Gilded Serpent Danielle Jensen (i can read with my eyes shut .TXT) 📖

nodding at those on watch as they passed. “This is going to raise eyebrows,” she muttered.

“Least of my concerns. Walk faster.”

As it had the first time she’d seen it, the overgrown city seemed to appear from nowhere. The buildings were crumbling, vines and roots forcing their way between blocks of stone, then pulling them down into the damp earth as though the jungle intended to consume any evidence of civilization. And yet despite that, it wasn’t hard to see where roads and streets had once been, and she and Marcus wound their way deeper and deeper into this place that had been lost to time and conquest.

Reaching a spot where there was a break in the tree canopy, Marcus paused in a circle of growing sunlight and turned to her, waiting.

“The coins Ashok had were gold Cel dragons,” she said without preamble. “And lots of them. I didn’t get a close look, but I remember them being shiny enough that they’d either been polished or were of fresh mint.”

“These,” he said, holding up the coin, “weren’t in circulation when we left. I couldn’t even have accessed them—the mint is a fortress to rival Lescendor.”

“But I bet the consul could have. And he sure as shit didn’t give them to Felix.”

Silence.

“It wasn’t Felix.” The words came out of Marcus in a whoosh of breath, then all the color drained from his face. “It wasn’t Felix.”

He swayed, and worried he was about to faint, Teriana caught his arms. “This is good news.”

Marcus flinched, pulling away from her. “I screwed up,” he muttered. “What have I done?”

“Titus played you,” she corrected. “And not just you. But now we know the truth, and while it might not be proof enough to hang him, at least you know who it was. And who to watch.” Her skin abruptly prickled, and she panned the surrounding jungle.

“I know.” Marcus looked ready to vomit. “But the things I said … He’s never going to forgive me. I … I don’t deserve to be forgiven.” He doubled over. “What have I done?”

The sharp clack clack of pebbles falling against stone filled Teriana’s ears, and she turned away from Marcus, searching their surroundings. “Did you hear that?”

Marcus straightened, hand going to the weapon at his waist, his eyes wet but focused.

“Quintus?” It was possible he’d come after them.

“If it was Quintus, we wouldn’t have heard him.” Marcus scanned the overgrown buildings, and Teriana’s skin crawled with sudden certainty that they were being watched.

And that the eyes doing the watching weren’t friendly.

The soft scrape of metal caught her attention, and she looked down to see that Marcus had his gladius in hand. “How long until your men come looking for us?”

“Soon enough.” He answered loudly in Arinoquian. “And knowing Quintus, he won’t be alone.” Then softly, and in Cel, he said, “Get ready to fight.”

Fear pulsed through her veins, but Teriana pulled her knife, her fingers flexing on the hilt. “Should we head back to—”

A shadow dropped from above. Screaming, she flung her weight against Marcus, sending them both rolling into a broken fountain. Scrambling to her feet, Teriana whirled around to face their attacker.

Only to find a striped tiger crouched where they’d been standing.

“Run!” The words tore from her lips, and then they were sprinting, weaving through the streets. But behind was the thud of heavy paws. There was no chance they could outrun it.

Leaping over a tree root, she bent to pick up a heavy rock. She twisted and threw it hard, hitting the pursuing cat in the foreleg and sending it tumbling.

“This way!” Marcus hauled on her arm. “We need to get to a place we can defend until my men arrive.”

They cut between two collapsed buildings, reaching the towers of the god circle. Marcus sprinted toward Lern’s, wrenching open the tarnished door. “Go!” He pushed her through the crack first, following on her heels. But before they could close it, the cat leapt, slashing claws driving it inward.

They retreated into the center of the space, which was faintly illuminated by the sunlight streaming through holes in the roof. The tiger stalked toward them, lips pulled back to reveal fangs as long as her fingers.

“The gods have mercy on us,” she whispered.

Then the floor fell out from under her.

 36MARCUS

The floor collapsed, and he was falling.

Marcus hit the ground hard, the rubble from the floor digging deep into his back, his body screaming in pain. “Teriana!”

He searched for her, coughing on the clouds of dust that made it almost impossible to see.

“Here.” She was on her hands and knees, struggling to rise. “Where is it?”

A snarl to his left drew his gaze. The tiger had fallen as well but, from the look of it, had landed better. Its muscles bunched and Marcus flung himself between the cat and Teriana, his blade lifted. He’d only have one chance to kill it.

Then the rubble moved beneath them, sinking, the sensation like standing on rocky quicksand.

“What’s happening?” Teriana’s voice was panicked.

“I don’t know.” He fought to keep his balance, but the footing beneath him kept changing, and he fell to his knees.

The tiger had its legs splayed wide as the ground shifted beneath it, but then it took one step toward them. Then another.

And that’s when Marcus realized the animal was higher than they were. That the ground beneath him and Teriana was collapsing faster, it appearing for all the world like the whirlpool that had brought them to this side of the world.

And understanding dawned on him.

“Climb!” he screamed.

They scrambled, but handholds and footholds fell away, and instead of rising, they slid down.

Farther and farther, a glow appearing beneath them.

Looking between his feet, Marcus saw the tip of a xenthier stem appear, the crystal sucking away any debris that fell against it, moving the rubble to the terminus.

Wherever that was.

“Marcus!” Teriana screamed his name, and he looked up to see several warriors wearing the same elaborate armor as in the paintings throughout the city. Not Arinoquians, but the inlanders. The people the Arinoquians