“You can speak ancient witch tongue?” Gaius asked. The princes had been trained to speak multiple languages since birth, but I doubted they had ancient witch in their curriculum.
Micah shrugged. “I found it in an old book. Didn’t take long for me to memorize the words. But I can’t speak it. I probably won’t be able to recognize it by hearing, even if a witch shouted the language in my ears. I’d have to listen to it first to know.”
A rough engraving had been carved into the sign. I leaned in and squinted. “It looks like smoke. Are you sure you guys should enter? There is a warning.”
“The witches are long gone,” Gaius said. “Whatever magic they had over this place should have worn off. It’s been centuries. Thousands of years, even.”
“I should go alone. I’m not dragon-kind.”
All four of them whipped their eyes to me and in unison said, “No!”
“You guys worry too much,” I muttered.
Gaius opened his palm. “Besides, Micah and I are well versed in spells. I’m sure we’ll be able to counter theirs.”
“These are ancient witches we’re talking about.”
He tapped the plaque. “It says here they’ll take us as slaves. How are they going to do that when they’re all already dead?”
I rubbed my shoulder. “I don’t know. But I just don’t want you guys to get hurt.”
“It’s so dark,” Kael said, striding down the tunnel. “Even with my dragon eyesight it’s difficult to make things out. I wonder if we can find a torch or something. It’s annoying to keep—”
A crashing sound and Kael’s yelling pierced my eardrums. My pulse leapt, quickening to a race. “Kael!”
I rushed to where Kael must have fallen, but Micah fastened an arm around my torso. I spun to look at him, and he shook his head, telling me not to run after Kael.
“I’m fine!” Kael shouted. I breathed a heavy sigh and squared my shoulders.
“Can you guys please stop running ahead?” I said. “You’re giving me a heart attack.”
“Come down and take a look!” Kael shouted back, ignoring my scolding. I heard the wonder in his voice as he chuckled. “This place is amazing. If you ignore the skeletons, of course.”
The Temple of Ashes was an underground network of caverns and architecture that awed even the princes. We found ourselves in the largest cavern. A long bridge ran over a greenish, murky lake, the sides of it lined with glowing orbs. They reminded me of the soul beads we’d used to store soul magic, but enormous in comparison.
“Skeletons in front of an entrance aren’t reassuring,” I said.
“It’s an ancient city,” Micah said. “It’s kind of a given that they have to be there. Think of it as decoration.”
“Hopefully we don’t end up joining it.”
“We entered and nothing’s happened yet. I think we’re doing a pretty good job.”
“Of just . . . moving along?”
He nodded and smiled.
Micah carried me as we flew over the spindly bridge. The princes didn’t trust the bridge to be free of traps, so we flew instead of walking across.
“I didn't think it was possible to make soul beads that large,” I said, watching the colorful swirls from the giant orbs form bright patterns on the princes’ faces. It added to how angelic Micah looked, so I cupped the curve of his cheek.
"Only the witches are able to make soul beads," Micah explained.
"They must have created them after coming here," I mused aloud.
The bridge, stretching over the water, led to a derelict city much smaller compared to Raynea. But because it was built underground, among pillars of rock jutting from the top of the giant cavern and into the lake, it seemed more impressive. Light streamed from little cracks above, forming thin lines of yellow, and some of it revealed the reddish color of the cavern rocks.
“The Temple of Ash,” Micah said. “Lost to dragon-kind ever since the witches decided to cut off contact.”
“Why did they die off?” I asked, uncertain about the specifics of history. I knew they had eventually ceased existing, but not why.
“They stopped being able to reproduce,” Micah said. “At least that's how the story went.”
“But dragon-kind are said to have flourished over two thousand years ago, albeit through different forms.” Did this have something to do with Aereala and what she said about missing balance?
“It might be related.”
The flight past the lake and the long bridge spanned a considerable amount of time. Eventually, I had to break the silence. A question I had for Micah burned in my mind. “What did Bianca say to you today?”
