Blood Oath (The Darkest Drae Book 1)(60)

He swung open my cell door.

Home, sweet home. “It seems bigger than I remember,” I said cheerfully.

Lord Irrik rolled his eyes and jerked the door shut, twisting the key in the lock. “Sleep tight.”

“Don’t let the Drae bite,” I finished in a singsong voice.

He paused. “What did you just say?”

I blanched. What did I just say? I did not quote a nursery rhyme at him. Mistress Moons, please tell me that didn’t happen. “Nothing.”

The dim light gleamed on his now bared white fangs. “You better hope I don’t bite you, Phaetyn.”

I held my breath, adrenaline raising my skin in small bumps. His teeth disappeared, and I strained my ears to hear the door down the hall slam a moment later. Phew.

“Is that you, Ryn?”

Hearing his raspy voice, I grinned. “Ty!”

“Long time, no talk. How’ve you been?”

I groaned and sank down against our wall. “Oh, just fabulous,” I said, sarcastically. “They put me in a nicer room.”

“You sound upset about it. It’s worse than here?”

Wincing, I said, “Not really. I just missed you is all.” And Tyr.

The familiar drip marked the moments before he responded, “I was teasing, Ryn. Maybe someday they’ll take me to a better room. Although, nothing could beat this cell for acoustics or morbid ambience. In fact, I’m fairly certain no female could resist it,” he rasped.

I laughed. “What about Jotun?”

“He was my first victim.”

He trailed off, and I sat in my dungeon cell, unreasonably happy to be there talking to a friend. “I’ve missed you, Ty.”

“Ditto. I can just see you out there singing to the plants and playing in the dirt. Mud lady.”

I did not want that to catch on. “I’m not a mud lady.”

“Do you wear shoes out in the fields?”

I scrunched my nose. “Well, no.”

“Mud lady,” he reaffirmed. “Admit it. You love the soil and the life it gives. You love helping the plants grow. You like squishing your toes in the dirt.”

A hum left my lips. I supposed I was a mud lady. “Hey, Ty? What’s a Druman?”

Ty coughed then asked, “Why?”

“The king mentioned them today. Said Jotun and his Druman didn’t need to watch me in the fields anymore. I’ve never heard the term. You’re the most knowledgeable person here with that stuff.”

He snorted. “Thanks. As it happens, I do know,” he said in his hoarse timbre. “A Druman is half Drae and half human. All are male, all are infertile, and all are ten times stronger than a human. Jotun is Druman—as are most of the king’s personal guards. They’re the ones dressed in the navy aketons, not the green.”

I stared into the shadows of my cell, mouth ajar as I processed this. “Half Drae? But how? There’s only one Drae.”

Ty made no answer, and my face warmed.

“Oh,” I said hastily. “Is that Lord Irrik’s choice?” Not that I should care, but for some reason the idea of him intentionally doing that . . .

Ty sighed. “As much as I dislike the scaly bastard, it was the king’s doing. At least that’s what I was told. Irdelron uses that oath like a collar to control the Drae, slowly tightening it year after year.”

I blinked several times as a well of sympathy for Irrik surged inside. Or maybe it should be empathy. He was the last Drae, and I was the last Phaetyn. Who could guess what my fate would be once the fields were healed. I shuddered at the thought. I’d die before swearing an oath to the king that he could use to control me in that way. “How many of them are there?”

“Here in Verald? Hundreds. But the Emperor of Draecon has hundreds, too, if rumor is to be believed.”

I whistled low. “That’s a lot of children.”

“Irrik’s been around for a long time, and Emperor Draedyn even longer. Druman are long-lived, too. I believe Lord Irrik hates the sight of them. I’m sure you’ve seen it. Because of the oath, the Druman answer to the king, not Irrik. The king trains the Druman to be beasts without compassion. They only speak violence. That’s why the king has their throats burned with acid, as a reminder that brutality is their only language. Most turn out like Jotun.”

My attention caught on Ty’s slight stress on the word “most.”

“Tell me, did you get a message to the outside? Or were you able to make contact with anyone that could pass along the message?”

“I’m not sure if my friend was able to, but I did,” I said grimly. I filled him in on my encounter with Arnik that day.

Ty’s gravelly voice was tight with excitement by the end. “Ryn, do you know what this means? We might finally get out of here.”

Times like these made me realize I had nothing to complain about. Ty had been down here for drak knows how long.

“Someone’s coming,” Ty whispered.

I listened for several moments, but all I heard was the silence of our dungeon. “I don’t hear anyone.”

Ty didn’t reply, but I trusted his judgment. My inclination was to sneak to my mattress and lie down. But I was done being a coward. I took a deep breath. Things were either going to be really good or really bad.