Half of the guests had clawed their way onto the table. The other half were streaking through the hall, naked with blood dripping from their mouths. Shuddering, I opened the book and counted every dragonlord and lady mentioned within the pages. One, two, three...thirty-seven…eighty-four. I kept counting for as long as I could. The book was the only thing that drowned out the screams.
28
Aradia
At some point, the counting lulled me into a fitful sleep. My body ached from exhaustion and fear. All of my adrenaline whooshed out of me, leaving me with nothing but a deep sense of loss. There was nothing I could do. The fight had well and truly been beaten out of me.
When I awoke, the feast was done. Silence hugged me tight. A relief, at long last. I twisted on the bottom of the metal cage and stared with slacked-jaw disbelief at the remnants of the night before.
Blood painted every surface. There were rivers of it trailing across the feasting table, dripping to the floor, and pooling there like a glittering sea of death. Chunks of flesh littered the ground. Chairs had been ripped apart, their broken shards cast here and there. These people were not human. That much was certain. Nothing with a mortal soul could have done something like this.
And they wanted to do the same to me. One night, that would be me.
Shuffling footsteps dragged my attention away from the horror. It was Panos’s strange servant, the one whose lips had been sown shut. He was coming straight toward me, the limp-shuffle of his feet the only sound in the eerie quiet of the hall.
I scurried away from the cell’s door and pushed my back against the cold bars. He stopped just before me, only his worn leather boots in view. And then he leaned down. His bony knees came first, and then his face, pockmarked like the craters on the moon.
I swallowed hard. It was impossible not to stare at his mouth. Where the black thread had been woven through his skin, shots of red curled out like snakes. He motioned at the door, and then mumbled something. I couldn’t understand a word of it.
“What do you want?” I hissed, eyes burning. “I’m not supposed to be eaten. Not yet.”
Of course, Panos’s servant couldn’t eat me. Not with his mouth like that.
The tension in my shoulders relaxed just a notch. He couldn’t eat me, even if he wanted to. So, what the hell was he doing lurking around outside my cell?
He pulled a pen and square of parchment out of his pocket, and then hastily scrawled on the page. When he was finished, he held it up beyond the bars for me to read.
I want to get you out of here, but you have to let me come with you.
My breath stilled in my lungs as I gazed up at him. Was this some sort of trick? Another one of Panos’s games?
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re his servant. Why should I trust you?”
With a strangled sigh through his nose, he scrabbled on the paper again.
Because he sowed my mouth shut. If he feasts on the Lord of Dragons, no one will ever be able to stop him. He’ll gain so much more power. Others will die.
“Oh.” I whispered. “That makes sense.” I wet my lips and nodded. “Okay, you can come with me.”
His sown lips twitched up in the corners. Eagerly, he dug the key out of his pocket and shoved it into the lock. A moment later, a loudclickechoed in the hall, and the door swung open. I scurried through and pushed up to my feet, keeping my gaze averted from the remnants of the feast.
“Which way do we go?” I whispered to the servant. “And what’s your name?”
Valin.
I nodded. “Okay, Valin. How do we get out of this hell-pit without getting caught?”
Valin eagerly pointed down a long and winding corridor that led to nothing but shadows and darkness. I sized him up, suddenly feeling far more cautious now that I knew where he wanted to take me.
“You want to go there?” I asked. “Where are all the torches?”
He shook his head, pointed up, and then frantically pointed at the corridor. I had no idea what he was trying to say. With a frown, I motioned toward the parchment. There was still enough room on there for a few more exchanges.
He hissed through his sown mouth and grasped my hand. His fingers were bony and rough. Shuddering, I tried to pull away, but he clenched tight. Spinning on his feet, he dragged me down the hall. I tried to sink in my heels, but they did nothing more than scrape against the stone floor like a hunter’s prey being dragged along behind him.
I opened my mouth to shriek, but that would do no good. If anyone heard me, I’d be in a far worse position than this, particularly if it happened to be one of the feasting monsters from the night before.
“Alright,” I finally said, following after him, despite every warning bell clanging in my head. “But if you’re taking me to Panos, then I will punch you in the mouth.”