“Bianca?”
I nodded. “Yes, close to the ingorias. I saw the two of you under an arch.”
“You almost sound like you’re being possessive of me.” He smirked, and some light from the glowing orbs reflected off his eyes, giving him a mischievous glint.
“Yes,” I answered unabashedly. I’d fully accepted how capable I was of being petty at times. Acceptance was the first step to change, but I could also accept without changing. Bianca getting close to my men really, really, grated on me, and my stubborn mind was being too uncooperative with the whole “live and let live” thing.
“She was asking about you,” Micah said.
“About me? What is she plotting?”
His smirk widened into a grin. He looked so devilish under his fringe of red hair. “I don’t think she was plotting anything. She wanted to give you something and wondered if you’d want her gift. She was asking for my opinion and I told her you would. Did you receive it?”
“She did.”
“Was I right?”
“I think so, yeah.”
His gaze flicked to my wrist. “You don’t have the bracelet on.”
It was still in my satchel, which I kept hugged to my chest.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Let’s focus on finding out why Aereala sent us here.” We were almost at the city, anyway.
We landed on the wall that ran around the circumference of the city. “Where to start?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around the sheer size of this massive place. I took out the last drawing Bianca had given me. In a dirty yet impressive charcoal sketch, a door had a woman with snake-like hairs guarding it.
I tapped the back of my knuckle on the sketch. "So I guess we have to look for this."
Kael tore the sheet of paper from my hand. "Is this even accurate?"
"Her drawing of the peak was."
"Even with this, it'd take days to scour the whole place," Rylan said, looking over Kael's shoulder. "We're not certain what we're going to find." He stood with his arms behind his back, as he often did.
"What if Bianca's sending us on a wild goose chase?" I asked.
Gaius frowned. "And why would she do that?"
"To waste time. To keep us from Raynea? How am I supposed to figure out the mind of a master plotter?"
Kael snorted. "You think your sister is a master plotter? That's not her, unfortunately." He winked at me. He liked to think of himself as the one with the strategies.
At least Bianca was right and not lying about there being a city.
The men passed the drawing around.
“This might take a while,” Gaius said, scratching the back of his head.
We had to look for a simple door, and it seemed tiny when compared to this large conglomeration of buildings. The emerald glow from the giant lake reflected off the walls, giving the abandoned metropolis a ghostly look.
“Should we split?” Kael asked, already hooking his arm around my elbow and dragging me closer to him.
“I’m not sure if it’s safe,” Rylan said, frowning.
He had already come up with a plan, looking for ways to lead us to our goal. I waited for his genius to show, when he pointed to the large structure in the middle of the city. “When in doubt, go to the massive, fancy building that seems to scream ‘pick me,’ right?”
; What a genius.
Micah shrugged. “I second Kael. We can split. It's best we clear as much ground as possible. We don’t have that many supplies. It’ll last us two days at most, and we want to leave this place as soon as we can.”
Kael shrugged. “We can hunt if we run out of food. And there’s water everywhere.”
I wasn’t sure if the pretty, emerald water could be considered potable. What if the witches poisoned it with black magic or something before dying off? We didn’t know enough about this place to take anything at face value.
“We stick together,” I said. “We’re uncertain what lies ahead in this city.”
Kael winked at me. “We’ll take care of you, Sera-kit. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“It’s not me I’m afraid for.” Since I was a human and could use soul magic, I could also be considered a witch. The Temple of Ashes was home to people like me. This place didn’t seem to want to welcome the princes, however.
My lips twitched. “Oh? I’m touched.”
They were always so good at conveniently ignoring the truth of it all. I knew they were troubled by me every day, judging by how well they treated me. Sometimes the best way to deal with sadness was to pretend. “I still haven’t gotten over those mushrooms,” I reminded Kael, tapping his nose with my finger. A year ago, Kael had accidentally poisoned me by putting the wrong mushrooms in my soup. All for the sake of a silly prank. He assured me it was an accident.
