Magic hummed in the air, but underneath the ancient power something else lurked. Whatever it was, it made my skin crawl. I suspected these guardians had been waiting a long time for challengers.
“A fountain.” My frown grew. “Why put it here and not in the garden?”
Lore shrugged. “Must be part of this strange competition. I'm feeling good about it because of the dragons.”
I cocked my head to look his way. “Why dragons in particular?”
“They…” He shook his head. “I guess I feel an affinity for them.”
“You've always been interested in them, but anaffinity?” Perhaps the one who'd helped him inside the labyrinth played a role in his current feelings.
“Affinity, yes.” He strolled around the fountain, tipping his head back to study each one. “They have runes on their chests that translate into Drac’Vana. Aer’Quilith. Ral’Asteir. Pyr’Toval.”
“And that means…”
He circled slower, reading them aloud again, along with their translation. “Earth.” He pointed to the one with tan, granite-like scales before moving to stand in front of the next, the one with a swirling pale blue pattern across its muzzle. “Air.”
I couldn't read the runes, but I sensed the pattern here.
“Water.” I nudged my chin toward the third, where rusted rivulets drizzled from the nostrils and pooled in the white dragon’s fountain basin.
The last was dark gold streaked with red. The mouth opened wide with heatless, flame-shaped carvings curling around it.
“Fire.” Lore joined me in front of it.
Keys rested on each maw, gleaming with promise. Maybe this would be it. We'd find the right one, bring it to Naveer, and then we could get a good night's rest in preparation for tomorrow's test.
Lore would die in three days. The thought made my chest tight.
Farris came over to sit beside me, his ears high, his warm eyes flicking from me to the fang-filled mouths and back again. His shadow angled in the opposite direction,towardthe door.
“What’s wrong, little guy?” I ruffled the top of his head. He looked up at me soulfully before whining again. “Should we leave?” I asked Lore, who’d also noted the position of Farris’s shadow.
“Not without testing the keys.”
I moved toward the earth dragon.
Drac'Vana squatted in front of us, its granite scales rough and pitted. As I approached, I noticed the floor around it was littered with what looked like small stones, until I realized they were teeth. Human teeth.
“What kind of test leaves behind teeth?” I asked, my skin quivering with dismay.
“The bad kind. Be careful.”
The metal piece gleamed temptingly between the dragon's jaws, but something about the creature's stillness made me pause.
I snapped my hand toward the mouth. The instant my fingerscrossed the threshold, the jaw didn't snap, it began to close slowly, while stone tendrils erupted from the floor to wrap around my ankles.
“Reyla!” Lore lunged for me, but more tendrils shot up, forming a cage around me.
The dragon's mouth continued its relentless closing. I had maybe ten seconds before it crushed my hand, but the tendrils binding my feet held fast.
“The floor,” I shouted to Lore. “Break the floor.”
He sent power slamming into the tiles. Cracks spider-webbed outward, and my stone shackles crumbled. I latched onto the key and flung myself backward as the jaws slammed shut with the sound of breaking bones.
The dragon's eyes opened, ancient, hungry. And disappointed.
Lore crushed the cage surrounding me with brute force and pulled me against him, his hands shaking as he healed the cuts on my ankles.
