The Priestess and the Thief Kindred Tales 30 - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,89
You’ll pay!” A high, angry shriek followed by a splashing sound answered his questions.
Turning, Roke saw the Crown Prince himself climbing out of the water trough. His fine clothes were mostly burned away, though it was clear they must have saved him from the worst of the flames. At least, he didn’t look burned…though his skin did have a strange, melted look about it. Also, it had turned from pale, delicate blue to a blotchy, mottled purple.
“Look at me!” The Crown Prince shrieked, holding out his now disfigured arms. “Look what you’ve done to me! You threw me in the poison and now my beauty is ruined—ruined!”
“You were never much to look at in the first place, you frog-faced bastard,” Roke growled. “What happened? You hit Ellilah and Demon flamed you for it?”
“He did more than hit me.” Ellilah’s voice was shaky. “He…he tried to…to…rape me.” She seemed to be struggling to get the words out and when Roke looked at her, he saw that she was hanging onto Demon for dear life, her arms wrapped as far as they could go around the big zorel’s neck.
Demon had one forelimb curled protectively around his little mistress and he was glaring at the screaming Crown Prince with red eyes, as though he might be thinking of flaming him again.
“I’ll have the lot of you executed!” the Tenebrian monarch was shouting, his voice a high-pitched, angry whine. “And I’ll have that big brute drawn and quartered while he’s still alive! Oh, my beautiful skin! My perfect complexion! Ruined! Guards—guards!”
Roke looked around reflexively and saw that the distressed monarch’s wailing was having some effect. The grooms who usually worked in the stables were coming back and one or two royal guards were beginning to come from the palace.
“Quick!” He turned to Ellilah. “We have to get out of here!”
“But I never got a piece of the Lattice!” she protested. “And I won’t leave Demon for him to kill,” she added, glaring at the Crown Prince, who was looking worse every moment. Most of his luxuriant hair had been burned away, Roke saw, and his newly bald scalp, which was an angry shade of purple, was peeling and melting at the same time.
“We’ll bring Demon with us,” he told Ellilah. “There’s room for him in my cargo hold. But we have to go now! If the guards catch us, we’ll never leave the palace alive.”
“Kill you! I’ll kill you all!” the Crown Prince was shrieking, as though to make Roke’s point for him. “Guards, guards—execute them at once!”
“All right.” Ellilah lifted her chin. “Then we’ll go. Come on.”
She swung herself up on Demon’s back as naturally and easily as though performing a practiced dance move. Then she nodded at Roke.
“Up behind me—hurry!”
Roke didn’t like the idea of riding on the menacing Demon—especially not bareback—but there was little choice. He had to admit they would be faster on the great beast than on foot.
“Fine.” Taking a deep breath, he hoisted himself up behind her and threw a leg over the broad back.
Demon shied a bit, but Ellilah stroked his neck and said something that calmed him down. Then she gripped his long, feathery mane and turned her head to look at Roke.
“Hold on to me,” she told him. “Demon will get us out of here but you have to hold on.”
Roke wrapped his arms around her waist as she urged the huge zorel forward.
“Go Demon—take us away from here!” Roke heard her say. And then he felt the enormous animal gather himself and Demon leapt away, galloping out of the stable, past the screaming, melting prince, and out into the wild lands beyond the palace grounds.
Forty-Seven
“Head West!” Roke shouted as the wind whistled past their ears.
“West,” Elli repeated, pointing for Demon’s benefit. The zorel snorted and turned at once, heading where she was indicating. This was the first time he had ever showed her his true paces and the big zorel was so fast it nearly took her breath away. He had taken them easily out of range of even the guards’ long range weapons and now they were galloping free across the rolling plains.
“Will we make it?” she asked Roke, turning her head to look at him.
“We should,” he said grimly. “I parked my ship away from the main part of town just in case of trouble.”
“We’re in trouble all right,” Elli admitted. “I should have told you not to throw the Prince in the water trough—regular water melts the Tenebrians’ skin.”