Renegades (Hotbloods #3)

I felt the air around me lurch as Navan spun around, his arms holding me even tighter than before. My stomach plummeted with the movement as he built up speed, moving like a tornado, twisting through the cold air and sending the Horerczy butterflies scattering all over the place as they whacked into his rapidly turning wings.

Then Navan shot upward like a rocket, putting as much distance as possible between the swamp and us. He didn’t stop until the swamp was no longer visible beneath us, the flat expanse of savage marshland branching out into a wooded area, where something howled, and shadowy birds flapped across a dark canopy. It wasn’t the most comforting of places, but it was definitely better than a murderous swamp.

“That was close.” Navan sighed, slowly releasing me, and my newly unfurled wings took my weight.

“Too close,” I said, knowing I had to be more careful about losing my wings while midflight. It was easier while Navan was around to help me, but I couldn’t count on him always being there. If he got called away, or I ended up in a true battle scenario, without him to come to my aid, and I lost my wings in midair… I would be utterly screwed.

“At least we know where the swamps are on this side of Vysanthe,” he said, shuddering. “I hate those things. Ugh. Give me huge frostfangs or saber-toothed jakous any day.”

“What are those?” I wondered aloud, envisioning mythical beasts with snarling fangs and snouts that spewed fire.

“Creatures that live in the mountains. Frostfangs are these huge, hound-like beasts, though they can camouflage to hide in the ice and snow. A much nastier version of the icehounds you saw down in the South. Saber-toothed jakous aren’t much better. They’re probably closest to what you call polar bears, but they have bigger teeth, and their fur is spiny and filled with poison that paralyzes their victims.”

“Well, that’s something to look forward to,” I muttered, glancing toward the mountain range that was appearing on the horizon, the frosted peaks gleaming beneath the Vysanthean moonlight. “And you think they’ll have these things where we’re going?”

Navan shrugged. “We’ll soon find out.”

We set off toward the mountains in the distance, where the poroporo fruit supposedly grew. I just hoped we’d avoid whatever else lay out there.

Less than an hour later, we arrived at the gaping mouth of a cave that was hewn into the side of the mountain, which Lauren had marked on the map. It was the tallest one in the mountain range, its peak glittering almost blue in the darkness. Icicles dangled down like jaws, and the ground was slippery as we landed. In the dark of the tunnels and passageways beyond, everything was deathly silent. We knew the passageways were there because the horticulturist had said so, but nobody knew how far the labyrinth went, or where the poroporo fruit might grow along the way.

“So we have to go in there?” I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself. Even with the fur and the emberstone, I couldn’t help but shiver.

“If we want that fruit. Though I’m starting to wonder if there might be another way to drug Yorrek,” Navan joked drily.

“Let’s get looking. We’ve got a long journey back, whether we find this fruit or not,” I murmured, steeling myself against what was to come.

Holding the emberstone in my left hand, I took his hand in my right. We entered the cave system, and the silence descended on us with a vengeance. It was eerie and disorienting, the quiet so intense it was almost unbearable. Even when we spoke, the sound came out muffled, as though the cave itself wanted to smother it.

Using the faint blue light of the bioluminescent lichen that clung to the icy walls, we picked our way through the tunnels, squinting into the shadows up ahead to make sure nothing was creeping toward us. I turned to look over my shoulder a few times, too, just to be sure there wasn’t anything approaching from behind.

Eventually, we reached a cavern within the mountain where glacial pillars spiraled upward and frozen bridges of ice traversed the echoing ceilings above. They were so high, I couldn’t see where they ended, the darkness stretching away into oblivion. Somewhere in the vast cave, the sound of rushing water susurrated, but all I could see was a frozen landscape. Wherever that sound was coming from, it had to be deep below us, where the rock was slightly warmer.

And then, I saw it.

It caught the light from a shaft of moonlight that had crept in through a fissure in the stone, the outer flesh glowing with a purple hue that was instantly enticing. The shape was round and plump, shot through with golden veins that seemed to pulsate within, drawing my eye, making my mouth water. On top, there were waxy green leaves that seemed to hold small bowls of frozen dew in their concave valleys, never spilling a drop.

“There,” I whispered to Navan, nudging him.

He turned, his eyes going wide. “Well spotted!”

Slowly, we moved toward the fruit. The golden veins acted like a beacon, calling us forward. I wondered how a fruit like that managed to grow in such harsh conditions. Would it even taste good? I supposed that wasn’t the point of it. It was the high it gave, and the hypnotic effect it had on people. Remembering the pull of the Arcadium, I made a mental note to let Navan handle the fruit, just in case I got the sudden urge to take a bite.

Suddenly, my arm shot out, grasping Navan and pulling him back. He looked at me in surprise as I dragged him behind one of the glacial pillars.

“What’s the matter with you?” he whispered.

I pointed at the fruit. “Look at it—look at what’s under it!”

Navan did so, his eyes narrowing in scrutiny. “It’s just rocks and ice,” he replied quietly.

I shook my head. “No, it’s not! Look closer.”

Underneath the plump, glowing fruit was a ragged dome of what looked like ice, stone, and the same bioluminescent lichen that clung to the walls of the mountain caves. However, on closer inspection, my eyes having grown more accustomed to the gloom, I realized that they were, in fact, scales… and those scales were moving up and down very slowly, stirred by the breath of some hidden creature. There was no monster guarding the fruit. The fruit was growing on the monster, the way barnacles grew on whales.

“How are we supposed to—” I began, but a tremor beneath the earth cut my words short. It juddered through the rocks all around us, and icicles fell from the cavern above, forcing us to duck out of the way as they came crashing down. They splintered on the ground, smashing with a sharp sound that ricocheted up my spine.