Chapter 7
INTO THE STORM
Lark met her dragon’s eyes after asking him about the blood trailing down his shoulder.
White Eye looked down at his wounded shoulder.
His memories passed into Lark’s consciousness.
Lark saw that he was in the aerie in Skol.
Barrik and Killaborden were forcing him to remain, to submit to warging, while the others searched for Lark.
While trapped there, White Eye managed to catch glimpses of Lark through their bond whenever she tapped into their shared magic.
Then, there was the Magus and a dragon’s claw piercing the place in his shoulder were the brismil arrowhead was lodged.
Lark cocked her head slightly, her eyes narrowing as she examined the blood weeping between his scales. The irradiance shimmering in the crimson droplets was a natural indicator of both his draconic magic and that of the gods flowing through his veins.
His blood shouldn’t have that streak of purple, she thought.
“Is this from today?” she asked him.
White Eye stamped his front paw, shaking his head back and forth. A clear, no.
She was still reeling from the discovery that the Entity had stolen a Realmstone.
But this, this was wrong. Before today, she’d only seen purple light when two forms of magic combined.
Like when Joc had tapped into the Hyalite and used the brismil to bind it within him back in the fortress in Red Lodge.
The fusion had allowed the power-hungry mage to hold an otherwise deadly amount of magic within one soul.
Since Joc is dead, the presence of this purple means this has been bothering you for some time, she projected to White Eye.
Another of her dragon’s memories came down the bond. Lark saw Barrik holding a brismil arrowhead. He wiped it clear of dragon blood to disclose a distinct rune carved into it.
Now Lark understood. After Barrik’s attack on her and Tel Roan, Lark and White Eye had been disconnected and weakened. Barrik had used the situation to warg into Lark’s dragon, forcing him back to Skol while she struggled with amnesia on the ground in Lamar.
“This is going to hurt,” she said.
White Eye braced himself firmly on all fours.
The large, black dragon flexed as Lark pulled apart the slit between scales.
Underneath, in his flesh, she found a broken wooden shaft.
His pain flooded their bond, making her woozy too, but Lark focused.
She grabbed hold of the shaft and used all of her strength to pull out the broken brismil arrow.
Instantly, they both felt relief. Lark straightened, inspecting the brismil arrowhead. Just like in the images White Eye had shared with her, this blood-covered brismil arrowhead was carved with two runes.
“That ashing slug,” Lark cursed. “Barrik must’ve had Joc cast a tracking spell into one rune and a numbing spell into the other. That’s why you didn’t feel it. Barrik had control over you until we were reunited. You were a prisoner in your own home, with an imbedded backup tracker if you escaped.”
Lark’s exhaustion evaporated beneath the surge of cold rage. Her feelings were further fueled by White Eye’s anger. They’d been marked ever since Red Lodge. Barrik would be following their trail. Only their constant movement and occasional storms had kept him from catching up with them.
“How long have we been here?” she asked, realizing they’d been on the ground for quite a while and conditions were good for flying.
A distant ward chimed; the sound carried across the sanctuary grounds. Lark stiffened. Someone or something was moving near the outer boundary of the town.
“We need to move,” Lark whispered. “Now!”
They hurried to the edge of the vault, passing quickly through the archives and out into the ruins. The Entity that had created the rimeshade was no longer present, its icy frost had evaporated. But something else was nearby.
Lark scanned the horizon and saw him there.
Barrik, on Killaborden’s back, circled high over the mountains.
Lark could make out his copper cloak, the brismil spear secured to his saddle.
Her heart jumped as they ducked into a nearby alcove.
She tried to stay out of sight, but she knew what his presence meant.
“Barrik. He knows we’re here,” Lark said. As she watched him, though, Barrik didn’t dive toward them as Lark expected. He kept his distance, apparently continuing his search.
Does he not see us? she wondered.
White Eye reminded her of seeing the shimmering wards part for them upon their approach to reveal this ancient sanctuary.
“You’re right,” she said to her dragon. “If the wards shielding this place from outsiders weren’t touched by the Entity, they should still be active.
Barrik doesn’t know there’s a sanctuary here.
He can’t see us, but he knows we are somewhere below him.
Possibly hiding in the mountains. He must think we’re resting. ”
“Can you end the tracking spell?” Nix asked, appearing in the air between Lark and White Eye.
