Emma Holloway - A Study in Ashes

The conversation dwindled as the tunnel gave way to a cavern lined with brick. Barrels were stacked against the wall and Evelina thought perhaps it might have once been part of a merchant’s cellar. The party came to a stop.

“This is as far as we go,” said the woman. “Our job is to patrol the tunnel and bring any who stray beneath the streets to this way station.”

“Did you see the Blue King?” Nick spoke for the first time since they’d been captured. His voice sounded strained, and Evelina remembered this wasn’t the first time he’d been taken prisoner.

“We do not share information,” their captor said. “What you learn from the underground is Lord Fawkes’s decision.”

“Lord Fawkes?” asked the prince.

The skin on Evelina’s back began to creep and she turned. There stood a Wraith with two of the Others cringing at his feet like whipped curs. An aura of fear surrounded him as it did all the Wraiths, making her grow short of breath. It wasn’t something she could see or smell, but it writhed around him all the same, turning her stomach to a tight, icy ball.

“I am Fawkes,” said the figure in a cultured accent. The voice was the only clue Evelina had about the man. He was tall, dressed in a tailcoat and top hat, but the hat was draped in a black veil that hid his face. The torch he held revealed nothing. “Follow.”

The word had the force of a compulsion. Evelina gripped Nick’s hand, reluctant to leave the half humans behind. At least she knew they had once been men and women. She wasn’t sure about their new guide. She’d always assumed the term “Wraith” was a term of affiliation like “Yellowback,” but now she wondered if it might refer to a species.

All conversation ceased as they carried on, the top-hatted Wraith in the lead. The two Others followed behind, more than ensuring that no one tried to leave the procession. Here most signs of the world aboveground dwindled. Vast caverns opened up, revealing dark streams and lakes that never saw daylight. The scent of magic hung everywhere, giving a faint glow to the surface of the rock and sometimes manifesting in fantastic vegetation that had no business growing underground. Strange and disturbing birds clung to the branches, singing like the echo of heartbreak.

But the landscape wasn’t the strangest thing there. Evelina caught glimpses of figures darting through the darkness—some humanlike, some not—and felt the presence of ten times that number hiding just out of sight. Her magic reared up, ready to fight as she caught the scent of their predatory interest. It occurred to her that no one had asked for their weapons. Perhaps for these creatures, anything short of an aether cannon simply didn’t matter.

It was hard to say how long they’d walked, but Evelina was about ready to drop when they reached a narrow passage in the rock. Lord Fawkes stood aside, signaling for them to proceed.

Nick balked. “What’s on the other side of this?”

“Your destination,” Fawkes said without emotion. “I shall be right behind you.”

Nick looked at Evelina, then pulled her tight, giving her a hard kiss that left her lips hot and aching. Then wordlessly, he pushed through the gap in the stone, turning so his shoulders would pass. She followed, and Prince Edmond after her. The passage was only about eight feet long, but it opened into a vast cavern large enough for the Athena to dock twice over. Torches burned along the walls and more wraiths stood at intervals between the flaming lights, their features hidden with hoods and veils. Some of the figures were dressed like Fawkes, in relatively modern clothes. More looked as if they wore the costumes of a bygone age. All had Others crouched like guard dogs at their feet. In the center of the cavern sat a metal throne in the shape of a hand, but the clawed fingers that formed the back said no human had served as its model.

Something was curled around the throne. At first Evelina thought it was simply part of the surrounding stone, but the light caught a gleam as the thing shifted. Nick’s breathing quickened and she felt him move to get between her and the uncoiling ropes of muscle and rippling black skin. Evelina caught his shoulder. “Wait,” she whispered. “I need to see.”

And there wasn’t much Nick could have done to protect her as the dragon reared up. Red eyes glittered, but they were bright with an intelligence every bit as old as Athena. Pale horns coiled from the black head, long whiskers trailing from a mouth filled with ivory fangs. The thing wasn’t tall, standing only the height of a man, but it was at least twenty feet from nose to tail.

Prince Edmond turned pale. “What …”

“Do not speak in the presence of our king!” Lord Fawkes ordered. Then his voice dropped. “Unfortunately, the noise of your war has awakened him. That was not a wise thing.”

“The Black King is a dragon?” Edmond breathed.

“Indeed,” the Wraith intoned with a touch of sarcasm. “That escapes the notice of so many.”

The dragon was clearly the conduit of the ancient power she’d been feeling. How, she could not say, but she suddenly understood that the Black Kingdom was the door through which magic manifested in the land, and the dragon had soaked in that power for thousands of years. Evelina felt it like the brush of fingertips as the serpent glided through the cavern, oddly graceful on its six short legs.

She’d met a fire drake before, but it had been a kind of deva, more an elemental than a literal reptile. There was no mistaking the solidity of this creature, miraculous though it was. She could see a ridge of bony plates along its back, and old, white scars where something had once done battle with it. She could feel the primal hunger for life radiating from it and knew that in some way, through Magnus, she shared its appetites.

But while it moved gracefully, she detected a hitch in its movements that spoke of age and pain. For a moment, it reminded her of Magnus, long past his time. The beast stopped to sniff at each of the Wraiths as it passed, a forked tongue flicking out to taste the air. As it worked their way, Evelina instinctively pressed into Nick’s chest, protective and seeking protection.

Edmond inched closer, too. “What’s it going to do?”

“Not quite sure yet,” Nick said, stiff with tension. He had an arm around Evelina tight enough to ache, but she wasn’t about to make him stop.

The dragon stopped, huge head reaching forward to tongue at the prince. This is the one who would be king above the ground?

Both Nick and Evelina jumped, hearing the voice in their heads. It sounded like sandpaper and fur—silky and rough at once, and very deep.

“It is, sire,” Lord Fawkes replied.

The prince looked confused, but held utterly still as the red tongue flickered close to him. His jaw muscles worked, his expression less afraid than angry. But when the dragon stopped tasting the air before him, the prince bowed, making a perfect courtier’s leg. “Fair greetings to the king below the earth.”

The dragon snuffed, pawing the earth with one taloned paw. Evelina wondered if that was the equivalent of a laugh. The princeling has courage and manners. That is well, for as much good as that does him . The dragon moved stiffly on, stopping at Nick and Evelina next. A lord of the air and a queen of many kingdoms. My realm grows rich with royalty today .

The Black King finally turned to Lord Fawkes. These I would keep for a little while. You have other prisoners, do you not?

“I do, my king.”

Then bring them out. I am weary of waiting for a meal .

A meal? Evelina and Nick exchanged panicked looks. A sound of anticipation rustled through the Wraiths that said they were eager, too. Evelina stiffened and Nick pulled her yet closer, moving to be shoulder to shoulder with the prince. She’d always heard people who wandered too far into the underground never came out. Some might have been recruits like the half humans who had caught them in the tunnel, but the rest, it seemed, might well have ended up dinner. Cold, sweaty fear started to work its way up her spine.