Page 63 of The Queens and the Kings
Another guffawed. “They’re livid every day, now that the mineral is late. Again.”
Another cried, “Didn’t even send it, I bet!”
“Agreed.”
“We reported the behavior changes,” said yet another male, his voice rigid. “Not much more we can do. We’ll protect ourselves, let someone else figure out what to do with them. When they’re acting like this, we can only let one fly and do the hunting. At least . . .”
He trailed off.
“Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain anytime soon,” the first commented with a lazy yawn.
Britt glanced at Denerfen. Mineral? Rain? Why wouldn’t they want rain? Denerfen blinked at her, then tilted his head to the side. His wings flared upright in the dragul equivalent of a question. A stirring of wind moved Britt’s hair. The muted glow of light exposed an indent in the wall, just underneath the opening.
Another passage.
Treading lightly, she slipped toward the indent. Firm walls gave way to black air. She hurried inside.
Denerfen flew ahead, leading the way. The annoyed Keeper's voices faded behind her. Another gentle chirrup indicated Denerfen was straight ahead, not above. Within a minute, the telltale glow of an opening appeared. Britt jogged forward, recognizing a corner.
She skidded to a fast stop. Another entrance to the oval, but it wasn’t just an entrance. A doorway. The circular hole was partially covered by a giant boulder that perched on the right side of the opening, hiding most of the arena. The other half lay open to her view. Heart in her throat, Britt advanced to the very edge. Rocks trickled down the slope. She skidded to a stop, landing on her butt.
They were almost on the floor of the arena.
A gap ten steps high separated her from the bottom. A wyvern, blue-gray in appearance, sprawled nearby. The mawkish thing was a hideous color, speckled with spots and dirt. Its leathery skin had a slight sheen she hadn’t noticed from a distance. Up close, its ferocity was intense, singular. It stared to the west.
Out of sight, two wyverns snapped. They wrestled into view, tackling each other. One nipped a wing. The affronted wyvern raged, tearing into his opponent. Two others cried in response. The nearest paced back and forth, glancing west at every other step.
“Den,” she murmured. “They’re . . . huge.”
He shivered.
The wyvern at Kapurnick had frightened her, but not like this. Several of them clustered together made them bigger. Fiercer. Her imagination hadn’t built them up. Theywerethat gargantuan, that horrifying.
A trickle of rocks skipped away from her feet and trailed down the edge, drawing a wyvern’s attention. He spun, screamed at the billowing dust. Another interrupted the sound by slamming into it from the side. A brawl resulted, but not for long.
Denerfen trilled a noise. The tip of his nose rubbed underneath her ear, like a plea.
“What do you see, Den?”
He flew upward, exposing his back leg. Britt’s attention flipped to the wyverns again. Oh. “Chains,” she whispered.
Gigantic chains, thick enough to be seaworthy, anchored the visible wyverns. They attached to a hind leg and the rock floor. Only a few steps away, the Keepers cast bets on which wyvern would win while the fight settled.
Britt sank to her haunches.
How good was their sense of smell?
Why the chains?
If some had to be restrained, why did others fly loose at sea? They mentioned one hunting, but not the rest. Couldn’t they be trusted?
Her questions would remain unanswered . . . for today. She had hours upon hours of walking before she returned to the ship. The waning daylight meant darkness would fall halfway through her trek, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near the wharf at night.
Reluctantly, she backed away from the ledge. A rock broke off the wall, crumbling free in a slow trickle. The wyvern closest toher lifted his head again. His eye swiveled until it locked on her. Britt froze. The dark iris narrowed. A growl issued, low in his throat. The wyvern gathered his legs underneath him.
Britt unlocked. She scuttled back down the tunnel, racing. Denerfen squawked, gripping tight to her dress. A shadow fell over the arena access.
When she gazed over her shoulder, a wyvern eye stared right at her.