“Yes,” Lark said.
Her hand hovered over the blood as she prepared the wording of the spell she’d need to use. Then she hesitated.
“Breaking a tracking charm means unraveling the magic placed in these runes. I’m a little rusty with this kind of thing,” she admitted.
Support emitted from White Eye.
“If we had been together, our wards never would’ve allowed this spell to take effect,” Lark frowned.
“But you can end it now,” Nix assured her.
“When I do this, my counter spell will send a signal to any magic wielder in the area. It will be like sending a flare to Barrik and will help him find this place.”
Her hands formed fists. She shook with rage. “I can’t believe Barrik has done this to us. He’s violated our connection for the last time.”
White Eye hummed, attuning with Lark’s urgency to leave.
“I know,” she said, leaning into him. “We can’t stay here. And we can’t let him find this place. Not with what we know about the Entity and the Realmstone.”
Another ward chimed, the warning siren louder this time.
Barrik was probing the mountains. If they didn’t leave soon, he would discover this place and what the rimeshade had coaxed them into releasing.
She couldn’t take that risk, but she couldn’t escape without causing a signal beacon that would give away their exact location.
Her heart hammered against her chest as she prepared to reach for her magic.
The bond she’d wielded while in the vault had shared a striking similarity with the power that the rimeshade had used.
That unsettling similarity, and the fact that White Eye hadn’t seen her use it before, still lingered at the edges of her consciousness. Yet, that gave her an idea.
Barrik is trained in picking up Hyalite- and Yogo-borne magic, but can he sense us if I use my bond with Nix? she considered.
White Eye was hesitant. The option was tempting.
Heat swelled across Lark’s chest as she prepared to tap into the fae bond.
Overhead, Killaborden’s head appeared to snap toward their location.
He couldn’t see them or the sanctuary, but it was clear that he was picking up on the on the energy between Lark and Nix.
“No,” Nix warned. “They forced me to coerce and act against you once before. They will recognize the ripples in energy when you pull the tether anchoring us to the fae realm. If you use it, they’ll know it’s us.”
“Barrik already knows we’re here,” Lark said in frustration.
White Eye urged Lark to move, noting Killaborden’s advanced senses. The dragon might pick up on the magic of the sanctuary. White Eye didn’t want other dragonrider pairs to find this place either.
“I’ve got a plan,” Lark said, moving into a run.
White Eye’s breath was hot against her back as she sprinted across the sanctuary to the towering archway. The runes here still emitted the old dragonriders’ magic. The wards were powerful enough to divert centuries of riders.
“What are you going to do, Lark?” Nix asked.
“I’m going to refortify our personal wards and break this tracking spell.”
“You’ll be showing them our exact location,” Nix replied.
“Killaborden is already suspicious. We’re going to fly out from under the archway and hope that they think we’re escaping a mountain crag. By exposing ourselves, we can draw them away from here before they look too closely.”
“You’ll risk another fight,” Nix said.
“It’s our only hope if we want to keep Barrik from discovering the secrets that lay here.”
Lark drew on her connection with White Eye, letting their bond guide her in tearing apart the strands of the tracking charm.
“Atherion cadnasium,” she said, felling the pull on their magic.
Indigo light bloomed beneath her fingers.
White Eye’s muscles tensed, but he held still, trusting her even as the magic burned through his blood.
The first signature she detected was his power fueled by the Hyalite when they had bonded.
It was cool and fluid to her touch, as always.
It yielded easily. But the tainted energy from Joc’s experiments was deeply rooted in him.
Lark gritted her teeth. The dark magic fought back, trying to maintain its hold.
A shadow passed over the sanctuary’s southern wall.
“Lark,” Nix hissed, “they’re locating us.”
Lark pushed harder, sweat breaking out on her forehead as she struggled to force whatever binding Barrik and Joc had placed on her dragon. White Eye bolstered her, increasing Lark’s power. Together, they seized the magi’s signature and pulled.
The brismil arrowhead shattered.
Energy exploded in a pulse of purple light. White Eye’s wings snapped open as Lark scrambled onto his back, her fingers finding their familiar holds on the saddle. Lark and White Eye focused solely on their escape.
They needed height, and quickly. The wards of the sanctuary temporarily hid them from sight, but their use of magic allowed both Barrik and Killaborden to pinpoint their location.