Aiden wasn’t sure leonthors could frown, but it appeared a lot like that particular one was indeed frowning as it sank back on its haunches, then flopped onto the ground, crossing its front paws and resting its head on top of them, eyes level with Aiden’s.
“Not stupid we are. Seen him out there we have.”It sniffed again, as if reminding both itself and Aiden that it could smell something on him.“Elory, the Flame. Died for her he has.”
Aiden’s breath caught in his throat. “You were there?”
The leonthor grunted its confirmation.“Followed her we have since the moment we have felt her enter the mountains. Waited for her we have for thousands of years.”
When Aiden took a good look at the creature’s face, and when it didn’t bare its needle-sharp teeth, he was almost convinced he’d survive yet another day. “What do you mean, you’ve been waiting for thousands of years?”
He’d read about the leonthors in the Ashthorn library, had even made notes in some of them for later to go back to and dig deeper. But he hadn’t truly believed that the stories about the leonthors were true: Banned by Ulder’s ancestors to live beneath the mountains until the end of time. A verdict of horror for creatures of the sky.
Out of their own volition, his eyes darted to the leonthor’s side and the scars where its wings might one day have been.
“What happened to you?”
The leonthor cocked its head without lifting it.“Only one question we grant him. Which question the Flame’s friend answered wants?”
Not that Aiden could make demands, but—“Aren’t they one and the same question if you think about it?”
With a growl, the leonthor flicked its tail—its double tail that reminded Aiden of a snake wrapped in a horse’s tail.“Good with words the Flame’s friend is.”The creature considered him for a heart-stopping moment.“Eat him for dinner we wanted to, because he has killed the Criu in these mountains. But his life for our Flame given he has and saved his own that has.”
It wasn’t an answer to the question Aiden had asked, but it was reassuring to know he was no longer on the menu.
“I consider Lory a sister,” he merely said. In his mind, he added,Even when I’ve disappointed her and she probably won’t want anything to do with me again.Not that he could ever contact her. As much as the world out there was concerned, Aiden Bellmont was dead.
“What to disappoint our Flame he has done?”
Aiden cringed into the wall as he realized the leonthor must have read his mind.
“If our trust he wants to maintain, tell us he must what he has done to disappoint our Flame.”
All right then…
What was the harm in confessing his sins to an ancient, mythical creature who could kill him at a whim?
“I was there when her brother was killed, and I didn’t do anything to stop it.” He didn’t add that he hadn’t known Lory back then, or that he hadn’t thought he’d ever see her again. Neither was an excuse for his shortcomings and lack of judgement that night, when he’d watched the Gargoyles box them in and back them into a corner.
For a long while, the leonthor just stared at him with large, lilac eyes, judgement passing in silence.
When it spoke again, it was in a softer tone, with a hint of sorrow.“Three thousand years it has been since taken theyhave our freedom.”The whole creature seemed to expand with an audible breath.“Three thousand years since my kind has been locked in these caves all over the Amrin Mountains.”
Aiden’s heart beat so fast he could no longer feel the various pains in his body. This washuge. Leonthors had been believed extinct for at least two thousand years, which was a likely timespan for a people to collectively forget a species had ever existed. This wasn’t written anywhere in the books he’d studied, only that the leonthors disappeared with the first war won against the Flames. Why hadn’t the kings of the past just killed the creatures? Why trap them in caves?
“Told I have been that the Flames put an imagery of that war into their former palace in a city now called Dunai. Of the days when the old kings learned that our kind killed couldn’t be, only banished.”
Aiden was torn from his thoughts so thoroughly he almost grabbed for the fork on his belt. When he gathered his composure once more, the leonthor lifted its head and grumbled a noncommittal sound.
“If you mean the glass panel in Ashthorn’s mess hall, no one actually believes this is a historical war scene. They think it’s merely ornamental.”
The leonthor leaped to its paws, stomping over the blankets by the fire as it sniffed the empty bowls.
“No longer believe in us the people of Brestolya do. Our Flame we need to be freed of this cage.”It pawed the ground, growling at the walls, then at the gap allowing a view of the night sky.
“When you sayour Flame… What do you mean?” It was a risk, asking another question when the creature was obviously having a moment, but Aiden needed to know. Maybe it would be the last time he heard about Lory.
The leonthor froze, tail swishing like an angry cat’s, and time seemed to stop as Aiden counted his heartbeats—potentially his last ones.
“Our savior Elory the Flame will be. Promised to us she has been by the prophecy made by the traitor’s father.”
