CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO #3
Overturned wooden chests, loose drawers, shattered glass, and torn cloth greeted me.
They hadn’t taken everything though—plenty of valuables were still visible, haphazardly strewn around.
Had their looting been interrupted by the beasts outside?
Or had something else drawn them away? Resolving to find the moonstones as quickly as possible, I set to work searching.
A slew of rubies spilled forth from a torn bag, so I started in that corner of the room, thinking gemstones might have been grouped together at some point.
My necklace grew warm as I peered into a broken wooden chest. A silver drawstring bag sat at its bottom.
Retrieving the bag, I eagerly pulled on its strings, smiling in triumph at the milky-white gemstones forged from moonlight glistening up at me.
“Why do you think they left these behind?” I asked Nix, happily bouncing the bag up and down, savoring the sound of all those moonstones clinking together.
“Diamonds are shinier,” Nix guessed. Then, more morosely, “And the Midnight Sovereign has all but been forgotten.”
“Not if I can help it,” I responded. “That’s all going to change soon.” Nix let out a soft, approving purr.
I decided against taking anything else from the room.
It felt too much like stealing. Even if the cavern was truly abandoned by its original owner.
I didn’t know the context behind its current state, or if the dragon would return someday.
If they did ever return and demand repayment, I had moonflowers I could offer them.
The same couldn’t be said for the other treasures.
Leaving everything else in place seemed like the right thing to do for now.
Clutching the bag of moonstones, I retraced our steps until we emerged at the back of the cavern once more, where the manticores still slumbered.
I counted their numbers twice over, just to make sure they were all accounted for, sleeping together in the center of the room.
Plastering myself against the wall, I began to circumnavigate the cavern.
The sound of voices reached me.
I jumped, straining to decipher their words.
Were they looters? Dragons in human form?
An ill-fated pilgrimage up the mountain?
They’d better not get too close to the cavern’s entrance.
Or they risked waking the manticores. Unless the beasts weren’t quite as feral as I’d assumed?
Perhaps their wrangler was about to return to feed them again.
I glanced at the pile of bones and the suspiciously human-looking skull.
One thing’s for certain—I don’t want to become their next meal.
The voices drifted closer, close enough I could make out a few snippets of conversation.
“This cannot be the way home,” said a female voice. “If it’s not above the mountain, it’s certainly not within the mountain.”
That was odd. Surely no one would mistake the top of a mountain for their way home…
“I really feel like we should have turned the other direction back there. Everyone else agrees.”
A male voice chimed in. “Have I ever failed to navigate us home before?”
I frowned as a jolt of recognition ran through me when he spoke. But that just wasn’t possible. Not atop a mountain. Not when it was my first time visiting the Kingdom of Uvrakar. Even if I did find the man’s deep baritone oddly soothing.
The stranger continued, growing increasingly argumentative. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but I’m telling you—the kingdom must be around here. Every fiber of my being is telling me this is the right direction. I think we should take a break here, and then resume our search in the area.”
I inched forward another few steps. A second female voice became audible.
“Maybe it’s because you don’t have your cloak?
” My eyes flickered to the sleeping manticores and back to the cave entrance.
Please, please stop talking! If they didn’t leave soon, they were going to wake the manticores.
And who knows what would happen then. Paralysis, followed by death, according to Nix.
Despite my silent plea, a second male voice echoed throughout the cavern.
“Is this because Kygraw got mad at you? We’ll find a replacement Roc feather eventually.
They don’t live in caves though.” Wait—hadn’t I heard that name before?
Soon, I could hear the crunch of approaching footsteps.
Too loud. Nix tensed his small body, claws extending.
Frantically, I peeled away from the wall as the strangers materialized at the mouth of the cave.
In desperation, I brought my finger to my lips, trying to shush their conversation before it was too late, waving wildly at the manticores to draw their attention to the threat.
They took another step, fully entering the cavern, before they saw me.
All at once, I realized why I recognized the man’s voice.
“Elvira?!” Corvin exclaimed, his eyes going wide. “What are you doing here?”
A manticore cracked its golden eyes slowly open.