Gilded Serpent by Danielle Jensen (top 10 novels txt) 📕

“Finally showed your true colors.”

Agrippa made a face. “That’s a tad rich coming from you, Lord Calorian.”

Killian paused, seeing Baird approaching through the trees, a struggling Lydia gripped against his chest. Shit.

The giant paused upon reaching the clearing, both his eyebrows rising. “This,” he said, gesturing to the dead soldiers at Agrippa’s feet, “was not part of the plan, little man.”

“Yes, well, my conscience got the better of me. I’ll try not to let it happen again, but in the meantime, let the girl go.”

The giant heaved a deep sigh, then dropped Lydia at his feet. She scrambled out of reach, eyes wide as she took in the scene.

“Did you really think no one would figure out it was you?” Agrippa said, dropping his hand from the tree. “For days, we stood on the far side of that ravine watching you stride about in all that shiny armor, refusing to die no matter what we gods-damned threw at you. The image of your blasted face is burned onto my brain—I’d have recognized you anywhere.”

“So why not turn on me in Deadground?” Killian snarled, stepping between them and Lydia. “Why bring me through the Liratoras when you could’ve killed me surrounded by your own damned army?”

“Gold, you jackass!” Agrippa shouted, his face twisted with anger. “There’s a bloody reward for your head, that’s why. And an even bigger one if I delivered you to Rufina alive. Big enough that maybe Baird and I could finally be free of her.”

Killian allowed the tip of his blade to drop. “What do you mean, free of her?”

Agrippa scrubbed a hand through his hair, spiking it with streaks of blood. “I don’t want to fight for her any more than anyone else does, but that viper gives no one any choice. It’s fight or be given to her minions to have your life stripped away. But you”—he leveled a finger at Killian—“if she had you, she wouldn’t need me. And maybe as a reward, she’d allow me to leave. Baird too.”

“I’d never fight for her.”

A bitter laugh tore from Agrippa’s throat. “That’s what everyone says, and yet we all find ourselves doing so.” He lifted his head. “That’s what your queen said when she first arrived.”

Fear and anger twisted in his guts. “What do you know about Malahi?”

“I know exactly what I told you back in Deadground. That she’s a tender. And that Rufina needs her to keep pushing the blight across Mudamora. That she’s both pretty and defiant, but that Rufina is unlikely to allow her to keep either attribute.”

“Has she hurt her?”

“I avoid Helatha like the plague,” Agrippa said. “But last I heard, Rufina was making use of the tried-and-true practice of torture to try to break her to her will.”

Anguish flooded through Killian’s chest, because everything Malahi was enduring was his fault. If only he’d stayed by her side like he’d sworn to do, she’d be safe.

“Why stop now?” Lydia’s voice cut through the air. “Why turn on your own soldiers?”

“I don’t know.” Agrippa dropped his weapon, sitting down in the blood and the mud. “I changed my mind.”

“What’s to stop you from changing your mind again?”

“Only my conscience, I suppose.”

Lydia glowered, and Killian lifted his sword. “Give me one good reason why I don’t kill you both now and save myself the trouble later?”

“Because”—Agrippa leaned back on his hands, his usual shit-eating smile returning to his face—“you need my help to get your queen back.”

 91TERIANA

“We’ll have to identify ourselves if we dock the boat in Celendrial, so it’s better we get out here and walk the rest of the way,” Marcus said.

Teriana nodded, and though the river ran fast enough that she needed to pay attention to what she was doing, she found her gaze fixed on the massive city in the distance. The sun beat down on the endless white-walled structures, the only green to be seen that on the villa-crusted hill rising up from the north side of the city. Though she couldn’t see the harbor, the towering statue of a legionnaire in full regalia was clearly visible, as were the towering public buildings, their columns rising high to support roofs decorated with detailed reliefs. The paved roads the Empire was famous for converged on the city, full of travelers and rivaled only by the dozen towering aqueducts that delivered clean drinking water for the million or more people contained within the city’s low walls.

Their boat ground against the shore of the river, jerking Teriana from her thoughts, and she jumped out, helping Marcus drag the vessel farther up, where they abandoned it. Neither of them speaking, they made their way through the brush and trees into a clearing, where Marcus paused, setting their gear on the ground.

“Feels strange to be back here,” she said. “A lifetime ago that we sailed out of that harbor.”

Marcus only nodded, a deep furrow marring his brow.

Then there was a scuffle of noise in the brush. Both of them whirled, and a second later, a large lizard with yellow scales appeared, pausing as its golden eyes fixed on them.

It was about the size of a dog, but more sinuous, its feet tipped with sharp claws and its mouthful of teeth clearly visible as it hissed.

“What in the underworld is that?” she demanded, pulling out her knife and stepping back.

Appearing unconcerned, Marcus said, “It’s a dragon.”

The symbol of the Celendor Empire. She’d known they were real creatures, but, “I’ve never seen one. It’s … sort of ugly.”

“They’re rare, especially this close to cities,” he said. “People think they’re poisonous, but they’re not. They just have filthy mouths, and their bites turn foul within a day. They follow whatever they bite until it dies.”

“Gods,” Teriana whispered, watching as the dragon wove from side to side, sizing them up.

“They’re considered vermin. Farmers kill any they come across.”

The dragon hissed, and to her surprise, Marcus took a quick step toward it and hissed back. The lizard stared at