Raven nodded, her gaze searching their faces as her expression turned curious. “With my own husband when his ring was cursed. What’s going on? Who’s cursed?”
Gabriel and Charlie arrived then, the second smiling around a face full of something red and meaty. “What am I missing? Your faces look far too serious.”
Thankfully, Raven was discreet enough not to disclose their conversation. “Just revisiting our days in the dungeons of Paragon.”
“Hmm. I’d think happier conversation was in order considering we are all lucky to be alive today,” Gabriel said. “I think we all owe you extreme gratitude for what you did for us, Sylas.”
Sylas assumed he was talking about his auspicious arrival. The truth was, he’d enjoyed the chance to sink his talons into Eleanor’s back, but before he could tell Gabriel so, Rowan ran into the tent.
“Sylas!” She beckoned him with her hand.
Popping out of his seat, he motioned for Dianthe to stay where she was, then followed his sister out the flap and to the place Nick waited. “There’s someone headed down the hill from Circe’s temple. Nick and I noticed the fires in the palace were burning. There were two silhouettes, a man and a woman. Are you expecting someone?”
“Not exactly.” Sylas frowned. If it was who he thought it was, something had either gone terribly wrong or terribly right.
“You don’t think Circe would allow Eleanor and Ransom sanctuary, do you?” Rowan asked.
“Never.”
Leaves rustled as the new visitors drew near. A commotion behind him announced the arrival of all his siblings and their mates, who had taken it upon themselves to gather in the mouth of the tent, staring in silence at the path to the temple. Dianthe was there too. Why couldn’t she just stay where he told her to?
Still, he didn’t want to cause a scene, not when the new arrivals were so close to revealing themselves. In the falling twilight, a man and a female elf broke from the forest and stood smiling before him. The man, his twin, his confidant, and the rebellion’s long-hidden weapon, spread his arms.
“Colin! Welcome home!” Sylas strode forward and embraced his brother.
Dianthe stared at her mate as he embraced his twin, marveling at their identical features. To be sure, Colin was the larger of the two, not in height but in overall size. The male looked as if he snacked on full-grown elderbeasts between meals. Also different was his hair, which was cut short, almost to his skull. Otherwise, the two were eerily alike, down to the slant of their smiles.
As Colin stepped into the light to hug each of his siblings and be introduced to their mates, Dianthe noticed one additional difference that hadn’t been there before. He appeared to have a tattoo, the pattern of which ran from the fingers of his right hand, along his arm, to just under his right ear. It must have been paint. A tattoo was impossible for a dragon. Their flesh healed too quickly to hold tattoo ink. Whatever it was, the artwork made his skin look carved into reddened waves.
“Colin, you remember my mate, Dianthe.” Sylas gestured in her direction, and she snapped out of her inspection of his arm to give him her full attention.
“Of course I remember her,” Colin said, giving her a swift but warm hug. “She was rounding up new members to join the resistance while you were still making sandcastles and deciding if you wanted to be involved.”
“Oh Colin, you know just what to say to a girl to make her feel needed.” Dianthe couldn’t help but notice Sylas frown at that. Colin had once led the rebellion, but Sylas had taken over for him when he went undercover on a secret mission. Although the nature of his work was unknown to her, she’d understood it was important and could take a number of years.
She observed the woman at his side. She was definitely an elf based on her elongated limbs and subtly pointed ears. The tan-colored robe she wore tied at the waist marked her as a scribe. Dianthe didn’t know much about the order of elves who saw it as their purpose to chronicle the history of Ouros, but she found the woman completely fascinating. Her dark copper hair was braided down the back of her head, and her eyes were the brightest purple, a color that gave off its own light from within her pale features. Surely Colin’s mission must have had something to do with Rogos for the elf to be involved.
Colin turned to the woman at his side and said, “This is Leena. She’s a scribe from the Temple of the Sacred Pools. We owe her our allegiance for the aid she has most selflessly provided.” He patted the bag under his arm and smiled. “It’s big, Sylas. The breakthrough we’ve been waiting for. Where can we speak?”
