Page 18 of Queen’s Griffon (Swords & Tiaras #2)

Chapter 17

Avera

Avera was already so rancid, she couldn’t tell if the humidity soaking her body and clothes made her smell worse than before. If she were to judge by her burly companions, then that would be a yes. Although, she doubted she reeked as bad as her gaolers.

The men oozed sweat infused with a tang of fear. Hard to blame their trepidation. After all, one of their own had been taken by a monster and now they were in Verlora. Was it the death sentence everyone claimed? They’d soon find out.

The moment they entered the overgrown jungle the silence proved eerie. In a normal forest there would be the hum of insects, the rustle of branches from small creatures and birds. Even a slight stir of a breeze.

If it weren’t for the lush foliage, she’d have thought they walked in a dead place. No sound, no movement but for their own.

“Are you sure you’re going the right way?” grumbled Mustachio, real name Lenno.

“I don’t know anything for sure,” she muttered. “I’ve never been to Verlora.” Tell that to her feet that moved without her consciously controlling them.

“If you don’t know shit, then why the fuck are we following you?” snapped Lenno, his mustache quivering.

“Because your captain told you to,” she retorted right back.

“Fucking mouthy, aren’t you. Meanwhile, everyone knows you’re a bastard.”

“That’s royal bastard,” she reminded a tad too sweetly. “And, according to your captain, one who is engaged to your emperor, so you might want to watch what you say.” Not that she had any intention of marrying said monarch, but given Lenno’s intense dislike, it was best to remind him that she remained important lest he ensure she suffer a fatal accident.

“What do you think killed those folk?” whispered Ron, a young skinny fellow whose head kept pivoting left and right as if he feared something would pounce. Most likely accurate, given how many failed to return after setting foot on shore. Or had the kraken taken them before they even landed?

“Who says they’re dead?” argued Frisk. The man who’d been rowing on the skiff now gripped his saber tight.

She’d finally learned their names as they quibbled amongst themselves. The stocky and very tall, smooth-faced fellow was Collin. The barrel-chested guy who didn’t say much, Munro.

“If they ain’t croaked then why ain’t none of them ever come back?” Ron questioned.

“Who says they didn’t? Could be none ever admitted it ‘cause they wanted to keep all the treasures for themselves. Think about it. Emperor wouldn’t have sent us if it was a suicide mission.” Frisk jerked his head at Avera. “He’s planning to marry this one, so he obviously knows we’re gonna succeed.”

“You mean she’ll succeed,” Ron quibbled. “Same can’t be said for us.”

A sobering remark that brought silence again, but the tidbit had proved interesting. They seemed to think this emperor had some power of prescience. It reminded her of Opal, who claimed she could see hints of the future.

Their belief in the emperor helped Avera feel a little more confident. For herself, at least. Ron did have a point. Her success wouldn’t necessarily extend to them.

“Is that a house?” Ron pointed to a large vine-covered mass. Too wide to be a tree and with indents that appeared to be windows and doors.

“Heck yeah. I wonder what’s inside.” Before Lenno could hold him back, Frisk darted through a doorway narrowed by the vines climbing through the opening.

“See anything?” Lenno called out.

“Bah. Everything’s all rotted to shit,” Frisk complained. He appeared in the doorway, disgruntled expression on his face turning to wide eyes as he stared at something behind them.

Avera whirled in time to see a snake dangle down from a tree and wrap around Collin. Before the man could even shout, the snake reeled in its catch.

“Hey there, give him back,” Lenno shouted, racing to stand under the branch coiled with the fat snake who proceeded to crush Collin.

The poor man’s face turned an unhealthy shade of purple, and the vise around his chest must have crushed his lungs for he couldn’t even cry out.

Lenno banged the pommel of his sword against the trunk while Munro and Frisk threw rocks. Ron just stared.

The snake abruptly released its catch.

Thump.

The body fell to the ground, a mishappen mass of broken bones and squashed flesh.

Lenno backed away as the snake lowered itself and hissed in his direction.

“Fucker!” Lenno swung and his sword bit deep into the reptile’s flesh, causing it to swing and thrash. Another hack took its head and the stump spurted red blood. The decapitated reptile went limp, and as its body relaxed in death, it tumbled down to lie on the ground in a huge heap.

Avera had never imagined a snake could get so large. Even worse, it didn’t disappear, making it real and not some magical construct.

The leader of their party scowled. “Fucking oversized snake. Keep an eye on the branches overhead. Where there’s one…”

There would be others.

A short distance from the house, they noticed traces of a road, the paved stones less overgrown than the rest of the jungle. As they followed it, they spotted more houses, none of which Frisk entered. Actually, none of them strayed from the path or spoke. The death of Collin had subdued and rendered them even more wary, but to their credit, they kept on task, weapons in hand.

Nice for them. Meanwhile, Avera still remained without anything to defend herself. She should have snatched Collin’s dagger, however, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to rummage the crushed and oozing body for it.

A strange noise overhead had them pausing and glancing through the boughs of the trees. Avera squinted as Ron exclaimed, “What’s that in the sky?”

It proved large enough to blot what little light streamed through the leaves, casting a shadow that quickly passed.

A shaken Lenno muttered, “Just a bird. Keep moving.”

A bird? It seemed too large for that. Avera couldn’t help but recall Vinmo’s experience and Griffon’s claim he thought a dragon inhabited Verlora. Given what just passed, she found herself thankful for the cover of the trees.

