Den of Thieves - Shannon Mayer Page 0,2
test you.”
I glanced at Maks who’d crept closer. We both were eye level with the hyena who writhed at our feet, whimpering between her words. I opened my mouth to ask her a question, but she cut me off with a yipping cry.
“My death will come, but I give you what words I can. He gathers an army. He will take the east and the west if he is not stopped.” Pain-filled eyes locked on mine. “Do you understand, Zamira, guardian of the desert? Do you understand, Lila, guardian of the skies? Do you understand, Maks, guardian of the bright ones?”
I nodded. Lila nodded. Maks nodded.
A sigh slid from her. “Then I have warned you. Will you go on?”
I didn’t need to look at my friends to know that answer. “This beast, he will come for the west? That’s what you’re saying?”
“Yes,” she whispered and shuddered again. “I escaped him. I knew I’d find you here before the Blackened Market. I saw it in my dreams. You have a chance now. Seek out an army of your own, and you will face him on the fields of poppies. The flowers will hide the blood that rains upon the ground.” Her skin popped in several places and a sigh slid out of her as if air from a balloon was being released.
As we watched, her skin and bones seemed to melt, sinking into the dry desert ground, the sand soaking in everything she was until there was nothing, not even a mark to claim her passing.
I stared at that spot and wrinkled my nose as I whispered a quiet prayer for her passing. “Time’s really up for us then.”
Lila snorted and tightened her hold on my shoulder. “Well, if that isn’t a start to a shitty day, I’m not sure what is.”
2
Maks put his hand on my elbow as we turned back toward the horses after watching the messenger dissolve into the desert ground. “I know you, Zam.” I kicked my feet through the sand not yet hot from the morning sun.
“Uh-huh, I know you too,” I winked up to him, “in the most biblical of senses.”
His lips quirked and the smile that wasn’t truly on his mouth was there in his eyes. “I’m talking about knowing how you are, and how you think. I don’t expect you to not want to deal with this beast the hyena was talking about. But we are on the hunt for dragon eggs that have been stolen—we gave our word to find them.”
I slid my hand over his and locked fingers with him, just long enough to give him a squeeze. “I know. But this is a warning. Whatever is going on in the east, blazing in blind is stupid. I’ll take a heads-up for a new nasty any day.”
He didn’t let me go, but instead tugged me closer so our lips brushed against one another. Lila stuck her face between us, claw tips digging into each of our cheeks as she pushed us apart. “None of that when I’m on your shoulders. Sucking face all the time like a couple of horny teenagers. Act your ages, will you?”
I threw my head back and laughed. “I wasn’t going to kiss him, Lila.”
“Speak for yourself,” Maks muttered. “I was totally going to suck face with you.”
Lila grumbled and waved a tiny fist at him as though she were an old man on his front porch, yelling at kids as they disrupted his peace. Which only made me laugh all the more.
“Look,” I finally said as I pulled myself onto Balder’s back, my laughter slowing. “A warning is good. I don’t see us deliberately looking for this beast. We are looking for the missing dragon eggs, that’s our priority. I completely agree with you.”
I felt their eyes heavily on me. I turned and Lila and Maks had the same look on their faces, despite being very different species.
Disbelief was etched plainly there. “You basically got called out by a shaman hyena to protect the desert. And you’re not going to listen?” Lila asked.
I threw my hands in the air. “You both just said you didn’t want me looking for this beast. I said I wouldn’t. Now you want me to?”
“No,” Lila said. “But what if the eggs are tied to him? Would that be so unfathomable?”
“Good word,” Maks said. Lila launched off my shoulder, flew to his, and then gave him a tiny high five.
I stared over the endless brown ground, thinking, trying to put together