Chapter 39
As we fly through the night, I tell Erik everything that’s happened since we were separated, including all of Thaden’s revelations and who Galeia is.
Because I’m sitting behind Erik, I can’t see his reactions, but I can feel every time his body tenses, along with the rumbling vibrations of his surprised growls.
It’s difficult to have a full conversation while the cold wind seems determined to snatch every word from my mouth, but somehow, I answer all of his questions.
Then he answers all of mine.
He tells me about what he heard and saw back at the human city and why he went to the Einherjar. He tells me about the dragon rider Catalina Shield, as well as Rachel’s decision to lead the humans. Also, that the human army is depleted.
Although he speaks openly about all of those things, I sense he’s keeping something back. I’m not sure how to ask him what it is or if I even should.
By the time the first glimmers of sunlight lift the darkness behind us, we’ve fallen silent.
Galeia is asleep. Erik deposited the device she was clinging to safely into a pocket of his coat, where I won’t come into contact with it.
I struggle to keep my eyes open.
I can’t remember the last time I slept, and exhaustion is becoming my enemy.
Just when I’m tempted to reach back for my hammer and draw on my power to keep myself awake, the air changes.
Suddenly, I taste salt on my tongue.
With it comes moisture, a dampness in the air that I’ve never experienced before.
In the distance, I can hear a strange sort of crashing sound. “What is that?”
“I don’t know,” Erik says, sounding wary.
The dragon speaks for the first time. “That is the ocean.”
Ocean?
My eyes widen as a massive expanse of water comes into view. It stretches left to right and westward as far as I can see, a seemingly endless mass of liquid right at the edge of the land.
Directly below us is near-constant forest, but along the way, I’ve made out human villages and outposts. We even spotted several dragons in the distance, but none approached us.
Now, we’re heading toward a large clearing that seems to sit right at the world’s edge. The earth falls away in rocky cliffs while the water crashes into them, sending spray high into the air.
Blackbird can’t fly as fast as Vargo, so he’s still some way behind us, but I can make out Cailey’s form on his back. She doesn’t appear so bright now that the sun is rising behind her.
Vargo angles toward the ground, descending in a rush before pulling up to land.
I stumble from his back while Erik slides down his side, keeping a firm hold of Galeia.
The clearing is vast, but so is the forest that surrounds it. The only structure, situated right before the edge of the cliff, is a black rock that looks from this distance to be several paces wide and as high as my waist. Otherwise, the clearing is bare of anything other than grass.
Blackbird lands behind us, and Cailey slips from his back. She moves more slowly than she did when we left the Einherjar village, leaning for a moment against Blackbird’s side.
“This is your home?” I ask, crossing the distance to her, even though I want nothing more than to slide to the soft grass and fall asleep.
“We’re safe here,” she says, sounding more breathless than I was expecting. “It’s time to rest.”
“Safe from what, exactly?” Given her need to get here in such a hurry, I’m surprised by her suggestion that we should now rest.
“Safe from the blight,” she replies. “We are now as far from it as we can be. Right at land’s edge.”
