Revelation of the Dragon by J Elizabeth Vincent

Author:J Elizabeth Vincent [Vincent, J Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mistweave Press
Published: 2020-04-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

The Sovereign

The throbbing of her head brought Mariah awake. Before she could even open her eyes, her whole body shuddered, and nausea washed over her. The floor beneath her was cold, hard, and uneven, and her side ached, something sharp piercing it.

Her stomach twisted hard, and she scrambled to her knees as the remains of her lunch came up and splattered onto the floor.

Moaning and panting, she tried to get herself together, but the pain in her head made it impossible. She turned away from her sickness and collapsed back onto her side, only to have the jabbing thing bury itself more deeply into her lower ribs. She squinted into the darkness and grabbed at her midsection, searching for the offending object. Something small and soft with a rigid rod at its center was indeed sticking into the muscles between her ribs. Her mind registered it as a dart, like the one she had seen sticking out of Shira before she had passed out.

She pulled it out, gasping, and threw it. It clinked against something across the room and then clattered to the floor. Mariah gently let her head sink back down to the floor. Squeezing her eyes shut against the meager light, she thought only of taking one breath after another, and soon, unconsciousness claimed her once again.

* * *

When she woke again, the stiffness and aching of her body told her that she had been sleeping for some time. She took a slow breath, and the smell of loam and rocks filled her nostrils.

Her headache had subsided to a dull pulsing, but she was reluctant to open her eyes. As her hand came up to rub at her forehead, she wondered whether she had fallen and hit her head or the blasted dart had caused the pain. Had the thing been poisoned? The one that had hit Shira knocked her out almost immediately, even in her massive bear form.

Shira!

Mariah’s eyes snapped open, and she sat up carefully. It was so dark, she could barely see anything except flickering lamplight from somewhere nearby, and her eyes slowly adjusted until she could make out a bit of her surroundings. She rubbed at the goosebumps on her arms, trying to warm them against the persistent chill.

She was in a cave of some sort. No, not a cave, a windowless cell. Or maybe a cell in a cave. The walls were rough and uneven, and there was a door wedged into the rock across the room, its heavy open grid letting light bleed in from the space beyond. To her left, there was a dark mound on the floor. A person! She inched toward them on her knees, being careful as she remembered having been sick somewhere nearby.

The form turned out to be Shira, thank the gods. She was on her side, unconscious but breathing steadily, and relief filled Mariah. Shira’s dark hair was a knotted and tangled mess over her face, and Mariah started to smooth back the sweat-soaked locks, whispering, “Shira.

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