Evander inhaled sharply.
“What?” Valenna demanded, spooked by the shadows, the storm, the eerie stump.
“A wyvern,” he said, gazing blankly past her.
“Yes, but I thought they were extinct.”
“Maybe they have a breeding pair at the Cobblepine. And if they do, that means …”
Something crackled in the forest, and Evander spun around, holding his cutlass aloft and attempting to push Valenna behind him, but Valenna was drawing her own dagger and trying to push him behind her, resulting in the two of them shoving each other to no effect.
Another bolt of lightning lit the forest and revealed Haldir stumbling through the trees to their left, dripping wet and unsteady on his feet.
“We need to decide who protects who,” Evander whispered to Valenna. “If he’d been a highwayman, he could have shot us both.”
Haldir reached them, his face flushed and his nose swollen. “I see how it is, Trevelyan! You came out here meaning to impress her and secure your place as dragon master, and leave me behind! You’ve been in bed with her this whole time, haven’t you? How long have you two been shagging behind our backs?”
“No one has been doing anything behind your back, Haldir,” Evander said wearily. “You’re just a drunk.”
“Admit you’ve been sleeping together!” Haldir spat. “Admit it, or I’ll tell the master dracologist.”
“We haven’t …” Evander began.
“ADMIT IT!” Haldir pulled a single-shot shotfire from his belt.
“What are you doing?” Valenna cried. “Put that away!”
“You’re drunk,” Evander said, unfazed.
Haldir loomed like a mountain against the flashing sky. “I’ll have you both disgraced!”
Bracing, Valenna moved her hand to her dagger, preparing to lash out and cut the shotfire from Haldir’s grip.Haldir lurched toward them, his eyes red-rimmed, his teeth bared. In a flash,Evander shoved Valenna to the side, and she crashed into the underbrush, her clothing and hair snagging on thorns as Haldir lunged at Evander. He was so huge, he carried Evander off his feet and slammed him into the ground.
Valenna scrambled up, disentangling her clothes from the bushes, and rushed into the clearing.
Haldir was straddling Evander, pinning him down. Evander shifted, pushed both hands into Haldir’s hip, crooked his leg around Haldir’s, and forced his knee up. The bigger man grunted, and his body lifted enough for Evander to brace his hands in his armpit and twist out from under him. Then Evander jammed his elbow between his shoulder blades. With a furious shriek, Haldir fell, and Evander stumbled to his feet but, with surprising agility, Haldir jumped after Evander, grabbing his shoulders in his bearish hands.
Valenna gasped as Haldir crooked his elbow around Evander’s throat.
His mouth tight, Evander bent forward, twisted sideways, and leveraged his bodyweight to pull Haldir off balance. Then he slipped out of his grip and flipped the bigger man onto his back, but Haldir held onto Evander’s arm and wrenched him to his knees. As Evander reached for his cutlass, Haldir cracked his elbow into his jaw, and Evander reeled and fell. Haldir was upon him in an instant, his hands around Evander’s throat, squeezing.
Her knife drawn, Valenna danced around them, afraid that if she intervened in the darkness and chaos, she might accidentally hurt Evander. Before she found an opening, lightning sliced the night sky and sparks burst from a tree not ten paces away. The flash blinded her, and Valenna ducked, her vision a dance of sparking light.
The hunched stump in the center of the clearing reared up like a great bird lifting its head … and growled.
Chapter sixteen
Valenna
At first, Valenna could only stare at the plant in horror. It reminded her of a vulture— its head was stripped of bark and covered with loose, scabrous flesh. It had bulging black eyes and a long, curved beak lined with thorny teeth.
A gawper tuber.
Rooted to the ground, the plant could only reach its neck and mouth within the clearing, but Evander and Haldir, too focused on murdering one another to notice the danger, rolled into the creature’s roots.
Valenna pointed. “LOOK OUT!”
With a heart-stopping shriek, the tuber lunged at them, its mouth gaping. Evander shouted in surprise and rolled one way, Haldir the other, and the tuber’s beak struck the ground between them. Then, it lifted its head and dove for Valenna.
