She couldn't go to the queen, of course. Ruby would just demand that she reveal herself; or worse, do it for her. That'd stop Scoria's plan, but probably also ruin her life forever, even if it didn't lead to Clay's death. Well then, it seems like I have to play along for now. And when I find my out… she's gonna burn. There was no way she could follow in this wind, though. She slipped back inside, not even bothering to go back to their room before curling up on the floor
Sleep didn't come to her, but she soon slipped into a nervous stupor. Eventually the guard shift changed and someone started poking her in the side. "Peril, honey, are you okay?" they asked, giving her another prod.
Barely conscious, she looked up. "Gannet?" she mumbled, and the guard nodded, withdrawing the scorched end of her spear. "I didn't-no, nothing's wrong. And don't call me 'honey'."
"Whatever you want, ho-Peril. Seriously, though, why are you sleeping on the floor?"
Gannet looked on awkwardly as she helped herself to her feet, shaking her head a few times to clear her mind. "I can't tell you. Also, I don't want to tell you." She turned towards the platform, blinking in the morning sun, and walked away from Gannet.
"Okay, if you're sure. We're still on for the coronation, right?" Gannet asked, grabbing her spear again and following after Peril.
"Oh, I'm definitely going to be there." I might be accompanied by a tyrannical usurper-queen, though. It was difficult to plaster a smile onto her face, but she managed it. "See you then."
Gannet gave her a thumbs-up and returned the smile. The wind from Peril's takeoff managed to make her wince slightly, and obscured any reply she might've offered.
Last night's storm had mostly cleared by then, but the rocks beneath her were still dark and shiny with moisture as she flew, and thin streams of water ran down the cliffs. Scoria's estate was shuttered up, with wooden and cloth panels covering most of the ironwork. A few workers looked up as she flew in, taking a moment's rest from mending the broken panels.
There were two guards waiting to greet her. She didn't recognize them under the armor,but she could swear that the first to speak sounded just like the bigger of Clay's kidnappers. "Hello, Peril. What brings you here?" she asked, smug as anything.
"You know damn well why I'm here." Peril's claw's dug into the floor.
"I'm not a NightWing, you'll have to tell me with words."
"Fine. I'm here to…" Kill every last one of you and get my boyfriend back! she thought, then sighed. "...talk to Scoria again." Peril could practically feel the grin oozing out from under the guard's helmet.
"Very good. I'll take you right to her. Oh, and don't try anything funny. We can't hurt you, but others aren't so lucky." warned the guard, waving her along. They flew and walked deeper and deeper into the tunnels behind the estate, going too quickly for Peril to follow, until suddenly they arrived at an imposing set of iron doors. The guard knocked once and the doors swung open, revealing Scoria's room. Huge iron braziers lined the room on either side, forming a clear approach to a dais at the far end. The traitor herself was reclined on a huge leather cushion, picking at a platter of small, live animals
"Thank you, Hallux. You can take the rest of the day off," she said, popping a whole hare into her mouth.
The guard saluted and trotted off silently, and Peril approached Scoria.
Scoria picked up the tray and proffered it to her. "Want some? There's nothing fresher than live prey."
Honestly, Peril couldn't have kept them down even if they weren't squirming. The drunken haze of last night had devolved into a protracted siege of nausea upon her stomach. "I'm not hungry."
"Fair enough," Scoria replied, setting the tray back down. Next to it was a little gong, which she flicked with her claw. The sound reverberated through the room for a moment. Then a servants' entrance clicked open and Anopheles walked in, looking very irritated.
He huffed, staring daggers at the gong. "This is degrading, General. I am a HiveWing noble, not some common butler." Nevertheless, he took up a position next to Scoria, falling down on his haunches.
"Dear, you know we have to maintain secrecy. What'd the others say if they saw you at my shoulder every day? In any case-" Here she waved at Peril. "-our eternal flame has returned to us. Aren't you happy?"
"I am simply ecstatic," he buzzed, toneless as always.
Scoria rolled her eyes, then clapped. "Well, Peril, I trust you're aware of the situation with… well, with Clay."
Peril bared a few teeth before replying. "You mean how you had your goons kidnap him to force me into following your plans? Yeah, I'm aware."
"Now, now, Hallux and Pipper are perfectly fine dragons, doing their tribe a great service. But… yes, they did kidnap Clay. Now, before we begin, let's clear up some ground rules. If you inform anyone outside of this estate of my plans, disobey my orders, or stars-forbid try and hurt one of us, Clay will… pay the price." Scoria drew a claw across her neck.
