“That’s what I said,” Kezra quips back.
“And you’re on our side?”
“I’m on Everrynd’s side.”
“Which means—”
“The elves are not,” she snaps, cutting him off. “So yes, I suppose you could say the dragons and fairies have found themselves on the same side once more.” Is she insinuating that the fairies fought with the dragons the lasttime? “Though I can’t say I’m particularly fond of you,” she adds, looking at Taevis with a judgmental glare. I really try hard not to react, but his father’s expression can only be described as flabbergasted.
I stifle a victorious smirk.
After the awkward exchange, Raef explains what he and Kezra discovered about his flames and her dust mixing, and Daegan’s father looks mildly impressed. He then asks her if she can report to the training grounds to try it on a much larger scale, to which she replies, “Absolutely not.”
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens if we ever need to use it. Hopefully we don’t. That trick on a much larger scale would be terrifying.
The dragons may have an abundance of fire power, but so do the elves. Add water, terra, and verdancy on top of that, and it may sound like an advantage, but the sheer size and resiliency of the dragons cannot be ignored. We’ll still need every edge we can get if they ever show up in Torrynth, though.
A horrible feeling deep in my core says it’s only a matter of time. And this time, it will be on a much larger scale.
Chapter 78
“Where is the Eternal Pit, exactly?” I ask Daegan and Raef over a lunch that Daegan prepared. It’s a delicious piece of thin bread with cheese, vegetables I’ve never had before, and some sort of tangy sauce on the inside. I devour it. Who knew he could also cook?
Daegan points out the window—there are many open windows throughout the palace, giving it a fresh, airy feel—toward a mountain in the distance that’s half-eaten by the veil. He hasn’t eaten much of his food even though we haven’t had a meal this good in days. His mind seems preoccupied.
“Why don’t we go exploring there tomorrow. It couldn’t hurt. Maybe we just need to torch the items anywhere on that mountain.”
Raef shrugs, but Daegan looks pensive.
“You don’t think it’s a good idea?” I press, trying to figure out what’s on his mind.
“No.” He shakes his head, casting away his distant expression as he fixes me with a subtle grin. “It’s as good a place as any. We need to try anything and everything we can think of.”
“Okay.”
After lunch, Daegan shows me around more, while Raef and Kezra go off on their own. Actually, Kezra lingers a lot longer than Raef, seeming in jolly spirits and talking our ears off about toads and wingwarts. But eventually, she leaves us.
He shows me the palace where he grew up, tells personal tales that light up his face, and some that darken it. He tells me how, pre-curse, Torrynth’s terrain was more extreme. The land used to be drier, hotter, and even more barren than it is now. I can’t imagine that.
He shows me to his personal chambers where we’ll be staying. Together. But unfortunately, we don’t waste too much time there.
The task at hand seems more urgent than ever, and like old times, we find ourselves huddled in a library. Just how this whole adventure began. Daegan spent many years scouring this library, but that was in search of clues to break the curse. Now we’re looking for something a little different. If there’s another place like the Eternal Pit.
Raef finds us soon after, keeping abnormally quiet while we scour books.
With the dark cloud above me that threatens to rain down soon if we don’t find a solution, I almost can’t appreciate where I am. A whole new library—new to me, at least—with a whole new catalogue of books to explore from an enemy culture. Or so my father would call them. If this were any other time, I’d be relishing this moment, giddy with the opportunity to read a whole sprawling room of texts from an opposing side of history. But, sadly, I don’t have time to scour everything. While this library is not nearly as big as the one in Ellyar, there’s still plenty to keep you busy for years.
I’m almost depressed at the lost opportunity that’s right in front of my face.
I spend the entire afternoon completely locked in here. Besides a few that are in the old dragon language, I can read most of the texts as we speak a common language now, but the undertones and accounts of events are already differing from what I’ve been taught. What I’ve read. The elves have always been on the wrong side. We need to prove it, show the rest of the continent somehow. But in order to do that, we need to level the playing field. We need to take away their advantage over everyone else once and for all.
Daegan leaves to get us drinks and a snack, then returns shortly after. We keep at it into the evening. Nothing is helpful. Nothing is jumping out as even remotely related to what we need.
When my eyes begin rolling into the back of my head and I jerk awake, he gently closes my book, helps me up, and carries me back to his chambers. I barely register him getting into bed next to me when I drift off.
Once again, I dream about an uncursed sky full of stars, the bright moon shining brightly in the center of it all.
~
