The Empire of Empty Wars (Serpents and Kings Book 3) by S.M. Gaither

Author:S.M. Gaither [Gaither, S.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

The days passed in a blur of pain and growing fear, with Alaya just barely able to keep track of them.

Five sunsets.

Six sunrises.

On that sixth morning, she started tallying each day, scratching a red-streak onto the cave wall by way of a muddy stone. At first, she had told herself there was no need to keep track like this; they wouldn’t be staying in that cramped cave for long.

But now she wasn’t so sure.

Rue barely moved. She only occasionally opened her eyes, and her voice whispered into Alaya’s head even less often than that. She refused to eat any of the animals that Alaya managed to find and kill—though she did drink eagerly from the water that was brought to her, at least.

That water had to be collected from a small stream that was a steep, half-mile trek from their cave, and then carried back to Rue in the amounts that Alaya’s canteens could hold—amounts that seemed pitifully small when one was trying to hydrate a dragon. It was not a particularly efficient method. But Alaya still trekked back and forth from that stream multiple times a day, every day, until the dragon had had her fill.

Thanks to these daily trips, Alaya’s feet were covered in blisters, and the wounds on her legs hadn’t healed properly, either. Luckily, she had found an ointment of some sort within the bag that Star-Spinner had given her, and it had helped to dull her pain. She had used it on Rue as well, which had earned her a response—a hiss and a thwack of a tail—if nothing else.

But she wasn’t sure what that ointment was truly doing. Whether or not it was really healing. So whenever she ventured out for water and in search of something new to try and force the dragon to eat, she also kept an eye out for the few plants that she knew would aid even a dragon with her pain.

Of course, she knew of nothing that might stop the strange darkening of Rue’s scales—a darkness that had continued spreading. Over these past six days, it had gone from Rue’s belly down to her front legs, and now those legs seemed to have stiffened to the point that she couldn’t move them.

Alaya was trying not to lose hope. She was constantly trying to come up with some sort of plan. She wasn’t sure how long she could last in these mountains, but she didn’t want to leave Rue; the dragon was the only creature in this empire that she knew for certain was still on her side.

She couldn’t lose her.

But the chances of finding someone who would be willing and able to help her—and within walking distance of these desolate mountains—seemed infinitesimal.

And meanwhile, Alaya was only waiting for one of the many people hunting them to show up and finish them off.

She had slept little over the past five nights, as such. Her eyes burned with the same exhaustion as her limbs as she finished marking the

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