Page 104 of I Dream of Dragons

A harried-looking maid stops as I run by. “Don’t go that way! It’s dangerous. We’re evacuating this floor in case the finnfolk find their way inside.”

Cursing, I put in an extra burst of speed, sprinting toward the noise, ignoring the ache in my legs and feet. More pale-facedservants cross my way and I swerve to avoid them. They call for me to turn back, to turn around and climb back up the stairs where it’s safer.

I keep running, crossing parlors and halls hung with paintings, decorated with busts of famous generals and artists—when a girl appears to my right, out of nowhere, and I stumble to a halt.

“Lynn? Is that you?”

The girl runs away, glancing over her shoulder. She clutches at the necklace she’s wearing, and it breaks. Pearls fall and bounce all over the floor.

Like before.

I know that necklace. It’s the pearl necklace I had in my pocket upon arrival, pilfered from a drowned corpse, the one that was stolen from me.Shetook it? I hadn’t seen that coming.

“Lynn!” I start after her, down another corridor, crossing through a bright hallway and ending in a… cava? I turn in a circle, taking in all the bottles stored in niches in the walls. “Lynn?

No answer.

Dammit, not now. I have to find Jai. Regrettably, I abandon my search for her, wondering how she got out of that cava, if she turned elsewhere before that. Why she didn’t wait for me.

No time for that now.

I have a dagger, the dagger Jai gave me. I will put it to good use. Maybe the sea draks will respond to my voice, despite the snuffing out of my power, recognizing me as their own.

I have to make sure he is safe—not because the king asked me to, but because the thought of losing Jai…

Unbearable.

Blinding.

Why does he feel like he’s a part of me?

You know why.

“You can’t die,” I mutter as I locate a promising set of doors and run that way, a stitch in my side. “You said we’d talk, Jai, you can’t die!”

I push the doors open into the daylight of a terrace, the shouting of guards and screeching of draks hitting me like a punch.

I stagger as a stab of pain blooms in my head, a pain that has nothing to do with the onslaught of noise.

Dizziness hits me.

I think I hear my name being whispered, the sound fluttering around me… inside me. Inside my head.

Somehow I know it’s him.

He’s in trouble.

I walk into a scene of chaos.

Men are lying in pools of blood, moaning or else very still and probably dead. My heart is crashing against my ribs, trying to escape the sight of death, the stench of it, and the fear that I’ll discover Jai lying among them, lifeless and gone.

“Athdara!” I yell. “Where is Athdara?”

Guards are hacking at the tentacles of a giganto-squid that slither about the terrace like snakes, shattering stone urns and benches, while others are using long spears to jab at a sea croc that’s snapping at them. How did the creatures crawl up to the terrace?

“Where are the sea draks?” I shout. “Where is Athdara?”

One of the guards vaguely points to the other side of the terrace and I set off that way. The stitch in my side is turning into a jabbing pain but I ignore it, forcing my legs to pump faster.My running steps echo in my bones, the sound lost in the din of battle.