It took them hours to traverse the jungle and emerge on a plateau. The view stunned her to silence. Thus far they’d been subjected to an overgrown mess of greenery, however, below them, spread out with only creeping hints of foliage, was a city.

“Holy fuck, we found Sitnalta,” exclaimed Frisk.

It certainly seemed like it. The massive stone buildings spread as far as the eye could see. Had to be at least a hundred or more of them with roads leading between, the pavement broken in places by fissures in the ground. The lava that had rolled down from the volcano left dark, humping rivers of solidified rock. The hardened rock filled some of the streets, the flow splitting around buildings, leaving some of them as jutting spires. Past it, a mountain overshadowed the ruins of the city, the peak of it wreathed in mist.

“Where to now, your majesty ?” asked a sneering Lenno.

The tug wanted her to head into the city, but she saw no easy way to get there. They stood on a bluff which dropped straight down, the sheer face inadequate for climbing. A pity she didn’t have any sheets. They’d come in handy the last few times she’d found herself needing to get from somewhere high up. “We need to find a path down into the city.”

Lenno barked out orders. “Ron and Munro, you two head that way and see what you find.” Lenno pointed to his left. “Frisk, you go the opposite.”

“Why do I have to go alone?” Frisk whined.

“Because someone has to watch the royal so she don’t run off.”

“Run off where?” Frisk muttered as he stomped for a look.

He had a point, but Lenno didn’t budge and crossed his arms, glaring until Frisk got moving.

With them gone, Avera sat cross-legged on the edge of the cliff and stared outward. To her surprise, Lenno wanted to talk. “What are we looking for anyhow?”

“Didn’t your captain tell you?”

“Said you knew what we came for. So what’s so important the captain is willing to risk losing the bounty on your head?”

She debated for a moment the harm in telling him and saw none. “We’re supposed to retrieve five special rocks.”

“Special how?” he questioned.

She shrugged. “Not entirely sure but they’ve become popular all of a sudden. I was initially told by someone in Daerva that they’re needed to stop something evil from escaping, but it appears your emperor desires them for a different reason.”

“Are they worth a lot?”

“What do you think?” was her sarcastic reply.

“Don’t get mouthy with me. I don’t give a royal fuck who you are. I’m tempted to toss you from the cliff and tell the captain you had an accident.”

“Your emperor would be most displeased, I wager.”

“As if he’d find out,” he scoffed.

“You don’t have the same awe of him as your captain does,” she remarked.

“Emperor’s just a man like any other. Only reason people are scared of him is ‘cause of his witches.”

“Are they fearsome?”

“Yeah. Foul, unnatural women they are. Wielding forces they shouldn’t. Nattering in his ear.”

“You don’t approve.”

“Emperor’s changed since they started advising him.”

“Changed how?” she asked.

“He got younger, for one. He was a doddering old man with a son ready to take over when the witches did something to give him back his youth.”

The claim surprised. “How is that possible?”

“Magic,” groused Lenno. “Which ain’t right. A person is born, gets old, they die.”

“One would think him being long-lived would be a good thing.”

“Not when it seems like he’s readying for war. He’s been expanding his army. Building a fleet of ships that’s ten times what we used to have.”

“And who is he planning to conquer?”

“As if he’s going to tell a grunt like me.” Lenno sulked.

“Captain Koonis must think highly of you to put you in charge of this important mission since he couldn’t come himself.” She attempted to keep him talking.

He snorted. “I’m here ‘cause the captain’s a coward.”

“You’re not. Of the men he sent, you’re the only one who doesn’t seem afraid.”

“Because I’m not dying today or tomorrow or anytime soon, for that matter.”

“You sound very sure.”

“One of the witches told me how I’d die. Looked me in the eye just before we left and said, ‘ You will meet your fate at the claws of a dragon.’ Which, considering they don’t exist, means she’s full of shit.”

As he spoke, a shadow once more blotted the sky and they both craned to look.

She saw the moment Lenno blanched and understood too. Because that was no bird flying overhead. An extremely large dragon—distinguishable by its long, sinuous neck and tail, massive wings, and the shape of its head—flew past, carrying a kraken in its talons. It landed on a ledge high up on the mountain and disappeared from sight.

Avera should have held her tongue, but she couldn’t help but quip, “Guess those witches aren’t constipated after all.”

Lenno whirled and slapped Avera before she even saw the blow coming. “Shut your mouth,” he hissed. He might have said or done more, but Frisk came stomping back complaining.

“Ain’t nothing that way but fucking thorns.” Frisk sucked at the side of his hand which bled.

A short while later, Munro returned with Ron, the latter smiling. “We found a ramp going down into the city.”

“Let’s get moving then.” Lenno said nothing of what they’d seen.

Avera kept silent, too. No use panicking the others. She already had enough anxiety to handle and now could add the threat of a dragon.

A real dragon.

It explained the deaths of those who’d come before. It also worried her because the fact none but Vinmo ever managed to escape indicated it could and would hunt humans. Did it do so by scent, sound, or sight?

As she glanced at the men surrounding her, she almost sighed because they made no effort to mask their presence. At least if the dragon targeted the noisy men, she might have a chance to escape, but did she really think she could evade an apex predator as well as find the stones and escape Verlora?

According to Opal, not without Griffon.

What she wouldn’t give to still be with her pirate.

How she missed him. Somehow the abrupt man had wormed his way into her thoughts and heart. He might have turned to pirating but she saw the good in how he treated people, how he cared, and how he made her feel. Safe. Seen. Maybe not loved, but then again there was that kiss…

A kiss she hoped she lived to repeat.