"You think killing him will make me want to work with you? You'd just be getting rid of the only thing keeping me from tearing your throat out right now."
"Killing him? There are way worse things we can do than killing him!" She laughed, and Anopheles nodded with a smirk. "For starters, we could work on that limp of his. Getting the legs evenly scarred would make him so much more pleasing to look at, don't you think?"
The pounding of Peril's headache became too much to bear. Visions of Clay screaming under a torturer's knife sprung into her mind, all too real. She crumpled to the floor, eyes wet. "Fine. Fine! I'll do whatever you ask."
Anopheles sneered at her. "She is telling the truth, at least for now."
"Excellent." Scoria's voice was a little muffled by another still-squealing mouthful of food. "Now, we're a little short on time, but luckily your role in this is very simple. Could you fetch the chart, dear?"
From somewhere beneath the dais, he pulled out a simplified map of the Sky Kingdom, complete with little red and yellow arrows and annotations too small to read.
Scoria began pointing to the various notes as she explained. "So, this is our complete plan to, well, take over the kingdom! As you can see," She pointed to the yellow arrows. "Your role here is quite simple. All you have to do is show up to the coronation, mill about and such, and when the time is right issue your challenge to the queen. My soldiers and I will arrive shortly to back you up, and Scorch has already laid the groundwork for popular support of your rule."
"W-where is Scorch, anyway? I thought you two were close," Peril asked, still thinking about Clay.
"Oh, he's recovering. Besides, why would I let a lackey in on the full scope of my plans?"
"'Cause he's your mate?"
Oddly, Scoria glanced at Anopheles before speaking again. "Pah, it was just a fling. If he still loves me that's his problem. That does remind me of something, though."
There was a sudden whiff of burning tar. "Are you sure she should be informed of this?" Anopheles asked.
With a slight cough, Scoria replied: "Yes, I believe it will be… motivational. Peril, just in case you were thinking of doing some sort of daring scheme where you grabbed Clay and ran off-which is impossible, by the way, my guards are very well-trained-I arranged a backup plan."
Peril tried her best to keep her face neutral and hide the fact that she already knew. "And what sort of plan is that?"
"Oh, it's quite ingenious. The best part is that it requires neither you nor Clay to be alive at all. Pain in the hindquarters to execute, of course, but very reliable."
Anopheles set a paw on Scoria's shoulder. "General…"
In an instant, she threw him to the floor with a loud clack of chitin on stone. He tried to gurgle out an apology, a claw at his throat. She stared down at him, rage flashing in her eyes. "I am in charge of this estate, not you. Remember that, lest you lose more than your dignity." Her rage faded as she let him regain his footing. "Lesson learned? Good."
Peril blinked. In the chaos of the past few days, she'd almost forgotten that Scoria was a warrior too. Not that it really matters, it's just another thing to deal with.
"You're right, though. There are better ways to motivate the princess than giving my secrets away. How would you like to see Clay instead? It's a bit of a walk to where we're keeping him, but I'm sure you can make it."
"Yes!" Peril was paying close attention now.
Scoria hopped down from her cushion and left the platter behind. "Follow me, then."
Peril let her take the lead as they passed back out into the hall, and then to the shaft. Everyone they passed saluted, even if only halfheartedly. When they reached the opening, Scoria plunged in, falling all the way down and out of the mountain before leveling off into a glide. Peril was pretty sure that that was just to intimidate her, but she kept close nonetheless.
They moved out over the valley beneath the estate, through the clouds of smoke coming up from the mines below, until Scoria dove. Their destination was a small but very sturdy building, with a large mechanism next to it which Peril could make no sense of. "This is one of our older mining shafts, number O451," Scoria explained as they landed and began to approach the machine. "It was built atop a large vein of chasmite-er, have I explained chasmite? It burns for many days with all the heat of dragonfire, great stuff for forges and lanterns."
So that's where the black rocks come from.
"Unfortunately, the vein was exhausted some years ago, leaving behind a mazelike network of tunnels and chambers about half a mile belowground." She undid a latch on the machine and they stepped into a small cage, which had barely enough space for the two of them. Peril tried very hard not to touch her. "Now I use it as a prison. There's no way to dig out silently, and the only point of access is this elevator, which is slow and requires the help of dragons on the surface to operate. The main shaft is too narrow to fly up, see." Scoria pointed down and Peril realized they were standing over a yawning black void, held up only by a thin grating.