Kael groaned and hugged an arm around my hips, pulling me closer to him. “I promise to never do that again. If you’re still mad about it, I can make it up to you when we get home.” He brushed my hair aside and purred against my neck, forcing my heart rate to tick up.
“Stop flirting, Kael,” Rylan said. “Let’s go. This is a serious matter.”
Rylan unfurled his black wings and stepped over the edge of the wall. He had to move his wings faster than usual because the air of the cavern was still and didn’t have any winds for his leathery wings to catch. When he gathered enough momentum, he glided across the smaller houses beneath us. Kael swept me up into his arms, and together with his brothers, he followed Rylan.
The top of the building we headed toward was decorated with a vicious-looking statue: a woman with eyelids carved so wide apart, she looked crazy. Her jaw hung agape, and a snake-like tongue stuck out from her mouth. She wasn’t making me feel very confident about our decision to come here.
Chapter Eight
“What is this?” Kael said. He scowled at the message spelled out on the plaque lining the entrance of our destination.
Surprisingly, it didn’t take long to find the snake-haired woman in the sketch. It was on the upper floor of the main building, and after lots of flying and running about, we’d stumbled upon it.
The hallways of the building were pristine, albeit dusty. Orbs were attached to the ceiling, lighting the pathways with their glow. Portraits lined the walls, too, but they had weathered long ago, and the paint had chipped off, leaving behind crumbling frames and cobwebs.
We’d stopped in front of a stone door. Vines grew over it. Surprisingly, they hadn’t turned to ash, unlike the rest of the fauna in Constanria.
Rylan burned the vines from the entrance. They fell to the already dusty ground as charcoaled clumps.
“It’s a library,” Micah said. He brushed his hand over the words written over the door. “Their sacred one.”
“We came all the way here for a library,” Kael muttered. “More reading?”
Gaius slapped the back of his head. “It’s not like you don’t read.”
“I imagined battling a giant beast or the like.”
“And how will that give us answers?”
“Magic?” Kael peered over my shoulder and snatched my sketch from me. “Are you sure we’re at the right place? There’s so many statues around.”
“Only this one’s the splitting image,” I said, noticing the way Kael nonchalantly kept his hand wrapped around my waist.
“No entrance to males,” Micah continued. “Only deserving females are allowed.”
“Huh,” I said. “I’ve heard stories of the witches of the old being matriarchal.”
Another one of those giant soul beads, filled with magic, hung at the ceiling of the corridor. It provided us light but also gave sharp shadows to the snake-haired female statue guarding the entrance. I wondered if it was how the witches used to view themselves—instead of as feminine and beautiful, they preferred to seem threatening, beings only an insane person dared to cross.
“Only deserving females, huh?” I sighed. “I guess I’ll have to do this alone. Last I checked, the rest of you have dicks.”
Gaius snarled. “We’re not letting you in there by yourself. What if there’s a monster of some sort waiting to sink its teeth into your flesh?”
I raised a finger. “Okay, first, even if there were, you shouldn’t have said that. Why’d you have to point out just how terrifying and painful it can be? You don’t tell a child she’s going to get bullied before sending her off to school. No, you say that school’s going to be fun, and her friends will like her, and that—”
“I feel like you’re projecting a lot of your insecurities and past here,” Micah said.
I sniffed and folded my arms, then leaned on the wall beside the plaque. “Just stating the obvious.” The wall behind me rumbled.
Gaean’s balls. What did I just do?
I jolted from the wall, but before I even had time to properly react, Kael sprang into action.
“Sera!” Kael shouted.
He threw his body against mine and we both landed on the ground. A dull ache shot through my side, but Kael cushioned my fall, making it less painful. Had something been hiding in the walls, biding its time in its attack? Had I put them all in danger just from leaning my body against the corridor?
