They sound sincere, but I’m not certain this lovely creature isn’t up to no good. I shoot Ilian an apprehensive glance, but he runs a clawed hand down my back.
“Dairfyn will take us to the palace. He will create a bubble of sorts around us so that we’re able to get to kueengdom’s main city at the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk.”
“A b-bubble? Out of what?”
“My saliva,” Dairfyn supplies unhelpfully.
I blanch. “Um, no. This monster is going to spit on us and take us to the bottom of the sea? Are you crazy?”
“You said you trusted me.”
“This is going a little bit further than trust!”
Dairfyn grunts. “Ilian is a prince among paupers. You will never find anyone more trustworthy than him.
In fact, I owe this Ithaqua my very life, and it’s only because of this that you are being allowed into the Dagon kueengdom. No other human has ever set foot in one of our cities.”
My mouth flaps open. “You saved his life—how?”
Ilian frowns. “They’re overexaggerating.”
The Dagon snorts. “Am not. Shall we?”
Both monsters turn to me, and I stare at Ilian. I said I trusted him, and now’s the time to prove myself.
I nod, and Dairfyn leans back on their tail until it lifts them out of the water and above our heads—even Ilian’s.
The sheer strength it takes to do such a thing is mind-boggling, and I can only gape as the Dagon shapes a bubble around us from out of their mouth.
It doesn’t look like spit—thank the Heavens—but I have no idea how it’s going to hold both me and a giant Ithaqua.
Turns out that Dagon drool is stronger than their tails.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Ilian
Dairfyn leads us into the dark, cold waters of the Sea of Okhotsk by a rope of spittle attached to the bubble.
Their salivary secretions buffer most of the freezing temperatures, as well as stabilize the pressure of descending into the depths, but I still wrap myself around Zhuliya to keep her calm.
With every passing second, her body trembles harder. I taste her fear through our bond, and I send soothing reassurance back at her.
It goes against human nature to descend into the black depths of the ocean, and I know she worries Dairfyn’s bubble will burst and kill us both.
But I know what Dagons are truly capable of.
They are amazing monsters who are one of the few species still cut off from the human world since their kueengdom resides far beneath the surface.
When I was still a tugan on the hunt with my Mulen pack on the Kamchatka Peninsula, we tracked a polar bear into the Sea of Okhotsk.
My brethren and I dove into the water after the animal when we came across a strange creature frozen in a block of ice.
With our meal long gone, my Mulen pack left to return to land, but I couldn’t let whoever was in the ice die.
I nearly drowned trying to keep afloat and help the monster escape. Luckily, my claws easily carved into the frosty chunk, and out popped Dairfyn.
Not much older than me, the Dagon had snuck into the royal cellar and stolen a case of kurunnum, intoxicating enough to kill a human in one sip.
And they drank all of it before passing out on top of a broken sheet of ice.
While unconscious, a winter storm formed ice around the Dagon, sealing them inside so much so that they couldn’t move.
To this day, I’m unsure of what the Kueeng knows, only that Dairfyn swore me to secrecy about everything that transpired as well as who they are.
Either way, I’m one of the few non-Dagons to be welcomed into the kueengdom.
“Ilian?”
“Yes, soyam?”
“I’m scared.”
My chest constricts. “I know, but I promise we’re safe. We’ll be at the palace soon.”
“You’re friends with royalty—that’s amazing. How is your Dagon friend connected to the Kueeng?”