Her attention was finally broken from the pit by another signal from Scoria, to a set of four MudWings harnessed to a capstan. With only a little grumbling, they got to turning the wheel, and the cage suddenly dropped. Peril yelped, cowering until she realized they'd only fallen a few inches, and were now slowly descending. "There's nothing to be afraid of, hon. MudWings may be lazy, but the machinery won't let us fall."
Peril was too anxious to argue that point with her, and they descended in silence for what felt like hours. The bottom of the shaft led out into a dark tunnel, lit by lanterns spaced at long intervals. There was practically nobody around, but she saw the occasional guard on the doors they passed.
"He's way in the back, since I didn't want him mingling with the other prisoners. They're mostly my workers, see, and your mate is renowned for rabblerousing." At last, though, they were approaching the end of the mine. Here most of the tunnels had no doors at all, but at the very end there was a small built-up stretch. Three doors stood in front of them, one just a bit of wood and the others built of rock and iron. The locks were metal, though, so she could melt those given the chance. Unfortunately the guards seemed unlikely to comply.
"Pipper, report," Scoria ordered, and Peril realized that the smaller of Clay's kidnappers was here too. She could sense the fear in her eyes even through the overbuilt helm.
Pipper snapped off a quick salute, pressing her paw to her chest as was custom, and managed to keep her gaze on Scoria as she spoke. "General! The prisoner is behaving well-better than his counterparts, at least. He keeps demanding more food, though, and Shrike-the chef one, not our torturer-is starting to get worn out. Also, er, he got a little touchy during the physical."
Peril winced. Hopefully he was touchy enough to keep anyone from finding out that he has a vagina.
Despite her apprehension, Scoria paid it no mind. "The other occupants are a secret, let's keep it that way. Other than that, excellent work. I'll send another cook down to relieve Shrike ASAP. Now, we're here to see the prisoner."
The tension in Pipper's stance lessened, and she nodded. "Okay, lemme just find the key." She began rifling through the keyring looped around her neck, and Scoria sighed. In a few moments, Pipper had found the key. It was thickly built for an equally chunky lock, which opened with a loud clunk and allowed Pipper to painstakingly pull the door aside.
Scoria brushed past her and moved into Clay's cell. Eager to see him again, Peril bounded in after her only to skid to a stop as she realized that the cell had two levels. They stood on a ledge of rough rock about ten feet wide, which stretched around the circular room. Beneath them was a deep pit, and at the bottom of that was Clay, bound in wing-clamps and chained to a peg set in the wall.
"Peril! You're okay!" he shouted up at her.
"I'm okay? You're the one who got kidnapped!" She stepped towards the pit,wondering if she could burn through the chains before Scoria could summon the guards.
"I'm familiar with firescales tricks, dear." Scoria said, and pointed up. A large cylinder of rock was suspended near the ceiling, held in place by a system of pulleys. It was a bit wider than the pit itself. "Feel free to speak with him, but if you try anything funny I'll be putting the lid on. Even a firescales can't melt solid stone, and you'll both be trapped in the dark until I deign otherwise. Oh, and I'm really not sure if air can get in there."
The last part was barely audible to Peril, as she was already in the pit rubbing noses with Clay. "Stars, I was so worried! Have they been treating you nicely?" she asked, realizing that the question was a bit silly. He was locked in a dark pit miles underground; nice treatment was precluded.
It took a moment for Clay to reply, and he spoke carefully. "Nobody's shouted at me or tried to bite my head off yet, so so far I've experienced worse. And the food's not bad. What about you?"
"I haven't eaten since you were taken, no. Scoria offered me some food, but I wasn't hungry." Speaking of, she was feeling a bit peckish now that her stomach wasn't crammed full of anxiety. Eating would require her to disentangle herself from Clay, though, and she wasn't ready to make that kind of commitment. "Gods, I'm so sorry for last night. I was a real asshole, wasn't I?"
He tried to wrap a wing around her but the clamp made the action awkward. "Don't beat yourself on my account, Peril. I'm fine, and I'll get out of this pit one way or another."
Scoria peeked down from above. "You'd better not be plotting anything in there!"
Clay stared right back at her. "You are planning on releasing me, right? Once your plan is done?"
She wrinkled her brow. "Uh… yes? I'd prefer a SkyWing consort for the new queen but you'd make a passable concubine."
"See? That's how I'll get out," he replied, giving Peril a glance that said "though if you have other options, I'd take them."
Scoria huffed and pulled away from the edge.
