Page 102 of Shadow Throne King
Despite what the rumors said, animal speak was not a northern warrior commanding an army of wolves to attack his enemy. Animal speak was communication. And the first step wasn’t whatIwanted to say. The first step was listening to find out whattheywanted to say.
“The dragon is angry.”
“His anger brings heat. His anger brings destruction.”
“Get the younglings. The kits will die in this heat.”
“And go where? This is ourhome.”
“We can find a new home. Wewillfind a new home. Come, we will have to dig our way out quickly.”
“They’re trying to escape the volcano,” I said. Wetting my lips, I reached for something. Animal speak had always come so easily to me.Talkinghad always come so easily to me.
“It is not something you can lose.” Iradîo crouched in front of me. “The kindness to understand that they have something of value to say is what makes us Northerners. And you may have taken the name of House Atobe, but your first breath was cold, and ice runs in your blood.”
I closed my eyes to shield myself from her blue-green gaze and the certainty it held. I felt something bump my shoulder, and my eyes opened again. Tallu was sitting next to me, pressedagainst me from shoulder to elbow. In the dim light of the rocks, I could see the pain on his face, the blood that wouldn’t dry because of his sweat.
“I wish I could have shown you the beauty of the Imperium. There is some,” he murmured against my ear.
“There’s a cabin in Dragon’s Rest Mountains waiting for us.” I tried for a smile and raised my hand to his face, resting my fingertips at his temple and trailing them down until I reached his mouth.
A voice passed directly behind me, talking of digging westward. “Once we are free of the tunnels, we can take the path that the dwarves have built down to the plains. Eventually, the dragon will burn himself out and spend all of his fury.”
Iradîo winced, and I knew she heard it, too, but just as she opened her mouth, I interrupted.
“Help, please.” My words were childish. They might as well have been a toddler’s attempt to speak to the house cat, they felt that clumsy in my mouth.
“Is that a youngling?” a voice asked, echoing in the stone. “Youngling, did your parents abandon you?”
“No. Not youngling.” I struggled, breathing deeply. “Full-grown.”
“Full-grown?” The badger’s voice was closer now, and I could feel the rumble as earth moved, unsure whether that was from the dragon’s destruction or the badger digging its way closer to me. “You do not sound full-grown.”
“Learning to speak again.” I clenched my jaw. “We can give you a home. Safe from the dragon.”
There was silence, and I wished I had let Iradîo speak. Sure, she had a tendency to make most mammals annoyed, if not outright homicidal, but at least she had her full abilities and did not rely on unreasonable hope as I was.
The wall shook, and a massive head pushed its way through. The badger turned to me.
“What dwarf has learned the language of badger kind?”
“No dwarf,” I answered. “I am from the north, where the people speak with animals.”
“I have no desire for a home in the north,” the badger said. “But you have a youngling with you. Come.”
She retreated, and I looked between Iradîo and Tallu before turning and crawling into the hole she had made in the wall.
It was almost too dark to see, but we crawled behind as three badgers dug their way through the mountain. They had four younglings with them, and I took to coaxing the kits into motion when the adult badgers were too busy digging. Eventually, the kits collapsed, too tired from the heat and the travel to move further. I needed my hands to crawl, so I grabbed two of the kits and stuck them in my shirt, passing another to Tallu and helping him make a cradle of his shirt for it.
The last mewled helplessly, and Tallu carefully picked it up, putting it next to the other. Then we continued on, the badgers in front, me behind them, Tallu just far enough behind me that I could reach for him in the dark, and Iradîo trailing him. The blood monks were silent shadows behind us, their worry palpable.
I kept checking that Tallu was with me. He always was.
Ahead, a crack in the mountainside let in a cool breeze that felt arctic in the unrelenting heat. The badgers used their claws to widen it. Fresh air hit us like a physical blow, and I gasped, not realizing how desperate I was. There was shouting up ahead, dwarven and badger, as we exited on the side of the mountain.
The mountain was on fire. Trees burned, the smell of smoke thick in the air. When I looked up, tongues of lava jumped over the edge of the mountaintop, smoke and ash clouding the sky.They would see this in the Silver City and wonder what nation the Imperium was burning now.
The air still smelled of sulfur, but with the lake nearby, the air was so much cooler than inside the mountain. Dwarves screamed, shoving past us, and I checked on the badger kits in my shirt. One nuzzled close to my skin, the other mewled for its mother. Iradîo balanced Naî in one arm, stepping closer to Tallu and me to avoid the panicked dwarves pushing their way down the mountain.