Peril was out of it for the rest of the day. No matter how hard she tried, her mind kept wandering back to Clay. It didn't help that Scoria insisted she spend most of the afternoon practicing her formal etiquette; there was only one proclamation she needed to make but it was an important one. Throughout the lessons, and the short tour of the estate that followed, she looked for an opportunity to sneak off and return to the prison. Scoria had kept her on a tight leash, though; there was always a guard watching and the general herself was never more than a few rooms away.
There was even a guard present at dinner, standing awkwardly in the corner of the room as they ate. "Alright, let's go over the plan one more time to make sure you've got it." Scoria said. "When are we leaving?"
"The coronation starts at precisely six hours after noon, so we've got to fly out by 5 o'clock to make it in time. I'll have to be ready a bit earlier to give a speech to the troops, which you've already prepared."
Scoria nodded. The leg of boar she was gnawing on kept her quiet, but she motioned for Peril to go on.
"Once we get there, I'm to wait for the soldiers to surround the plaza and only then issue my challenge directly to Queen Ruby in the appropriate style. That way she can't just have me arrested."
"Yes, that's the most important part. You remember the official format?"
"Mhm," said Peril, and rattled off a few sentences of legalese. Most challenges weren't issued so formally, but most weren't issued by dragons that weren't heirs. "Can I eat now?" she asked, after finishing the recitation. While Scoria's plate was nearly empty, Peril had barely gotten a chance to pick at hers with all the verbal tests.
"So rude…" Scoria sighed and shook her head. "I suppose you need to keep up your strength. Go ahead." Before she could change her mind, Peril quickly swallowed a few quails and started working on her own boar. "That'll have to do, though. The sun's starting to get low and I need my beauty rest. Got to look my best while I'm overthrowing the queen."
Ugh, she's not even pretending that I'm going to be queen after this all shakes out. Not that I'd really care if she took over. It's all the other stuff that bothers me, Peril thought, swallowing another mouthful before replying. "Yeah, me too. Say, I don't think you've told me where I'm sleeping yet."
"Stars, did I? It must've slipped my mind-" she leaned in a little to confess:"Honestly, I've been flying by the claws of my wings all day, since the plan was for you to come peacefully." She tittered and Peril chuckled stiffly as she continued. "Anyway, it's one of the master bedrooms, on the same level as mine. I'll show you as soon as we're done here; the room's mostly made up already."
Well, if she's got no idea what's going on then that means she might not be as vigilant to sneakiness. Plus, if she plans to sleep in 'til dawn, that gives me eight hours to make trouble. "You remembered to give me a non-flammable bed, right?"
"Yep, had one made out of solid granite. It came out a bit small but you can cope for one night."
"Mmmhm," Peril mumbled, through another mouthful of boar. "Hey, do you think we could visit Scorch in the infirmary? I'd like to apologize for almost killing him."
Scoria groaned. "You can't go around apologizing for yourself all the time, dear. You're going to be the queen, you've got to embrace your power."
I embraced my power years ago, you smoke-breath bitch, she thought, but simply said: "So that's a no, then?"
"You can't apologize to him publicly, no. In fact, why don't you just stay out of the infirmary in general. No place for a monarch."
Now Peril really wanted to go to the infirmary, half to spite Scoria and half because she might have some secret hidden away there. Spiting her captor wasn't worth any of Clay's limbs, though. "Fine." She crammed a final bite of food into her mouth, barely even burning it, and swallowed quickly. "Let's get going, then. I'm exhausted." That was only half a lie; she'd been awake for nearly 36 hours, and it was looking like she'd be up for at least 16 more. Fun.
"Quite. Well, let's go then." Scoria clapped, and a trio of MudWing servants walked in and began clearing away their meal. Peril tried not to look at them, but they stared at her. "Just ignore them, dear. They're afraid of things they don't understand."
They're afraid of a murderer in their midst. She smiled at one of them and got little more than a huff of annoyance in return. "Alright." Peril stood, and Scoria was at her side in the next moment. "Now, where's my room?"
