“What the Brag says is true, my lady. You should go, while you still can. I’ll be okay,” Peggy exhorts.
I make a growling sound under my breath, noting Warden’s hind quarters dancing at the noise.
“Fine,” I say eventually. “But take this.” I hand her my dagger. “Protect yourself.”
“A Wyrm has plenty of weapons,” Warden says.
“Thank you.” Peggy closes her hand around the hilt. “I will not forget you, Lady Ryle.”
For some reason, the look she gives me is far more knowing than it should be, but before I can say anything, a hot wind, in complete contrast to the damp and cloying mist which surround us, blows through the pillars of stone.
“We need to go,” Warden says with an element of urgency. “Long Meg is coming.”
A fear I didn’t think I had anymore grips my stomach.
“Goodbye, my lady.” Peggy gives me a wan smile and transforms into her little dragon once again, her wings flapping hard as she makes it into what could be described as the sky.
“I promise you, my lady”—Warden stands next to me in his human form—“she will survive. Wyrms always do.”
“Then we need to get out of here. What are the chances we’ll find the Heddon cave?”
“I still believe in the lines. If I’m right, they’ll lead us there,” Warden says, but his face is solemn. “And we’ll have to deal with the Shellycoat when we get there.”
At my side, I feel the weight of the sword like I never have before. Warden’s presence, despite my annoyance at him over the Wyrm, should be comforting.
But with the sword and the damage it can do, I’m not sure it is.
WARDEN
Despite having no magic, my lady appears to be able to perform it. The only Wyrm I know would never have been so calm. And yet this one was, the entire time in her presence.
She is magical without being magic, and I gaze at her with new eyes. How is this possible in the Yeavering? How did this beautiful, incredible creature end up in the Night Lands of all places? She is more questions than answers.
As I shift into my Brag form and help her mount up, I do my best to tune into the lines. Unfortunately, the very presence of her so close to my skin makes everything difficult. Especially thinking. In fact, even moving isn’t exactly easy due to the ever present swollen todger.
But we’ve no way of knowing how close Long Meg and her daughters are, so I do my very best to concentrate, making easy work of the uneven ground and the treacherous bogs. As we continue to travel, the rocky area turns into a skeletal forest of tall, spindly trees with the ever-present mist surrounding us. The sound of my hooves is dulled in the carpet of old pine needles.
I feel my lady’s hands slipping on my abdomen before they jerk back tightly.
“Are you tired?” I ask quietly.
“I’m fine. We should keep going,” she says, but there’s no strength in her voice. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than you do.”
“I doubt we are going to find the Heddon cave before nightfall,” I explain. “We will have to stop for the night as travelling in the dark in the Underhill is even less advised than travelling by day.”
“I thought you didn’t want to go to the cave.” Hazel says.
I stifle a groan as she swivels on my back.
“I did not wish the Wyrm to know where we were going. But there is little option. The main exit, whether we like it or not is the cave.”
“And where are we going to stay the night?” Hazel asks, yet again squirming over me as she looks around us.
If I’m going to keep her riding me, I can’t let her know what damage it is doing to my todger.
“There are no taverns with soft beds in the Underhill, my lady,” I reply. “We’ll have to rough it.”
“Rough it?”
