The Pirate Queen by Samaire Provost

Author:Samaire Provost [Provost, Samaire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781948594127
Publisher: Black Raven Books
Published: 2019-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

Key

It was a day and a half before my dizziness dissipated, and this was incredibly irritating to me. I need to get going, I kept thinking. Thank goodness I didn’t take longer to feel better.

I still had to take it easy, and it was slow going at first. Caroline and Khepri walked on either side of me, ready to grab my arms if I so much as slipped. But I didn’t. No slipping, no falling, no embuggerances.

Chowder, as we were now calling him, because we had to call him something, followed us. Well, he followed me, to be precise. In fact, I had to keep telling him to stay back a few feet, or he was going to trip me and make me fall head over arse again, probably break my head open completely this time.

We walked. It took us three more days to get to the bottom. If we’d been able to float or glide or fly, we’d’ve been there in an hour. It was a long way down.

A long way down to fall, too. We got to the bottom and were greeted by…

“Eww.”

“Well I guess we know what happened to that filly Iilcendorr told us about.”

“Oh dear.”

The slate steps ended in a curve, and the land at the bottom of the volcano was relatively flat. In the center lay a centaur skeleton.

Khepri kneeled to examine the bones, while Caroline and I stood back a bit. I looked around the large area. It was covered in rocks, both large and small, and it was from some of these rocks that the smoke came from.

“Not as much coming out as I’d thought there would be,” said Caroline, peering at the cracks the white smoke was drifting up from.

“I believe this is, indeed, the centaur who disappeared more than a hundred years ago after going to look for the book,” Khepri said, rising to her feet. “Look at how the skeleton is smaller than Iilcendorr’s body; he said she was just a teenager, so naturally her skeleton would be a bit smaller. Look here,” she indicated the bones in several places. “The body landed so hard, from near the top, most likely, that the bones were shattered. Then, of course, scavengers have been at it for over a hundred years, which is why the skeleton is incomplete.”

“Huh,” I leaned over to have a closer look. “Yuck.”

Khepri laughed. “I guess I’m more accustomed to these things than you are.”

“You definitely are,” I laughed.

I stood up and stretched my back. “I shouldn’t feel this creaky, I’m only nineteen, for goodness sake.”

“You put your body through a lot, Charlotte. Plus we’ve been through an intense workout just getting to this point.” Khepri smiled grimly.

“And we’re not even inside,” I pouted, then laughed. “Eh, I’ll bounce back. I’m in great shape.” I did a few deep knee bends to show I was strong and promptly felt a twinge of pain. “Ow.”

Khepri laughed. “Here,” she rummaged around in her pack and withdrew a piece of blackroot.

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