The dark blue sky above was covered in smoke, the myriad of stars and the first moon vanishing beneath the blackness, while we kept running. It truly was a sight to behold, though not a cause for celebration, but rather a reminder that even the mightiest could fall, if hit in the right spots.
Kerentrith had sacrificed itself for us.
I had every intention to make sure it wasn’t for nothing.
Hansa
As the dust clouds engulfed the hill base and continued to spread outward in an eerie fashion, we managed to get to the western gate, where our indigo horses were still waiting, albeit neighing and restless.
Silence slowly worked its way out from beneath Kerentrith, a sinkhole left in its wake after the city had been swallowed by Draconis. The smell of smoke, burning flesh, and charred wood invaded my nostrils. Harper scanned the area for daemons.
“There are some still standing, but I doubt they can see us through this smoke,” she muttered, then helped Vesta pull the horses out from their hiding place.
The worst part was pretty much over at this point. Despite the thick dust trying to work its way through my lungs, I felt as though I could breathe again. Jax stopped by my side, settled Ryker back on his feet, and gently squeezed my hand—a sweet reminder that I could still touch him, that we were still alive and together. It filled my very soul with energy, enough to add that extra kick in my heels for what lay ahead.
Fiona then cut her palm and brought it up to Blaze’s mouth. He squirmed a little, but relented and parted his lips, letting the crimson liquid drizzle over his tongue. Three minutes later, he was back at full strength.
“I think the tendon was severed,” Blaze muttered, checking his boot while twisting his foot. “It makes it difficult to shift when I’m wounded like that.”
“You’re okay now,” Caia said, giving him a warm smile, then giggled. “Although I’m impressed with how long you lasted before you had to be carried.”
Blaze didn’t seem pleased about that, pressing his lips into a thin line. Caia was swift in putting her hands on his shoulders. “Hey, even the mighty fall!”
“That being said, we need you to go full dragon,” Harper interjected with a playful smirk. “We’ll have our heaviest ride you, and keep the horses for ourselves.”
Harper and Caspian got the delegation members on horseback. Ryker and Laughlan rode solo, while the couples got a horse each. That left us with four horses to share between us. Caspian and Harper took one, and Fiona took another, while Jax and I agreed to share the third stallion, leaving a fourth for Vesta.
“What about us? Oh, we’re ‘your heaviest’. Noted,” Velnias scoffed, crossing his bulky arms and giving Zane a sideways glance, too, for good measure. Zane shrugged, slightly amused.
“We get to ride the dragon, my good friend,” Zane replied.
“That’s what I get for helping you people escape and destroy my city? Vertigo?” Velnias muttered, obviously displeased.
Blaze shuddered and stretched his arms out, while the rest of us got on our horses and Laughlan let the Ekar bird loose from his backpack. I was constantly amazed by that damn bird. It could survive pretty much anything, including a city collapsing in on itself, it seemed, without so much as a peep.
“I’m not too comfortable with the idea, either,” Blaze retorted, “but it’ll be faster if we fly. You two won’t be able to keep up with the indigo horses, trust me.”
“Yeah, I know,” Zane replied, stroking the neck of Fiona’s stallion. The looks on their faces made me blush. Those two were becoming an item, and I had no idea as to how I felt about it. But this wasn’t the time nor the place to worry about that, as Harper quickly pointed out.
“I can hear daemons coming. We really need to move now,” she said.
“So, where to? Ragnar Peak?” Blaze asked, slipping out of his clothes and handing everything over to Caia to hold on to. It made us all look away, our heads turning so fast, I could swear I heard my own neck snap with the motion.
“Not while daemons are tailing us,” Velnias said, slightly pale and unable to look Blaze in the eyes.
Welcome to the club, Velnias. No one can look Blaze in the eyes when he’s stark naked. Well, except maybe Caia.
“I counted about thirty of them,” Harper replied, looking over her shoulder. “Blaze could take them on, easily.”
