Page 17 of The Queens and the Kings
Pedr shook his head.
Suspicion deepend her tone. “You don’t know anything?”
I’m sorry,he thought.I’m so sorry. I would tell you everything. Everything.
His silence said enough.
After a pause several seconds long, Britt relaxed her hands and shoulders. Brimming with hurt, she asked, “Why won’t you tell me?”
Britt, I’m sorry.
He licked his lips, but wouldn’t let himself look away. He owed it to her to stare into her eyes as he dodged her fair questions. Questions he never fathomedher asking.
Britt pressed a hand to her temple. “Fine. We’ll deal with . . .that. . . later. At least tell me why you shot fireworks at the wyvern?”
Pedr scoffed. “You want to deal with the havoc a wyvern would wreak on Kapurnick?”
“It didn’t.”
“Because I scared it off!”
“I don’t think that’s true. The wyvern could have done a lot of damage. I saw it. I went to the draguls to make sure they were safe and it flew by. That’s all.”
“You went to the top of Dragul Mountain while a wyvern soared around?” Pedr barked.
“Of course I did!”
“Britt!”
She advanced with flashing eyes, “If you lecture me about risking my safety for the draguls, I will not hesitate to use your own arcane ship against you. Do you hear me?”
Tempted to dare her to try—it was impossible for her to access any arcane on her own—he withheld. If Britt was standing up for herself in pursuit of a question, he wouldn’t stand in her way.
Well.
Sort of.
When he offered no rebellion, she continued. “The time for lectures passed when I was fourteen. Now, let’s focus on thepoint. I saw the wyvern up close. It sawme. It didn’t attack. Not me, not the draguls, though it had plenty of opportunity.”
“The wyverns are ferocious, bloodthirsty creatures,” Pedr muttered, “and you’d be a fool to involve yourself in anything to do with them. Leave it for General Helsing. With any luck, the wyvern will devour her and then we’ll know it’s here for war.”
She flipped a hand, a saucy, dismissive gesture that made Pedr growl. “You’re no help, Pedr. I need to know what to do next, not what youwishthe wyvern would do to General Helsing.”
Pedr nodded to the shore. “Ask sweet aunt Gertrude for information. She’ll help you decide.”
Britt glowered. “You know she hates that name.”
He smiled with feral satisfaction. Little in life gave him the same thrill as irritating General Helsing. Pedr jerked his thumb toward Dragul Mountain, where fluttering wings surrounded tunneled entry points into the rock faces.
“Drakes are pouring in from everywhere, which means your darling wyvern must have also flown over the outer Kapurnikkian isles as well. Ask Gertrude, then bring me any information you can find.”
Britt folded her arms over her chest. Her eyes capitulated first. She’d do it, because that burning curiosity—so like their mother’s—never backed down. But that didn’t mean she liked it.
“General Helsing isn’t going to give you supplies,” she retorted.
Pedr barked a laugh. “I knew that before we landed. Don’t worry about it. I always figure something out. Send Malcolm, will you? He and I need to talk.”
Chapter Six
