Chapter 20
DION
We arrived at the ruins by dawn. The Half Moon Gardens of Malwreith were unmistakable. The jagged gorge that had opened up in the world’s birth was home to the most beautiful creations of the Malwreithan people. It had been the home of the Royal family and the playground of the citizens themselves.
But all I could think about were Feyra’s lips. We’d kissed just as Roman had found them. We were kissing so passionately that we both wanted to initiate the call. She wanted me to mark her…
Except she’d changed overnight. She still allowed me to reach out and touch her heart, but she was concerned with our futures now. She truly was a Queen.
She’d taken out her letter and began rereading it over and over as we rode the horses towards the ruins.
All that was left of the magnificent city were the derelict buildings. There were hints of the past beauty, a magnificent dome here, tiled murals there, but a lot of it was rubble. Two walls leaning against one another where a whole maze of rooms should have been.
It saddened me greatly. In a way, I felt happy that Roman couldn’t see them. He’d loved the stories so much. Loved telling them to me in such great detail that I truly believed he’d been there. Only recently did I find out otherwise.
We came to what had been the old gates of the city. Two enormous columns of stone were all that remained. Two lone soldiers guarding the rest of the wrecked buildings that stretched back towards the gorge, as well as the lone mountain off to the right.
“Something is off,” I said. “I feel–”
“That’s just your fear,” Feyra said, winking from her saddle.
I pursed my lips. Roman smiled too, before speaking. “He isn’t wrong though, something is–”
“My mother wouldn’t invite me out here unless it was okay. Maybe all those rumors are just to keep people away?” she said. But despite saying those things, she didn’t look confident in the saddle.
She hopped down, and began walking into the city, leading the horse. Roman and I followed without hesitation. This was her journey.
“Where are we headed?” Roman asked.
He looked around the buildings and avenues as if he could see them. He’d been like that since his blinding. A part of me believed that he could still see, or maybe what he saw had changed? He wouldn’t say.
“The temple,” Feyra said. “The day after the Eagle swallows the Sun, I will await you in the Temple of Dhrum.”
Roman nodded. I had this feeling deep in my gut, my wolf adamant, something was wrong. I repeated it again, but Feyra ignored me. She was intent on finding the temple.
We walked on cobbles long covered by dust and debris.
The ruined buildings were getting worse the closer we got to the gorge, it must’ve been the center of the conflict between the sisters.
I couldn’t believe the damage that had been done.
The strength of magic the two must’ve had.
It astounded me. So powerful for ones so young.
The large ruins soon came to a clearing, a long wall stretched before us. Another gate ahead, intact after all this time.
“I’d always wondered,” Roman said.
“Wondered what?” Feyra asked.
“If they’d walled off the inner city and gardens. It’s never been recorded. The life of the city of Malwreith, and not just its gorge. Perhaps I will write a book after we leave?” Roman walked forward, he was the one leading now. Traveling through the gate without thinking.
Roman led us like he had across the wastelands.
He was muttering to himself, nodding and replying to questions he asked himself.
We traveled further into the city. The wind whistled here and whispered paranoid thoughts.
I began to think I was hearing things. I began to believe I was seeing them in the shadows. My wolf continued to warn me.
Feyra clutched her letter, staring ahead at every building and reading every hidden bump and nook. She saw the same way that Roman did, and I began to think that she could see Jebra for what it had been all those years ago.
Both stopped suddenly, beside the enormous walls of a triangular shaped building. Slabs of stone the size of wagons were stacked up at least twenty spans high and no roof capped it. A doorway in front of us.
“It is here,” both Feyra and Roman said. Feyra looking at the steps up to the building, and Roman looking inside it.
We left the horses at the stairs to wait. My neck hair went on edge and I could feel the air. I sniffed, but nothing was about. Was it all in my head?
Feyra throttled the letter in one hand and strangled a spear in the other. She let the letter fall to the ground before walking in. Roman followed, with me behind. I took one last uneasy glance around the shadows and ruins.
The triangular room was bare. What had been an altar was in the middle, but only the windswept rubble remained. A large cascade of stones was at the back, where the wall had collapsed at some point. Most likely during the battle.
From what was left of the inscriptions on the walls, this place would have been majestic all those years ago.
A true temple. Gold reliefs were carved in the wall, shapes of men and women of all types covered the walls.
There were paintings alongside carvings, wolves alongside birds and women singing, men rode horses and ran with the wolves.
At the center on the far wall was a mural depicting the city and its inhabitants.
At the center of which were a king and queen.
The queen looked like Feyra.
And the king–
“Where is she?” Feyra said. “I read it right.”
“Maybe we are early?” Roman said. “We traveled all night to be here.”
