“Who are you? Speak!”
“Name’s Iseabail. This is my travel partner, Éibhear.”
“What province do you come from? Who are your people?”
“I’m not from here.”
The soldiers looked her over. “You’re not?” the leader asked.
“No.”
“Why are you here?”
“We’re heading to Sefu. I need to meet with the Nolwenns.”
“You?” The men laughed.
“Well, that’s where we’re going so if you’d just—”
“You’re very well armed,” another soldier noted.
“Just for safety.”
“And him?” the leader asked, motioning to Éibhear.
“My protection. A slow-witted mute, but he’s good at destroying things with his head.”
Rude cow!
The leader looked them over again, and Éibhear immediately knew that the man didn’t like what he saw. Probably a good decision, too, since they were lying.
“We’ll escort you to Sefu.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“It is for us.”
“In other words, we have no choice.”
The leader smirked. “Not really.”
Izzy looked over the bars on the cell door she was currently locked behind. “That went well.”
She heard snoring and knew it was her dog. Bastard could sleep through anything. She faced Éibhear. “Don’t you think?”
He pointed at his mouth, shook his head.
Izzy rolled her eyes. “You take everything so bloody personally. I was only joking.”
“Ha,” he said. “Ha. Ha.”
“It was the slow-witted part, wasn’t it?”
“What do you think?”
“They’re very paranoid,” Izzy noted, looking back at the bars. “You are frightening to look at, but it seems a little unreasonable that your terrifying demeanor alone should get us thrown into a cell.”
“Did you notice when we got here? The city gates had to be opened for them. I’d always heard Sefu was an open city, with visitors able to come and go as they please.”
“They’re preparing for war?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe it’s all that civil unrest among the humans the salt mine commanders kept talking about.”
“I guess it could be a lot of things, but I’m not sure it matters at the moment. I think there are bigger issues.” Izzy again faced Éibhear and motioned to the wall behind him. “Well . . . get to work.”
Éibhear blinked. “Get to work doing what?”
“Tear the wall down so we can go. I’m this close to finally meeting that treacherous bitch. I’m tired of waiting.”
“They haven’t done anything to us, Izzy. At least not yet.”
“So?”
“So I’m not going to bring the prison down around their ears just so you can go confront some old cow.”
“Where’s your loyalty?”
“Where’s your rational military thought?”
“What does that mean?”
“I can get us out of here, but that doesn’t mean I can destroy the entire city. At least not this city. Didn’t you look at the ramparts? They have those catapults that are built like giant crossbows. Something tells me those are for dragons that may attack the city. If you think I can handle those all on my own—”
“Fine, fine.”
“If you weren’t so obsessed with your grand—”
“I’m not obsessed.”
“When the guards come back, just tell them the truth. Tell them who you are. What you want. They obviously know you’re lying.”
“Fine.”
“It’s just a suggestion—”
“Zazazaza!” Izzy waved her hands in Éibhear’s face to keep him quiet.
“What was that noise you just made?”
“Don’t irritate me.”
“I’m not trying to irritate you, Izzy. You are just really tense. You’re expecting a fight and you haven’t even gotten one yet. So you’re looking at me for one.”
“Well . . .” She shrugged. “You’re here.”
When Éibhear laughed, she felt relief. She was tense and she was being a complete bitch to the easiest target. A big blue dragon. Targets really didn’t get easier than that. But it was unfair to him. Even after she’d told him what Rhydderch Hael had said to her, he hadn’t displayed one moment of anger toward her. Didn’t blame her for anything. Or tell her she should have told him about her talk with Rhydderch Hael when she was still with her army. Instead, he’d taken her and her dog—or “damn dog” to use his words—to the Desert Lands.
So to quote Annwyl on more than one occasion during their time together as queen and squire, Izzy knew she needed to “Stop being a twat and remember who’s covering your plump ass.”
“I’m sorry, Éibhear.”
Éibhear blinked, not sure he’d heard correctly. “Huh?”
“I said I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m very stressed and I’m taking it out on you. I shouldn’t be, and I’m sorry.”
Looking around their cell, Éibhear asked again, “Huh?”
“You.” Izzy turned away from him and toward the guard standing at the door. “You have visitors.”