All that was left of the magnificent city were the derelict buildings. There were hints of the past beauty, a magnificent dome here, tiled murals there, but a lot of it was rubble. Two walls leaning against one another where a whole maze of rooms should have been.
It saddened me greatly. In a way, I felt happy that Roman couldn’t see them. He’d loved the stories so much. Loved telling them to me in such great detail that I truly believed he’d been there. Only recently did I find out otherwise.
We came to what had been the old gates of the city. Two enormous columns of stone were all that remained. Two lone soldiers guarding the rest of the wrecked buildings that stretched back towards the gorge, as well as the lone mountain off to the right.
“Something is off,” I said. “I feel–”
“That’s just your fear,” Feyra said, winking from her saddle.
I pursed my lips. Roman smiled too, before speaking. “He isn’t wrong though, something is–”
“My mother wouldn’t invite me out here unless it was okay. Maybe all those rumors are just to keep people away?” she said. But despite saying those things, she didn’t look confident in the saddle.
She hopped down, and began walking into the city, leading the horse. Roman and I followed without hesitation. This washerjourney.
“Where are we headed?” Roman asked.
He looked around the buildings and avenues as if he could see them. He’d been like that since his blinding. A part of me believed that he could still see, or maybe what he saw had changed? He wouldn’t say.
“The temple,” Feyra said. “The day after the Eagle swallows the Sun, I will await you in the Temple of Dhrum.”
Roman nodded. I had this feeling deep in my gut, my wolf adamant,something was wrong.I repeated it again, but Feyra ignored me. She was intent on finding the temple.
We walked on cobbles long covered by dust and debris. The ruined buildings were getting worse the closer we got to the gorge, it must’ve been the center of the conflict between the sisters. I couldn’t believe the damage that had been done. The strength of magic the two must’ve had. It astounded me. So powerful for ones so young.
The large ruins soon came to a clearing, a long wall stretched before us. Another gate ahead, intact after all this time.
“I’d always wondered,” Roman said.
“Wondered what?” Feyra asked.
“If they’d walled off the inner city and gardens. It’s never been recorded. The life of the city of Malwreith, and not just its gorge. Perhaps I will write a book after we leave?” Roman walked forward, he was the one leading now. Traveling through the gate without thinking.
Roman led us like he had across the wastelands. He was muttering to himself, nodding and replying to questions he asked himself. We traveled further into the city. The wind whistled here and whispered paranoid thoughts. I began to think I was hearing things. I began to believe I was seeing them in the shadows. My wolf continued to warn me.
Feyra clutched her letter, staring ahead at every building and reading every hidden bump and nook. She saw the same way that Roman did, and I began to think that she could see Jebra for what it had been all those years ago.
Both stopped suddenly, beside the enormous walls of a triangular shaped building. Slabs of stone the size of wagons were stacked up at least twenty spans high and no roof capped it. A doorway in front of us.
“It is here,” both Feyra and Roman said. Feyra looking at the steps up to the building, and Roman looking inside it.
We left the horses at the stairs to wait. My neck hair went on edge and I could feel the air. I sniffed, but nothing was about. Was it all in my head?
Feyra throttled the letter in one hand and strangled a spear in the other. She let the letter fall to the ground before walking in. Roman followed, with me behind. I took one last uneasy glance around the shadows and ruins.
The triangular room was bare. What had been an altar was in the middle, but only the windswept rubble remained. A large cascade of stones was at the back, where the wall had collapsed at some point. Most likely during the battle.
From what was left of the inscriptions on the walls, this place would have been majestic all those years ago. A true temple. Gold reliefs were carved in the wall, shapes of men and women of all types covered the walls. There were paintings alongside carvings, wolves alongside birds and women singing, men rode horses and ran with the wolves. At the center on the far wall was a mural depicting the city and its inhabitants. At the center of which were a king and queen.
The queen looked like Feyra.
And the king–
“Where is she?” Feyra said. “I read it right.”
“Maybe we are early?” Roman said. “We traveled all night to be here.”
She shook her head. The growing feeling in my stomach was howling. My wolf was pacing. She walked over to the altar, looked back at the mural. She closed her eyes, seeing into her mind. She was remembering something. The dreams she’d mentioned…
