Among Dragons (Editing)

Chapter 21

Niram’s pace was so fast that if he hadn’t been carrying me on his back, I would have already been so far left behind. His footsteps echoed loudly in the now cavernous hallways. The air that seeped in seemed hollow and stale, not even a breath of life to be heard anywhere. Everything was completely abandoned.

Seeing the castle like that frightened me. I had only ever seen the liveliness and bustle of servants or highborns strolling around in and out of the doorways and corridors. Now all of the rooms were vacant and left wide open to filter in the hollow, chill feeling even more. Were they all hiding, or had they abandoned the entire place completely?

I could tell by Niram’s worried glances around that whatever the case was, it wasn’t planned. His sharp features were rigid with fright, and his warm fair skin was drained of color.

“Where are they?” I asked in a hushed voice. Something about the solitude around us made it feel wrong to talk loudly and break the silence.

“I don’t know.” His voice was solemn. “I really wish I did, but I don’t know.” A dark gloom ate at the vibrant green of his eyes.

“I hope they’re at least somewhere safe, then,” I said, but it offered little reassurance.

Even the sunlight that filtered around us seemed dim and lacking in its normal energy. It illuminated my clothes, showing the many runs and large holes in my tights. Dirt and blood were rubbed so far into the fabric of everything I was wearing that I knew it would never come out.

Niram had bandaged my wounds as best as he could on the flight over to his kingdom, but he was no doctor. The cut on my head did not hurt as much as it used to, but my wrist and my ankle throbbed with an aching, stale pain. My jaw was clenched tight against it.

After what felt like miles of endlessly abandoned hallways, the large double doors of the ballroom came into sight. My stomach dropped with each groaning of the hinges as Niram pushed them open.

Inside, the tables and chairs that had been there for meals had all been pushed to the left side of the room, leaving an awkwardly empty bare spot in the middle. Piles of backpacks and totes were scattered throughout the room, most likely from the highborns taking refuge during the beginning of the war.

Where had they gone, then?

“I thought you’d might come.” Everett’s voice echoed all the way up to the domed ceiling above. “You’ve always been the type to easily lose faith.”

Niram’s eyes narrowed in annoyance as he spotted the lone figure in the middle of the room. “Where is my father?”

“You think I’d tell you that?” He sneered. The sunlight that streamed down from the talls windows like water and pooled around the floor made his armor glitter and his eyes glow resplendently.

Niram set me down gently to the floor. Even though I tried to conceal it, I still winced as my foot made contact with the ground and sent an electric bolt of pain to throb in my ankle. He gave me a worried look before turning fully back to Everett. “Don’t do this,” He warned, stepping into the room. Everett’s body instantly tensed. “You don’t know what he’s done.”

“I don’t know what he’s done? Or I don’t know what you think he’s done? The King is not a malicious person, he can’t control whether or not Raiden decides to lash out.” His gaze was scornful. “I won’t let you through to see him, not if you believe he’s a traitor.”

“So he’s in the dragon’s room then?” Niram said, catching on to the accidental hint that was thrown to us. He looked beyond Everett to the black door that starkly contrasted with the cream walls. The memory of it brought an instant flashback of when I had first seen Raiden, and the high strung tension between Niram and Everett.