Sylas gestured toward the tent behind them. Dianthe hung back while the others, who were blocking the door, filed back inside. But when she started after them, Sylas’s hand gripped her upper arm. “You can’t.”
She stared at his hold on her incredulously. “Why the hell not?”
“You know why.” Sylas lowered his voice, his eyes shifting between her and the tent. “We still don’t know the nature of what Aborella might have done to you.”
Her protest halted abruptly in her throat as heat climbed to the tips of her ears. “You’d completely cut me out of the rebellion for some… theory you have about a curse? First you can’t trust my visions, now you can’t trust me?”
“Dianthe, we talked about this.”
“About my visions, yes, but—”
“We don’t know if Aborella’s curse is constrained to your visions. We don’t know the nature of what she did to you.”
“If anything.”
“Everfield didn’t burn itself down.”
Dianthe flinched as if he’d struck her. The shame that she might be the reason for what happened to the Empyrean Wood made her lungs constrict and her stomach fill with lead. She didn’t have the strength to fight him anymore. All her energy had been replaced with guilt and a deep and aching grief.
Turning from him in disgust, she ground her teeth. “Fine. I’ll go.”
“Dianthe…,” he said softly.
Without a single look back, she headed for their tent, the taste of his rejection bitter on her tongue.
Chapter Six
Sylas told himself that Dianthe would get over it. She just needed time to allow everything he’d told her to sink in. Once she realized how dangerous things were for all of them right now, she’d thank him for doing what he had. Out of an abundance of caution, she had to stay out of rebellion business.
He reentered the tent alone and took a seat on one of the benches that surrounded a central table where Colin had set his mysterious bag. His siblings and their mates did the same. Leena, the scribe Colin had brought with him from Rogos, stood silently by his side. Sylas didn’t know much about Rogos. No one did, which was why Colin had gone on his mission to begin with. He wondered what her role in all this was.
“Where’s Dianthe?” Raven asked, sliding in beside him with Charlie on her hip.
“Headache,” he said. “She needed to lie down.”
The corner of her eye twitched skeptically.
He quickly looked toward Colin. “What is this breakthrough you speak of, brother?”
“And tell us who did that to your arm?” Gabriel pointed his chin toward the wavelike pattern on Colin’s skin.
Sylas was wondering the same thing. It looked a hell of a lot like a burn, but dragons were impervious to fire and impossible to tattoo. Sylas had never seen marks like it before on his kind.
Colin raised an eyebrow. “I did it to myself when I reached into one of the sacred pools of Niven in Rogos.”
A collective gasp rose up from his siblings, and Sylas flinched. The substance in the sacred pools was said to be absolutely lethal. It burned dragons like acid burned humans. It burned anything like acid. Any creature that fell into one of the pools never came out again.
“Hurt like a bitch, but it was worth it. Thanks to Leena’s help, I was able to retrieve this little beauty.”
He reached into the bag and pulled out an orb. Sylas took a step closer to get a better look. Perfec
tly smooth and round, the thing might have been made of glass or polished crystal. It shone bright royal purple with a swirl of bubbles spiraling in its interior.
“What is that?” Sylas asked. He spied an object at the very center. Metallic and oddly shaped, it had a circular center with projections like a cogwheel.
Raven stood to get a better look, leaning over the table. Charlie reached for the orb and Raven pulled her away. “It’s definitely enchanted. I can feel the magic coming off of it from here.”
“Strong magic,” Nathaniel said, cozying up to her side with Clarissa behind him.
Sylas thought the magical individuals in the room might crawl right into the orb given their heightened interest.
“Not too close.” Leena’s arm shot out between them and the orb, her body growing tense at Colin’s side. Her pointed ears twitched with her annoyance.
“The orb is most definitely enchanted,” Colin said, “and as you can see, given that I pulled it from a sacred pool, a scribe has accompanied me here to ensure I treat it and the scroll that led us to it with the respect it deserves.”
