Serpent's Mark (Snakesblood Saga Book 1) by Beth Alvarez

Author:Beth Alvarez [Alvarez, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781952145025
Publisher: Sacred Tree Press
Published: 2020-03-27T22:00:00+00:00

13

Lesson One

“I think it’s going to rain again,” Firal called ahead as she fought her way through a thick patch of overgrowth. Progress had been steady when Daemon cut a path for her, but he’d climbed the leftmost wall some time ago. He walked along its top with no regard for her inability to keep up. She stumbled when she made it past the tangle of weeds, her skirts twisted about her ankles. It took her a moment to right herself and run after him. “Should we find someplace to take cover?”

Daemon paused. Smoky-white clouds had filled the sky, their underbellies heavy and gray. A darker, smoother shade of gray had already swallowed the horizon. “Nah,” he replied, starting forward again.

“Well, you might be all right with getting wet, but I’m not.” Firal scowled when he made an abrupt turn above her and she scrambled to follow. She’d almost missed the opening to the new path.

“It’ll clear up,” he said with a touch of amusement.

He’d barely spoken since they started off, but the farther they went, the more his mood seemed to improve. It was a sharp contrast to the growled orders and barbed comments she’d gotten from him before. His voice was rather pleasant when he wasn’t in a foul mood, she realized with a blush. She shouldn’t have found anything about the situation pleasant.

Firal turned her thoughts to her aching limbs. “How far do you think we’ve come?” It had been several hours since they’d stopped for a rest. The muscles in her legs burned with fatigue.

“Hard to say. The ruins double back on themselves so often, it’s easy to lose track of distance.” He spread his arms for balance and took a wide step over a hole in the top of the wall.

“Do you know what time it is?”

He looked skyward, paused, and turned atop the ruin wall until he located a brighter spot in the clouds. “A bit before noon.”

Firal frowned. Her stomach grumbled; she hadn’t brought any provisions into the ruins yesterday, only planning a short trip. If he’d let her gather her things from the temple, she would have fetched food from the dinner hall.

Her sullen silence didn’t go unnoticed. The weight of Daemon’s eyes made her skin crawl.

“We’ll walk until dusk,” he said, firm enough to still any debate before it happened. “Then we’ll set up camp and stay put until morning.”

She stifled a groan. Nothing but the sprawling hallways of the ruins lay ahead. She understood the need to hurry; with clouds veiling the sky, it would be impossible to keep a sense of direction and navigate the ruins after dark. But understanding didn’t alleviate her desire to complain about the decision, and she bit her tongue to keep it still.

After so many hours, every hallway began to look the same. They passed dozens of identical corners and traced more halls than Firal could count. More than once, they slipped through rooms with wide-trunked and mushroom-topped trees, and they were all so alike she wondered if they’d traveled any distance at all.

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