The princes drew their weapons, readying themselves for a fight. Rylan raised his sword at the hollowed wall. A picture of a horrible monster, perhaps a serpent of some sort since the witches seemed to like those, flared through my mind’s eye. Numerous spells I’d memorized hovered on the tip of my tongue.
“What in Constanria?” Gaius said. Fear no longer captured his expression, and instead, confusion took its place. He sheathed his ax and moved closer to the space I’d revealed.
“Gaius, be careful,” I said. Kael helped me sit up.
A smile split Rylan’s lips. “Yeah, Gaius, be careful. You don’t want to be eaten by fabrics.”
Gaius reached into the space and pulled out . . . a dress? “There’s another message in here, carved into the wall, but it doesn’t look like it was placed by the witches. Micah, translate it.”
Micah put away his sword and stepped past Gaius. He leaned into the darkness to look at whatever Gaius had pointed out. “For the brave, fellow men who refused to back down in the pursuit for knowledge. Use these. May future travelers find this helpful.”
“Future travelers?” Kael asked. “Does that mean someone else has been here before?” He offered me a hand, which I accepted obligingly, and he helped pull me into a standing position. I swept the dust off my pants, aghast by how much had stuck onto me from such a quick fall. Maybe this was why the place was called the Temple of Ash. It hadn’t been cleaned so long that it was now covered in dust.
“These dresses are fresh,” Gaius said, sniffing the cotton. “Definitely not thousands of years old. Maybe the temple hadn’t been as lost as we assumed to be.”
“The Drae Lands is a big place,” I said. “How will this help men enter the library?”
“Maybe it’s in the way the spell recognizes the people who enter . . .” Micah’s voice trailed off as realization dawned on him. It took a second longer for the implication of the writings to make sense to me, too, but when it did, I laughed.
Gaius dropped the dress as if it were a viper. “No,” he said. “We cannot.”
“This must be some trick,” Rylan said. “Why would we need to cro
ss-dress just to enter the library?” He padded in front of the giant door that blocked our entrance, keeping his arms folded behind his back and his brows furrowed. I walked over, moving in front of him to clasp my hands around the handles of the library’s entrance.
“There’s only one way to find out,” I said.
“Let me do it,” Micah said.
However, my arms were already prying the doors open. The stones groaned against each other. The doors were thrice my height so I thought I’d have more trouble, but the witches built a good mechanism for them, and they slid open easily.
More magical orbs lit the interior of the library, emanating a gentle glow that reflected off the surface of the tall shelves. There were books. So many of them. Some looked pretty worn, but others had spines and pages still intact, crisp with a bright color, and appeared like they never aged a day.
“Holy . . .” I stepped into the library, eager to peruse. There had to be information here to save me. There were so many texts, even more so than in Beyestirya’s Assembly of Scholars, and all this information was ancient, most likely from before the first queen banned soul magic. During this exodus of magic, the queen had destroyed many important spells that would have benefited the Drae Lands greatly.
“Sera,” Rylan said. “We can’t come in.”
I peered at the entrance, which looked wide open to me, and raised an eyebrow in question. “Why not?”
Rylan placed his palm on what an invisible barrier. It refused to let him through. Gaius stepped back, stretched, and tossed himself against the entrance. The barrier flung him backward, and he tumbled on the ground. Not bothered from the fall, he got back up with a nonchalant grunt. I heard a hissing sound, coming from the top. I frowned, stepping back outside.
“So the plaque wasn’t lying,” Micah said, resting his chin between his fingers.
Gaius stared at the dresses, his face pale. “And this has something to do with what those travelers left behind for us.”
“I can look for clues on my own, you know,” I said. “I don’t need you guys protecting me all the time. I’m the vessel of a goddess, for goodness sakes. I assume I’m strong enough to walk into a library.”
Fall of Dragons (Sera's Curse Book 3) Page 7
