Page 18 of House of Ashes
I thumped my hand on Rhylan’s shoulder, giving him a sharp nudge in the side with my left heel. “Dragons to the south! They’re far off but following!”
He turned his head enough to glance back at me, his growl unheard but felt. His entire body rumbled beneath mine.
Then he lurched, beating his wings harder and picking up speed. My stomach flipped mercilessly as he sped over the ocean, leaving the island behind in its veil of perpetual mist.
My fingers ached terribly, the rope already burning my palms. I leaned forward, eyes focused not on the ocean, not on the terrible island we were leaving behind, but on Akalla, on Jhazra, on Varyamar.
On my future.
Chapter
Four
The sun had sunk well below the horizon when we reached the mountains of northern Akalla, and as Rhylan began to lose altitude, I could no longer make out the world around me.
It was all a blur of shadows, shades of gray and black, and if we’d had the mind-speech, Rhylan could’ve given me his thoughts, what he saw through a dragon’s night-seeing eyes.
I had to make do to clinging to my safety rope, my palms now chafed red with oozing blisters, my legs sore, my hair a tangled mess. Even my eyes ached, from extended use of the third eyelids I’d only recently been able to use.
When I picked out soft, warm lights in a distant mountain, I knew it was an eyrie, and I would’ve wept if my gritty, swollen eyes could produce tears.
Jhazra Eyrie, the seat of the House of Obsidian Flame, was an ancient fortress nestled in the spires of the Krysien Mountains. Rumor had it that the eyrie itself was built over the dormant remains of a volcano, and the Obsidian Flames had never seen fit to correct that notion.
The Krysien Mountains rose like sharp, black glass shards from the earth, and Jhazra itself was built into one of the largest peaks. It was a forbidding eyrie, as dark as their namesake, but as Rhylan circled over the open, columned terrace at the peak of the eyrie, crystal lights flared to life within.
Their Ascendant was welcoming him home.
His wings beat hard, nearly dislodging me as he lowered us into the dragon door. I saw a rich crimson carpet covering the terrace floor, then Rhylan landed on all fours and crouched, and my entire body unfroze.
I slid from his back, landing on the carpet in a heap. Everything hurt. My muscles had been locked as hard as rocks from terror all day.
I whimpered as my calf muscles cramped, but I couldn’t massage them with my scraped-raw hands.
I hardly noticed when Rhylan shifted from his dragon form, but I lurched away from a sudden shape at my side. A Bloodless man had approached me, his hands held out like he meant to help me up.
He was an older man, his hair stark white and neatly pulled back, his eyes a pale blue. He wore the dark uniform with the silver insignia of an Eyrie-Master, and despite his sympathetic expression, he had an air of expectation and fussiness about him.
“I’ll take her, Viros,” Rhylan said, his voice harsh and dry. We hadn’t stopped for so much as a sip of water through the entire day’s flight.
For whatever reason, I couldn’t bring myself to push Rhylan away, probably because it would hurt too much to pick myself up on my own. But he picked me up easily, looping strong hands behind my back and under my thighs.
“She’s unpracticed,” Viros said, his lips twisted with disapproval. “Seek your vengeance, but for the love of the gods, don’t kill her to achieve it.”
Rhylan gave him a cool glance, already turning towards the eyrie’s interior doors. “She must learn fast, or she’ll get herself killed quicker than I could.”
I pushed my hate aside, letting him take my full weight. I was so tired; it had been years since I’d practiced riding. My thighs ached like fire, and my hands curled against my chest, stinging and useless.
Rhylan kicked the doors open, striding through a narrow entry hall and continuing downwards in a dark spiral staircase. I ached too much to even appreciate that the dark stone walls of the eyrie’s interior were embedded with jewels, a million faceted stones that lit with their own internal colors as we passed: burning crimsons, clear blues, verdant greens.
“I’m sorry, Sera,” he said, lips pressed flat. “I should have realized sooner.”
I tried to speak, coughed instead, and finally managed a dusty whisper. Gods, I was so thirsty. “I knew it’d be hard. I don’t give a damn as long as I’m on the mainland.”
I was that much closer to Varyamar, and I would’ve worn myself much thinner to get here, if necessary.
Rhylan looked down at me, eyes flashing, his already tightened lips going white. “Don’t be understanding about it. I half-killed you to get here faster, and I can’t treat you that way if anyone is going to believe this.”
He exited onto another hall, this one lit with more sparkling crystals set in the black stone walls. One of the doors opened easily when he nudged it.