How to Drive a Dragon Crazy (Dragon Kin #6)(121)

“Okay!”

Éibhear stared at the map and ate his meat and bread.

“All right,” Izzy said next to him, her voice low. “What’s bothering you?”

“Who says something’s bothering me?”

“I do. I can see it on your face.”

“Know me so well now, do you?”

“I’ve always known you well, dragon. You just never wanted to see it. Now what’s bothering you?”

“Can witches be lied to?”

“Anybody can be lied to. The question is whether they believe the lie or the liar. Why?”

“How many converted does this cult have?”

“Heru didn’t say. Enough for him to be nervous and for them to feel confident enough to attack your mother’s troops at the salt mines.”

“Right. But they didn’t strike right at us. They came under cover of dark, nice and quiet. If you hadn’t alerted us, they would have had you and been gone long before we’d realized you were missing.”

“Which means what to you?”

“That they’re not at full army strength yet, and they’re not ready for direct attacks.”

“So?”

“Then why would they put themselves here”—he pointed at the map again—“out in the open, where they’d be unable to stop a full onslaught?”

“Because they need the power that’s there.”

“According to my mother, there are power sources everywhere. She can get power from a bloody vegetable patch if she needs to.” Éibhear walked closer to the map, studied it. “There has to be a place of power that makes more strategic sense.”

“Who says they’re strategic?” Uther asked, grinning when Maskini handed him, Caswyn, and Uther two slices of bread each, with big chunks of meat in the middle. “Ta.”

“Just because they’re zealots doesn’t mean they’re stupid.”

Izzy studied him for a moment, then asked, “What would you do?”

“What would I do about what?”

“If it was you.”

“You mean if I was a crazed zealot?”

Izzy chuckled. “Right. How would crazed-zealot Éibhear handle this?”

Éibhear glanced at his fellow Mì-runach, then walked over to the double doors that led out to a balcony. He stood out there and looked over the beautiful city. He was sure Rhi would like it here. It was large, had amazing architecture, and strong walls surrounding it. Lots of things for her to sketch.

He walked back into the study. “I’d want to stay within the city walls. Once those gates are closed, they could hold off a sustained attack if they had to.”

“How can they be in the city and we not know?” Layla asked.

“Especially when their top people blind themselves in some kind of solidarity with their god.” Izzy added.

Éibhear stared out at the city again. “There must be a way for them to stay out of sight and be near a power source that helps them with whatever they’re doing.”

“What about this god?” Aidan asked around his food. “We know anything about him?”

One of Izzy’s cousins stepped forward. “I went to the library like Izzy asked and spoke to one of the sisters. Chramnesind is called the Sightless One. He has no eyes. He’s the god of earth and pain.”

Izzy scrunched up her nose. “That sounds awfully unpleasant.”

“The god of earth?” Uther asked. “You mean like dirt?”

“That’s unimpressive,” Aidan sighed, his food now gone. “You might as well be the god of grass. Or the god of cow shit.” Aidan blinked. “What?” he asked Éibhear. “What did I say?”

Éibhear went back out on the balcony, looked out and down.

“Do you lot have a sewer system here?” he asked.

“Yes,” Maskini replied. “Don’t you?”

“No,” Izzy answered.

“Ew.”

Éibhear scratched his chin. “Do the sewers run under all the temples?”

“Of course.”

Izzy walked out on the balcony and stood by Éibhear. She stared up at him until he looked out over the darkening city. She followed his gaze and cringed. “Oh, no.”

“It makes sense.”

“I know.” She put her hands to her face and rubbed her forehead. “But we both know this can’t end well.”

Maskini gazed at her beloved son’s child. The grandchild she never thought she’d get to see, much less meet. And to find out that her son’s only child had become a beautiful, intelligent, and powerful warrior brought nothing but great pride and satisfaction to Maskini.

So Maskini gazed at her beautiful grandchild. She gazed and asked, “Have you lost your f**king mind?”

“That’s still up for debate.”

“You want me to unleash the Imperial Guard into the sewer system under all the temples? Because this fire-breathing lizard thinks—only thinks, mind you—that the Cult of Chramnesind might be somewhere down there? Don’t you think someone would have noticed them by now? Wandering around? A cult?”

“Maybe she’s right, Izzy,” the lizard said.