Chapter 25 #2
“Back at the spring.” Aesira stopped mid-bite. “Just filling canteens,” he said. “Under no circumstance are they to go in the water.” Her shoulders relaxed and she finished her breakfast in silence.
After Birdie and Bee returned, they packed up the rest of the camp and continued on, following the map.
The sun was warm as they set out again and while they hadn’t seen any birds, their song drifted on the breeze as it rustled the trees. If he closed his eyes, it’d almost be a perfect day.
Almost.
If it wasn’t for the suffocating thoughts swirling in his head.
Stone dragged his feet, buying himself a few minutes alone under the broad span of trees while the other three took the lead.
He believed the map. Believed in the books he’d studied, but a small voice inside of him questioned the practicality of Ravki still being there after all this time.
The journey had not been an easy one by any means.
The monsters that lived beyond the wall of Vargah seem to thrive in the uncharted west—the Strix, the Dreamweavers, whatever that was last night—but the trek wasn’t impossible.
With the right resources, an armada could easily conquer the area. Could find the remains of the magical city. The question that infected Stone’s mind–as he ate breakfast that morning, as he packed his bag, as he set forth down the other side of the mountains–was why?
Why, if Ravki was real, had it been left unattended all these years?
If the rumors of the magic that dwelled there–the dragons–were real, surely someone would have made this attempt sooner. Certainly someone other than a lone king with a decaying mind.
Why would the king go looking for it now?
It was a parasite burrowing in his brain. Why, why, why, it gnawed and chewed and spat and the only way to kill the questions were the answers he didn’t have.
No one has attempted to find Ravki, he thought, because maybe it truly does not exist.
The terrain changed again, the further they descended from the mountains and away from the desert.
The red rocks and trees remained but it was the over abundance of life that stole Stone’s breath away.
Green-ladden rocks and tree trunks. Green on the ground, soft and spongy.
Green in the trees. And not just that–there was more water.
Everywhere they turned, there was water. Flowing freely from the mountainside. In small lakes nestled between the trees. In a bubbling brook that was too reminiscent of the spring with the beast for him to dare to go near it.
They stopped to fill their canteens from a small waterfall off a cliffside, the cool, crisp taste coated his tongue and he thought for a moment what they would have done had they not been so fortunate to find all of this.
Even if it was a miracle that the water existed, it felt wrong to use it. To drink freely from it. To bathe in it.
It was excessive, considering water back home was so rare it brought on war. But here, it was so different. As if this was truly how they were meant to live. Surrounded by birdsong and green trees with heavy leaves that offered shade and shelter and of course, water.
Despite the monsters and the freezing nightly temperatures, the world here seemed so far from Vargah. So different from the dry and the dust and the storms.
Stone pulled out his map, sweat beading on his dark brows. He pushed his hair back out of his face, glasses sitting snugly on his nose. “This says we’re here.”
“What?” Birdie peered at the map over his shoulder. “This is Ravki?” She gestured to the large, open field they were currently standing in, where blades of green rose from the earth in an endless blanket. “Shouldn’t there be…” She looked around. “Something here?”
Stone rolled the map and tucked it in his back pocket. He’d checked the map every day since they departed the ship. He calculated the exact time they’d need to spend sleeping and the amount of miles they’d need to walk.
It should be right here, he thought.
It should be here and it isn’t.
“Let’s keep walking,” he said, determination and a stubborn sense of hope fueling his steps. “We’ve got a few hours left of daylight, we may as well make good use of them.”
Even Birdie couldn’t argue with that.
The grass, as Stone recalled from one of his books–swayed in the breeze as they trudged through the open field.
As far as they could see, it was nothing but flat, green earth. No ruins like they’d read in Desmond's journal. No semblance of a city whatsoever.
As they walked, Stone realized that the field was not flat like he originally thought. In fact, they were on what seemed to be on the top of a very steep hill. Aesira joined his side and peered down, the wind rustling her dark curls free from her braid, and there at the bottom he could see–
“Ruins,” Stone said. “Those are ruins.” He looked at Aesira, a grin split across her face that matched his own. “Just like in the king’s journal.”
“Holy shit.” Birdie and Bee joined their side. “They’re large enough to swallow the Aquila,” Bee said.
Even from where they stood at the top of the hill, Bee was right, the structures were massive. Tall, wide columns surrounded by vines. Domed roofs with broken glass ceilings. Arched windows, overrun with nature.
“Let’s go down.” Birdie tightened the straps on her backpack. “The sun's getting low.” The four of them slid carefully down the hill, the grass acting as a soft landing. The closer they got to the ruins, the thicker Stone’s fear felt in his throat, making it more difficult to breathe.
How could the king have known the ruins were here?
And it wasn’t just the ruins. It was the moths and the detailed descriptions of the landscape. Everything Stone had read from Desmond’s journals matched and that parasite in his mind burrowed further with each unanswered question that presented itself.
When they reached the bottom of the hill, a few stars speckled the sky but Stone hardly noticed them, too distracted with what lay in front of him. It wasn’t just one ruin, but dozens, all laid out in a grid-like pattern.
“It looks like a base we have at the Order,” Aesira said at his side. “Militant. Looks like every building has a purpose.”
Ornate spires, crafted of stone shot from the ground, into the sky. Arches paved the way for what once used to be openings. The crumbling evidence of a city that once was.
Ravki.