Page 133 of The Queens and the Kings
“What?” she whispered.
The wyvern peered at her, head lowering. The succinct, masculine voice returned.
Splash water on the metal.
Blessed mermaids. The wyvernspoketo her. Shock rendered her momentarily speechless. A not-so-gentle nudge with his tail smacked her out of it.
Immediately, if you please,the voice hissed, any pleasantness absorbed by sheer command. Britt spun on the spot. Denerfen alighted on her outstretched palm, answering her silent summons. “Water,” she pleaded to him in utter disbelief. “He wants water.”
He zipped away.
More sailors sidled their way to either side of the wyvern. They flanked the front on the left and right, with several congregating in the middle. Most of them stayed put, talking to each other. Weapons flashed in their hands.
The wyvern inched backward until he hit a wall, forcing Britt into a corner that protected her from view. The general glow of a lantern revealed an elaborate and familiar tattoo on his chest and neck. He was the same wyvern from Kapurnick and the first ship. Hadn’t she seen him at the arena, as well?
Britt hid behind the back leg, following Denerfen’s subtle signs of life as he soared to a corner of the room. The wyvernedged its leg forward, allowing her to grope blindly along the wall, following Denerfen’s path.
“No one in here!” a sailor cried. “Wherever she went, it’s not this room.”
“Where else would it be?” another growled. “She locked us out of the staircase. This is the only exit!”
“Keep looking! She can’t be anywhere else.”
The wyvern spun, snapping at a sailor. All eyes drew to the beast, allowing her to sidle along until her toes hit a water bucket. Suppressing a swear word at the pain shooting through her foot, she scrambled for the bucket edge before it toppled. Her fingers sloshed into a knee-high water barrel, a little over halfway full. She bit her bottom lip.
Would it be enough?
“Little stowaway,” sang one of the sailors. “Come out, little stowaway, and we shall not be so hard on you.”
One chortled.
Another silenced him. Britt pulled the bucket off the ground and began to sidestep her way back.
“We know you’re here!” a gruff sailor called as he looked the wrong direction. “You come with us or the wyvern kills you. Boss’s words.”
Idiot.
Liketheycontrolled a Wyvern King.
Only a few steps away from Britt, one of the sailors tripped into a wall. The smell of beer washed with him. She’d have to move fast. Nose wrinkled at the foul smell wafting from the inebriated man, she scuttled around him.
As she moved, her left elbow collided with the wyvern leg. Water sloshed, trickling down its leg and causing the metal to sizzle and froth. She tipped her head.
What was this?
The wyvern lowered his wings, crouching. It blocked her body from the retreating men, who didn’t dare move closer. He blocked most of the stray lantern light, but she managed to squint through the shadows.
Using cupped hands, Britt dribbled water on the fire-red skin around the manacle, which bubbled as well. Flecks of embedded metal reacted by flaring from the water. She winced. That had to hurt.
Yet, the metal degraded.
All of it,the wyvern insisted.I’ll distract them.
She had no time to protest. His head lowered, hissing. The men, stirred up by fear, shouted and shrieked to move out of his way.
Britt bit her lip, tipped the bucket to the wyvern’s leg, which remained blessedly immobile, and carefully drained more. The hissing sound became a hair-raising, pained scream.
While the wyvern roared, chaos erupted.
