Page 140 of The Shadow Path
“She said that we shouldn’t spill blood on Saris Plain,” Carys yelled over the wind.
“Ah.” He nodded. “It is sacred ground to her.”
It wasn’t just because of the sacred ground. There was something else. Something about hunger and power. Something she couldn’t quite grasp as Cadell began to circle down, down, down to the city.
“You’re going home,” Duncan said. “Enough is enough.”
“I’m staying.” She needed to be here. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but she needed to stay.
The dragon flew over the heavily wooded park on the eastern edge of London, and Carys saw the snaking river in the distance as it twisted and gleamed in the silver light, its water flowing ever outward toward the sea.
Something is wrong.
There was a horn in the distance and bells ringing over the city.
“What’s going on?” Duncan leaned over the edge of the coracle. “Cadell, do you hear that?”
The horn blew again, a steady, ominous blast that sounded over and over again.
Dru stared at the wooden wall of the coracle, and Carys saw the air around him shimmer with magic. He closed his eyes, and she saw the shadowy horns rising again over his head in the red glow of the dragon’s body.
Cadell, what is happening?
He is swimming toward the sea.The dragon’s voice was solemn when it came to her mind.There are two dragons following him, but he will not speak to them.
“Who?” she shouted.
“The Great Serpent.” Dru breathed out slowly, and his eyes were black and wide. “He is returning to the sea.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Duncan growled. “The Great Serpent is the protector of the Tamis. The guardian of the city. If he leaves, what the hell does that mean for London?”
In all my years on the earth —Cadell’s voice was solemn—never has the Great Serpent left the river.
“Are you sure he’s leaving?” Carys strained to see more as Cadell swooped down over the city and followed the river, flying behind two smaller dragons who soared over the water, tracking something below. “Maybe he’s just going to check something out.”
“There!” Duncan pointed at a great ridged fin that surfaced for a moment before it submerged. A rippling current of gold trailed after it, and as soon as Carys saw the gold waves, she finally saw the massive outline of the largest snake she had ever seen in her life.
It was nothing like she had imagined, more primordial monster than eel or whale. There were golden-brown scales down his back and large, fan-shaped dorsal fins that rose on his spine, rising and falling through the water as it moved.
It twisted through the city like the river that was its home, passing Lud’s Hill and the coronation throne, swimming by theking’s castle and the white tower next to it, dipping under the bridges where panicked Londoners pointed and yelled.
As it swam, the humans across the city ran toward the Tamis, and Carys could see small creatures—otters, river fae, and seals—slipping from the grassy banks of the river and following.
Mile by mile, the serpent swam as Cadell and the two other dragons trailed after him.
One of the dragons in front offered a curious cry and flew lower down to the surface of the Tamis where the serpent rose, answered with a bellowing call that ripped through the water and the air, then disappeared back into the deep.
Where is it going?
He only says he must return to the sea.
What does that mean?
For the first time since she’d known him, Cadell was speechless.
Duncan spun on Dru. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
