by C. K. Rieke
How long will it be before we see a dragon rip through the air, even if we are able to succeed? We’d have to bring to life a full-sized adult if it were to stand any chance against Dânoz in battle. A mere hatchling would be butchered without a chance. How many years would it take for a new offspring to grow to that size? If we do find a dragon up there in the mouth of the cave above, will we have to hide it until it is ready to fight? How do you even hide a dragon in the first place? They’re the wildest of beasts, no chains I know of can harbor a dragon’s might— a dragon’s fire. Perhaps Kera will know what to do when and if we ever are able to fulfill her destiny. Maybe Burr would have some incite— some ancient knowledge that will be useful. I can’t help but think about the pixies back there though. Its words still linger. It told me that I needed to survive if Kera is to succeed, that I have no intention of not heeding. It also told me that Gorlen will come, and that I need to find another way to stop her— that is logical, as the Sanzoral was a gift from her, and wouldn’t have the power to defeat its maker. The third thing though, that is most troubling— that some in the shadows will come to light, and the opposite is to be true as well. Does that mean that we are going to meet another ally, but they won’t start as an ally? And— an ally will fall into darkness? It’s my mind and heart telling me it’s Fewn. I know that Kera wants her to stay, and I’ll follow her wish, but I can’t get the feeling out of me that’s she not to be trusted. But perhaps I’m still just pissed at her for what she did. I’ll just have to keep my eyes open. At least I know I can trust Roren with Kera completely. He’s sworn an oath to . . . Hmmm, that makes me think. What of the other two? Have they sworn oaths? That may not be a horrible idea. One more thing that still bothers me about the pixie’s words— Burr said there was a curse hidden in those words, but he’s yet to speak further about his comment. I’ll have to press him on that soon. For the moment, you can at least be a little relieved that you’re finally back with her. Yet, we need to scour what lies up the mountain. She can’t make the climb, her limbs are too weak and short. I’m not leaving her alone with Fewn again, or even Burr— I trust him, but he’s still too new to our party. Looks like Roren is staying with her.
After the party was all awake, breakfast was prepared by Roren— warm dried deren meat and some thin slivers of cactus. They sat around in a circle, all five of them, looking around at each other as Lilaci explained to them her plan. Roren seemed just fine with watching over Kera as the others climbed upward. Kera was the only one with any objection— she wanted to climb up as well, and Fewn said she’d help her, but Lilaci said they would make it up and back quickly, hoping if they started directly after breakfast, they be back down by nightfall. None of them knew exactly how high, or even where, the cave was. Fewn hadn’t been able to find any traces of it while climbing the day before, and before she heard the yelling from down below, and she climbed back down quickly to help Lilaci and Kera. They decided the three of them would all climb up separate areas, but within sight of one another.
Shortly after, the fire was extinguished, and the three of them readied themselves for the climb. Their boots were laced tightly, all loose clothing was tucked in neatly, and all left their hood and cloaks behind. Anything heavy, such as swords, were left. Water and daggers were the only things not cloth they’d be taking. Lilaci put her hair back and braided it, to keep any stray hair from whipping her face in the winds high up. Fewn saw this and did the same.
“Be careful,” Kera said. “And come back soon.”
“We will,” Lilaci said, putting her hand on the first grip she found. “Watch over her, Roren. And lay low until we get back.”
“She is safe with me, just find what we are looking for, and travel back,” Roren said. “We can’t stay here too long. This place is like a beacon to all the surrounding sands. We best move at early daylight in the morn.”
“Aye, and I myself am eager to lay my eyes upon the dragon egg,” Burr said. “I know the lass is, aren’t ya?” Kera nodded her head hastily.
“We’re going to be on our way,” Lilaci said. “Hold tight until we get back.”
