BEHIND ALLORY, THE PRINCESSS slapped Yaarah’s cheek with a sound like a cocoon blanket being dusted. Irritation made her ungentle. “Wake up. Stop acting all gormless!” she hissed. “We need you on your paws. Now!”

Allory darted down. “I’ll help.”

I’ll help kick his furry behind right across Spheris!

Could she clear his mind with some sort of song about cleansing, adapting from what the Pixies had taught her? Given as her grasp of Scintillant magic could be regarded as tenuous at best, this girlfae had no idea, but by definition it had to be the best plan since it was her only one. Plus, necessary. He would not be climbing down any cliffs in his condition.

Sabline might just toss him down one to see how high he bounced. Given the madcat mayhem he had unleashed, Allory found an unexpected level of sympathy with that point of view.

Laying her hands upon his furry chin, she began to sing urgently. No motivation quite like desperation.

Could pure ariavanae even find its way into such a foul place?

Meantime, Sabline bristled physically and vocally, “Boys, you’re standing in my way. I’ll give you a count of three. Then, frrr-hssst, I want to see you running downstairs to the first dungeon cell. You may barricade yourselves inside and live. Otherwise, I will torch this entire place with my Dragon fire and turn you fools into barbecued fowl inside your little tinplate suits of armour.”

All those round Human eyes managed to get even rounder.

No-one budged a muscle.

Sabline bellowed, “Mwaa-hrrr-harrr! TIME TO BURN!”

A shiver of terror-enjoyment caused Allory’s wings to buzz inadvertently. Ever so grateful this Dragoness was on her side!

Her whitest fire hissed forth with a spitting sound like an angry jungle diamond-backed cobra, a tightly controlled stream that sprayed twelve feet from her mouth, easily. The first table burst into flame. She played the fire hose over the top, making the Human soldiers all fall on their faces with a clatter. The Felidragon chortled with such horrible draconic pleasure that Allory’s sap curdled inside of her. She lost control of her wings momentarily but recovered with an annoyed shiver.

Carnivores! Vicious beasts at the best of times.

Just now, the golden one groaned piteously and blinked his eyes, looking every bit as foolish as he probably felt. Breaking with one thought in their minds, the Human soldiers mobbed the dungeon access, falling over one another to get down the stairs.

Bling! Blang! Clatter!

Or, they might just fall down the stairs. Faster that way.

“Still not father’s finest, thankfully,” Ashueli muttered darkly. “We’d have had quite the fight on our hands otherwise. Suggids! More coming down the stairs.”

Allory kicked her best friend in the whiskers. “Hurry up! Wake up, for pity’s sake.”

Curving her sleek head toward them, Sabline purred, “Allow me. Stand back. Hands over the pointy ears.” Fae and Elf did so with aplomb. She thundered, “YAARAH! MRRR-PRRWWLL!”

Never had a creature found his paws so quickly.

So quickly, he wobbled and fell smack on his face. Somebody – had to be the sparkler – giggled.

Sabline shouldered him up against the wall and spat right in his face, “Stand up straight, you worthless excuse for a weasel. Follow me.” She darted into the guardroom.

“Where am I?” he moaned.

“Eyes off my haunches, you mangy, flea-infested pervert!”

His gaze jerked so quickly to the ceiling, guilt had to be assured. Ashueli exchanged incredulous glances with Allory, who shrugged and mouthed, ‘Chemistry much?’ The Elf stifled a giggle, mouthing back, ‘Good call.’ Sabline spun as if she had heard their unspoken comments and gave them both a death stare. Straight lips. Innocent faces – which the Dragoness did not buy for one second.

Her lips curled back from her fangs.

Quickly, Allory said, “Yaarah, we’re escaping through the dungeons. Move!”

“If you want to make yourself useful, you clod of slime on paws, barricade the entrance behind us,” Sabline hissed horribly. “Use the tables.”

The scholar leaped to obey.

The clattering troop had by now found their way downstairs. The loud bang of a heavy door communicated their obedience to her command. Someone called out that they were all safe now. He would be the village idiot, no doubt. Always one in the cocoon.

The Princess waved the keyring toward Sabline, who nodded. “Lock up those fools, mrrr-frrrt!”

Probably safer that way.

“Guys? Oh, guys?” echoed up the corridor. “You left me behind.”

The three females coughed, hissed and gagged in concert. Yaarah pricked up his ears. “Who’s that blithering toad?”

