Ash Princess (The Deviant Future #6) - Eve Langlais Page 0,43
stay here and accept my fate.”
The weariness in her voice had him growling. “Don’t you dare give up now. We are going to find a way out of this place.”
“We? What about your mission?”
“Don’t worry about me.” Somehow, he’d find a way to handle both helping these survivors and saving the Marshes. If he didn’t die first.
“So are you marching to the capital?” Because the more he’d thought about it, the worse it sounded as an idea.
She shook her head. “No, there’s nothing for us there. And my father said Ruby refused to help. We’re going to head in the other direction, following the map we found.”
“Since when do you have a map?” he asked.
“One of the children found it when packing their things. It must have belonged to their parents. It’s only a partial, showing the area south of this mountain.”
“It’s got a marked route to the border?”
“Nope. That section is missing. But if we follow the road, maybe it will lead us to it. The portion we have shows some towns along the way, and Gorri says there should be outposts for shelter every ten miles.”
He didn’t mention the fact he’d not seen any on the road he’d taken in. Only barren towns with long stretches in between. “If, by chance, you find yourself in the open and night is ending, a trick we use in the marshes when we hunt is to bury ourselves in the bog.”
“You might not have noticed, but we don’t have any swamps here.”
“No, but you do have ash. Lots of it. It could be if you’re under enough of it, you might avoid detection.”
“Dragons hunt through the ash.”
“Light dustings of it. A thick layer might be too much.”
She nodded. “I’ll let the others know.”
She continued on her way, and he spent a moment staring after her. The plan was a shitty one, but the alternatives were even shittier. There had to be another way. He cornered Gorri.
“The Cloudring—how certain are we that there’s nothing there?”
“I wouldn’t say nothing. There’s rubble and dragons.”
The sarcasm was the boy’s way of dealing with his fear. Cam knew because he’d used it a time or two himself.
“And you’re sure there’s no map of these caves?”
The other man shook his head. “The only thing we have is up here.” He tapped his temple.
“Do you know all the access points to the outside?”
“Aye. There’s two caves at ground level that spill out onto the plains. I think she’s meaning to use the south one. It will be a hard march to that first town. There’s no cover at all, meaning if there’s dragons out at night we’ll be easy pickings.”
“What about exits higher up?”
“There are a few that go out to ledges. Now being used as nests.”
“What about the building at the top?” Because he remembered the ruins when the dragon had flown him to the mountain.
“You mean the ancient tower?”
The word ancient piqued his interest. “Tell me about this tower.”
“Not much to tell. My father took me once when I was a kid, before the dragons came. It was a boring place of concrete and metal stairs. He said it used to be an observatory.”
“So it was built before his time?” Cam asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“When was the last time anyone was inside it?”
He shrugged. “A long time. My dad told me before he died that one of the first and biggest of the drakes demolished it to make a roost. The whole plateau is scorched earth and crumbling bones.”
“If it was one of the first, then could be it died of old age.”
Gorri shook his head. “Dragons are long lived if they don’t accidentally die. The mated pair of ice dragons that the king and queen used to have were over a hundred years old they say.”
“So the drake is probably still alive? And when you say fire, do you mean to say they breathe it?” he asked.
That caused Gorri to guffaw. “Fuck no. They just like hot things. The hotter, the better. I think that’s why they don’t fly as much as night. It gets too chilly.”
Which made Cam wonder, if the land chilled down, what would happen to those dragons? Would they move on to warmer places?
“How is it the ice dragons are tame, but these fire ones aren’t?”
“Because the ice ones were hatched around humans. When raised in such a manner, they can be taught. They’re actually quite smart.”
“Meaning those fire ones might be smart, too. Other than people, what do the fire dragons eat?”