Ash Princess (The Deviant Future #6) - Eve Langlais Page 0,29
wasn’t having any of it.
“Why the fuck are you answering his questions again? We found him in our tunnels. He should be explaining why he’s here.”
“The how and why I’m here should seem obvious,” Cam stated. “The problem in Diamond is starting to spread into the Marshlands. I’m here to put a stop to it.”
That caused Gorri and Lila to snicker, but Kayda felt sorrow. “Then I’m afraid you came for nothing. There is no way to fix this.”
“What makes you so sure? Maybe there’s something you haven’t tried yet,” he remarked.
“Tried?” Gorri barked. “How do you stop a volcano from spewing? How do you fight a dragon when all you’ve got are daggers and arrows that barely penetrate their skin?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve done nothing to try and resolve the problem.” Cam frowned as he eyed them.
Kayda fidgeted under his gaze. “In the beginning, there were attempts by our parents and the other adults.” She’d been too young at the time to understand what they tried, but she heard the word “storm” bandied about, and they’d discussed trying to cool the molten flow. “We were just children when it happened, but I remember them talking about the problem deep into the night. The groups that ventured forth full of grim optimism.” Her lips turned down. “Most didn’t return. As our population dwindled, our primary concern became survival.”
“Survival doesn’t mean you give up.”
“We haven’t given up!” Gorri sputtered.
“Haven’t you?” Cam’s gaze met each of theirs briefly. “Thirty people are left in this graveyard. A good place to be I guess since you’re dying here.”
“We’re not dying,” Kayda argued.
“Maybe not quickly, but bit by bit, your group is succumbing. How long until there’s no one left?”
Gorri took the most offense. “What else can we do?”
“Leave,” Cam stated flatly.
“You’re talking about exposing ourselves to the dragons. We won’t survive.” Lila was blunt.
“Then you find a way underground. You said the mountains are filled with tunnels.” Cam glanced around the stone chamber. “Do they link with the ancient routes under the surface?”
Kayda frowned. “What ancient routes?”
“I only found out recently that it turns out this entire continent is riddled with them. The ancients used them for centuries after the Fall and abandoned them when the surface proved safe enough for them to return.” Cam finally gave them some information, and it roused her incredulity.
She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of ancient tunnels. There probably aren’t any here.”
“Just because you haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” was Cam’s wry reply. It reminded her of his belief that dragons weren’t real.
Kayda exchanged a glance with Lila and Gorri. “Did either of you ever hear anything about ancient tunnels?”
Both of them shook their heads, but Gorri was the one to say, “What difference does it make?”
“First off, those ancient passageways are linked to the kingdoms. All of the kingdoms,” Cam said.
Lila immediately grasped the implication and exclaimed, “Are you saying there might be a way out?”
However, Kayda shook her head. “Impossible. If there was an exit, our parents and the other adults at the time would have used it.”
“If they knew of it,” Cam insisted. “Could be they forgot about them, or only a chosen few knew. I only found out recently about their existence myself.”
“Then why didn’t you use one to come here?” Gorri blustered.
Cam shrugged. “Because I didn’t want to get lost underground. Besides, I wanted to see what was going on.”
“How did you get here? Did you just throw on a suit and walk in?” Lila queried.
“I started out with Burton, the tank.” At their obviously blank looks, he explained. “An armored vehicle that allowed me to drive for a few days before it got damaged.”
“Damaged how?”
He appeared embarrassed as he muttered, “It fell in a crack.”
Gorri snickered.
“Then I started to walk, only a dragon decided to have me for lunch. Whereupon I escaped, fell down a hole, landed in a river, and met you. That’s my whole story. Happy?”
The reply caused Lila to frown. “Not really. How is it you’re not dead?”
“My wounds were superficial.”
Kayda wondered why he lied. Even now he looked better than before. She’d never had a chance to wrap his injuries. He’d woken and honestly she saw no reason to waste supplies given they were scabbed and healing well.
A gleeful Gorri jumped on their guest next with his ominous prediction. “Even if you didn’t bleed to death or die of an infection, you will die of the coughing sickness.”