Chapter 34
Everyone made it to the stables on time without a hitch.
Besides Gaethri and Rhydra, who we’ll meet in town.
We’re off to a good start. Besides the part where every moment between Daegan and me is tense and awkward.
Meela catches on immediately, flashing me a look.
I ignore it, imploring her not to press with my eyes.
We all ride in silence through the chilly, foggy morning until we reach town, where we meet the others at the stables.
And then we take off again, not wasting any time.
We can’t afford to. The routes don’t give a lot of wiggle room if you want to make the next inn before nightfall.
Wandering this far from home, who knows what could be out there.
I’d rather not find out. From what I’ve heard, you won’t come across too much during the day, though it’s not unheard of.
After nightfall, anything can come at you. And you won’t see it coming.
Most of the morning, I ride toward the back of the pack in silence. When we stop for water and a break, I talk mostly with Rhydra and Gaethri. I haven’t spent as much time with them as I’d like, so I use this opportunity to not only ignore Daegan but also get to know our other two members better.
Rhydra has no family. She met Gaethri a few years back, and they became bonded over their hatred for the kingdom. Both have vengeance they need to extract.
I want to ask Gaethri about his family more, but I don’t want to push. I’m waiting for the right moment. He seems like someone who’s lost everything, and now has nothing left to lose.
When we continue on, Gaethri falls back next to me as we trot slowly for a bit.
“What is your end goal?” he grumbles with curiosity. No malice.
Rhydra hears us talking just up ahead and then falls back to my other side.
“To be honest, I have none,” I muse. “See the stars? Let the land breathe again.”
Rhydra takes on a faraway, dreamy look. “I want to see the mountains. Their peaks.”
“You don’t want to be queen?” Gaethri continues.
“No. Not even a little bit. In fact, I wouldn’t be upset if we ended the royal line altogether.”
“You’d have to kill the king for that,” Rhydra muses.
I stare off into the distance. The veiled, dark distance.
My father is a monster. I’m learning that.
He lets thousands and thousands of people die and does nothing to help.
He may have even had a hand in some of it.
But I’m not ready to call for his murder.
At least not out loud. But I also don’t blame my friends for wanting to end him.
I don’t know if I’d personally have it in me to do it, but I wouldn’t stop one of them from attempting it.
The other day with him was my breakthrough.
When he looked me in the eyes, acknowledged that the dragon shifters are dying, and showed absolutely no remorse for it. If anything, he looked pleased.
“I’m sure plenty of people would line up for that honor. After the curse is broken.”
“Why not now?” Meela asks.
“The elvish regime is still feared throughout the land. People are just trying to survive. But if the curse were to be broken… who knows. Hope does incredible things to people. Makes them brave,” Rhydra answers.
Daegan has barely spoke all day. To anyone. He rides up ahead, avoiding me, I think. And that makes me irritated, because I’m the one who should be avoiding him. I do catch him briefly glancing back at me now and then, as if he’s checking on me.
I’m tired of all the mixed signals from him.
“I think I’d like to get into politics, maybe,” Raef says thoughtfully.
Meela laughs. “You?”
“Yes!”
“I just… didn’t expect that. You don’t take much seriously,” she replies.
“I take many things seriously,” he responds matter-of-factly. “Look at the journey I’m on right now. I love when people unite and work together. I’d like to see more of that. Sometimes, I just prefer to do serious things with a smile and a positive attitude.”
Meela pinches her face thoughtfully while Gaethri chortles.
“Maybe he wouldn’t be so bad,” Gaethri adds.
“You’ll thank me when we barely escape a death beast with our lives, and everyone needs a good laugh.”
“A death beast?” Meela asks.
“Yeah. Death beast. Or whatever the fuck is out there.”
Meela chuckles.
And before we know it, we’re almost at our first inn for the night, with plenty of flame left on the time orb.
“This quest is too easy,” Raef remarks as we see the inn off in the distance.
“Dammit, Raef. Saying stuff like that is when things always go bad. At least in all the adventure tales I’ve read,” I chastise him.
“It’ll be fiiine.” He waves me off. “Those are just stories.”
“Right.” I feel uneasy about it all.
But we ride into the stables, tie up our horses, and find a cozy, lively inn with plenty of rooms for us all.
We even have plenty of time to sit and eat a nice dinner.
~
Gaethri is telling us tales of his homeland, which he hasn’t returned to in many years. I sense an uneasiness about him since we’ve journeyed closer.
We sit around a large wooden table toward the back of the tavern, where the noise toward the crowded bar drowns out everything said among us. There’s no one else sitting too close.
I’m still avoiding eye contact with a certain dragon.
“There used to be a heavily populated community of us in the mountain,” he tells us, his eyes somewhere far, far away.
“What happened?
“Maliths got in one night. No one knows how.”
“Maliths?” I’ve not heard of them.
He looks at me curiously. Based on everyone’s faces, no one else seems to know either. Except for Rhydra. “You don’t know of the maliths?”
