Page 154 of The Queens and the Kings
A wyvern hissed, nudging her with a tail, but Britt didn’t see a key. Stupidly, she reached into her pocket. Two remained. She chose the smallest.
No fit.
An explosion shattered rocks nearby, and a wyvern tumbled to the dirt with a pained sound. Others flocked to him. A second flare ruptured more rocks. Arcane, was it? Were these soldiers complete idiots? They couldn’t destroy the Wyvern Kings with arcane!
Wyverns recoiled. Others shrieked. Her haze continued to clear.
Blessed mermaids.
She had tomove. Understanding fully descended again. Britt fumbled for the next key, dropping it once. Denerfen swooped up the other one and took off to deliver it to the next wyvern. The final wyvern.
Would it be too late?
She shoved the key into the lock, blinking hard through the work of forcing her brain to think. She wrenched it to the side. Another explosion, close enough that debris landed in her hair.
Oh.
They shot ather.
Not the wyverns.
As the lock clicked open, something hard slammed into her from behind. She flew forward, somersaulting across the dirt-strewn ground. Shadows passed over her head. Reeling from the force of her head hitting a rock, she blinked stupidly at the sky.
A wyvern hovered above her, gnashing its teeth.
How many teeth did they have?
The last of the withdrawal completed, clearing her confusion, but not the headache. Her entire, stark situation lay fully present. Panic spurred her to faster action when a soldier came into view through the settling dust. He pointed and shouted.
“There!” he called. “There’s the woman!”
Britt scrambled for the final key. It had fallen out of her hands. Frantic, she crawled through choking dust, headed for a silver, glinting thing. The soldier barreled toward her, arms bent, head bowed as he charged. Her fingers closed on something metallic.
A swoop of tiny, unexpected wings and the scree of a dragul whipped into the soldier’s face. Denerfen clawed at his eyes. The soldier threw his hands up, flailing. The remaining wyvern squawked and struggled against his bonds. Another wyvernadvanced on the soldier. His cry cut short with a grotesquecrunchof bones.
“Denerfen!” she screamed.
Her dragul winged around, heading for her. She sprinted for the final wyvern. Other soldiers appeared from the lessening cloud of dust. A percussive boom sent her sprawling, chin scraped.
Blood oozed from her nose as she pushed off the ground, skidded to a stop at the final wyvern, shoved the key inside, and demanded, “Get on my shoulder!” to Denerfen. He obeyed, burrowing under her hair, tail wrapped around her neck.
The key slid in, spun, clicked.
The final wyvern roared so loud the air vibrated. Britt tossed her hands over her ears and ducked. Soldiers in pursuit halted. The wyvern that took her to the Westlands spread his wings as his terrible roar dwindled. Britt didn’t have a chance to run as the wyvern lifted into the air, snatched her from the ground with his claw, and took to the sky.
A majestic cloud of wyverns followed, rising from captivity and into the shimmering heat.
Chapter Forty Three
PEDR
Jordaire’s jaw dropped.
“You want me towhat?”
Pedr sat on his deck, near the wheel. The arcane resisted Jordaire being too close, but didn’t prevent him from hovering. The sky and the land and the sea didn’t mix well, or willingly.
“Tie me down,” Pedr repeated. “I want you to use your land-based arcane to hold my arms and legs straight so they can’t retract.”
