“We should keep moving,” said Ellukka, as soon as she could speak. “If they saw us from Drekhelm, they could be on their way to get us right now. Mikkel, you and I are strongest, so we should fly patrol. If we keep moving, and listen carefully, perhaps we’ll get some warning if anyone’s coming.”
The others agreed, keeping their voices low. The place was affecting all of them—Anders wasn’t sure if it was the still, strange atmosphere or the fact that they were walking where every dragon story forbade them to go, but he felt it just as they did.
Ellukka and Mikkel walked over to the edge of the courtyard, preparing to transform and launch, and he watched them go.
Anders, Rayna, Lisabet, and Theo walked over to the huge door that led into the domed building straight off the courtyard. It was a dark, ancient wood, fitted perfectly with black metal hinges into an arch of gray stonework, pale moss clinging here and there to the surface of it.
Squinting up through the swirling mist, Anders could make out a single word carved into the archway above the door, the letters deep and clear:
C L O U D H A V E N
It took Anders and Rayna working together on one side and Theo and Lisabet on the other to pull open the huge metal bolts, but the doors swung open without a sound, as if they had been oiled only yesterday.
The chamber was dark, and as Anders took his first step inside, a faint glow appeared beneath his feet—he was standing on a metal plate, carved in runes. He drew breath to warn the others—of what he did not know—and suddenly the light snaked away from the place where he stood, running as fast as a blink out toward the far walls, tracing metal paths inlaid on the stone floor, each coming to life and glowing brightly.
The lines of light ran straight up the walls and all around the enormous hall, lamps came to life, bathing the place in a warm, golden, welcoming glow. The room was obviously designed to accommodate large numbers of people—there were tables and chairs, and a clear area where several dragons could fit without a squeeze. The place felt abandoned, perfectly empty, but despite being forbidden, not unfriendly.
There was only one door through which they could continue, and that was on the far side of the hall. None of the four spoke as they made their way across, motes of dust dancing in the light of the lamps, the room so large it swallowed up their footsteps rather than echoing them back.
The door was of the same dark wood as the last had been, but this one had no handle anywhere, and no visible means by which to open it. Instead, it had metal letters fixed to it, glinting in the lamplight.
COME NO FARTHER WITHOUT...
~ A TOKEN ~
~ TRUE BLOOD ~
~ TRUE PURPOSE ~
“What does any of that mean?” Theo whispered as they all gazed up at it.
“She must have thought we’d know,” Rayna said quietly. “We probably would have, if she’d raised us.”
Everyone was silent for a long moment, and then Kess mewed from her sling in Anders’s chest, breaking the tableau.
“She’s right,” Rayna said. “We’d better just get on with it. Any ideas?”
“Let’s look at it closely, see if there are any more clues,” Lisabet suggested. “And think about what the words could mean.”
“I wonder what kind of token you use to open the door,” Anders said, stepping forward. “I don’t see a keyhole anywhere.”
“It might not be a key,” Theo said, leaning in to study the letters. “With artifacts, there are all kinds of ways to bring them to life. Usually you need something else that’s an artifact, though, or a part of the larger creation. Or it’s linked to a person, but that’s probably the ‘blood’ bit, not the ‘token’ bit.”
“So something forged?” Anders asked, looking down at himself as if something might appear.
“Usually,” said Theo. “I mean, I’m only a few weeks into researching how dragons classify artifacts. Right now, I’m lucky if I can even work out what shelf they’re on. Ideally we’d have ended up on this quest five or six years from now, but I do know that much. It would probably have at least one rune on it as well, the token.”
“I can’t... ,” Lisabet started. Anders had never heard her sound so despairing. “I can’t think of anything like that. Maybe we were supposed to gather up something from the house on the island. Or you were just meant to own it, because she would have given it to you, if she’d had time. But your mother never gave you anything.”
Anders and Rayna both stiffened, their gazes snapping around to find one another.
“She did!” Anders said, as Rayna fumbled in her hair, gave up with a growl of frustration, and doubled over as if she were bowing, presenting Anders with the top of her head.
“What?” said both Lisabet and Theo at once, staring at this peculiar display.
“Rayna’s hairpins!” Anders said, guiltily ignoring his sister’s yelps as he pulled first one and then the other out of her hair, being as careful as he could. “We never knew where they came from, but she’s always had them. They’ve got runes on them.”
“And they transformed with me that first time,” Rayna said, holding her hand out for one. “When I lost all my clothes by ripping out of them, because I didn’t have an amulet yet,I kept the pins.”
