So . . . what about their mother?

They moved away from each other, neither willing to discuss that. They just knew what they had to do. What Annwyl the Bloody would expect them to do, leaving the queen—if she was still alive—to fight her own, terrible battles.

Chapter Two

Annwyl would wake up briefly. Pass out. Wake up. Pass out. Again and again. When she was awake, she knew she was being dragged. But to where or why, she didn’t know.

The fall hadn’t killed her but she also didn’t know why. Because it felt as if she’d fallen for hours. Days. Like she would never stop falling.

But, eventually, she’d landed and lost consciousness. Whenever she would wake up, though, she’d realize that she was being dragged. By something that smelled awful.

Finally she woke up and was able to stay awake, quickly noting that she was in some kind of dungeon or jail. Something had hold of her right foot and was still dragging her along the ground, not taking care to avoid any bumps or holes in their path.

She lifted her head to get a look at her captor and saw . . . a tail. A green-scaled tail with a spiked end.

Annwyl sat up a little more and realized that yes, she was being dragged through a dungeon by a walking lizard. A big, walking lizard.

Before she could really analyze that, the lizard stopped in front of metal bars. He opened the door set in the middle of the bars and threw Annwyl inside by her leg. Her body flew across the room and rammed into the far wall.

She managed to protect her head from the impact but the wind was still knocked out of her by the time she hit the ground.

It took her a bit to get her senses back and by then, the door to her cell had been slammed shut and locked. She struggled up until she was sitting on her ass and could study the beings staring at her through the bars.

There were five of them now. All walking lizards. There was something human about them, though. Like the fact they were all wearing leather kilts to hide their groins and several had on earrings and decorative necklaces.

They spoke to each other in low guttural sounds, their bright yellow eyes locked on her.

Annwyl decided to try and speak to them.

“Where am I? And who are you?”

One of them barked at her—literally—and she knew he was telling her to shut up, even though she didn’t understand his words.

“Piss off then!” Annwyl snapped back.

A lizard wearing a necklace made of animal fangs and human teeth, stepped forward and opened its mouth.

A forked tongue like a snake’s shot out. But unlike a snake’s tongue, it managed to reach across the entire room and flick over a bare spot on Annwyl’s elbow.

She cried out from the searing pain, cupping her wounded elbow with her other hand.