The Dragon Who Loved Me (Dragon Kin #5)(70)

It felt like they traveled for miles, down and down, Vigholf moving with unerring skil , so Izzy was going to assume he could see just fine. After what felt like forever and a day, Vigholf landed. Someone unleashed flame and a row of torches roared to life, lighting up a ledge that overlooked another nasty drop.

Vigholf placed her and Annwyl on that ledge. “Are you al right?” he asked.

“Fine. Yeah.” Izzy smiled a little. “Thanks for that.”

He nodded and winked at her.

A few moments later, Rhona appeared, dropping a stil -human Brannie next to Izzy.

“You’re an idiot!” Rhona snapped at her cousin, and Izzy thought about punching Rhona in her snout. Gods, she was being a right bitch tonight.

“I forgot! No need to get nasty,” Brannie told her.

“How do you forget you have wings? Who forgets that?”

“I was taken by surprise.”

“You’d have never survived that drop if I hadn’t caught you, do you know that, cousin?”

“Wel —”

“Because you wouldn’t have!” Rhona flew closer. She and Vigholf didn’t bother to land on the ledge, simply hovered near it. “I seriously hope you’re smarter in actual battle!”

“I am! It al just happened so fast!”

“It always happens fast! That’s the point!”

Brannie’s head dropped forward. “I’m sorry, Rhona.”

“I don’t want your apologies.” The tip of a talon lifted Brannie’s chin so they looked each other in the eye. “I want you to be careful. You can’t always count on one of us to catch your ass before you fal to your death, now can you?” And then Izzy understood that Rhona was just worried for her cousin. Izzy’s mum often yel ed like that sometimes when she saw her eldest daughter leaping from dragon back to dragon back hundreds of feet above the earth.

“So no matter what form you’re in, always remember what you are. Understand?”

“Aye, I understand.”

“Good.” Rhona flew to Annwyl, but as she passed Izzy she seemed unable to stop her wings from whacking Izzy in the face.

Brannie winced and mouthed, Sorry.

“I real y hope this is where you wanted to be, Annwyl,” Rhona said, hovering near her.

“I think it is. It’s an underground shortcut to the Septima Mountains.”

“How do you know that?”

“It is. Trust me on this.”

How could Rhona trust the woman when she was convinced she was bat-shit insane?

“Move out,” Annwyl ordered, grabbing one of the torches to help light the way. Iseabail and Brannie fol owed, also grabbing torches, again without question, which was real y starting to disturb Rhona. Gods, was she this bad? Was this what Vigholf was always talking about? Of course, she’d never had someone completely crazed as a commander, but she’d like to think that even as a soldier of Her Majesty’s Army, she’d at least question a clearly insane queen.

“Are you al right?” Vigholf asked her, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Now that it was no longer in braids, it had become unruly.

“I’m fine. Not happy, but fine.” She nudged him back a bit and urgently asked, “What are we going to do? She’s—” She touched the side of her head with her talon.

“But what if Annwyl’s right? What if this is the way to Gaius Domitus?”

“Then instead of dying in these caves, we can be kil ed by the Rebel King? None of these options make me happy, Vigholf.” He moved in closer. “What would you have us do? Even if you were the type to put down an ailing queen—and we both know you’re not—there’s no way Iseabail or Branwen wil let that happen.”

“But—”

“You of al soldier dragons should understand this, Rhona.”

“Aaargh! I knew you were going to throw that in my face.”

“And Branwen is loyal to Annwyl. You can see that your cousin wil protect the queen with her life. Would you kil your own cousin, too?”

“Of course not.”

“Then we keep moving and hope Annwyl’s right about al this. Pray even. Perhaps the war gods wil shine on us tonight.”

“And why would they start now?”

Austel the Red wasn’t surprised to find that Éibhear wasn’t in the tunnels. Although that was where Éibhear spent most of his time. He was a big, burly dragon, and he was real y good at moving big, unmovable things. And he’d be moving up the ranks a lot faster than he was if he had his head on straight and wasn’t so busy wasting his time on Celyn and past history.

But try to tel him or Celyn that. Two of the most hardheaded dragons Austel knew. Yet they were good friends. Loyal . . . at least to him.

Honestly, such worry and bother over a female. A human one at that! They could buy a woman for al the trouble they’ve been through over some .

. . wel , to be blunt, some stray. In the big scheme of things, she was nothing more than a dog that wandered in from the cold. But that didn’t mean one had to make her a pet.

Austel final y found his friend in a smal alcove, far away from al the activity of the bigger caverns. He sat down next to him.

“You al right?”

“No. They’re not saying it, Austel . . . but they don’t think Briec’s going to make it.”