“You’re forgetting about the hordes that are still out and about, looking for you. Complete with pit wolves and Death Claws. They all heard the explosions. They saw the city collapse. They’re on their way back as we speak. We’ve got the delegation with us, too,” Velnias replied. “We’re better off if we make ourselves scarce before we run into any reinforcements. No more time left to waste.”
“I know where we can go,” Zane interjected, then pointed somewhere to the southeast. “There’s an abandoned farm that way, about two hundred miles from here. It’s surrounded by red sand dunes and treacherous marshes. It’s extremely humid and hot, but there’s a dry pocket in the middle that used to thrive as a farm. Most daemons don’t know about it because few dared to venture into it. No one’s interested in exploring Neraka’s marshes, only this time there really is a hidden gem there.”
“How do you know about it?” Fiona asked, her eyebrows raised with surprise.
Zane responded with a boyish grin. “I used to play around Draconis a lot when I was a kid,” he replied. “I had a habit of running away once every other full moon or so. Father obviously kept finding me, but the biggest scare for him was when I hid in that farm and nobody was able to track me. I went back, eventually, and spent years making it up to my mother. But the farm is still there.”
A couple of seconds passed as we all looked at each other, until I nodded, and Fiona took a deep breath. “Okay then, lead the way,” she said.
“Hop on,” Blaze replied, smirking at Velnias and Zane, then burst into full dragon form. Our invisibility spells would wear off soon, but Blaze’s faded the moment he turned.
Velnias stifled a squeal, equal parts fascinated and terrified. Zane chuckled and gave him a friendly pat on the back, while Blaze lowered his head, allowing both daemons to climb onto his back. Harper, Jax, and I took the lead on horseback, followed closely by Fiona, Caia, and the others.
“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” Velnias breathed, his voice trembling as he settled between Blaze’s sharp shoulder blades.
Zane climbed up behind him, firmly grabbing Blaze’s large black scales. The dragon shook his head, blinking and huffing as he adjusted his eyesight to the darkness. The smoke and dust billowing from Kerentrith had covered the entire area around us, completely obscuring the sky and the stars.
“Probably, but I also think riding a dragon is more fun than riding a Death Claw,” Zane replied, prompting Velnias to chuckle.
“You tried that, too, huh?” the former High Warden of Draconis asked.
“Their bite is the worst,” Zane laughed, then yelped and held on tight as Blaze took off without any warning. “Hold on!”
The dragon’s wings flapped several times, vanishing above and beyond the thick layer of black smoke. Harper used her True Sight to follow him. Zane relayed directions from Blaze’s back, and the rest of us followed.
I wrapped my arms around Jax’s waist as he beckoned our indigo horse to go fast. He clicked his teeth once, and the stallion darted off like the sudden winds of summer on Calliope. I could hear daemons behind us, but they’d yet to spot us, given the low visibility.
“We’ll most likely spend the night at the farm, then head off to Ragnar Peak in the morning,” Jax said. I held on tight and welcomed the flow of air brushing against my cheeks.
“I pray there’s water there. I need a hot bath,” I replied.
“We all do,” Harper chuckled, a couple of feet ahead of us. “I imagine we’ll all dunk ourselves in hot water once we get there.”
“Hey, we deserve it!” Fiona shot back, stifling a smirk.
We most certai
nly did.
“I’ll set up a cloaking spell once we get there, just in case,” Vesta said, patting the bag filled with precious supplies she’d packed at the palace. “We raided some pantries while we were setting the fuses. Found all kinds of goodies in the kitchen and in the abandoned armory.”
“Good, we’ll need whatever we can carry, going forward,” I replied. “It’s not over for us. Far from it.”
I let out a long sigh. We weren’t where we wanted to be just yet, but damn it, we’d made incredible progress, and it was all thanks to the brilliant minds of everyone involved. I was most fortunate to have come to Neraka with warriors like Harper and her Shadians.
The city of Draconis had fallen, both figuratively and literally. The blow we’d dealt to Shaytan with this one was sure to reverberate across the continent. If he’d been worried about Infernis, I could only dream about the look on his face once he heard the news about Draconis.