“No,” half of us say.
He shakes his head. It almost looks like he shivers. “Unnatural creatures of the darkness. They come at night, and they’ll feast on any living thing they can find.”
I want to shiver too.
“What are they, exactly?”
“It’s hard to say for sure. They don’t show themselves in the light if they can help it, and if you’ve gotten close enough to get a good look, you’re likely dead anyway.
All I’ve heard is that they’re massive furry beasts with yellow eyes and haunting screeches.
And sharp, long claws, based on evidence they’ve left in their devastation. ”
Raef glares at Meela with an I-told-you-so look. “Death beasts.”
She doesn’t argue. Instead, she bobs her head as if to say he was right.
“So, they got in the mountain…” I circle back to the story that was being told.
“Aye.”
“They got your family…” I say softly.
He nods. “Every last member. Three sons, two young daughters… and a beautiful wife.” His tone sounds unfeeling and steady, but I see the truth in his eyes.
He pauses for a moment, breathing deeply.
“I was working in the underground mine. We could hear the echoes of a thousand screams from below, but by the time we made it back up, it was too late. They’d gotten what they came for, and they were already scurrying out of the exit at the edge mountain, faster than we could ever hope to be. ”
“I’m so sorry,” I say gently.
Everyone else nods, seconding my condolences as I look around with sadness. Not much more can be said.
“Hopefully when we destroy the curse, the maliths will go with it.”
Gaethri nods. “That is the most I can hope for. Then, I can die a peaceful Dothronite. That’s all I want.”
A moment of reverent silence falls over the group.
“What do you seek when the curse breaks, Meela?” Rhydra questions. I guess we’re finishing this conversation from the ride earlier.
Meela shrugs, expressionless. “I’m just here because those elf twats need to be taught a lesson.”
I chuckle quietly beside her.
Rhydra continues to watch her in that way she does. Like she always knows there’s more, she just doesn’t know what, exactly.
“And…” she sighs, avoiding eye contact with everyone. “For people to love who they want,” she adds quietly.
No one questions her further. I think they all know Meela already, and for her to share that is enough. She won’t be pushed much more.
I look across the table and find Daegan’s eyes on me. They have an intensity behind them I fear I’ll never be clued in on.
“There’s nothing more important in life than being with the ones you love,” Gaethri mumbles into his ale.
“You know,” Rhydra ponders. “If we do break the curse, it will be a long time yet before people can coexist peacefully again. If ever. It’s in our natures to always be at war with one another.”
I nod to myself. She’s probably right about that.
It’s Raef and Daegan’s turn, and they share the same answer. To free their people, for them to thrive again, and for the dragons to fly once more.
A beautiful image appears in my head. Of the veil clearing, opening into a breathtaking night sky, and the dragons, flying high, their silhouettes gliding in front of the light of the moon.
“They will fly again,” Daegan says with certainty as he finishes his short, to-the-point answer, nodding at Raef.
He catches my eye from across the table as he finishes. The corner of his lip pulls back in a sad sort of smile as he holds my gaze.
The stars in the night sky might be a beautiful sight to behold one day, but I’m not sure anymore if they’d even measure up to the deep blue depths of his eyes.
“What about you, Rhydra?” Meela asks.
“I’m going to kill my father for killing my mother. Once he’s weakened.” She has a murderous look in her eyes, and I don’t dare question her.
“Badass,” Raef says. “We’ll help you.”
A strange smirk crosses her lips, and she glances at me for a moment. “We’ll see.”
“Can’t you do that now?” Raef asks between sips of his ale. “Why does the curse need to be broken first?”
“Yes. But this will hit him hard. I want him to see it first.” Rhydra speaks in a cunning, lethal manner.
So he’s an elf then. But… how?
“Who is he?” Meela is looking mildly curious now.
“No one of consequence.”
“So he’s a rebel elf who mated with a big Skeldaryn woman. Doesn’t sound like such a bad guy,” Raef comments.
She shoots him a glare. “More like raped, then tried to have killed when she was with child.”
“Okay then,” Raef nods in apology. “Kill a nobody elf who wronged you and your mother. Too easy.”
He raises his glass to her, and she meets it with her own.
After that, Gaethri mostly speaks, telling us of Dothron and how else it’s been affected by the curse.
Their home inside the mountain remains more or less the same, and for a long time, they thought nothing of it, as most of the Dothronites never leave the mountain.
But things began to change the last few hundred years or so.
As creatures on the outside became more desperate, they began to act more daring, finding ways into the mountain to hunt.
They’re able to fight them off and keep them out most of the time, but every now and then, things sneak in.
And unfortunately, his whole family fell victim to one of those unlucky times.
The effects of the cursed veil seem to be getting worse everywhere. It needs to end.
After dinner, we all head to our rooms and settle in for a good night of rest before another day of traveling. I share with Meela, and we don’t talk much before we pass out.