Page 91 of Shadow Throne King
Topi and Pito clasped hands, biting their lips but not saying anything. Tallu was unnaturally still, thinking something over, his frown deepening. Beyond the mountains, we would have to move quickly and quietly to find the lake and get back into imperial territory. The people living on the border of Krustau and the Imperium had very little love for either nation, and our party would be under attack if anyone recognized even one of us.
I nodded, considering my options. They varied from bad to deadly, as though I were trying to choose between facing my sister’s wrath or jumping in with the sea serpents to escape it.
Vostop was answering questions about the route when I shook my head, turning to Tallu. His posture was stiff, gazeintense. Even among the people here who positioned themselves as tentative allies, he was holding so much of himself back.
His eyes returned to his brother, still sleeping in Koque’s arms. He couldn’t seem to look away. With Hallu asleep and the blood monks keeping watch outside the cavern, there was no way to test if Hallu was suffering from the same side effects of the curse as Tallu. Would he be able to see the ghosts as well?
“Is this our only option?” Tallu asked after the questions had dwindled.
“It is the only way I can see out,” Vostop said. “I cannot imagine anyone will think to take the route. It is long abandoned. As long as we are quiet, there is a good chance he won’t know which tunnel we are walking.”
“Then we must do it,” Tallu said, glancing at Koque. She adjusted her grip on Hallu, nodding sharply.
“Good.” Vostop closed his eyes, exhaling a long breath. He nodded to himself, then stood, gathering a few things from around the room. A few lanterns, a couple of tattered blankets, a pair of shovels so worn that the tips of them had gone flat. He gave one of the shovels to Tallu and offered me the other one. I hesitated, then let my hand fall to my side.
“I can’t go with you,” I said.
There was an explosion of whispered noise, both Tallu and Iradîo turning on me. In Iradîo’s arms, Naî cracked open one eye, deeply annoyed at being woken.
“Stop,” Tallu said, the command so sharp it stilled even Iradîo’s tongue, although she did narrow her eyes at him. “Airón, what do you mean?”
“We told Saxu that we came here for two purposes: to retrieve the prince and to stop whatever monsters the Shadow King has at his disposal. We’ve done only one of those things.”
“Airón, Saxu may have been wrong about many things, but not about the truth that we would need anarmyto fight thesecreatures.” Tallu stared at me, and I could only see one of his russet eyes in the shadowed light. The intensity of his gaze burned as though he were waiting for me to tell him otherwise.
In that, I could oblige.
“We don’t need anarmy. We need anassassin. We need to chop the head off Centipede. All these little creatures, like the ones in Pito or Hallu, they are the children of the beast. We need to fight the actual animalia, the one that the One Dragon buried.” I looked up, feeling the weight of the mountain above us. We were deeper in the mines than I had ever imagined being.
“The One Dragon dropped this mountain range on top of the creature to trap it,” Vostop said pointedly. “And it took more time than there are years to count for the creature to get free. Do you believe that you could kill a creature the One Dragon could not? Even the One Dragon admitted she could not kill Centipede alone. Not with his powers. The One Dragon trapped him trying to prove to clever Fox that she did not need Fox’s help to kill Centipede. Perhaps, if she had asked, Fox might have helped her kill the creature, and then none of us would be in this situation.”
“Are you saying you are as clever as Fox, Airón? She was animalia of tricks and shapeshifting, do you claim equal cunning?”Naî didn’t even sound shocked, merely amused, as though she was enjoying watching a small child fall flat on his face.
“I’m saying that whatever King Inor let loose, I need to kill.” I wet my lips. In the cold of the mountain, they were drying more frequently.
“Airón, no,” Tallu said firmly. He took my elbow, dragging me to the far side of the room, not that it provided much privacy. It was darker, Vostop’s lantern not quite reaching the corners of the room, although our voices likely carried further than the light. “We areallescaping this mountain together.”
“I cannot go with such an evil loose in the world. Do you truly think it will stop at the borders of Krustau? It won’t roll over the Blood Mountains, fly up to Risto? Poison the elder trees of Tavornai? I cannot find it in myself to bear the idea of this evil melting the Silver City.” I could hear a whisper in the back of my mind, and my arm was beginning to throb with the ache of venom, as though something had already burrowed itself into my skull, eating away at the brain matter it could find. “I wonder what my great-grandmother would have said, if she had seen what King Wollu did, seen the blood of the One Dragon on his blade, and not ignored what it meant for the future.”
The room was very still, almost as though Tallu and I were alone. His russet eyes were clear and fixed on mine. We both knew what I was suggesting.
If someone had stopped the first Emperor of the Southern Imperium, would the world be better? We were faced again with that choice, and we could not fail.
“If we let it live, if we let its offspring free into the world, then we are letting out an evil that even the One Dragon feared. I cannot do that. Can you?” I wasn’t asking anyone else, and Tallu’s eyes lit in response. He didn’t smile—his expression barely shifted—but the certainty settled in him, straightening his shoulders.
“We will go together,” he said.
“No,” I snapped immediately.
Lightning flashed in his gaze, blood wafted on his breath. “Wewill go together.”
“Only one of us has trained to kill in the dark, Tallu, and it is not you.” I fixed my gaze on him, unwilling to look away, unwilling to see if anyone understood the implied meaning.
“What exactly do you think I have been training for all these years if not to take out an evil that might consume a wholecontinent?” Tallu asked, his double meaning so precise it could slice glass.
“I cannot let you do this,” I said. “It is too dangerous. I will not lose you like this.”
“Do you think I fear death?” Tallu asked, reaching out; his touch snapped with electricity on my skin, lighting my very bones with it.