Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

S hava and I quickly adjusted to living in a desert cave. Or as I adjusted, I supposed. Shava seemed in her element and … excited.

"You do this all with a very … practiced air," I commented as she tied all our kindling together with a scrap of rope, fairly confident I was being complimentary.

Her eyes narrowed. "Why? Because I'm a mud girl?"

Her vehemence confused me.

"I don't know. Is it because you're a mud girl?" I asked, genuinely curious.

Her anger dissolved like storm clouds giving way.

She scoffed and left the fireplace, instead moving to take all the random blankets that made up our ‘bed' and sorted them.

"Don't act stupid," she began, not looking at me as she meticulously matched the corners up and folded each scrap.

"I'm certainly not stupid," I bristled.

She rolled her eyes at me, which didn't help my temper.

Stay calm. Gather information .

That was what had always served me best, hadn't it?

"What do you mean?" I said instead, pleased with how even I'd kept my tone.

Shava scoffed. "You're serious?"

I glared.

"Fine. You Nobles at the Seat live up on your high cliff with all the food and money and protection of the crown. Do you know what it's like to starve? Do you know what it's like to have nothing but a dirt floor and a mud roof, and that's even if you're lucky? Do you know what it's like to live without running water? Have you ever had to make the choice to hurt someone just so you could eat that night? Or have to fend off the rapists? Or consider giving into one to share his crust of bread?"

She cut herself off, clutching a ratty blanket to her chest like a shield. Realizing what she was doing, she shook her head and folded it, setting it down gently on top of the pile as if it were made of the finest silk.

"My life hasn't been easy …" I began, then stopped.

My life hadn't been easy, but there had always been food. There had always been shelter, clothing, and relative security.

Relative .

"Is the entire mud quarter like that?" I asked instead, mind spinning to the more obvious questions at hand.

Shava's face shuttered. "Yes."

Really?

I spoke my thoughts out loud as they came to me. It was illogical.

"I don't … why? Why would the Seat be so prosperous, yet your people starve? We are the same kingdom, are we not? Does the queen know?"

Shava laughed. And laughed. "Our queen? You mean the queen of ice and bitchiness? Are you serious right now?"

She wiped a tear from her eye.

Despite being laughed at, a part of me was thrilled at being the one to put that smile on her face, radiant as she flashed her white teeth at me.

"Fair point," I conceded, brows furrowed.

Further socio-economic discussions were interrupted by the sight of Zariah on the horizon, with someone squirming in his claws.

"Incoming," I said unnecessarily, since Shava had eyes just the same as me, frowning as she stared at the dragon on the horizon.

Zariah swooped down towards us, flaring his wings at the last moment and hovering for just a moment as he dropped his prize.

When he said he'd bring us a prisoner slated for execution, that last person I expected him to bring was … a child.

"Gods," Shava breathed out, rushing forward to check on him.

He was a mud boy from his dark hair, already reaped if his palace-issued Fireguard apprentice tunic had any say in it.

He tumbled head over ass as Zariah dropped him and wheeled away back towards the kingdom without pausing. Probably for the best, as the boy crumpled into a tangle of limbs and went completely still, comatose if he wasn't already dead.

"He isn't …" I began.

"Don't be ridiculous," Shava hissed at me, gently turning the boy over. She put a finger to his neck.

"He's alive."

She put him on his back, gently poking and prodding. Frowning, she pinched his eyelids open.

The boy whimpered and tried to scoot away, curling into a ball.

"It's all right. The dragon is gone. We won't hurt you," Shava tried, but the boy had gone limp again.

"Do we have any meat leftover from last night?" she said sharply to me.

We did. I went to the small pot in the corner of the cave where we kept leftovers, so the bugs and hot desert air wouldn't reach them.

"Here."

I handed her a scrap of meat, which she held out towards the boy.

"Would you like some food?"

The boy tensed, fingers scraping into the sandy rock.

"I'll just leave it here. You have it if you like."

Shava put it on the dirty ground. My mouth opened to protest, but she already had her hand out towards me again, fingers curling in the universal gesture for ‘more.'

Fine.

I fetched her more, and she lined a trail between the boy and us, with five scraps of meat in between.

It seemed an utter waste of perfectly good food, but I pushed down my annoyance. Though I had observed mud boys most of my life and shared a dormitory with them, Shava had lived among them in a way I never had. I had to concede that she knew more about them.

Hopefully.

As we backed away to the cave's mouth, the boy straightened and snatched his hand out for the first scrap of meat. He had to have swallowed it whole with how fast it disappeared, his big eyes and sharp cheekbones a stark contrast to the Noble boys I knew the same age. He looked far worse than the mud boys who'd been reaped with me.

I took a step forward, but Shava's hand shot my wrist in a vice grip, warning me back. The boy froze, eyes darting between me and the next scrap of meat.

I went backward, away from him.

He darted to the next scrap.

And the next.

Until the last one, bringing him only a few feet from Shava and me.

"It's all right. I'm Shava and this is Zephyr. We have more food if you like, and blankets if you'd like to sleep. The dragon brought you here to save you."

I side eyed her, not sure about that last bit.

She steadfastly ignored me, holding out a hand to the boy with the last of the meat.

A war erupted in his eyes. With a jolt of realization, I think I understood. Or at least, could imagine enough to get what Shava had been trying to tell me.

Living in the mud quarter was literal survival, in a way that living in the dormitory had never been, and never would be, for me. Yes, boys got weeded out and even killed, but I hadn't even touched the edges of savagery that Shava and this boy had likely seen.