The sleek black tail twitched as if in amusement as it disappeared down the stairwell, on its way to frighten the owner of that voice into an early grave, no doubt. Allory and Yaarah followed on, before he helped Ashueli to swing shut and lock the horizontal grating behind them. There. Should stop Durc’s men for a few minutes. Hope so. The Elf darted over to lock the guards inside the first cell, forcing the massive bolts into their brackets. All Allory could see of the soldiers inside was the gleaming whites of their eyes. They looked more terrified than her, which was certainly a novelty in her life’s experience.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Quite the oddest feeling.

Yaarah whispered, “Who’s that?”

“Ashueli – Durc’s daughter. Princess. Half Elf, half complete nutcase.”

“She runs like a Dragoness,” he approved. “She’s with us? Oh, right. Thanks for the glare. My mind’s still … fogged.”

He could say that. Allory hoped he learned to shut his mouth before Sabline shut it for him permanently. Still a danger, mind. Not difficult to imagine what Yaarah had proposed to her back there, the suggid-sucking moron!

Wow. This new Allory can even be uncouth. Feels … freeing.

She bit her lip pensively. Good quality or not?

Hanzuk still lay where he had been left, but he had managed to work the sodden green sock out of his mouth. He snivelled wretchedly as two Felidragons stalked toward him and pleaded for Princess Ashueli to sprint over and save his miserable hide. Openly perplexed, she asked why under Middlesun she should consider doing so and was readily informed that he had always liked her, especially her fabulous legs.

Everyone gaped.

With a shrill whimper, Hanzuk realised his mistake.

Too late. Mid-gabble as he offered an insincere apology for his gaffe, the toe of her hard, tacky slipper connected with his chin so hard that the kick flipped him right over onto his back. Lucky it had not ripped his head off his shoulders. His eyes rolled to white. Ew. Freaky.

“Scum!”

Sabline’s lip curled. Not unimpressed?

The Princess did not waste another word on him. “This way. Come on.”

Finding the cell at the end of the corridor, Ashueli recalled her mother’s advice and ran along a narrow ledge about six feet below the ceiling of the deep pit. The other three had wings, but the Elf had no trouble navigating the three-inch-wide footing. Allory watched closely but could not for the life of her see how it worked. Sticky fingers? Invisible magical rock glue? Counting quickly to find the stone three from the top left corner, the Elf touched the ring upon her finger and invoked the code phrase her mother had taught her. Nothing. She tried again. Still nothing.

“What’s the matter, Your Highness?” Sabline sniped, hanging one-pawed off the ledge beside her.

“Third stone from the top left,” she muttered. “Nothing’s happening. I know I’ve remembered the code phrase correctly.”

“You can trust your mother?”

“Implicitly!”

“If you say so, nrrr-prrr. What do we do now?” Her dark tail lashed furiously. “We’re trapped like fleas in a Felidragon’s ear, thanks to your ridiculous bungling, and I will not abide this stinking pit for one second longer …”

A loud clanging echoed through the dungeons as Durc’s soldiers presumably set about smashing the grating separating the cells from the guardroom. They’d be down any minute. Someone yelled at them to stop running away. Why waste good breath like that?

“Allow me,” Yaarah said, trying to press forward but constrained by the larger Dragoness taking up all the wing room – although she clung to the stone wall, she had to flap her wings awkwardly to maintain her uncertain grip.

She hissed, “Touch my wingtips again and I’ll drop you like a stone, you prattling fool!”

“Then hear me! You’re on the third stone along. Try the third stone down.”

The onyx paw threatening his whiskers clenched, perhaps disappointed in its intent to start plucking them one by one. “Hrrr-grrr. A sensible thought, at last.”

“Suggids!” the Princess groaned at the same time. “Such an amateur. Let’s try this one, shall we?” Bending forward, she extended her left hand and pressed the ornate silver ring with its diamond frosted fern design against the centre of the large block. She repeated the key phrase.

With a deep groan, the stone face cracked apart and a block about four feet by four swung inward, revealing a narrow, sloping tunnel hewn through the solid rock. Stale air wafted into their faces, making the Princess cough and wave her hand in front of her nose. Yaarah began to crow something about being right when Sabline’s right forepaw clamped upon his throat to remind him that speech, in her opinion, was as superfluous as his actual existence.

“Bit of a squeeze,” Allory observed.

