“For the dragon?” he asked, nodding at the lizard slumped over his saddle.
“Yes.”
The Abomination moved closer. “You do not seem like the kind of Rider who would have many dragon friends, no matter who your sister is fucking. So who is this one?” he asked, gesturing with a gloved hand.
“Gauis Lucius Domitus. Friend of your mother, I—”
“Gods!” The boy immediately stepped to the dragon’s side. He reached for him, touching his shoulder and pulling him up. That’s when he saw the torc around the dragon’s neck and stepped back as quickly as he’d originally stepped forward.
“What the battle-fuck is that thing?”
“Some kind of evil dragon magick.”
“Dragon magick is neither good nor evil. It just is,” the boy murmured as he studied the torc.
“Whatever it is, Abomination, it kills him. He needs help. Help only—”
“Yes. You’ll need to carry him, though.”
“I will carry,” Zoya volunteered.
Tossing the now unnecessary torch aside, Zoya walked over to the dragon and lifted his human body up and over her shoulder.
“Show me way, freaks of nature!” Zoya happily bellowed.
The other Abominations looked to their leader and, with a sigh, Talan motioned them forward. “Show her. Quickly.”
There was a nod and three of the soldiers moved off with Zoya.
“You have giantess friends, too, I see,” the Abomination noted.
“No. She is not giant. Just one of the Kolesova Tribe. Is that not right, Zoya?”
Zoya laughed as she walked away. “Giant? My older sisters give me nickname Pee-Wee.”
Eyes wide, the Abomination stared at Kachka.
With a shrug, she replied. “She tells truth. They do call her Pee-Wee. And Tiny Toy. And Baby Bear.”
The Abomination shook his head. “That’s . . . terrifying.”
Kachka followed behind Zoya and the others. “Only to the weak and small.”
“Well, I’m not weak. . . .”
Princess Talwyn, only daughter of Annwyl the Bloody, sucked the marrow out of the cold ribs left from last night’s meal and thought about how bloody bored she was.
Gods, she was bored!
How long was she supposed to stay here in this cave? Bored.
So very bored!
There was a whole world out there, and Talwyn was chomping at the bit to meet that world head-on with her blade out and her fists ready. But instead, she stayed here with most of the other offspring of human and dragon pairings and Brigida the Most Foul.
“Stop it.”
Talwyn looked over at her cousin by doing no more than moving her eyes. “What?” she asked around the rib still in her mouth.
“Stop complaining.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Talwyn’s cousin, Princess Rhianwen—Rhi to her dragon kin—sighed rather dramatically, as she liked to do, and said, “It’s all over your face. And everyone senses your unhappiness. Just stop it.”
Talwyn dropped the now-meatless bone and reached for another. She heard the returning footsteps of her brother, but he was no longer alone.
She glanced over her shoulder to see a motley crew of barbarians standing behind her twin. One had a corpse slung over her shoulder.
“Why is the giant holding that body?” Talwyn asked, confused. “Is that some sort of offering to us?”
Talan’s eye twitched the slightest bit, something that gave Talwyn more satisfaction than it should have. But her twin was always so hard to rattle that she took perverse pleasure in doing so.
“That is not a body. That’s Gaius Lucius Domitus.”
Rhi gasped, small hands covering her beautiful mouth. But Talwyn simply asked, “Who?”
Both her cousin and brother gawked at her. “Gaius Lucius Domitus?” her brother pushed, as if saying the dragon’s name several times would change anything. “Iron dragon and the one-eyed Rebel King from the west?”
Talwyn shrugged. “Still unclear.”
“Just like her mother,” the corpse suddenly announced.
“It’s not necessary to be nasty, foreign trash,” Talwyn snapped back.
With a rare growl, Talan pushed her out of the way and motioned to the giant. “Here. Put him on this table.”
As the giant made her way to the table, Talan shoved plates, chalices, and utensils onto the floor to give them a free spot. That included the half-empty plate of ribs.
“I was eating those!”
“Would you shut up?” Rhi snarled.
The barbarian giant dumped the dragon in human form on their table, and even Talwyn had to admit . . . he looked awful.
“What is that around his neck?” she asked, reaching for the bit of gold that sparkled.
Rhi slapped her hand away. “Don’t.”
Annoyed, Talwyn slapped her hand back.
“Owwww! What was that for?” her cousin whined.
“You hit me first!”
“I was helping!”
“For the love of death and despair,” Talan growled, “both of you shut up!”
“As entertaining as this is,” one of the barbarians said calmly, “can you help him or not?”
Talwyn remembered this female. Kachka . . . something. The Rider who’d come here a few months ago with her wounded sister. That one had lost her eye to their mother, something even Talwyn had never done to her own mum. Of course, that was mostly down to her brother. Talan had always thrown off Talwyn’s aim anytime she had her mum in her sights. And then he’d growled at her like it was wrong for a four-year-old to shoot a crossbow at their mother’s knees.
Such a Goody Two-claws, her brother.
“Well . . . what is that?” Talwyn asked again about the torc around the Iron dragon’s neck.
“Ancient, powerful magicks.” Rhi gave a small shake of her head and took several steps away from the royal, her hands lifted as if in surrender.
Talwyn gave the smallest eye roll so that her brother wouldn’t see. Rhi was always so dramatic. How bad could the magicks on this be? Talwyn wondered, reaching out to touch the item that currently bled the royal dry of life.
As she did, another barbarian moved behind Rhi. This one looked different from the others. All her clothes were dark. So dark they were purple, like the darkest Lightning dragon. She wore dark kohl around her black eyes and her black hair was in several large braids with black gems weaved throughout.
She simply stood behind Rhi, without saying a word. But, suddenly, Rhi took in a breath, her eyes widening. She sensed the woman behind her. And, without a word, Rhi spun on her heel and swung her fist, ramming it right into the woman’s jaw and knocking her to the ground.
The torc forgotten, Talwyn burst into shocked laughter. “Holy shit!”
“Rhi!” Talan barked, stunned at Rhi’s sudden act of violence. “What the hells is wrong with you?”
Rhi stood over the barbarian, one damning finger pointed at her. “Cause one problem here, woman. Just one—and I will rip that thing you call a soul from your body and eat it whole.”
Talan grabbed Rhi around the waist and pulled her to the other side of the table as a loud angry voice blasted from another cavern, “What’s all this then! I was trying to sleep!”