Chapter 45
45
I stood beside Tristen, Callum, Rachelle, Priscilla, and her companions Issac and Henry at the top of the rocky outcropping as we all surveyed the dragon graveyard below us.
“So all the dragons died?” I clarified.
“Yes,” Callum said.
“And those eggs… they’re dragon eggs, aren’t they?”
Rachelle frowned. “I don’t know what else could lay eggs that big.”
“Rachelle, can you—” I asked.
“Shift into a dragon? Nice try,” Rachelle said sarcastically. “The biggest thing I can shift into is a beluga whale, and that’s not really going to help us here.”
“The Eternal Sands are just on the other side to the east,” Callum said, pointing past the massive skeleton of the dragon to where the giant swells of sand dunes began. “We can make it there by nightfall and set up camp for the night on the edge before we get too deep into that territory. But we have to get going now before we lose daylight.”
“The dragons won’t… hatch , will they?” I asked.
Callum shook his head. “We haven’t had dragons in these lands for millennia. Only graveyards and petrified dragon eggs. They won’t hatch. If they did, that would be a once-in-a-millennia miracle.”
Tristen leveled a glare at Callum. “You speak of the mysteries of this world as if you know them.”
Callum rolled his eyes. “And you do?”
“No. I have the humility to know that there are things that are far more ancient than I on this island.”
Callum shrugged. “We’ll tread carefully. But it’s a graveyard—nothing more. Watch your step and let’s make good pace so we can get through this before nightfall.”
Callum made a gesture for Tristen to go first.
Tristen raised an eyebrow. “You’re not worried, but you still want me to go first?”
“You are the most powerful amongst us, aren’t you?” Callum challenged.
Tristen sighed. “And what a burden it is to bear,” he said, and strolled down the path that dipped down into the valley below us.
I started to take a step after him, but Callum gripped my forearm. “Let the others go first. Rachelle and I will hang back with you.”
Priscilla was already moving to follow Tristen. Issac and Henry followed behind Priscilla, flanking her down the narrow dirt path.
“Thought you weren’t worried?” Rachelle asked Callum as the first part of our group walked out of earshot.
“I’m not worried about the dragon eggs. I’m more worried about them,” Callum said, inclining his head to the other prisoners. “I’d prefer not to be dragged out of the fifth trial with a dagger in my back. We all know that Issac didn’t hesitate to betray us before.”
Which is why he had sent Tristen first. A cold fear landed at the pit of my stomach at the thought of Tristen’s death, and the image of him being stabbed by King West flashed back in my mind.
“It’s okay, Saffron. You’re safe with me—both of you,” Callum said to Rachelle and I.
Rachelle snorted. “Thanks, Cal, I feel so much safer now.” Out of spite, Rachelle shifted into a huge black bear twice Callum’s size. She huffed in his face, but he only patted her side and started to walk down the rocky path. Rachelle began to roar at him in annoyance, but she hit her furry head on a dead branch of a nearby tree.
I held back a laugh, following my two stubborn friends down the path.
And so we descended into the valley of dead dragons.
The sun had risen overhead as we walked for hours in the dusty graveyard. The dragon eggs created a kind of labyrinth. They were nearly double the height of an average human, and were quite wide. They had a shine to them, even as they were covered by hundreds of years of dust and sediment.
I sipped from my waterskin that was starting to run low. We had no pots to boil water and no streams to refill our supply, so we were all rationing our drinking water as the sun beat down on us. Rachelle had gotten hot in her black bear form, and had shifted back into a human. Less hair seemed preferable under the sun as we walked through the arid desert landscape—a far cry from the cool and humid forests I was used to.
“What happened to them? The dragons?” I asked Callum as we walked.
Callum followed the others as we continued to weave through the massive graveyard. “Luminaria scholars tell the story of a world in chaos, dragons torching villages and leveling continents. They were the creation of the gods, and the gods had to create a hero who would be strong enough to take them down as they couldn’t be tamed.”
“So the gods care about what happens in these lands?”
Callum laughed. “Maybe before the war.”
“War?”
“Rachelle, did you teach Saffron anything when you two were holed up in the library together? What were you two doing?”
“The same thing you and Saffron did when you found yourselves alone,” Rachelle said as she winked at me.
Callum raised a questioning eyebrow at me and I blushed in response.
“I didn’t exactly get any history lessons from either of you,” I said.
