Page 22 of The Jasad Crown
I was not a “little” lizard. I was a burss the size of your leg.
I managed not to yelp this time, which should be lauded as one of the most impressive feats of my existence.
Sareekh il Ma’a stopped lifting us halfway up the cliff. Theshimmering scales beneath my hands quivered and slid apart. I lost my hold and tumbled down its back, grappling for purchase.
A dozen vines shot out from the Sareekh’s back. Attached to the end of each one was a large bone-white knob, not unlike a rosebud before its bloom. One of the claws unfurled, spikes of bone stretching open to catch me before I had slid more than a few feet. It wrapped itself around my middle like a skeletal corset. The spikes tightened when I tried to wiggle my fingers between them and my torso.
They held me fast as the rest of the Sareekh’s spine separated, revealing a spinal column covered in a heavy gelatinous sheath. Beneath the layers of goo, hundreds of furled bone claws formed the knobs of the Sareekh’s spine.
I shrieked as hundreds of those spinal buds speared through the gelatinous sheath, blooming like death’s bouquet.
Had I not watched my family burn before my eyes, this would have been the most frightening sight of my life.
I touched one of the spines wrapped around me like a second set of ribs. Warm and hard to the touch, it shivered but didn’t unlatch. Even if I managed to pry them off without one of them skewering me, I’d just slide right into the next one.
The vine lifted me through the air, and I was so occupied watching the distance between me and the Sareekh grow, I almost didn’t notice when my feet made contact with a hard surface.
The cliff.
The bones relaxed, unceremoniously dropping me into a heap on the ground. I crawled away from the edge on all fours, abandoning any notions of dignity. I turned in time to watch the stems retract into the Sareekh and the bone claws coil back into a hard knob before being absorbed into the gelatinous layer of the spinal column. Its scales rippled as the panels of its spine closed once more.
I patted my body, absently checking for any wayward pieces as myheart heaved back to life. It hadn’t dropped me. Itsavedme. “Thank you,” I whispered.
You may call upon me at any hour of need.
I shivered. My magic hadn’t betrayed me. It broke the protective bubble because it knew my best chance of survival was waiting behind it.
But it had also made the decision on my behalf.
I sensed a presence behind me, but I couldn’t peel my gaze from the Sareekh’s. It regarded me with an intelligence I could live ten thousand lifetimes without equaling.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I dipped my chin in a slow nod. Of gratitude, of respect. This creature was as old as Sirauk Bridge, as ancient as the Awaleen sleeping in the tombs beneath it.
The Sareekh sank into the darkening waters. Its spine arched, casting a shadow over the side of the mountain. I threw my arm over my face as a wave slammed into the cliffside.
The surface of the sea smoothed. The only evidence of the Sareekh were the thin, symmetrical bruises forming on my sides from the bone claw. The presence behind me shifted closer.
Because of the Sareekh, I would live another day.
Because of Efra, I almost hadn’t.
I got to my feet. I was trembling, but it had nothing to do with the cold. I greeted the rage flooding through me like an old friend. It wasn’t the livid, impassioned rage that led to the Victor’s Ball collapsing around Supreme Rawain and the other guests. This rage was cold. Cleansing.
Efra lingered a few paces behind me, open-mouthed with astonishment. “That was Sareekh il Ma’a!”
“You saw me before I fell! I waved to you for help, and you ignored me!” I seethed. “You watched that thing jumping around the ledges before it pulled me into the waterfall.”
Efra’s brows furrowed. “Thing? What thing?”
“Do you think lies will save you? Isaw you.”
“I am not lying,” he snapped. “Yes, I watched you standing by the waterfall, but you seemed fine on the ledge. And you were completelyalone.”
I stopped short. He hadn’t seen the apparitions?
If none of that had been real… if I had imagined it all…
But the voice I’d heard behind the water. The glowing gold-and-silver eyes that may as well have been plucked out of my face, the hand yanking me into the waterfall.