The three others began their ascent, and the winds had already begun to pick up as they each carefully selected their hand and foot placements. The upwards jutting rocks made for good holds, once they found the right ones as they were scattered over the face of the vertical cliffs. Climbing up from a distance, they looked like ants crawling up a dune. The higher they climbed, the further from one another they spread apart, and the harsher, and fiercer the winds blew in from the seas. They all had to huddle their bodies in close to the rock wall, so as not to be blown off, and go tumbling down through the air towards the rocky floor far below. The winds made their climb not only more difficult, but it made the ascent take much longer, and time was not on their side.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Thick clouds of gray and dark sea blue drifted in with a cool breeze. Hovering low in the sky, they crept between the sun and the three climbers, casting dark shadows onto the high-reaching cliffs. Lilaci could feel the air becoming thicker, and she knew rain was coming. Luckily, the winds had calmed significantly in the hours since they first started climbing. They were making good time up the mountain, and Lilaci had made her way over the bottom part of the dragontail carved into the mountain. They made their way up quickly as they could, all the while making sure each hold was sure and true. Each of them hoping to find some sign of a cave entrance— before the rains set in.
An hour passes, and still there was no sign of a cave. There was also very little too alive the strain on their fingers and toes. Every now and then, a thin ledge would appear that they could take a short break upon, so they could shake off the weariness of their extremities. Once they recuperated with fresh water, then they continued their climb. The arduous work in the overcast sky dragged on. Fatigue wore heavy on muscles not normally used in crossing the deserts.
“Hoi,” Burr hollered over from the left side of the mountain. Lilaci and Fewn looked over to see him pointing up above him. “Hoi, I see something!”
It took Lilaci close to fifteen minutes to make her way over to where Burr was, only to find him gone. Once she got close, she realized where he’d disappeared to. Reaching her fingers around the break in the wall, to find Burr’s gauntlet grabbing her forearm tightly. His strong arm pulled her around the break in the wall and into the crevasse he was standing in. She meant to look back to check in on Fewn’s progress in making her way over, but the sight before her was too much for her to look away.
Within the crevasse they were in, which stood five times her height, and just as wide, harbored back into the crevasse was a dark cave. The entrance to the cave was framed by an intricate carving.
“Stay close to the walls, las,” Burr said, pulling her fully around into the crevasse. “Those winds’ll blow you shear off if you get too close.”
The whooshing winds flowed out of the cave’s entrance like a heavy rainwater flowing down a mountain gully. The winds were so loud and ferocious Burr had to yell so that Lilaci could hear him.
“This is it, isn’t it?” Lilaci yelled back.
Burr stared at the cave and nodded. Lilaci inched her way safely along the wall towards its entrance. Around its mouth were carvings of hundreds of small dragons. Each in a unique pose, some carved as if soaring through the air, some being born from dragon eggs, some breathing fire in a beautifully rendered pose, and even some eating— eating humans. As Lilaci stood there inspecting the cave’s entrance and examining the cave’s carvings for a clue as for how to enter, Burr helped Fewn come over the threshold into the crevasse, and she bent over to catch her breath. Then she looked up to see it— the cave they’d been looking for.
Lilaci was entranced by the entrance to the cave, she marveled over the intricacies of the sculptures. She scanned through the many dragons, seeing the fine dragonscales carved into wings. She looked at the delicate nostrils, horns and eyes in the carvings that seemed as pristin
e as the day they were first etched. What a marvel a living dragon would be to see in real life. I’ve heard Burr talk about their raw power, and I’ll admit to myself that seeing one flying at me on the open desert would be enough to get me praying to some form of god. But the sheer magnificence of such creatures— these lands would be completely different with predators like these; wild, powerful, and free. In their age, they experienced freedom like nothing else in this world I bet. They had nothing to hunt them. They ate as they please, hunted as they pleased, and wherever they laid their head become their home. And anything that came hunting them felt a fire and a fury like nothing else in these lands. Hot flames would incinerate flesh and bone like the sea washing away sand. Whatever made them, truly created perfect life. But whoever created our gods, made perfect death.
“Lilaci,” Fewn yelled out over the wind, “how are we going to enter? Do you have any ideas?”