"You just want me to lay down and follow her plans?" Peril asked, keeping her voice low. "They're planning to torture you if I don't go along with it! Not nice people!"
His eyes widened. "Well in that case I'd really prefer you went along with it."
"I know, but… argh, I don't want to kill Ruby! And I'd be an awful queen!" She whipped her tail against the wall with a loud crack and an almost-equally-loud shout of pain. The rock was far less yielding than the trees had been, the last time she was stuck between two awful options.
"You would," he mused, and she batted him playfully with her wing. There was a commotion at the top of the pit, and Pipper's voice filtered down from above.
"Ma'am, there's been another problem with the, er, special prisoners."
"And?" Scoria asked. Peril couldn't see her, but she could hear the tongue-lashing coming in Pipper's immediate future
"Well, they need some attention from… you. You know how it is, with special prisoners."
"I don't know why I bother telling you anything, you're terrible at keeping secrets." Scoria's head poked back out above the lip of the pit. "You two, I'll be back in ten minutes to unlock the door. Feel free to do whatever you like, just don't try and break out. Come on, Pipper." With that, she stepped out, and Peril could hear the door slam shut behind her. The lock thunked closed a moment later.
"Well, that gives us some time to scheme at least. Or, y'know, make out." Clay shrugged.
Stars, I wish we had time for that. "Let's stick to scheming. Oh, but before that: did anyone see your, y'know..."
"Nethers? Nah, they didn't search me. Just my luck that I didn't carry my concealed dagger today,"he said, smiling.
She laughed, then sat on the floor opposite him, noting the warmth of the rock. For a moment, she tapped her claws, trying to think of a plan. "Dammit, I can't think of anything. What've you got?"
"I'm not much further along. What are our options, hmm?" He rubbed his chin with one forepaw, and for a moment Peril felt like Starflight was right there in the pit with them. "Well, option one is to just lay low and wait for me to be released." Clay held up a claw to enumerate.
If he starts talking about scrolls I'm out of here. Peril shook her head. "Somehow I doubt Scoria's going to let you go, and even if she does I'd still have to betray Cliff and Ruby."
"That's… not unlikely. Option two, then:" He held up a second claw. "You break me out and together we fight our way past like fifty guards and figure out the elevator on the fly."
"I like that plan, can we do that?"
"It's a good one, yeah, apart from the part where one of us gets stabbed to death. At least."
She groaned. He's probably right. I might be able to take them all but I can't protect him while doing it. "Okay, what's option 3?"
His third claw went up halfway. "Honestly, I'm still working on it. How sneaky are you?"
"Is there such a thing as negatively sneaky? Because I'm that."
"You snuck around a fair bit the last time I was locked up in the Sky Kingdom, as I recall."
"Mostly I just hid behind you. And your friends' antics were pretty distracting."
"Hey, you did well." He patted her on the neck reassuringly.
Apart from the whole "betraying them for love" thing, yeah.
"Anyway, option three requires subtlety. I don't know how exactly you can sneak me out of here, but Scoria's clearly got a lot going on outside of you."
"Yeah, she does!" For the first time, a note of hope snuck into Peril's voice as a few possibilities began to appear to her. "There's the imprisoned workers she mentioned, and whatever Anopheles is up to-not to mention whoever those special prisoners are. They must be pretty important to be kept all the way down here."
"Aw, thank you." He grinned. "I think the other prisoners are our best bet, honestly. Starting a riot just makes things worse, in my experience, and Anopheles is probably not going to be swayed by threats. And they seem to be dangerous, judging by how happy Pipper was to have a 'nice quiet MudWing' to guard."
"Okay then, I just need to-" Peril was cut off by the clattering of the lock from above. Quickly, she wrapped her arms around Clay again and licked his brow. "Just go along with it," she said, and he leaned towards her a bit more.
Scoria strode back in, and peered down at them with disgust. "Have you been doing that the whole time?"
"Well, he started licking me first. It's a MudWing thing."
"Mhm. Well, time to say your goodbyes." She held up a paw to ward off the protests. "A-a-ah! You can talk to Clay all you want after you become queen."
"Alright then. See you soon, Peril." He licked her back, more deeply and honestly than she had. She shivered a little despite herself.
"Soon, yeah. I...I love you." She gave him one last squeeze and hopped out of the pit, trying to keep steady. Hopefully in one piece, she thought. Then Scoria led her out, and the door slammed shut behind them.
Author's Note: The plot just gets thicker and thicker, doesn't it? Comments and/or Scoria/Anopheles shipfics are always appreciated!