The symbols were everywhere, either serving as mere decorations or commemorating words of wisdom that could have been spoken by Elu himself.
Finally, we reached the chamber I'd been steering toward all along. A metal door sealed it, covered in those same symbols. The metal itself was remarkable, having survived a millennium underground without corroding.
I approached the door and patted the sides of my robe. "I usually have the key in here somewhere." I patted my sides again. "I must have left it with Nyxath."
I knew I had, and it was part of the plan.
Stepping back and looking appropriately irritated, I sighed. "We should return to this some other time. For now, let's head back to the surface."
The cadets filed past the door, several pausing to examine it. Codric looked like he wanted to stay and study every symbol, but Shovia tugged him along.
As we climbed back toward daylight, I caught Ravel's eyes. He was watching me with an amused expression that said he suspected I was putting on a show.
Back on the surface, I let the cadets explore the circle freely while I contacted Nyxath and asked her to land so I could retrieve the key I had left in her saddle.
Soon, the six would hear the prophecy, understand why they'd been brought together, and what was expected of them.
The burden of saving a world.
I only hoped they were ready.
It was time to split the groups.
I approached Captain Odinah. "When Nyxath returns with my key, I'm going to take a smaller group back down to that sealed chamber. It's too small to fit all the cadets, and it's too late to organize them in groups and take them down individually. I will do that the next time we are here."
"Should I take the others back to the Citadel?" she asked.
"That would be best."
Odinah didn't seem to suspect anything. "Who do you want to take to the chamber today?"
I smiled. "Codric seems fascinated by the runes, so he and his friends. Commander Ravel will suffice as far as security, and he can take one of the five cadets back to the Citadel. In an hour or so, send four riders to pick up the others."
"It shall be done." She saluted and proceeded to organize the other cadets for departure while I gathered my chosen six.
21
CODRIC
"The first step in decoding any mystery is recognizing that there is something to decode."
—From 'The Art of Intelligence Gathering'
By Theron Blackwood
The other cadets were already being collected by riders, dragons descending one by one to the circle's edge to carry them back to the Citadel. The aerial dance was impressive, all that coordinated flight, but I found the inscriptions on the pillars far more fascinating.
Dragons were no longer a mystery to me, while these ancient symbols represented a puzzle I was eager to solve.
They weren't random, and they weren't purely decorative either. The thing was, they didn't resemble the common script of Aurorys, not even a little, so they couldn't be an older form of ourlanguage. That only added to the mystery. Why was the original written language of Aurorys lost?
Perhaps this script had been reserved only for temples, and the script we were familiar with had been given to the common people?
Maybe the shamans of old had invented a secret language only they could understand, something like what I had done for Alar and me when we were teenagers.
What had they been trying to hide, though?
The more I thought about it, the more curious I became, and that was dangerous. I was an easygoing guy in most things, but I was like a dog with a bone with mysteries. I just wouldn't let go until I solved them.
