Page 61 of The Queens and the Kings (The Isles #2)

brITT

The four wyvern Keepers didn’t do much.

At least, they didn’t move quickly when focused on a task. Based on what little work they wrought, she assumed they showed up mostly around mealtime. For almost an hour, they stood within sight of her target and hovered against the arena wall, chatting for a frustrating length of time.

“Fine,” she muttered. “I’ll do what I can while you take your tea. Blessed mermaids, you’re lazy.”

Britt took advantage of their inattention and stole forward, toward another cluster of rocks. It closed some distance, but not much. She couldn’t go the whole way in one shot, or even ten shots, but she could gradually work her way toward them.

Not to mention away from the wyverns and their oppressive stares.

With Denerfen on her shoulder, she slipped around boulders, wyverns, and closer to the keys.

The wyverns didn’t move. Most kept their eyes on the Keepers, or the western sky, which didn’t draw attention from the Keepers, either.

Wyverns must act like this more often than not, or the Keepers really didn’t care about the beasts.

Britt studied every lock she passed. Each wyvern had a variant keyhole. None of them were the same, which made it straightforward and complicated at the same time.

As she worked her way around the arena’s south edge, she closed in on the Keepers area near an eastern doorway.

A giant boulder prevented them from seeing her or the slight puffs of dust her steps generated, no matter how carefully placed.

This barren arena was a parched desert compared to the lush farmlands around it.

She tripped over a rock with an oomph and pitched onto a cairn that toppled.

Dust poofed into the air. One of the Keepers turned, hand shading his eyes as he gazed her way.

She dropped to the ground behind a wyvern with markings around its neck.

These were far lighter, the skin wrinkled.

An aura of age and fatigue radiated from him, unlike the wyvern that brought her here.

Heart slamming, Britt held her breath and prayed the Keepers wouldn’t explore. The wyvern’s tail flicked back and forth, stirring up more dirt. Granules pressed against her teeth, filling her nose. She bit back a sneeze at the last second. When the wyvern yawned, the Keeper turned away.

She expelled her breath as Denerfen hopped onto the wyvern’s tail.

“Close call. Thanks.”

A full minute later, Britt straightened up to peer around the wyvern, risking another glance. The Keeper pointed to the west, hands moving as he spoke about something. The others followed his gesture, attention riveted away from her.

“Den, we’re going to have to move fast once they scatter. When that happens, you bite me. You’ll have to load up as much as you did on the Unseen Island.”

He protested. This process wouldn’t be pleasant, but it would make their desired outcome possible. If she survived so much venom at the Unseen Island, she’d survive it here. She clamped gently on his snout with her fingers and thumb.

“You want out of here alive?”

His wings slackened. He licked her with his forked tongue. With a loving smile, she returned her focus to the Keepers. The main question had more to do with their escape. Once freed, she assumed the wyverns would fly away. Would they leave her behind?

Too late, she realized she should have negotiated her own life. Did wyverns negotiate? If so, how? Too late to think about now.

Shaking the collecting questions free, she peered around the wyvern again. Two of the Keepers split away, heading north. One lingered. The other headed to the western doorway, which probably hid access to their water source.

Three Keepers down.

One to go. He lounged against a rock, arms folded over his chest, lazily scanning the area. Clearly, he was in no hurry to attend to his duties. Whatever those might be.

Denerfen, tottering off her shoulder with his nose in the air, nearly toppled to her waist. The wyvern that escaped with her hid behind a rock wall toward the western door.

Undoubtedly, the Keepers would know something was amiss if that wyvern popped back up, having been set on a ship days ago.

He glared at her, eyes slotted, as if to silently tell her to hurry up.

She stuck her tongue out.

The lounging Keeper yawned, straightened up, and shuffled to the side. Instead of leaving, he eased behind the rocks that hid the keys.

Rather inconvenient.

“Shite.”

The other Keepers, walking amongst the wyverns, lazily went about their routine.

Food appeared. A few wyverns ate, but most hesitated.

This, too, didn’t appear unnatural. Then again, what would giant beasts do all day in the ultra hot sun?

Britt sweated until, finally, the remaining Keeper slumped over, asleep. Not ideal, but her first opportunity.