We’d brought down his precious prison city, we’d let the daemon pacifists loose, we’d killed Cayn, and we’d managed to escape with the delegation prisoners. Our greatest advantage was that Shaytan wasn’t aware that Laughlan had learned where they were keeping Lumi. We didn’t have a clear path to her, per se, but we knew she was in Azure Heights, and, most importantly, we knew who stood between us and her—between us and freedom.
As we left the ruins of Kerentrith behind, I smiled. The smoke around us dissipated, Blaze once again visible overhead and leading us to the marsh farm. Harper scanned the area on a radius of up to three miles, confirming that there were, in fact, daemon troops scuttling back to Draconis.
However, they couldn’t see us from where they were, and, as soon as they entered the cloud of smoke and dust surrounding the collapsed hill, they could barely see three feet ahead of them. We had an easy ride to the farm, which was a much-needed respite, after what we’d just accomplished and after everything we’d endured.
Despite the many questions we still had about how the Exiled Maras and daemons were handling this whole Nerakian domination, and keeping the outside world out of their business, we also had answers. The single most important one was Lumi.
As we crossed the dry plains and headed into the red desert south of Kerentrith, I kept smiling. We’d come a long way, after some truly horrific hundred-and-eighty-degree turns. We’d survived a lot. If anyone deserved to soak in hot water for hours on end, before resuming this monstrous battle, it was us.
Avril
Arrah led us around the base of the mountain, leaving the tremors of the collapsed daemon tunnel behind. The ridge was freezing cold and covered in snow, the moonlight glistening across the white blanket with iridescent shimmers. Had it not been for the risk of daemons still coming after us, I would have taken the time to just stop and admire the breathtaking beauty.
We made our way up the other side of the Athelathan mountain, our horses putting in the extra effort to climb over the layers of hard stone and frozen snow. The forest thickened as we moved, giant pines with heavy branches obscuring our view. I couldn’t smell any daemons, so I could breathe a little easier and focus on Arrah as we followed her to a higher altitude.
“There it is,” she said, pointing ahead.
At first glance, most hikers wouldn’t have even noticed it. It was built from the same pinewood as the forest surrounding it, and it was nestled between trees and massive, sharp rocks. It was also covered in piles of white snow. No one had been here in a long time, by the looks of it.
The parts of its walls that were still visible wore a layer of ivy-like greenery, the kind that didn’t mind the cold much. The waxy leaves were dark green with pointy edges, and there were sprinkles of pearly fruits scattered across, reminding me of mistletoe.
It wasn’t midnight yet, with only two of Neraka’s three moons glowing somewhere above. We got off our horses, while Hundurr circled the cabin a couple of times, sniffing around and getting acquainted with the place.
“No one’s on our trail,” I said, flaring my nostrils and breathing in every scent that I caught—mostly pine, snow, frozen dirt, and wild animals.
“We’ll spend the night here,” Arrah replied, “and head for Ragnar Peak in the morning. The Imen will take turns and keep watch outside. This isn’t their first trip to this mountain.”
“You’ve been here before?” Scarlett asked, looking at the ten Imen as they dismounted and guided their horses over to a fallen tree, where the animals could rest for a while.
“A couple of months ago, yes,” one of the Imen replied. “We were out searching for food when we ran into daemons. They were after the moon-bison. Those grazing on the southern slope are bigger and slower than the ones you find in the plains. We had to spend a few nights around here before we could escape unnoticed, until the daemons gave up because of the cold. So, yes, we’ve been here before.”
“The moon-bison tend to move to the western slopes during the winter,” Arrah added, “and the plain ones move even farther south, leaving the handful of villages in the area between Lagerith and Athelathan with little to no food sources for up to six months. Hence why some venture all the way here for moon-bison, to bring back and provide milk for the winter.”
A chill ran down my spine, and it had nothing to do with our conversation. As I watched Heron and the rest of our team lead our stallions to join the others, I could feel the temperature dropping further. Dark clouds gathered above, and, within minutes, it had started to snow.
Heron and I walked over to the cabin door and tore off the layers of mistletoe-like greenery, while Scarlett, Patrik, Dion, and Alles uncovered the windows. We needed to see outside, in case daemons made their way up. Though, to be honest, given the low temperatures and the now-heavy snowfall, they were highly unlikely to reach this place.
