Queen Of The Great Underworld

33

“Can we speak in your office?” I glanced over my shoulder, toward the daylight pouring through the thrown-open doors. No one had followed me—they had no reason to doubt my apology was anything but sincere—but this was not the sort of thing I could discuss in front of the dozen people who’d come here to pray or enjoy the art.

“Of course.” The high priest motioned for me to join him, but we made it only three steps before Luminary Guards strode into the temple, with Elbena leading the way.

With one look, I could tell she knew that I’d meant to share the shipping order with High Priest Valko. That I’d meant to destroy the Luminary Council by pitting the gods’ voice against them. That I’d meant to tell the world that the Luminary Council didn’t care that our dragons were being shipped to the Denneth Empire.

She knew my apology had been a lie.

“Don’t make a scene, Galadriel. Just come with me.”

And until the Luminary Guards deposited me in a holding cell, I hadn’t even realized that was the moment of my arrest.

“WHO IS SENDING THE DRAGONS?” Yarrow ASKED.

“I’m not sure.” It was the truth, and I prayed he could hear it in my trembling voice. Guilt worked its way through me. I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have been braver. Stronger. But I was a coward who didn’t want to be alone for a few days.

Yarrow blew out a long breath. “You saw shipping orders.”

I nodded. “I saw shipping orders.”

“And the Luminary Council was so upset that they sent you—their precious Galadriel Minkoba—here. To the Pit. The most notorious prison in the Fallen Isles.” He c****d his head. “That doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t they just lie to you about the shipping orders? A girl like you would have believed them.”

“They tried,” I whispered.

“What then?” An amused turn of his mouth suggested he thought I was a fool.

He wasn’t wrong.

Yarrow’s smile grew wider. “Tell me everything the shipping orders said.”

“I can’t.”

“You didn’t just happen upon shipping orders and not bother to read them carefully. Someone who’s been given special permission to train a Drakontos raptus at the Crescent Prominence sanctuary would have read that a hundred times.”

“I don’t remember what it said.”

Yarrow planted one hand on the side of my bed and leaned, blocking the light of the noorestone next to me. He was huge. Overbearing. His dark eyes drilled into mine, searching for the truth. “You might think I can’t tell when you’re lying, but I can tell when anyone is lying. And you’re not very good at it to begin with.”

My breath turned shallow, frantic, desperate. “I don’t remember.”

His smirk fell and he leaned farther toward me, keeping his voice low but razor sharp. “Do not play the fool with me, or there will be very real consequences.”

Numbness pushed through me. Gone was his joking manner, and the gleam in his eyes like we shared a secret. This was real. As real as the minutes before he took me inside the empty cellblock and locked me away.

The danger was far from over.

“I need a map,” I said as a dull throb began in my temples.

He sent for one immediately. Several minutes later, two trainees arrived with an enormous map of the Fallen Isles framed in mahogany. They propped it up on the end of my bed, barely giving me time to move my feet out of the way.

“Tell me what I want to know,” Yarrow said when they were gone.

I tried not to glance at the waiting tray of food, but the hunger was overpowering.

“Where are the dragons?” Yarrow deepened his voice. “You can eat after we’re done.”

My stomach knotted. As much as I wanted to eat, and to not be put in a dark cell somewhere isolated, this was wrong. I knew it.

But I scooted toward the map and pressed my mouth into a line.

The six—or seven, depending how you thought of Damyan and Darina—islands were drawn in faded black ink on the age-darkened paper. It was soft, like cloth, and bordered with tiny drawings of dragons of every kind. Drakontos rex, Drakontos titanus . . . I wanted to look at them all, but Yarrow cleared his throat.

“Today.”

“I’m thinking.” The words hissed out of me. “It’s been a long time since I saw the shipping order.” Twenty-eight days, to be exact.

“Think faster. The longer you take, the more danger we’re in.” He angled toward me and peered at the map, as though he could divine the locations from the ink.

Connections snapped in my mind.

Yarrow was a believer. Yarrow was on a quest.

“The more danger we’re in . . .” I tilted my shoulders, adjusted my tone, and made myself look as encouraging as possible. “You mean, from the gods abandoning us?” It was a risk, questioning him. Yarrow was unpredictable: this might pacify him, or swing him farther into anger.

“I took an oath to Kyhan and all the other Fallen Gods that I would protect the Isles from every threat. Including the Great Abandonment.”

The Great Abandonment was one of the few shared stories in every holy book. The Book of Love described it as the end of our relationship with the Fallen Gods, while The Book of Warriors said it was the beginning of our war against them. Other books described it in different ways, but one threat remained the same: the gods would leave us if we didn’t care for the dragons.

I touched the lines of the map, the islands shaped like gods. Darina and Damyan, so close their toes and chests touched. Kyhan, his mace raised in warning. Idris, far from the others and stumped over in contemplation. “Some people think it’s a myth.”

He let out a low rumble. “It’s no myth. The Great Abandonment is a very real threat. Kyhan’s holy texts tell what the unbinding would be like: earthquakes, violent storms, unrest among the people. Does that sound familiar?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Our survival depends on dragons living here, entreating the gods on our behalf.”

“I think it’s true, too. If we lose the dragons, we lose the gods.”

“And our very homes will unbind themselves from the sea and abandon us, because we could not take care of their children.” He turned and studied me, more thoughtful now. “I’m glad you believe it.”

“Even those who don’t should understand that we are the caretakers of these islands and the creatures on them. Including—and maybe especially—the dragons.”