Page 24 of The Fire Dragon's Mate
I smiled, so pleased, and let myself drift away.
The next time I woke, I was in my chamber and alone. I sat up, confused by why I couldn’t see sunlight or hear the birds that usually woke me each morning. And why wasn’t I up in Cighyss’s lair with him like every other day?
“Cighyss?” I called.
Phineas suddenly appeared in the doorway, making me jump.
“He’s gone.”
“Who?”
“Cighyss. He’sgone.”
Ten
UNDER SIEGE
Everything was chaos. Somehow, without a single one of us noticing, Cighyss had melted the entrances during the night to seal them shut. It was easy to see the way the mountain had cascaded down to lock us inside. He must’ve taken dragon form and done it from outside for no one to see or hear him breathing that much fire. And he’d left the one exit down near the livestock open as we’d all discussed, so we assigned guards to it now.
But why was he gone? Why hadn’t he said a word to anyone?
Why hadn’t he spoken to me?
Some thought Cighyss might be out scouting, trying to ascertain what the sailors had done after he scared them away.
Some feared he could be out there finishing what they’d started, removing the possibility of anyone else knowing about us by killing them all and sinking their ship.
Some thought he might be sacrificing himself, and the children cried to think he had abandoned them.
For two days, we knew nothing. I went out at night with Phineas, the two of us stumbling around in the dark, lookingover the island and the sea for any sign of torchlight. Was anyone coming? I had to assume that if Cighyss had closed the doors before he left that he believed trouble would come for us. But nothing had happened, and that worried me more.
And then, on the third day, we were awoken by explosions.
We were under siege for hours, as one cannonball after another slamming into the mountain. We huddled against the walls, afraid to be in the center where it might collapse on us or to go below where we might be buried completely. No one spoke or moved for the longest time, and I waffled between worry that something would happen and anger that there was nothing I could do to stop it. Aside from daggers and swords—the ones the princes had brought with them—we were entirely unarmed.
Except for the bag of explosives I’d left somewhere outside on my first night here.
I jolted as I realized that I’d left a bag full of bombs behind when I’d gone after Cighyss that night. I hadn’t given them a single thought since, but could they help us? Maybe even offensively?
“Phineas?” I hollered, looking around for him.
Everyone seemed to startle, but then several of them pointed across the open area to where he sat against the opposite wall with his family. I sprinted over and slid to a stop, crashing into him.
“Gods, Declan, what the hell?”
“I’m sorry, but I remembered that I have bombs.”
“What?” several people said.
“They’re outside, though, and I’m not sure where. I’d carried them up from shore to where Cighyss first found me. And I left them there.”
He stared at me a moment, his eyes flicking between mine, and I knew he was strategizing. Even as a boy, he’d always ledour mock attacks when we played. Before I’d understood that our eldest brother would be king, I’d thought Phineas would be an exceptional leader.
“We’ll have to wait for nightfall,” he finally said. “Wear dark clothing. Mud on any exposed pale skin. We’ll need a general direction to search. But if we’re going out, then we’re also going down to the shore to see if we can glean information from those attacking us.”
I gulped at that idea. Searching for the explosives was one thing, but going into the thick of the enemy was another, far riskier undertaking. But I nodded, trusting him.
“If they’re here,” he said, “then it’s possible whatever Cighyss tried to do didn’t work. We need to know as much as we can.”