Peril's room was significantly less cushy than she'd expected, but still more than she was used to. Every flammable thing had been cleared away, which left the cave a bit bare, but Scoria had provided an astonishing variety of stone furniture. "Where'd you get all this stuff? I thought iron and wood was more your style," she asked, examining a red granite washing basin, and the little pot of incense next to it.
Scoria blinked. "It pays to be prepared. You never know when you might need to host a firescales."
"I'm the only firescales in the world, so I think you could make a good guess." Feeling a draft, Peril turned away from the basin. Pushing aside a jointed slate divider, she realized that the room actually had a window, carved into the rock and covered by a thin panel of mica. It was even hinged at the edge, so she could open it, and the space beyond was wide enough for a scavenger to walk through. Well, that solves getting out of here. For once being small and weedy pays off.
Luckily Scoria didn't notice her inspection of the window, since Peril's question seemed to have her off-balance. "I hate to admit it, but... I had them made for you in a fit of pique. It was years ago, back when you were still working for Queen Scarlet, and I was quite a fan of your fights. I even asked Scarlet if you could come over and visit." She blushed.
Peril forced a smile. "I guess it all worked out." Come on, let's just say "good night" and get on with it.
"Yes, it did," Scoria replied, suddenly stiff. She blinked, and relaxed a little as she pointed out the door, which was made of fine wood and iron. "I'll have a guard posted outside all night, for your information. I don't expect you two to get into a fight but I'd prefer it if you didn't kill her, should it come up. Guards are hard to replace… and so are your boyfriend's talons, come to think of it."
"Subtle," Peril replied, but she still had to hide a shiver. In the arena she'd seen a few talons torn off and the screams were somewhere between "just got stabbed, but only a little" and "burning to death from the nethers on up".
Scoria shrugged. "Whatever works. Anyway, big day tomorrow, get some sleep." She turned to leave.
"Night." Peril waved, practically shaking with impatience.
"Good night, princess. Sleep tight." Scoria stepped out, slamming the door shut behind her.
It was all Peril could do not to jump out of the window right then. She couldn't go yet, though-it was still a few minutes before sunset and she'd surely be seen. Waiting a few hours would be prudent. Also, I'm totally beat and that bed looks surprisingly comfy. Swearing to only take a short nap, she hopped up onto the stone slab. It warmed quickly under her scales, and there was a carved indentation that gave her a surprising amount of spine and wing support when she was properly curled up. It took practically no effort at all for her to drift off to sleep.
Peril came to with a start, and realized that she was someplace very different from where she'd gone to bed. She looked around, not bothering to stand up. She was in the middle of a large natural cave, though she couldn't make out most of the details. Pretty much the only things that stood out where the river running down the middle, the large boulder in front of the entrance, and her mother crouched on a precipice above her. Wait, her mother?
"Kestrel?" she murmured, confused. "Mom?"
Kestrel leaned down, too close for comfort, and Peril could feel the hot breath on her snout. "You're no child of mine," she spat, setting a claw on Peril's stomach. Somehow, impossibly, she was unburnt as her claws bit into Peril's scutes.
"M-mom! You're hurting me!" Peril tried to squirm away, but her mother's claws and gaze were like iron stakes driven into her, pinning her down. As she panicked, she felt her scales growing hotter and hotter. Smoke was pouring off of her, but Kestrel was unmoved. "Don't you recognize your own daughter?"
"I have no daughter!" Kestrel pressed harder, and a bit of blood leaked out from under her claw tips. Peril yelped, but Kestrel ignored her. "Scarlet took everything from me! Even my own son! And look what she made of you!" Tears welled up in her eyes but there was only rage in her expression.
The heat was getting more intense than Peril had ever felt. She looked down and saw flames creeping out from Kestrel's talons, flowing across her body and down into her scales. She writhed in Kestrel's pin, trying desperately to beat out the flames but only succeeding in spreading them around until all she could do was scream.
