Ash Princess (The Deviant Future #6) - Eve Langlais Page 0,53

know?” He hated doing this, but she needed to realize this ship wasn’t here to rescue them.

“Why are you assuming they’re not a rescue team? I mean, you’re here. Perhaps it’s people come to rescue you.”

“It’s not from the Marshes. Roark doesn’t have any flying vehicles, only drones, and those don’t last long in Diamond. As for Sapphire, given they’d have to fly over Marshland, it would have been noticed.”

“Maybe it’s a maiden voyage?”

“How about instead of arguing and making assumptions with no facts, we go find out what it’s doing.” Because the vessel had landed without hesitation within the tower. Its presence explained the working lights.

In silence, they crept closer, the ruins getting larger and larger until they stood at the walls. The occasional sound of something moving within was hinted at in scuffs. The snuffle of a living thing. The clinking of metal. The engine sound had halted, but the lights remained. The mystery deepened.

“I’m going to look,” he mouthed and mimed before putting his dagger in its sheath so he could have both hands free to grab hold of a ledge. He heaved himself up, relying on pure upper body strength to lift him lest he make a noise scrabbling for a foothold. The effort brought him high enough to land his ass on the ledge. It gave him a view inside the defunct tower.

What he saw couldn’t be explained. He reached down and offered Kayda a hand. Not because she couldn’t climb, she just didn’t have the height to get to where he was without help. With a heave, he pulled her up beside him.

Her eyes widened, and her lips parted. He could understand her confusion.

It seemed the tower was a busier place than expected. For one, there was a giant dragon, though not a very healthy-looking one. Its red and black striated skin was dull in comparison to the ones they’d handled on the way up. Its body showed signs of scarring, injury after injury scoring its hide. It lay down, as if tired, its eyes closed, and only the huffing of its body showed it lived. Perhaps it didn’t leave because it was sick?

The vessel they’d seen in the air sat parked in what proved to be a cleared inner shell within the tower walls. No debris remained, nor any pesky walls inside. The tower acted as a hangar that hid what he could only assume were nefarious deeds.

A theory reinforced when he saw soldiers in full protective gear, wearing masks over their heads, every inch of them swathed in crimson. They guarded the ramp into the flying machine.

“I don’t understand,” Kayda only breathed the words, and yet he would have sworn the dragon shifted.

“How close is the Ruby Kingdom to here?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

The dragon didn’t budge.

“Close. The Necropolis was built alongside the mountain chain separating us. There’s a single pass through them that used to be a trade route, but I remember my father cursing because they’d closed it on us and were refusing to take refugees.”

“Refusing?” The very thought boggled the mind. “Why?”

She shrugged. “My father never told me.”

“We need to find out what they’re doing here.” Left unsaid was the part where he’d already planned to take out those soldiers and steal their ship. One vessel might not be able to take everyone out of Diamond in one trip, but it was a start.

From a hole in the floor, a pair of men emerged, one on each end of a cargo container. Then another pair. Ten in all, so more than twenty soldiers plus the two by the ship, and who knew how many still inside?

His plan to take the ship had run into a snag. What was in those containers? They must have been heavy because a few of them took a soldier on each corner to carry. Up and down the stairs they went, each time returning with a new load. After one of the trips, the soldiers were followed by a woman in a crimson coat, gesturing wildly to yet another soldier who forwent the protective gear. They appeared to be arguing.

He wished he could hear what they said. The soldier sneered and was the last to board the transport. In moments the vessel had lifted and was gone.

So much for flying out of here. But he’d wager it would be back.

During it all, the dragon never moved. Had they tamed it? He didn’t want to get close enough to those teeth to find