Between the boulders was a narrow passageway that led into the ground.
Damara was extremely hesitant to follow Tyrone and Faren’s family into the small rock opening. They said it would bring them to the refugee camp inside. She was used to wide open spaces and, watching how the adults hunched to get through, she dreadfully imagined the boulders falling in on them.
“Aren’t you going in?” Rosefinch asked Damara as Faren’s family shimmied between the rocks.
Damara looked over her shoulder. “Aren’t you?”
Rosefinch gave a warm laugh. “I can’t fit through there!” she said. “We, dragons, have to fly down the chimney shaft to get to the caves.”
“All of us, except Tide,” Lynx remarked snidely, alighting beside them. “Any hatchling like him could fit inside that pebble passageway just fine.”
Rosefinch cast him a glare. “At least Tide has more sense than you,” she spoke coldly. “He knows not to scare the refugees by diving in with a roar.”
“I’m sensible!” Lynx’s eyes widened in mock surprise. “I took the firesap!”
Rosefinch snorted. “Don’t contradict yourself. That firesap will kill you before any of your other foolish acts can.”
Lynx grinned. “The flames make it all worth it.” He flicked sparks off his tongue.
Rosefinch curled her lip in disgust as they blew into her face.
“Damara?” Tyrone called. He was stooped under a jutting rock, looking up at her expectantly.
Taking a deep breath, Damara stepped forward, watching as he disappeared inside. A queasy feeling writhed in her stomach but she pushed through, ducking to slip under the gap in the boulders. Her eyes took time to adjust, though patches of winter light shone through.
There was no clearly defined tunnel laid out before her. In fact, when Tyrone disappeared, she had no idea where to go. Anxiously, she glanced at the entrance behind her, longing to squeeze back out.
“Is everything alright?” Tyrone asked from further inside the hollow. He stood up ahead, only half visible as he traced back to peer at her. “Here, go in front of me.”
Damara swallowed and did as he said, puzzled to see a wide gap in between the shadowed rocks. From certain angles, the opening wasn’t even noticeable. She ventured deeper with Tyrone following right behind.
The air was dank and light was dwindling as they traveled deeper into the tunnel. Dripping water tapped the smooth rock walls around her. She could make out what sounded to be a dozen voices and she came to a rigid stop. Tyrone cleared his throat.
“It’s not far, now,” he urged her. “Soon you’ll be able to see better.”
She pressed on, placing her hand on the damp curve of a rock as she ducked one last time. Her eyes gazed up in amazement as an entire cavern opened up before her. Enraptured by the sight, she barely even heard Tyrone ask her to move and let him through.
A wide underground river filled a portion of the cave. Small rimstone dams, pools that sat on the steps of rock, bordered the large body of water. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like hundreds of stone icicles.
Tyrone entered and straightened up beside her.
“It’s nothing great,” he said. “But I’m afraid it’s all I can offer them.”
‘Them’? Damara started as she saw people down at the water’s edge, filling up gourds. Some glanced up at her for a moment, then turned back to their own business.
Where is Faren? Damara wondered. Cautiously, she followed as Tyrone took the lead, striding up a rocky stretch of cliff. They passed the river, through another mouth of the cave.
Damara found herself staring at a new cavern, even larger than the first.
Winter sunlight poured down like a waterfall across the room from her. Few people were sitting inside, but numerous burlap sacks littered the cave floor, along with various other clothes and fabrics.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“This is where the refugees sleep,” Tyrone answered. “It’s sheltered and easily protected.”
“What?! How many refugees are there? And where?”
“They’re probably out gathering food while the weather is fair. They’ll come back for the night, you’ll see.”
“I’ll see?” Damara repeated after him. “What about Chasm and the clutch?!”
Tyrone looked her in the eye. “Until Chasm is dealt with, this is the safest place for us.”
“But there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves! Not here!”
“Damara,” he exhaled. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
She was silent for a moment, not quite sure, either. I just can’t stay here. I don’t know anyone besides Faren- and I can’t even see her right now! How could I bear living amongst strangers in a strange cave?
“Why can’t I stay with Kara?” she eventually asked. “You left her all alone.”
“I would like it if she stayed here, too,” he replied truthfully. “But she refuses and there’s no changing her mind.”
“Then I refuse. You can’t keep me here.”
Fatigue lined Tyrone’s face. The cave threw shadows over his eyes in waves of darkness.
“That’s true,” he agreed. “And I don’t want to keep you here. I wish I could give all these people something better. I wish I could give them freedom. But I’m not the one trapping them with fear. It’s Chasm who’s holding them down.”
“Then kill him!” Damara pleaded.
“I can’t go hunting for him. I’d have to abandon these people and that’s a risk I can’t take.”
“Where is the King in all this? Why isn’t he helping you? You both want the same things!”
“He doesn’t see it that way.”
“But why?”
“The Wystilians don’t trust me. They say I’m fighting to conquer the land, not save it.”
Damara gritted her teeth. “I don’t understand,” she said, forcing herself to speak calmly. “What makes them think that? How can they be so ignorant?”
Tyrone heaved a great sigh. “Come with me,” he said, turning to walk across the messy cavern before she could even answer.
Reluctantly, she followed, heading farther into the soft light. As they passed under a large archway, they stopped before a great mound of crumbled rock, dusted with a thin layer of snow. Realizing that snowflakes were falling down on them, she couldn’t help but look up.
Whoa. Hundreds of snowflakes fluttered down a massive vertical tunnel where the cave ceiling should have been. It was as though someone were plucking a white bird above them, carelessly tossing the feathers into the chilly chimney shaft.
That must be the hole Lynx dove into, she realized, spotting a bright disk of sky brooding over them. Even I couldn’t climb that high.
She looked down as Tyrone crouched, tracing the outline of a single dragon track into the thin snow next to one of his boot prints. He circled them both within a ring.
Damara gawked as he stepped back. That’s the symbol Chasm used to make me plant all over the place!
“Whenever I came to defend an invaded town,” Tyrone explained, “the Strong Pack would flee, I would help the survivors, and the area would be left abandoned. I didn’t know of this marking that appeared on the desolate grounds until incoming refugees told me of it. But by then, it was too late.”
Too late? Damara studied the mark, trying to understand what he meant. Two footprints united together by one circle- the perfect symbol of dragon and man.
Suddenly all became clear.
All those times Chasm made me place this, she thought. He was never claiming territory for himself. He was tricking people into thinking that the Dragon Knight was taking over!
Chasm used me to turn Wystil against Tyrone.
Guilt pounded down on her like hailstones. Fear and fury shook her bones.
“H-he would have killed me,” Damara stammered. “I didn’t know what he was making me do!”
“I understand. You’re not to blame.” He touched her on the sho
ulder, then walked away, leaving her beneath the sky hole all alone.
If Chasm can deceive an entire kingdom, she feared, how long will it take him to conquer it?
Already, snow was beginning to cover the deceptive symbol. Ice flakes landed on the back of her neck, nipping her before melting on her warm skin. But she was too stunned to pull the hood of her cloak on.
He’s failed once already. But he’s still not dead.
Tyrone’s too busy taking care of the refugee camp. King Chadwick is too busy protecting the castle. So who’s stopping the Strong Pack from being reborn?
That clutch must be destroyed.
Chapter 24