With a single fluid motion Kestrel threw her back into the river. Her skin went from searing to chilled in a single instant, and the water grew cloudy with blood. Flailing in a panic, she managed to get her head just above water, and suck in a breath, but she was sinking fast. The current was picking up, stronger than any river she'd ever been in.
Kestrel was staring down at her with disgust, and Peril reached out to her. She growled and turned away, and just before Peril went under again she saw something reflected in Kestrel's yellowed eyes. Staring back at her from the sulfurous mirrors was Queen Scarlet's face, grinning wickedly as Peril drowned.
She awoke with a shout, limbs jerking and throwing her out of the bed. Looking up, she shook her head a bit to clear the confusion and checked the window to make sure it was still dark. Dammit, why do I always have such weird dreams? Can't I have just one where something nice happens?
Hallux's voice floated in through the door, unmistakable even at this distance. "What are you doing in there? You better not be breaking General Scoria's stuff!"
"I'm fine!Just a bad dream!" she shouted back, hoping that'd placate the guard. Once a few seconds had passed silently, she rushed over to the window to check the stars. Good, Bahamat's tail is still rising. Sunrise won't be for a while yet. Unlatching the window, she checked behind her one last time, then leapt up into the frame. It was a few feet deep, and she had to wriggle through inch by inch until her wings were free.
On the other side was a sheer cliff, frosted with rime and windblown soot. It was much calmer tonight than last night, so maintaining her grip wasn't too hard, but the rocks below hardly looked inviting. It was probably the lack of sleep, but she kept seeing glints of pale reddish scales below… or maybe that was blood. When this is over, I'm gonna sleep for three days straight, she thought, and leapt down.
She caught herself ably, despite her exhaustion, and yawed over towards the mines. They were probably empty this late at night, but just in case she flew a wide arc around them, keeping to the edge of the valley where Scoria had built her would-be queendom. No guards flew up to meet her as she approached the prison, so she assumed her plan had worked.
Now she just had to figure out to get down the elevator. She landed softly next to the shaft-head building, talons crunching in the gravelly soil, and took a look around. The MudWings were gone, of course, so there was no way down there. The elevator had no hatch in the bottom for her to slip through and climb down either, but it did seem to swing a fair bit as she inspected it, since it was above the edge of the pit.
With a mighty heave, she pushed the elevator over the edge of the pit, propping it up in the dirt and leaving a five-foot gap in front of it. She hopped down in and got a grip on the rough stone inside. Hopefully nobody pushes the elevator back into place before I've gotta climb back up, she thought as she began the descent.
There were no guards at the bottom, but the lanterns were lit. The tunnel was eerily quiet as she crept down, the only sound being the echo of her own footsteps. She passed the main holding area (as noted by a sign next to the door) without incident, and kept delving deeper and deeper. Now it was very dark indeed, and she realized that the lanterns down here had been extinguished. Was someone on to her plans? No, they would've sent someone down here to stop me, she thought as she tripped over the third rock in a row.
After only a couple dozen more pratfalls, she made it to the end of the lit section of tunnel. Clay's door was right there, unguarded, but there was also light creeping through and under the wooden door to the right, and the sound of voices from inside. It seemed like there were a few guards here, though they were mostly just gossiping right now. She doubted they'd come outside anytime soon, but that still gave her a stricter deadline.
Sorry, Clay. Maybe tomorrow, when the fate of the kingdom isn't in the balance, she thought, turning to the leftmost door. It was sealed tight, but she could tell that the lanterns within were lit. She tried the handle and realized it was locked. With a sigh, she began worming her talon into the mechanism. It was like pressing into an ice-cube, the metal melting away little by little and running down in radiant streams. Eventually there was a dull thunk as the lock gave out, and she pulled the door open.
Author's Notes: Kind of a short chapter this week, sorry. Also: happy holidays, everyone, and a happy new year as well.