A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,102
at his lips. “You wouldn’t attack head-on. I’ll be safe until I turn my back on you.”
“Best avoid that, then,” Isa said, glancing past him back to the row of stacked-up homes. “You must know everyone who lives here.”
He shrugged. “Yes.”
“Doesn’t that get exhausting? Where do you go to be alone?”
He squinted at her, assessing. “I’d show you, but you may not like it. I noticed you didn’t enjoy the trip through the caves, Princess Isadore.”
Her mouth fell open. She thought she’d hidden it completely. Even Eva hadn’t noticed. But she hadn’t accounted for Aketo and Dthazi. Of course, both had probably sensed her rising anxiety the longer they stayed beneath the mountain. She couldn’t get the thought of all that earth piled on top of them out of her head.
“It was just fine, thanks. And I assure you I can handle it,” Isa said.
Dthazi held out a hand again and Isa looked at it, lip curling with annoyance. The leonine boy chuckled. “Very well, then.”
They walked down the steps to Sher n’Cai. When Dthazi reached the foot of the stairs, he held up a hand for her to wait and darted into the street, disappearing in the darkness. Isa counted up to five hundred before he reappeared, grinning.
“Some of the soldiers like to drink and play creo in the abandoned houses.” He held up a bottle of cloudy liquid. “We’re in luck.”
Gods, besides the spiked tea from Daischa, she hadn’t had a real drink since Eva’s nameday. She accepted the bottle from him once he’d taken a generous pull.
Isa put the bottle to her lips and tipped her head back. Fire licked down her throat, but she managed to keep the liquor down. “Lead the way.”
They passed the bottle back and forth, retracing their way back to the same wide street that they’d first taken. They followed the wall of the Enclosure, Dthazi pointing out landmarks until they came to a seam in the wall.
Dthazi felt around until he found a particular brick, and the door to the tunnel swung open. “Who discovered the caves?” Isa asked as they stepped inside. Like last time, it was significantly warmer inside the caves.
“I’m not certain. We’ve known about them for generations.”
“And no one ever thought to leave?”
His lips twitched into a small smile. “And go where?”
“Right.” Isa’s cheeks heated as she reconsidered her ill-conceived suggestion. Dracol would not welcome them and it was a long journey through the mountains to the Roune Lands, if one could even make a life there. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dthazi said. “I used to ask my mother the same thing.”
They stopped at the bend in the tunnel, one path leading deeper into the caves, and the other to the pool of dark water. Dthazi rubbed his chin, contemplating.
“Please don’t tell me your secret hideaway is the same tunnel we sat in for hours earlier,” Isa said, taking another generous gulp. Now that she was used to its efforts to peel the flesh from her throat, she could handle it.
Dthazi snorted, reclaiming the bottle. Instead of taking his share, he shoved the cork back in and pointed toward the dark cave with the lake. “No, it’s not. It’s just a bit farther.” He continued forward until his booted feet rested inches from the placid water. “Can I trust your footing?”
Isa nodded, glad she’d accepted a third serving of flaky white fish from Daischa, but when she stepped into the cave, what had seemed like packed dirt was a slippery, muddy silt.
She set her jaw and took three long strides to meet Dthazi at the lake’s edge. “So you come here to stare into the darkness,” Isa joked.
Beyond the lake’s edge, Isa spied a doorway at the other end of the cavern, lit by the same crystals all over the Enclosure. To get there, they would have to inch around the few feet of dirt surrounding the water and pray not to fall in.
“When Aketo turned sixteen, I dared him to bring me a rock from the bottom of that pool.”
“And did he?”
“No, but he did find a rather unfriendly water snake.”
“What happened?”
“He was fine other than a little bite. Our magick works almost as well on animals as it does with people,” he said and then laughed. “But my mother tanned my hide for a week.”
This time when Dthazi offered a hand, she took it. They began working their way around the lake, Isa keeping a sharp eye on the flat water in case they were