Leena gave a shallow bow.
“But what is it?” Sylas asked again.
“It’s a key,” Leena said. She drew a scroll from her pack and unrolled it on the table beside the orb. “Or rather, we believe what is inside the orb is a piece of a key. We believe, based on the writing and illustrations on this scroll, that there are five parts.”
A tingle crawled across Sylas’s skin and he met Colin’s eyes, so much like his own. “A key to what?”
Colin made a noise deep in his throat. “A potential weapon.”
“It took Colin and me months to find this.” Leena smoothed the scroll.
Sylas glanced down at the parchment and found illustrations of five orbs. Each held a different shape inside, surrounded by strange symbols he recognized as Elvish but could not read. “What does it say?”
“Elvish scribes have been chronicling the history of Ouros for centuries. I wasn’t sure when exactly the book was brought to this world, so we had to search hundreds of scrolls to find one that referenced it. This is that scroll.”
Beside him, Raven became agitated. “Book? I thought Colin mentioned a weapon.”
“It’s a grimoire,” Colin explained. “The most powerful magical text to have ever existed. If the rebellion had that book, we’d have a real chance of ending Eleanor’s reign.”
Raven bristled, her face paling. “You don’t mean the golden grimoire, as in Hera’s golden grimoire?”
“One and the same,” Colin said. “How do you know of it?”
Raven’s gaze darted to Gabriel. Something unspoken passed between them. “A premonition… It’s a long story. Where is the book hidden? How do we get the other parts of the key?”
Leena cleared her throat. “The scroll says that the grimoire was brought to Ouros at the beginning of Eleanor and Brynhoff’s reign by Medea, who became the witch queen of Darnuith. Her mate, Tavyss, was the older brother of Brynhoff and challenged him for the throne. When Eleanor and Brynhoff did not comply, Medea attacked Paragon in the fourth century. She and her dragon mate were killed during the uprising despite having the grimoire. Medea was pregnant at the time with their young. The scribe who wrote that noted a common belief at the time that Eleanor or Brynhoff somehow tricked Medea and Tavyss into letting their guard down and took advantage of it.”
“If they killed Medea and her mate, why doesn’t Eleanor have the grimoire?” Raven asked.
It was a good question. It was unlike Sylas’s mother to allow any source of power to slip through her fingers.
“I think I can answer that.” Nathaniel held up a finger. “Mother did not start practicing magic until after we were born. It is very possible she didn’t recognize the power of the grimoire or else didn’t see it for what it was. Perhaps this witch Medea disguised it in some way.”
Leena nodded slowly. “The witch had two sisters—”
“The original three sisters.” Avery darted a glance toward Raven and Clarissa.
“Likely the source of the prophecy of the three witches that would destroy Paragon,” Colin added.
“According to the scroll, although Medea was magically bound to her mate, Tavyss, he was killed first and so, without the benefit of his tooth’s magic, she succumbed to her wounds soon after. However, her two powerful sisters raised her from the dead.” Leena paused as a murmur rumbled through the group.
Sylas watched Raven and her sisters. Were they powerful enough to raise the dead, he wondered? The tension in the room ratcheted up a notch.
“What happened after they raised Medea from the dead?” Sylas asked.
Leena ran her finger down the scroll. “The witches locked the book away—it does not specify where—and then split the key into five parts and concealed them in each of the kingdoms. Only those destined to bring peace to Ouros and avenge the death of Tavyss will be able to find and access the orbs, reconstruct the key, and—”
“Wield the golden grimoire,” Raven finished.
Sylas turned to her. “Raven, how exactly do you know about the golden grimoire?”
Raven kissed Charlie on the forehead before speaking. “The night Charlie was born, I had a… dream that Circe visited me. Her words were strange, mysterious. But she seemed to be telling me that there would never be peace in Ouros or Paragon until Eleanor was defeated and the golden grimoire was returned to Hera.”
