“Stop! Stop right now!” he cries.
“Or what?”
With a booming sound, the book falls open, startling me. The pages turn as if blown by a wind I can’t feel, rustling, murmurs and hissing filling my head.
Oh no, what have I done?
“Eis,” I start, struggling to my feet, my body shaking, my voice rising, “Eis! Let’s go, let’s…” I stumble backward, coming short against my brother.
“What in the hells?” Eiras mutters.
A form is taking shape beside the book, but it’s not a monster. Certainly not a dragon. It’s… a man? It’s a ghostly shape at best, a vague shape of a man dressed in leggings and a tunic.
“Olm?” I whisper.
“In the flesh,” he says. “So to speak.”
“Who are you?”
He lifts a half-transparent hand toward me. “I swear it on all the gods, I don’t know my story. You saw the pages. It’s all a blur.”
“I thought it was blurry to prevent me from reading it. Are you saying it’s because you don’t remember?”
“Aline…” Eiras swears and takes a few steps away, dragging me with him through the thorny bushes. “This can’t be good.”
“You can’t leave the book here. Iwillsend a dragon out,” Olm says stubbornly, his wavering form gliding toward us. “I do recall a dragon mentioned. But I’d much rather it didn’t come to that, because dragons are hard to control and call back, as you may know, and if I burn both of you to a crisp, then what happens to me?”
“Fuck,” Eiras mutters, whirling about. “Fuck!”
“Is something the matter here?” a new voice says from behind me. “Can I help?”
Crap.I turn, too, and find myself face-to-face with a tall, blond man standing on the dirt road rolling through the plains. He’s dressed in shabby traveling clothes, a tunic and pants, dusty boots on his feet. His fair hair is pulled back in a braid and his sharply pointed ears betray his nature.
A fae.
“Are you all right?” he asks. “What’s that behind you? Is it a book?”
“I…” I turn back and discover that the misty form of Olm has dissipated, vanishing back into the pages. “Yeah.”
The fae is silent as I pick the book up, stuffing it back into the satchel. Then he gestures ahead. “Are you also heading toward the mountains?”
“Only up to Rizo,” Eiras lies, shooting me a quick glance. “We have family there.”
“The last town on the plain,” the fae mutters. “Well, be that as it may, is it okay if I join your company? They say wildcats are roaming the area. There’s safety in numbers.”
“Wildcats?” I turn to my brother. “Eis, is that true?”
He frowns. “I thought their numbers were controlled by the royal dragon squadrons?”
“Apparently not.” I glance up, where two colorful dragons fly past, heading toward the Central Sea and the Pillar. “I haven’t seen any flying squadrons in a while.”
“Well, my name is Sedrig. Going to meet up with family, too.” The fae gives me a sharp smile. “Need help with that satchel? It looks heavy. Courtesy dictates that I should carry it for you.”
“No, I’m… I’m fine.” I nod at Eiras. “Though we’d be glad of the company, right, Eis? In case of wildcats and bandits?”
My brother looks unconvinced, but he nods back, and we set out once more on our way toward the jagged mountain range cutting into the sky.
CHAPTER SEVEN
