I leaned my head back against the wall as I listened to his tale.
"Myths of old say that the royals could actually... turn into those animals. At will."
Nobody spoke or moved a muscle as his words sank in. I'd never heard about this from my father, and in my eyes, he was well versed on all things royal... but what Kael was saying—it had some merit.
"Volos, the dragons. Ekpen, the tigers. Oberon, the bears. Faolan, the wolves... and, of course, Sova, the owls."
"And we've had encounters with all of them. Except owls... but that makes sense since House Sova was annihilated twenty years ago," Isla said.
Becca ran her hands through her tangled red hair. "I always thought dragons were creatures made up to entertain and scare children. Myths."
"Exactly," Kael said, pointing at Bex. "They are. Nobody has seen a dragon in their lifetime. So why here? Why now?"
Riv stabbed her knife into the sand and sighed. "There are too many things that point to the impossible being possible."
"The things we've seen and experienced..." I trailed off, trying to ignore the flashes of memories in my mind that were nothing more than a collection of horrors.
"What stopped them from being able to shift before?" Becca asked.
I brushed some sand off of my arms that had begun to dry. "Who says they ever stopped?"
We thought about that for a moment before Tiro spoke. "But there would've been witnesses to that, right? I mean, these creatures are not normal animals. The wolves are horse sized!”
As soon as the comment was made, Kael and I looked at each other knowingly, arriving at the same thought. The wolf from the forest that Kael slayed to save my life when we were traveling to the port was abnormally large. He opened his mouth, but I shook my head. I didn’t want anyone to know about that. Especially not if it wasn’t a coincidence.
Riv crossed her arms harshly, drawing everyone’s attention.”Not to mention the giant sky lizards blowing fire like it's just a normal day doing business..."
"My father always said the animals of the kingdoms represented those houses' behaviors." Everyone looked at me curiously. "For example, the wolves. They're pack animals and extremely loyal to each other. I am from the Faolan kingdom, and that tracks with the way their family has always been. You never see one Faolan—you see multiple."
Riv nodded slowly. "That makes sense. If you look at Volos, the dragons. They're big, strong, and territorial. Also incrediblysneaky. Like snakes. And what are dragons if not massive, winged snakes?"
"This is insanity," Isla said, rubbing her swollen ankle. "If this is true... we were brought here just to be murdered by the very bachelors we were promised marriages to... and for what?"
"Shits and bloody giggles," Riv growled. "They don't care about the people in their realm. We're nothing more than walking meat targets for them to act out their sick and sadistic whims on."
The sound of shuffling footsteps had all of us going silent. I held my breath as they got closer... someone was in the tunnels with us. I hoped it was Tiona or any of the other people from our group that we'd lost track of.
A blonde woman stepped out from the dark depths, and I gasped, seeing her face completely covered in blood. Dried blood. I vaguely recognized her from the ball but didn't know her name.
"By the Goddess," Isla exclaimed, appalled. She tried to get up, but Riv quickly pushed her back down.
"Absolutely not. Not with that leg swelling the way it is. I'll help her." Riv jumped up and rushed over to the woman, who all but collapsed into her arms with a cry of relief.
"Oh, thank the Goddess," she gasped as she held onto Rivka for dear life. "I thought... I t-thought that everyone was dead!"
Kael was up and ready to help the woman over to where we were sitting. "What's your name?"
"E-Eliza," she sobbed, unable to keep her emotions in check for another second.
"Welcome to our group, Eliza," Becca said as Kael lowered Eliza down next to her. Becca took her hand immediately and squeezed it. "We got you."
Eliza tucked her knees to her chest and buried her face into them as she cried. "I'm sorry," she mumbled against the dirty fabric of what was left of her gown.
"Nothing to apologize for," Tiro assured her. "We've all been through a lot."
I could clearly see an open wound along her hairline, one deep and wide enough that, in any normal circumstances, would have required stitches. "Eliza?" I asked gently. "If you’re up to telling us... what happened to you? How have you survived up to this point?"
She picked up her head and let go of Becca's hand to wipe away her tears, which somehow made the blood on her face look worse. "When we got to the stream... I was with a group of ten or so people, both women and guards..."