“Ever seen a Felidragon squeeze through a tight space?” Sabline purred, releasing the scholar with a glance that informed him there would be more squeezing of a different sort if he dared to exercise his flapping jaw again. “Rubber bones, mrrr-ssst. After you, little goldie.”

Yaarah’s jaw ground audibly but he made no complaint.

Had he finally worked out how much trouble he was in? Allory glanced worriedly at him. She needed that pest alive, even when he was doing his best to ensure that the opposite fate would arrive like a thunderbolt smoking a jungle giant.

“You go in before me, Sabline,” Ashueli put in. “I’ll shut the secret door behind us. That should keep my precious father off our tails for the time being.”

Sabline narrowed her eyes at some imagined insult. “Very well.”

With Yaarah taking the lead, they squeezed down the Human-sized tunnel. No, it had never been designed with any kind of Dragon in mind, so while she flew along unimpeded, Ashueli had to crawl, overtaking the Sable Felidragon when she paused awkwardly to fold her wings into a configuration that worked better in the ever-narrowing space. Yaarah squeezed. Sabline now looked like black ink poured into a squarish mould, but she had somehow elongated her body and forced her powerful shoulders to conform to the tunnel’s dimensions. How? Had she dislocated the shoulder joints? Whatever the case, her wriggling and creeping along the tunnel apparently demanded a great deal of swearing in undertone, which presumably helped one to move faster.

Her and Yaarah both.

A sympathetic glance earned her a clash of the sabre fangs. “Keep moving, Sparkles!”

Stung, the Scintillant hurried on.

After a long wriggle for the Felidragons, Yaarah’s muzzle met a rock face. He called back, “It’s another door.”

One brief consultation later, Allory squirmed up along his body carrying the Elven Ancestral Signa ring. A suggestion Yaarah might have felt a flea burrowing through his fur earned him an effort by someone to pluck a few handfuls. He pretended to feel nothing. The ring, however, also did nothing for him, nor for her.

“Nasty useless Elven magic,” he grumbled.

“Nasty useless male,” Sabline hissed. “You’re up, Elf. You’re skinny enough to fit through a sewage pipe, I’ll warrant.”

“What? Climb past that sack of bones? I couldn’t possibly fit,” she protested.

“Well, I can’t go backward, so the only way is forward. I suggest you go tickle his stomach with those nice knives you carry. See if you can skin him end to end. I prefer perverts in freshly peeled form – hear me, goldie?”

“Mrrwll!” Yaarah protested, clenching his golden hindquarters.

Hilarious, had she not been serious. Deathly serious.

Sabline grabbed his lashing tail between her bared talons. “Remembering a few details now, you shrivelling coward?”

“Not many. I’m sorry for whatever I said –”

She snarled, “Not half as sorry as I’m going to make you!”

“He was gold-drunk at the time,” Ashueli protested, and had to scramble to avoid a paw-swipe. “Alright, Yaarah, hold your breath. I’ll try not to wipe my dungeon-fresh slippers all over your nice fur, alright?”

“That’d be a start,” Sabline beamed balefully.

Yaarah tucked his tail up between his legs. Allory was sure Sabline breathed louder than usual as a reminder that she was right behind him.

She turned a giggle into a suspicious-sounding sneeze.

His attraction had been clear from the very beginning, but she strongly suspected that any creature who dared to address Sabline in such terms – no matter the excuse – would not live to a ripe old age.

A peppery collection of additional words had been aired by the time Ashueli succeeded in worming her way past the Golden Purrmaine. After that, it was a simple matter of repeating her trick with the ring and a stone door swung outward upon a ledge about two feet wide standing above a sheer drop of many hundreds of feet. The night was fully dark. The lights of the city above did not extend far, certainly not far enough to illuminate anything of a yawning vertical drop into darkness. A stiff breeze plucked at Allory’s hair and wings as she hovered nearby, waiting for Sabline to extract herself. Allory tried to hypnotise herself into believing that no, she was not really out in the wide, wide open and no times five thousand, she definitely was not considering dashing away into a land where not a green thing grew for hundreds of miles.

Allory scented the air, so dry. It carried hints of cinnamon, resin and a brooding odour she could not identify. A second inhalation added notes of burning brimstone, that sulphurous scent peculiar to the Fire Raptors, Yaarah had taught her.

Nocturnal hunters.

The canyons were their territory.

She said, “Uh, Sabline? I smell Fire Raptors close by. We need to move. Now!”