The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume II

smile.
    “Moncriith manipulates history to suit his purpose. He threw the ball of flame while waiting in line for Magretha’s attention. I was but six and saved the woman who raised and protected me.”
    Myri clutched Kalen’s hand and left before the Kaalipha could think of another dangerous question.
    “Do you think she takes women to her bed?” Kalen asked as they hurried back to Myri’s bedchamber. Her eyes reflected a fascinated revulsion.
    “I do not believe Yaassima shares passions with anyone but herself. In that, she truly is descended from dragons. She loves no one and lives her life alone. But unlike dragons, sex has become a weapon for her, or a tool to control and intimidate people.”
    Myri slammed the door of her chamber closed as soon as she and Kalen were safely within. She leaned on it, needing to reinforce the barrier between herself and Yaassima. Maia stirred on her pallet to look up at the disturbance. Myri gestured the Rover woman back to sleep.
    “I must walk carefully in my defiance of Yaassima. She must believe me under her spell until after I’m gone. Our only hope of escape lies in her belief that no one dares defy her.” Myri placed her daughter in the cradle. She lingered there, touching the baby’s fine hair and delicate skin.
    “I wish, Kalen, you had your familiar, Wiggles, with you now.” Myri drew a long breath.
    “So do I. I miss him.” Moisture gathered in Kalen’s eyes in true regret. “But you didn’t like him. Why do you want him now?”
    “I didn’t like his sneaky ways. He stole eggs and hid in strange places. His smell was almost enough to drive me out of the cottage. But if you had him with you now, you could use him to make contact with Powwell. We have to get him out of the pit. Soon.”
    “I think I can link my mind to Powwell’s without a familiar.” Kalen’s eyes wouldn’t meet Myri’s, a sure sign she was telling the truth. Only when she turned the wide trusting gaze upward at an adult did she lie. Except for a moment ago when she allowed tears to gather.
    “Good.” Myri was too tired to figure out Kalen’s complicated behavior and motives. “Please, Kalen, find out where he is being held. Tell him not to worry or give in to despair. We’ll plan our escape after the next sunset when the guards are sated and sleeping heavily. Yaassima may have done us a favor with that horrible orgy in the Justice Hall.” She shuddered at the thought of how close she had come to falling into the Kaalipha’s trap and becoming another victim of her “justice.”
     
    Powwell stumbled over the rough ground leading downward. Pain lanced through his shoulders as a guard on either side of him grabbed his arms and hauled him along in their rapid course to the pit. The uniformed men before and behind didn’t check their stride or look at him.
    The pit was death, as certain as the executioner’s ax. If the narrowing tunnel didn’t kill him first. The lowering ceiling seemed to push all the air out of the cave complex. Powwell thought he felt the weight of several miles of Kardia piled on top of this tiny, tiny cave.
    He gasped, willing his lungs to breathe in more air. Each inhale became more painful and shallow.
    A blast of heat hit him in the face. Unnatural yellow light glowed along the tunnel walls.
    He stumbled again, falling to his knees. Fear set his chin quivering and his limbs shaking. Televarn had led them through the pit from the dragongate to the palace that first day in Hanassa. Powwell remembered only heat and noise and overwhelming despair. No one survived the pit for long.
    Not the pit! Not the pit, his mind played the words over and over. The fire is burning up all the air.
    The people of Hanassa told him of the undead who walked the endless labyrinth of caves deep within the Kardia. They never died, couldn’t live, and so they haunted the caves and bled the life from the living guards who were unlucky enough to draw a shift guarding the pit. Hellfires burned day and night. The Kaalipha’s magic grew there.
    He’d suffocate from his own fears before the undead and the magic robbed him of sanity. He was sure of it.
    He was dying already from lack of air. Underground places never had enough air for him. Thorny tried to climb out of his pocket. His ruffled quills poked Powwell’s chest. Powwell broke the defeating circle of his thoughts long enough to urge his familiar back into hiding. No one knew he’d brought the hedgehog with him from