Lilaci shook her head, and as they were all huddled against the right wall, Lilaci held her hand out with her fingers closed tightly together. The winds roared into it, shoving it back almost into Burr.
“There’s no way we can just walk into there without a stray wind catching us and blowing us clean off,” Fewn said.
“We’re getting in there one way or another,” Lilaci said. “There’s something in there. I can feel it. There’s got to be something, some information, or a clue in there as to why this mountain is here. We didn’t come all this way to head back. Burr, have you any ideas?”
Burr looked at her with a serious, stern look. His one eye was focused on her as if he were going to answer her or ask a question. But he didn’t speak, he only rolled up his dark brown sleeve to reveal his tan, scarred forearm, littered with scars. He unsheathed his dagger from the back of his belt, and dug the blade into his arm, dragging it across as fresh blood began to pool and drip. He then flipped the dagger over in his hand with the handle pointing out towards her.
“Go on,” he said.
Looking into his eyes, she saw his gaze unwavering. What is he doing, and handing the blade to me? What sort of strange trick is this?
“You want me to do the same?” she asked. He nodded, his one eye staring seriously at her. “This is going to help us somehow?” He nodded again, raising his hand to usher her on. She took the blade from his hand and placed the cool blade’s edge, dripping with warm blood into her pale skin. With a dragging motion, she felt the blade cut through her skin, and she watched as her own blood began to run from her body, slowly dripping to the rocks with the roaring winds blowing next to them with the force of a hurricane. She looked back into his eye, with a glint of approval, then he motioned his head towards Fewn.
Fewn looked at the blade and shook her head. “No way I’m cutting my arm, that’s going to hurt like the Eternal Fires.” She held it out for them to see. “It’s just bandaged up, and it finally stopped bleeding.”
“You can use your other arm I’m sure,” Lilaci said.
“Great, not I’m going to have two bad arms. Is this a joke? You really want me to do that? You just going to do everything he does from now on? You know he lost an eye, right?”
“Just do it,” Lilaci said to her, jostling the dagger again in her hand, with its leather handle extended.
“Fine,” Fewn said with a sigh, and took the dagger, holding it in her hand, hefting it to feel its weight and balance. And then she cut across her arm, blood slowly dripping. “There,” she said, handing the dagger back to Burr.
“Strong magic has strong thirst,” Burr said as he stared at the blade, not covered in their blood. “This is a strong, old spell,” he said. “. . . Very old.”
“Your people know blood magic?” Fewn asked, holding her fresh wound with her hand.
“Some, most spells are long forgotten, washed away from the sands of time. But this spell that creates these unnatural winds I know, because my people created it.”
“The knights?” Fewn asked. “The Knights of the Whiteblade made these winds?”
“Aye, to protect and hide whatever lies inside.”
“You know how to remove the spell?” Lilaci asked. He nodded.
“If you know they put it there,” Fewn interjected. “Do you know what’s inside?”
“I believe I can alleviate the spell for a time, and no, I do not know for sure what is inside,” he said, gazing over to meet Fewn’s look. “But I have my guesses.”
“Well, what then?” Fewn yelled over the winds.
“We’ll find out soon enough, if this works.” He took the blade of the dagger and lifted it close to his face, just in front of his lips. Lilaci for a moment thought he was going to put it in his mouth. As he closed his eye, he began to whisper. She couldn’t read his lips, let alone hear what he was saying in the roaring winds next to her ear, but she saw the knight at that moment in a new perspective. She could feel his presence then, like she’d never felt another living soul before. He felt dense, like a power was collecting inside of him, and then she looked down to see the hairs on her arm were beginning to stand straight up. Looking back at him, she noticed a single light on the dagger forming, under the blood. It was a white aura that glowed brighter as he seemed to whisper faster. He began to rock, swaying back and forth as he the light in the dagger lit his face like the morning sun.
“Lilaci, look,” Fewn said, grabbing her arm. “The wind.”