She shook her head. The growing feeling in my stomach was howling. My wolf was pacing. She walked over to the altar, looked back at the mural. She closed her eyes, seeing into her mind. She was remembering something. The dreams she’d mentioned…
She walked to the mural, placed a hand on it. She traced a line of flowers that were running out from the king and queen. A physical carving that had been built out of the stonework. She counted the petals down from the eighth flower. Took a deep breath, then broke it off.
The mural split! A great crack divided the center, separating the king and queen.
The screeching began.
Roman and I shifted immediately as Feyra ran back towards us. She climbed onto the altar and we protected her. Where normal eyes had been before, Roman’s wolf eyes were now two glowing orbs of fire. He looked like a hound from the death realm. His power had increased too, greater than mine.
We roared together as the mural continued to break, then shattered into dust as four merls exploded out. Their screeching echoed around the room and hideous men-like creatures began flooding into the temple.
I batted away the nearest merl, breaking its neck. Roman ripped the throat out of another one and turned to kill one of the men-like creatures. I’d never seen them before, but knew Lady Skol was behind it.
So this is where they went, Roman said via his wolf sense to me.
I agreed.
Feyra stood atop the altar, screaming in anger as she stabbed down at men with her spear. She was red with rage and the hate pouring forth from her body was rolling over me. Energizing me and making me want to kill as many as these devil spawn as possible.
The men-like creatures screeched among themselves in the old tongue. As the bodies of the dead climbed, the words Makroon-Dar repeated in my ears. The Red Death. They were afraid of Roman, terrified. But something else also willed them forward.
Feyra’s letter had been a lie then. Who had sent it? Had Lady Skol been behind everything? But more than that, how had she known to break the stone petal?
I didn’t have time to think any further as men and more merls continued to come. The merls descended from the skies, perching on the walls and swooping down on us. Feyra’s spear continued to blur among us, stabbing men as they came.
As strong we were though, we couldn’t do this forever.
We need to escape, I said to Roman.
Good plan.
Can we make the entrance?
The sheer number of men pouring in answered that. The only way out was the mountain of rubble near the fallen corner, but neither of us would be able to jump out without a boost.
The wall, Roman said. We can jump out there.
But we’ll need the help of the other?
Then help is what you’ll have. Roman nudged Feyra and pointed at the wall. She nodded.
NO! I barked. We need an escape for all of us. We need–
It is the only way. Roman took down four men in one swipe with his paw. His eyes had begun to glow brighter. His size increased before my eyes. It has been fated, he said.
I’m sick of fate and prophecies. I’m sick of sacrificing constantly, I yelled.
It is the only way. Roman leaped at a swooping merl, catching it in midair. He ripped its throat out and then let it fall, dead. He landed in a throng of men and began killing anything unlucky to be close enough to him.
He is right, Dion.
I turned, surprised at Feyra. There is no other way, she said.
How can you talk? I was shocked. A man’s spear caught my side. I roared and took it out with my jaws, broke it in half, and then snapped his neck.
I may not be able to shift, but my body is a wolf at this moment.
I shivered. I couldn’t believe it.
Roman was making his way to the mound through the many bodies flooding in. Soon he would be able to scale it, and from there, he could launch us.
I roared my anger into the sky. I let the rage fill my heart and cloud my vision.
I began killing men blindly. Merls came and went under my paws.
Weapons didn’t stand a chance against my violence.
Nothing could handle my aggressive power.
Together with Roman I could kill them all!
The men-like creatures screamed as they died.
Dui Makroon-Dar! Two Red Death! Dui Makroon-Dar!
But there were too many. They kept coming. Never ending.
Dion! Roman barked, as he stood atop the rubble. It is fated.
I roared again, climbing over the mounds of bodies back to Feyra at the altar. Dread pulled at my chest. She had been fighting diligently, going through the forms and actions I’d taught her. She didn’t need a whole bag of tricks, just enough, just the fighting style of the Guards of the Half Moon.
I made it to her with my heart heavy. I was not ready to leave Roman. I had never been ready to leave any of them. But fate had always pulled me away. From my mother at birth, my father as a baby, and now from the man that had raised me, my uncle.
Feyra vaulted over a sea of men and landed on my back. She continued to stab and kill, but she squeezed my ribs. It is time.
I growled and bounded forward. My claws tearing the faces from men as I ran. My legs broke limbs and necks as I pushed my path clear. My sights were on Roman and Roman alone. His wolf was stained in blood. His eyes afire. He truly was the Red Death.
I gained the rubble, vaulting over a line of men with spears.
I pushed others aside as I climbed towards Roman.
A second line of men stabbing at him blocked my way, I wouldn’t be able to jump them.
Roman caught my eyes, his flaming ones extinguished, and acknowledged me with the eyes of the wolf I’d always known.
The line of men stabbed Roman all together.
I was roaring without knowing, Feyra screaming from on top of my back, but Roman was the loudest of all. I leaped onto his back, then jumped as he launched me towards the opening.
Farum di Makroon Moondaj! He called. For the Blood of the Full Moon!