“The Divinity War was fought between factions of gods over the creation of Brightbornes—mortals who have a drop of a god’s power in their blood. Brightbornes can be born or made by a god bestowing a piece of their divinity onto a mortal, but any Brightborne born or created becomes hunted. A few gods were afraid that the gifts bestowed on the Brightbornes would make them too strong, and one day the Brightbornes would overthrow them. That didn’t stop a select few of the gods from fraternizing—they were simply infatuated with the humans they took to their beds. Lust, or more rarely, love brought them to intermingle with us.”
“What happened?” I breathed.
“In the Divinity War, the Brightbornes and the humans succeeded in putting the gods to sleep.”
“That can happen?”
“Gods can’t be killed. But they can be left in a state of suspension, near death, that can kill them if they are left that way for long enough. They enlisted a Siphon to help drain the gods to a point where they could be trapped. The gods are buried in coffins made of Starforge Steel—the only metal that can keep them powerless and near death. Starforge Steel can only be found here.”
“Where are the gods buried?”
“All over the island. But one of the strongest is housed beneath The Eternal Sands.”
My blood ran cold. “That’s… that’s where we’re going.”
“Yes, it’s the only way for us to get back to the east side of the island,” Callum said. “Which is why we shouldn’t camp too far in. There are a number of feral beasts that act as protection against would-be graverobbers.”
“Who would want to rob the graves of the gods?”
“The small faction of Brightbornes who wish to see them set free,” Callum said simply.
“The Brightbornes are still alive?”
“A few, but they are hunted by the gods’ monsters. Even beyond the grave, the gods seek to protect themselves against the threat they think the Brightbornes represent. ”
“Great,” I muttered. “So you think we’re walking into a death trap for the fifth trial?”
“When I was able to get a look at the maps of the island, I think I saw a threadwell not too far into Eternal Sands.”
“A… threadwell?”
“Yes, it’s a vacuum tunnel filled with water directed by a strong current that crosses underground to another part of the island. Each pool leads to one other, and I believe this one’s twin is located right next to the Stone Coliseum, so we’ll be able to make it back hopefully within one more day of trekking.”
“So… we swim through it?”
Callum nodded. “Sort of. The current is magical, and it pulls you underneath and sucks you through to the other end. They’re dangerous, though—they’re only taken as a last resort. Or by those who are already in a death match.”
“That’s nice,” I said bitterly.
A rumbling under my feet interrupted my questions, and all of us stilled. We stood quiet as the shaking stopped. I craned my head to try and look ahead, but too many dragon’s eggs were blocking my vision from where Tristen was leading us.
“What was that?” I murmured to Callum, but he held his fingers to his lips.
Rachelle shifted, taking to the skies in her bird form. She circled, the sun casting her shadow on the dusty earth beneath our boots.
Then, she landed somewhere at the front of our group. She appeared moments later, walking back to us as the front of our group began moving yet again.
“Nothing out of place from the skies,” she said quietly to Callum and I. “But we should be swift and quiet, just in case.”
“We should move,” Callum said. He motioned for me to go in front of him, and I darted in front of him, following the rest of our group that was now moving much more quickly through the labyrinth of dragon eggs that lined either side of us.
Another rumble sounded underneath our feet.
We were running now.
Rachelle launched herself in the skies again, taking her hawk form as she circled above us.
The dragon’s eggs seemed to tremble as the ground continued to shake. Was it an earthquake? Dirt continued to tremble under our feet as I sucked in air and tried to keep up with the rest of the group in front of me. We were halfway through the graveyard at this point, about to come up on the bone ribcage of the dead dragon. Then, we only had one last section of the dragon’s egg field to go through until we reached the sand dunes that marked the start of The Eternal Sands.
I pumped my legs harder, praying that I would be able to keep up this pace even as my muscles began to burn. I wished for the strength that the others had, seeming not to tire as they ran ahead of us, the gap growing larger between me and the beginning of the group.
The rumbling intensified even more, the ground shaking with a horrible groaning noise. Above us, I could hear the screaming of a hawk—as if Rachelle was warning us about something.
Suddenly, the front of our group came to a halt, and I turned the corner of the last of the dragon’s egg labyrinth on this side, coming to the clearing where the bone ribcage was.
I arrived just in time to see the dead dragon slowly peel itself out of the ground and begin flapping its bony wings. It yanked back its head, and let out a roar as fire emerged from its jaw.