"What do they call you? I'm Z," I asked softly, crouching down on the ground and grabbing a smooth stone. I knew from my time with M that mud boys didn't have names exactly, just monikers they went by. Going by Z might make him more comfortable.

I drew a large Z in the dirt with my rock. "There is my name. Would you like to see yours?"

A small, shell-shocked face peeked its head up at me, dark eyes wide with fear as it flicked to the letter in the sand and back to me. But there was also a spark of curiosity there.

"D," came the small whisper.

I nodded even as Shava beamed at him like he'd answered a difficult riddle. She handed him the last scrap of meat, rewarding him like a dog.

I ignored her and drew a large ‘D' in the dirt, and pointed at it proudly like I was the teacher, and he the pupil.

"There you are, right there."

The boy stared at it for a long time.

"Would you like Shava to show you the cave?" I interrupted, unable to stand the awkward silence. "It isn't as nice as the dormitories, but no one will push you out of your bed in the middle of the night, or try to steal the meat off your plate in the dining hall."

I tried to use our shared experiences to win his trust.

He rewarded me for my effort with a small, uneven smile, then warily took Shava's outstretched hand.

"You got him to come all the way. That is something," Shava whispered, turning back towards the cave with the boy in her free hand.

"Learning and knowledge are like that," I stated confidently. Knowledge was power, after all, and the greatest nourishment one could have. I'd done far stupider things than trust a stranger in search of it.

Shava's brow rose, as if she could hear my inner thoughts and disagreed.

"Well, when you have the luxury to pursue it," I said next. "I realize basic human necessities like shelter and food can impede that."

"How magnanimous of you," she grit out, the shadow of a smirk on her lips.

"Magnanimous?" I rose a brow, impressed with her vocabulary.

"One of the other girls taught me it," she confessed. "Her name was Daisy, from the bread district."

"Was?" I questioned, noting the furrow in her brow at mentioning the girl. I was getting better at reading people by watching their facial expressions. Then again, it was easier to practice this when you weren't worried the person in front of you would punch you or order you executed.

I was mostly sure Shava wouldn't punch me.

"She failed her examination by your Lord Vession ," she spit back, venom dripping from her voice.

Ah. That's right. She hated Vession.

Shava disappeared into the cave with the boy.

I stayed back, frowning. What kind of physical examination could a girl fail? Was she disfigured?

I would ask Shava later, when things had settled down with the boy. His presence here made little sense. Had the queen meant to execute a boy? Zariah was supposed to have brought me a Noble, not a mud boy!

Remember all the boys reaped with you who had disappeared over the years?

I shivered.

As if my thoughts were a calling card, Zariah's large silhouette came at me again, another lump in its claws.

Please don't be another traumatized mud boy .

Zariah dropped this larger figure much less gently than the boy, and it was easy to see why. A middle-aged, blonde Noble with his fine robes dirty and blue eyes blood shot rolled over, gawking in shock as the large dragon ignored him and flew to a large boulder, perching himself at the top and glaring down at him. The jewels on his fingers glittered, making his appearance even more ridiculous.

Zariah roared, and the man whimpered. A wet stain spread across his crotch.

I rolled my eyes.

"He won't eat you, if that's your concern," I spat.

The man whipped around, not even aware I'd been standing behind him.

I gave a sarcastic wave.

"Did he steal you, too?" The man sputtered, his fat face red and his breathing heavy. "I don't think—"

He stopped short as Shava emerged from the cave, frowning at the commotion.

"You! I remember you; the mud girl who caused a scene at the ball. I thought you'd be dragon shit by now."

Her face twisted into a sneer at the finger pointed rudely in her face, even as she took a half-step forward. I put a hand out, moving to intercept her.

"I've got this, if you handle D," I said quietly.

Her eyes narrowed. "I could rip his ass across this entire canyon, but this time, I don't think I will. It's … kind of nice to have someone else to do it for me." Her gaze sharpened on me. "You will do it for me?"

I grinned. "With pleasure."

Shava gifted me with a saucy wink, her hips swaying as she went back into the cave. Ooh, promises, promises. Turning back towards the Noble, my opinion of him went further south as I caught his eyes following her ass.

If it was anyone's ass, it was mine.

The man was bigger than me, but plump and unfit underneath the hot desert sun. I grabbed him by his robes and threw him up against the cliff's wall far too easily, despite our size difference. His back hit the stone and he let out an emphatic ‘oomph.'

"Tell me. What did you do to earn the queen's displeasure?"

His puffy hands grasped ineffectively at my wrists, no real strength or purpose behind his grip. Perfectly groomed fingernails were useless in trying to gouge into my skin.

"It wasn't my fault!" He sputtered. "I told the queen to give me more time to pay up. It's not my fault the project failed! She approved it, she—"

I let go, letting him collapse to the ground.

"The queen sentenced you to death for owing her money ?" I clarified, incredulous. My gaze raked over the jewels on his hand again. Surely one hand of rings would have been enough to cover whatever debt he had?

His bloodshot eyes met mine, face twisting in shock. His skin was gray with fear.

"Did she? To death ?"

Oh, my gods. What a moron.

"She threw you up to a dragon, did she not?" I grit out.

He put his head in his hands, shaking it frantically.

I would get nothing out of him until he sobered up and came to grips with things.

"You are welcome to the cave once night falls. Don't cause problems. The dragon might not eat you, but he would set you on fire for annoying us."

To illustrate my point, Zariah let out a flaming belch, two feet above the Noble's head. He slid to his belly, hands over his head and breathing heavily.

I left him to it, Zariah's amused growls and the Noble's squeals following me back into the cave.