Treacherous Skies

Chapter Eight

Hunter woke to a splitting pain in his skull and his ribs. His eyes flickered, and he saw a dark-gray-and-bright white wall. His eyes closed again, and he did not stir for a long time.

The second time he woke, he felt a trembling in the rocks beneath him. Metal rattled above him, and he looked up to see metal bars. Amidst the trembling, he realized he was in the same cell he had been imprisoned in when Fire had been taken. And now there was an earthquake.

Hunter stared up at the sky, a sense of dread rising in his gut. What if the quake got stronger? What if the palace came down, and he was crushed under the rocks forever?

Hunter curled up with his wings over his head, eyes clenched tight. He decided that if he was going to be crushed, he didn't want to know about it.

Hunter was shocked awake by a great flood of cold water washing over his scales. He jumped up, shaking his head violently. He blinked the water out of his eyes and looked around. When he finally looked up, he jumped back as a pair of orange eyes glared down at him.

"So," Queen Cerise hissed. "You've finally decided to join me."

Hunter stared back defiantly. He was done groveling to this stupid lump of scales.

"Nothing to say?" Cerise growled. "No pleas for forgiveness? No apologies? No bargaining? No 'please let me go, I'll do anything'?"

"Nope. Not really."

"You know treason is punishable by death in the Sky Kingdom," Cerise warned. "You'd better impress me with your acting quickly, or you'll be dead before the next full moon." She looked up at the dark sky. "Which won't be long from now."

"And if you don't kill me, then what? You'll keep me in this cell for the rest of my life, which you will shorten considerably."

"I am not in the mood to play games with you, idiot fire-less. The quake has got all my brainless subjects nervous. I will be forced to execute you unless you can give me a really, really good reason not to."

"You're not forced to do anything," Hunter spat. "Even if I did give you a reason not to, you'd still execute me, and enjoy every minute of it, however long you make it last. You just want to see me beg."

Cerise laughed cruelly. "You are so like your sister, dragonet. You both see the truth of what other dragons want, but there's absolutely nothing you can do about it—"

Cerise broke off, realizing her mistake too late. Hunter's red eyes narrowed.

"You told me she was dead," he hissed dangerously.

"I- I didn't-" Cerise stammered, but Hunter hardly heard it.

"You told me she was dead!" Hunter roared. He threw himself against the bars, reaching through to grab at the queen's throat. Cerise leaped back, breathing a burst of fire at Hunter's face. She flapped away as Hunter roared in rage and pain beneath her. So this was why they hadn't killed Hunter after he had attacked Cerise the first time, and why they couldn't kill him now. They needed him to blackmail Fire.

The ground shaking was Fire's only warning. The tremors jolted her out of her slumber. She was up in a second and scrambled to the northwest corner, just like Truthreader said. She crouched low to the ground, digging her claws into the cool stone as the cell shook around her. The water sloshed out of the bank, steaming against Fire's scales. Instinctively, she screwed her eyes shut, waiting for the tremors to stop.

There was a grinding, tearing sound, and Fire's eyes opened. Several bricks had fallen from the wall, and ominous-looking cracks branched from the hole. Fire held back as the ground shook again. What if the roof fell?