Page 59 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

He handed me a scarf to tie around my head. We left quietly out the front door, slipping into the mix.

The town—I kept calling it a ‘town,’ but it was much more of a city—held metal aqueducts that led from great water towers through pipes, allowing the citizens to have running water. A sewer system and catacombs dealt with waste.

We passed by a large structure in the middle of town, a structure I took from its size and location to be a public bath house. I’d ask about it later, depending on the outcome of this adventure.

As happy as it made me to see the people of Regno living with these modern-type innovations, the part of me connected to the outliers wept for the harm they caused.

The closer we walked to the castle, hurried without running so as to avoid drawing unwanted attention to ourselves, the more dangerous our predicament became. What if someone noticed Steele?

We trusted no one at this point. Korrigan had been found out. Who was to say Steele hadn’t? For all we knew, Stipator had acted as ifIwas the target as a ruse to get Steele back to the castle along with me to face charges.

He kept the hat pulled down over his eyes. My non-metallic hair stayed put under the scarf.

We made it to the castle gates and moved to the back of the line.

Straining to look around the throngs of people, we watched men and women patted down by soldiers at the front. Anyone who brought a bag had it checked before they were allowed entry. Exactly like the tales of rock concerts I’d heard about while eavesdropping on classmates back home.

That wouldn’t be an issue for me. No bag. Steele, however, still had Stipator’s sword and some knives he’d borrowed from the home where we’d changed strapped to several parts of his body.

“What are we going to do?” I asked. We took another step closer.

Twenty-two

The beginning of the end

“ICAN FIGHT THEM,” STEELE ANSWERED, DISCRETELY getting himself reacquainted with the positions of all the knives.

Although I knew he could, he absolutely could, one fact remained certain. “That won’t save Kori.”

The line abruptly stopped as a large man up front fought the search. An idea came to me.

Grounding my foot into the dirt for maximum contact, I called to any creatures nearby to help.

Nothing happened at first. Then a medium hole opened up in the earth, the dirt collapsing in, and an animal about the size of a groundhog popped out. But although it had those same digging claws, it looked not a bit like a groundhog. It had lizard scales instead of fur, and its iridescent scales moved from green to blue depending on how the sunlight hit.

It made a little chewing sound. That was the only way to describe it. And like all the other creatures not under control by the clans, I understood this chewing to be its language. Its words.

“How can I assist the flesh?” it asked.

I replied in the same chewing language that, I couldn’t lie, still amazed me that I found myself fluent in lizard-groundhog thingy speak. “We need to get the weapons inside.”

“Leave it to me.” The little creature held its scaly, clawed hands out to me.

“Steele, your sword,” I said.

“Can we trust it?” Steele asked.

Without hesitation, I knew the answer. “Yes.”

Steele dipped his head to me, then slowly, probably to avoid drawing attention to himself, he pulled his sword from where it was sheathed under his tunic and handed it off to our new friend.

The hole-digging lizard started to withdraw back into the ground.

“Wait.” I threw my hand out. “What is your name?” I asked.

“You may call me ‘Chami.’”

“Thank you, Chami.”

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