Crimson Queen (Blood & Flame Saga Book 4) by E.A. Winters

Author:E.A. Winters [Winters, E.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DragonLeaf Press
Published: 2023-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

31

The moon was high by the time Frigibar signaled them to stop. A night breeze wafted through Semra’s hair, and she tugged her mantle closer. She breathed in deep and marveled at the older man’s good shape for the steep hike they’d taken over the past several hours. Aviama doubled at the waist and put her hands on her knees, gasping for air.

“How far?” Aviama squeaked.

Frigibar quirked an eyebrow. “Not far.”

Aviama groaned. “That’s what you said an hour ago.”

“Come along, little lily. You can rest on the boat.”

Semra’s lips parted. “Did you say boat?”

Frigibar dipped his head, allowed Aviama three minutes to catch her breath, and ushered them forward into a hole about five feet wide. The burble of running water somewhere caught Semra’s ear as she descended into the blackness, and as she hopped the last few feet into the cavern, the sound gave a hollow echo.

Aviama slipped on the rock behind Semra, and Semra reached a hand up to help her down. “Can we ever have daytime adventures?” Aviama asked, taking Semra’s hand and skidding down the rock wall to the ground. “Maybe disguise ourselves as minstrels and disappear in a crowd, or join a caravan, and skip the underground tunnels and caves? We could even still do boats. You know, maybe we flee from bad guys on a ship, during the day?”

Frigibar chuckled. “Maybe one day you will, but not with me. This way.”

Semra grinned and squeezed Aviama’s hand. She turned back to Frigibar, carefully picking out solid footing in the dark and drawing Aviama along behind her. “Do all the mountains in this range have caves?”

“No, but you certainly seem to find yourself in a lot of caverns, don’t you? Then again, I suppose someone with a dragon would be more apt to wind up in them than the average person.”

Semra tracked Frigibar’s movements as he picked his away across the cave floor with the sound of his brisk tread bouncing off walls closing in around them. Their footfalls emanated through the passage together, joined shortly by a faint dripping sound.

A bittersweetness swept over Semra, memories of Mount Hara filtering through her mind, some comforting, some painful. The winding corridors to the induction specialist, Adis, a kindly white-haired woman in charge of stabilizing new children in the mountain. The descent down to the river where the icy waters would wash away the grime of the road, clear her head, and bring escape from watching eyes. The trepidation of being summoned across narrow bridges over the deepest chasm to meet with Azi in Rotokas’ lair.

“It’s so eerie,” Aviama hissed. “Can we … can we talk about something?”

Frigibar’s footfalls took a quick turn; the echo reached out across a great expanse, and the soft sound of lazy water grew. Semra struck her hand out to protect herself from the carbonate walls, and when she turned the corner, the sight took her breath away.

Bright blue-green lights glowed softly on a soaring ceiling, coating it like a blanket of numberless stars, and reflected up again from beneath in the ripples of an underground river.

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