“Returned to Hera?” Sylas shook his head. “If this grimoire is as powerful as legend says it is, why would we return it to a vengeful goddess?”
Raven licked her lips. “I think Hera is helping Eleanor somehow. I think she’s encouraged her to do what she’s done. And I think Eleanor has been searching for this book on Hera’s behalf for a very long time. Returning the book is the only way to cut off Hera’s patronage of Eleanor.”
Sylas scratched his jaw as he ruminated on the hypothesis. He had enough to worry about with his mother. Adding a goddess to the equation made his head spin. “Does that scroll say anything about where to find the rest of these orbs? I mean something more specific than the five kingdoms?”
“No.” Leena tipped her head. “Unless… I believe this scroll is a palimpsest.”
“A what?” Sylas leaned over the scroll.
“New writing over old. If you look carefully, you can see the remains of the original text behind what we can read.”
“Is it common for scribes to do that?” Sylas asked.
“Never.” Leena leveled an intense stare on him. “I have no explanation for this. Nor can I explain how the old writing continuously moves and scrambles. Look here.” She pointed at a symbol like an S behind the message. In the blink of an eye, it moved to the top corner of the scroll. “It’s enchanted. There’s another message under this one. Only, I cannot read it.”
“We think whatever is hidden within this scroll is the answer to finding the other orbs and obtaining the pieces inside.” Colin rolled the orb back and forth on the table. “I’ve tried everything to open this one and get at the key. It’s impervious. It spent hundreds of years soaking in a sacred pool. It can’t be melted, broken, or crushed.”
“Maybe they only open when they are all together,” Sylas proposed.
“Maybe they only open using magic.” Clarissa left Nathaniel’s side to move closer and inspect the orb.
Raven cleared her throat. “Give me permission to touch the orb and the scroll. I might be able to discern the nature of its magic.”
Leena speared Colin with a nervous glance.
“I read magic,” Raven said. “I can absorb a spell off a page and wield it perfectly the first time. I can also sometimes touch something and understand the magic within it. If we’re lucky, I might be able to use the orb’s own magic to open it or crack the scroll’s magical encryption.”
“I’m concerned you’ll inadvertently damage the scroll,” Leena said.
Raven shook her head. “That’s
not how my power works. I don’t change the magic, just come to understand it.”
“You don’t know that.” Leena’s lips flattened into a tight line. “All scrolls are written by elves. Elfin magic is nothing like the magic of witches. It’s possible your touch will trigger something none of us are expecting. But—” Her fingers toyed with the edge of her robe. “I know no other way to translate the hidden text. None among my kind are capable of reading it. The hidden message is lost to us like this.”
“Leena?” Sylas said, feeling an obligation as their leader to press the issue. “Does Raven have your permission?”
A deep sigh escaped Leena’s lips, and she gave a quick nod. “Try it.”
Raven handed Charlie to Gabriel and placed her hands on the orb. She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she reached for the scroll, her mouth twisting into a grimace as her head began to shake. “Strange. I get nothing from the orb. I can feel its power, but the actual magic must be on the inside. I can’t get a signature from the surface.”
“And the scroll?” Sylas asked.
“Very powerful. I can see the enchantment, but it’s the most complicated protective spell I’ve ever encountered. The magic is strange. Some of it I recognize. Some is foreign to me—I assume it’s both witch and elven magic. I can’t break it, although we might be able to peek behind it. Avery?”
“No matter what type of magic it is, I should be able to neutralize it.” Avery reached for the unreadable scroll.
Colin blocked her from touching it. “Careful. Nobody touches the scroll without Leena’s permission. That was our agreement.”
Avery turned toward the elf. “Leena? I won’t damage it. Usually when I neutralize a spell, it’s temporary. It shouldn’t change anything.”
Leena met her eyes and gave a reluctant nod. “Yes.”
She touched the corner of the scroll. “Hmmm. It’s strong. Oh, something is happening.”
“It’s working!” Raven said.
Sylas watched in amazement as the new writing faded and the old came to the surface.
Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) Page 5