She nudged her dragul. Denerfen perked up his wings, building the venom in his throat. Britt braced herself. “As much as you can.”

He protested again.

She gestured with a jerk of her thumb. “We have to get those keys and he’s asleep. If we’re quiet, we can make it work.”

The gentle snap of his teeth along her neck was a willing agreement.

Britt rubbed the back of her neck. “Grab as many keys as you can without making noise, then find the wyvern it belongs to. I’ll gather the rest. We have to be silent.”

He puffed, huffing as he accessed the venom from a pouch draguls kept in their gut. Britt cast one last glance at the rock area, saw nothing had changed, and braced herself.

“Now!”

His teeth grazed the hairs along the back of her neck, paused, then sank in all at once. She sucked in a sharp breath. The venom oozed into her skin like a gush of cold water. Invisibility began at the top and worked its way down.

Britt’s legs were still visible when she darted out behind the wyvern to cross a patch of dusty ground between rock piles.

No wyverns sat here, which made the approach more difficult.

The other Keepers stayed busy, and didn’t seem to notice her scuffling around.

Heat and fire and energy buzzed in her veins.

The whirling venom gave her an otherworldly sensation.

Her heart raced with her expanding world.

Footsteps puffed in her wake as she sprinted, but the Keepers didn’t note. Two wyverns maintained a wary eye on her, but the rest pretended to doze, though their half-lidded eyes were anything but sleepy. In fact, every wyvern seemed far more awake now than before.

Britt slowed as she approached the keys.

The Keeper, snoring lightly in the persuasive sun, didn’t twitch when she paused three steps away.

She peered around the edge of the waist-high rock.

Next to the Keeper's stomach and stretching out in a row hung twenty different keys.

They dangled from notches cut into the rock.

The carefully created intricacy on each key spoke to painstaking details.

Britt reached for the closest one, pinched it between two fingers, and lifted it.

It gave way without resistance. She held her breath as the Keeper twitched, but didn’t awaken.

Britt swung it off the peg, handed it to Denerfen.

He grasped it in his left foreclaw. She raised another one.

Denerfen took that in his right foreclaw and jetted away, low to the ground.

She glanced over her shoulder. Because of boulders and a dip in the ground, this spot provided no vantage point to see the other Keepers.

With the venom coursing through her, she stole keys four, five, six, and seven without obstruction. When the eighth key clinked against the wall, the Keeper snorted and blinked awake. Britt froze, one hand wrapped around the ninth key.

The Keeper yawned, rubbed a hand over his face. Observing nothing, he readjusted his stance and slumped onto his folded arms. His eyes drifted up and down lazily, then closed. He breathed deeply.

Britt cursed in her head. The fool had covered up the last seven keys. Irritated, she snatched the rest of them off their pegs and stuffed them in her pockets. Denerfen returned, flapping near her ankles. She passed him keys twelve and thirteen. The Keeper’s soft belly covered the rest.

A swift kick in the backside would knock him out of the way, but it wouldn’t buy enough time to nick the remaining keys undetected. Denerfen was too small to create a viable distraction, and anyway, she didn’t want him spotted.

Barring something huge happening in the next ten seconds, which were precious seconds of invisibility she couldn’t waste, she had little choice but outright violence. Britt positioned herself behind the Keeper with a grimace. Squatting slowly, she reached for a rock on the ground.

“Sorry,” she mouthed, and slammed it into his temple. A terrible crack and a moan issued as he slumped to the ground, out cold. She reached down, felt his chest rising beneath her hand, and felt weak relief. She certainly hadn’t wanted to murder him.

Britt collected the remaining keys and shoved them into her pocket. She whirled around, exultant, and skidded to a fast stop. Another Keeper rounded the corner, mid sentence, at the same moment.

“Hey, Si?—”

He stopped.

Britt barely hid her squeak of surprise.

The Keeper stared right through her to his friend on the ground. At that moment, the prickling in her veins began to change. Instead of hot, it became lukewarm, flowing like rainwater instead of magma. Not good. The first sign of eventual withdrawal. They had time, but not much.

The Keeper advanced.

“Sigurd?”

Britt dodged to the side at the last second to avoid a collision. The edge of his sleeve brushed her chest. He paused. Britt escaped with silent, racing feet.

“Sigurd?” he called, louder this time.