The snowflake pendant that Nevis had given me felt colder than usual, prompting me to take it out and let it rest on top of my combat suit, with a layer of leather between it and my skin. Heron noticed and raised an eyebrow at me.
“It’s weirdly cold,” I replied with a shrug, then looked around and frowned. Clusters of snowflakes fell all around us, making me think the weather changing wasn’t a coincidence. Not when Nevis’s pendant had such a… chilling reaction. “I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that Nevis knows we’re here.”
“What makes you say that?” Arrah asked, joining us in front of the door.
“Nevis gave me this pendant, and it feels extra weird. Plus, this snowfall is a little too convenient, given our circumstances, don’t you think?” I replied. “I don’t know, I may be wrong, but, to be honest, based on what we’ve experienced on Neraka so far, I doubt this is a coincidence.”
Arrah nodded slowly, gazing around as the Imen gathered wood and lit a fire close to the horses. They then removed a pile of dead wood from a stone fountain, which seemed to still function. The bucket hung loosely on an iron chain and it was covered in dirt and rust, but it could still be used to extract water from the springs flowing beneath the mountain.
“I’m inclined to agree,” Arrah said, then struggled with the doorknob, until it screeched and clanged open. “Thank the stars. I was afraid we’d have to break the door open.”
She went inside, Heron and I right behind her.
The place looked quite big and spacious, built on two levels. The ground floor had an open-plan resting area and kitchen, a storage area, and two bedrooms, from what I could tell at first sight. The top floor held a bathroom and two more rooms. There was a ladder leaning against the lip of an attic hatch, though, based on the size of the roof, it didn’t seem big enough for another room. At best, it could be used to store stuff. Given the low temperatures, one could easily keep a sturdy food supply up there.
“This looks pretty cool,” Heron muttered, looking around.
The walls were covered with strips of wood and large patches of fur, to keep the spaces somewhat warm. The windows had thick glass, and fabric was rolled and tucked into all the frame gaps�
��an additional effort to stop the heat from slipping out.
“And a perfectly functional fireplace,” Arrah replied, crouching in front of the square, stone fireplace with a thick, wooden mantlepiece. She looked up the chimney, narrowing her eyes. “Yup, I can see the sky. I’ll go get some wood.”
She got up and started to head outside, when Heron opened what I’d suspected was a storage door. “No need,” he said, pointing at the stack of wood neatly cut and piled inside the closet to be used in the fireplace.
Arrah chuckled softly. “I take it whoever was in here last was kind enough to leave the place as they found it. It’s kind of a tradition on Neraka. There are cabins like these on most mountains. Nobody owns them, but every traveler takes care of them when they stop by.”
“I like that,” I replied, nodding appreciatively. “Looking out for the next guy like the previous guy looked out for you. Makes sense.”
I walked into the kitchen area and started looking through the cupboards. Dust had settled on most surfaces, but the storage crates had done a fine job of preserving their contents, mostly nuts and dried fruit. There was a square water basin mounted in a corner, with a pipe and rudimentary faucet. I turned it and found myself grinning when the pipe spat a steady stream of spring water.
“It must be connected to the well,” Arrah said, a grin splitting her face. “Which means the bathroom might have something similar, too.”
She went upstairs to check, while Heron stopped by one of the cleared windows in the living area. Patrik and Scarlett started checking the rooms, while Hundurr settled by the fireplace, patiently waiting for someone to prepare a fire so he could warm up. The poor creature was shivering, his muscles twitching and his leathery black skin covered in goosebumps.
Heron gazed out the window, watching the heavy snow fall and the Imen draw water from the fountain. Dion came into the kitchen and grabbed all the pots he could find, then carried them outside. The Imen then filtered the water through layers of fabric into the pots, to remove the rust and whatever dirt they’d collected along with the fountain water. Five minutes later, the horses and the Imen had clean, fresh water to drink, bringing us all one step closer to a decent night on Athelathan Mountain.
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