“We don’t have time to wait!”
My shout was muffled by the coach as it hit a bump at speed, the three of us lifting up into the air. A moment of weightlessness and then our entire weight was flung at the doors, forcing the lock to pop.
“Gods above…” Lorien groaned, but it was when he slapped his hands down on the muddy road he realised what had happened. So did the Executioner. The coach came to a rattling stop, but we were up and running before he could even turn around. My foot burned, not able to take my entire weight, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. We scrambled down a nearby alley and then we were in our element.
“In here,” Kael hissed, jerking open a door to a warehouse.
We could run up the steps to the mezzanine level, then escape onto the roof through the cracked roof tiles in the corner. We scurried like the rats we were. Right as the door was jerked open, we froze, spying the duke’s assassin before leaping onto the roof. Running along a pipe that joined this warehouse to another was that much harder with a bung ankle, but I refused to stop.
“Dain?” Kael asked, pausing for a second.
“Coming!” I shot back. “Don’t wait for me, brother.”
“Like you did for me?”
There was a moment when his blue eyes stared into mine, the inky blackness of his hair meshing with the sky, then he turned and held out his hand. I clasped it tightly and the two of us scampered after Lorien, landing on the next warehouse.
That was when the Executioner’s head popped out of the hole in the roof.
“Oh ho…” Lorien sauntered forward with a smirk. “Not sure if you want to come this way, Mr. Executioner.” He nudged the pipe with his foot, the ceramic scraping against the roof tiles. “Not sure if it can take your weight.”
“You stupid children. I?—”
“Will stay here while we leave.”
Kael spun around, skipping across the roof of the next warehouse and the next, dodging the tiles we knew were unsecured or broken. The toffs reckoned they knew every blade of grass in their country estates. Well, the slums of Coalbottom were ours. With every building we put between us and the assassin, my heart lightened until we entered the big warehouse at the edge of the city walls.
“We’ll hole up here for a bit.” Kael was sucking in breaths just like the rest of us. “Wait him out. He’d have to have bigger fish to fry than a couple of street kids.”
“Seems to focus a lot on street kids, does the Executioner.”
Once the thrill of the escape was gone, Lorien’s eyes became huge, staring into the darkness. His hand stroked a bulge in his pocket.
“Still got the gold?” I asked. He nodded. “Then it’ll be good eating for us into spring, maybe even summer if we’re careful.”
“Buy sacks of lentils and rice,” Kael said with a nod. “Squirrel it away in a hidey hole. Maybe near the cat colony. They’ll keep the vermin away.”
“My ma made a brilliant lentil stew,” Lorien said with a groan, tucking his legs against his chest. “Carrots and onions, a couple of sprigs of thyme.”
“Lentil stew every night,” Kael agreed, wrapping his arm around Lorien’s shoulders.
That stopped me cold. There was a reason Kael was the leader, and it was this. Touching another person, it was something I did if I had no other choice, but never voluntarily. I stared at my brothers, watching Lorien let out a sigh, and I was utterly confused by it all. What was happening here? What instinct prompted them to do this? I didn’t get an answer,because the distinctive sound of a horse drawing a coach behind it had us all going to the dirt-smeared windows.
“How did he…?” Lorien gasped. “Why..?”
“Doesn’t matter why.” My eyes dropped down, staring at the dusty old tea chests everywhere. Few people ever came into this warehouse, because it wasn’t used to store goods, but rather the escape route you only used if you were truly desperate. “We have to go into Drathnor’s cavern.”
Drathnor the Dire. Drathnor the Terrible. She was an ancient dragon who’d died, but even in death, she had the ability to strike fear in a man’s heart. You passed through her caves when there was no other option.
“No!” Kael smothered Lorien’s shout, removing his hand when our brother settled. “No. You promised me we would never go into those caves again.” His finger stabbed in my direction. “You promised!”
Because I was the one who took us down there last time. Daring each other to go into the grave of Drathnor was a rite of passage for Coalbottom children. Most just stuck their heads in the trapdoor or took one step, maybe two, into the cave below. Coming out screaming seconds later was all part of the fun.
But I hadn’t.
Something I didn’t quite understand overtook me the last time I was there. Whispers started up in my head, ones I could usually keep at bay. This time, they lured me deeper and deeper into the cave, and Lorien and Kael with me. Right then, I could see the glowing purple mushrooms that grew on the cave walls, illuminating the graceful bones of the massive dragon. My hand had reached out, ready to touch what remained of her muzzle, when Lorien’s nerve broke. He pissed himself and ran all the way back to the warehouse, only for everyone to see him. Nightmares for weeks after that, Lorien mumbled Drathnor’s name over and over.
“You’re not a child anymore,” Kael said. The sound of boots crunching over the gravel had me moving. “We can do this.”