Lilaci looked back at her at the entrance, and she could see the rippling effect of the winds were beginning to diminish. Holding her hand out, the winds still pushed her hand back, but not nearly by as much as before. Her arm could hold her hand in place as the winds rushed into it. She looked back at Burr who was shaking as he whispered. And as the winds were beginning to fade, she could hear his words. “Absolutem Ven, Au Vorum Iselthetoq.” Again, he said louder. “Absolutem Ven, Au Vorum Iselthetoq!”
Behind her, Lilaci could feel the winds dissipating further. “He’s doing it.”
“Hurry,” Fewn said. “We could run in now, quickly, let’s go.”
“Wait,” Lilaci said. “We should stay with Burr.”
They both stood there watching him as beads of sweat poured down his head and his shaking began to subside, and his whispers faded. The light of the dagger dimmed, and the winds that had been rushing behind them stopped. They watched as Burr fell to his side, dropping the dagger as specks of blood flung from it to the rocks.
Lilaci went and grabbed him by the arm, to help him sit up against the rock. It was at that moment she saw his age in him, as he gasped for breath. She reached down and undid her watersack from her belt, but he refused with a wave of his hand. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said. “Just let me catch my breath.”
“Well done, old man,” Fewn said, picking up his dagger and wiping the blood from it with a rag from her belt.
“You sure you’re alright?” Lilaci asked.
He wiped the sweat from his brow with his forearm, smudging blood onto his face, seemingly not remembering he was still bleeding from his arm. “I’ve never felt magic so old. It was like being in a different world, it was as if it was speaking to me. The words it spoke, it sounded like an old language, like something I’d understand in a past life.”
“What’re you saying? The winds spoke to you?” Fewn asked.
“In a sense, yes. Yes, I suppose you could say that. But the winds were just a symptom of the spell placed here many lifetimes ago.”
“Burr,” Lilaci said. “The words you spoke to the dagger— What did they mean?”
“Translated, it means something like, “Pure wind, our blood is the key to the door. Really, we should go now, the winds will return, and I dare say we don’t want to be inside when they do.”
Lilaci and Fewn went and grabbed his arms, helping Burr to his feet. “Let’s move,” Lilaci said.
The three entered the cave, all marveling at the intricate decorative entrance as they passed. Creeping into the darkness, none of them brought a torch or flint to start the fire.
But they didn’t need it. With a gentle glow, Lilaci hands began to emit the distinct purple flames of the Sanzoral, and the cave’s walls glowed. They walked down the cave as it wound up and to the right. They walked hesitantly with their daggers firmly in their hands, but they also kept a brisk pace, as Burr didn’t seem to know exactly when the spell would resume itself. They knew they stood little chance from being forced off the mountainside, falling and tumbling to certain death.
The cave seemed to wind in a corkscrew pattern up and to the right, every new step revealing a new section of wall as the cave gradually began to get steeper and steeper. “We should hurry,” Fewn said. Without hesitation the other two began to hustle up the cave with her, all eager to find what lies higher up, if anything. In the purple light the cave appeared to grow in brightness up around the curves ahead. Lilaci let her Sanzoral fade as they approached the white glow ahead, and their pace slowed.
“What is it?” Fewn asked Burr, watching him as he inspected the cave’s walls, now visible.
“Not sure,” he said. “Honestly it just looks like sunlight.”
With their weapons still held in their ready hands, they walked low, forward. Ready for anything. Lilaci’s heart beat wildly in her chest. Not from worry of what lay ahead, but anxiousness. They’d come far to see what lie at the heart of the Duen Utülm Drakon. The source of the light appeared to be coming from the next bend in the corking cave, and as they wrapped around that final wall, they found themselves entering an enormous clearing with its ceiling twenty times Lilaci’s height, with a large circular hole at the very top, letting in fresh, warm sunlight.
As their eyes adjusted to the new, bright light, all seemed to be in shock at what lay before them.