only seen from far away.

And right now, it’s flying over us.

Sand and dust get churned up as its massive wings beat overhead, and I hold my breath, praying it doesn’t see us here. It’s too late for Andor to pull out his camouflaging blanket, so we’re sitting ducks.

“Fuck,” I whisper, unable to keep the awe from my voice.

It’s so beautiful.

And unbelievably terrifying. The wingspan alone seems to take up the entire valley, its head the size of a horse-drawn carriage, moving back and forth as it spans the land.

“Watch for the tail!” Andor cries out, and before I can act, he’s reaching for me and pulling me over to him, then rolling us over just as the heavy, whiplike end of the deathdrage’s tail slams into the ground. Lemi shifts just in time and I feel him appear behind us, safely.

“That was close,” Andor says into my ear. He’s on top of me, his arms holding me in a tight embrace.

I nod, the wind slightly knocked out of me, momentarily enjoying the feeling of his weight on top of mine. He’s holding back a little and if he totally relaxed, I’m pretty sure he would crush me.

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