Crutes were furry, knee-high creatures who got into everything, destroyed gardens, and were general pests.They had big front teeth, a feature they and the boy did have in common.
“Are you gonna lemme be on your team?”Crute asked, pulling his foot off the bridge to fully face Alobaz.His face brimmed with hope.“Not now, I know, I get that.But when I’m big and strong like y’all?I know I got it in me.I do.I’m a hard worker.”
“Myteam?”
“Yeah.The Bazrian Seven.My dream’s to fight with y’all.”
Alobaz grunted.“Then get a better dream, Crute.You don’t want to be on my ‘team.’You don’t want anything to do with us.”
“Then why’d you buy me?”
Alobaz wasn’t capable of scowling any harder.“I have no idea.Now,go, scorch it, and hurry.”
Crute was off and across the bridge like a quarrel shot from Ed’s crossbow.
Alobaz’s remainingresponsibilitiesfollowed at a slower pace but at least no longer hesitated, even as they clutched the ropes to either side Mauldrene had provided as handholds.
Once they were all safely across the abyss, Moncho grabbed the rope as if to test the bridge.
It vanished so quickly that he lost his balance.He was spinning his arms to keep from falling into the abyss when Baz and Ed grabbed him by the tunic and yanked him back.
He was still catching his breath when Lev yelled across the chasm.
“Fine!We didn’t want to use your scorching bridge anyway.”Then, under his breath, he mumbled, “Ya miserable cunt.”
All at once, the rest of them, even the recovering Moncho, spun around to look at Mauldrene.
Nothing.No change.
“Shouldn’t have said that,” Zi told Lev.“She’ll get you back for that one.”
“Oh, whatever.She couldn’t have even heard me,” Lev said, but flicked now worried eyes toward the mist and the castle hunched beneath it.
Lightning flashed and crackled from around it in all directions, like a starburst of Mauldrene’s fury.
“Double dragonshit,” he whispered.
The others took a big step away from him, leaving him standing alone in a circle in their midst.
“That was just him, not us,” Moncho hollered toward the castle, pointing at Lev.
“Thanks for the support,” Lev said.“Really appreciate it.”
Moncho palmed him on the back.“Gotta choose the winning side here.Besides, she watches us while we sleep.”
“I’m never sleeping again,” Lev grumbled.
“Seems like,” Moncho said, a little too happily for Lev’s taste, stalking toward their shädreads.
The others, including Lev, followed.With the responsibilities alone on the island, they had to hurry.While Mauldrene had given them a warmer welcome than Alobaz had believed her capable of, he wasn’t sure she hadn’t actually cast her web, lured them in, and was even now preparing to gobble them whole.
If she was comparable to any living creature, she was a sängmortarán.Cunning, shrewd, vengeful—turning deadly in an instant.
He didn’t have to tell his crew.In seconds, they’d leapt onto the backs of their steeds and were airborne, flying high above the chasm.
Fly too close and its shadows emerged like the tentacles of an umbrac—that awful creature, somewhat similar to an octopus or squid in appearance, and which terrorized the deep forests—trying to snare its prey.According to local superstition, deep within its depths, the abyss fed Death.
But the demigod himself was imprisoned, no threat to anyone anymore, unless at the order of the emperor.
