Page 78 of Forsaken Secrets

30

Kaiya

We crossed the archway at the edge of Ellesmere and looked around. So many doors were covered by yellow paint, each one a home under quarantine …

Gods. This round of the plague had been brutal on the Ellesmerians.

It was hard to imagine that this was the Capital's bustling shopping district before the Fall — a place where the merchant class thrived.

Now it was just a collection of ruins turned homes. A few intrepid shopkeepers had used the ruins on the main thoroughfare to construct more permanent stores, but most hawked their wares from inside sun-faded canvas shelters smattered randomly along the dusty street.

A robed figure stepped out of a shop across the street, and I tugged on Eli's sleeve. "Look! It's the vicar."

He motioned towards a crumbling stone fountain to our right. A statue stood at the center … .a behemoth dragon with wings unfurled, almost completely obscuring a robed stone figure to its right, and providing the perfect hiding spot for us.

The tribute to the Druid and the Drake was one of the few still standing in the Empire, let alone Gleyma, though I'd never been able to figure out why they'd given the Drake wings like a full dragon.

We rushed over and crouched behind it, our knees almost touching. The vicar, completely oblivious to us, walked towards the crumbling archway with a pep in his step, his fingers convulsively rubbing one of those damn rosaries.

Did he know what those pearls were? Gods, I hoped not. Surely a man of the gods would stay away from them if he did?

I let out a relieved sigh when he moved out of sight. We could have lied if he'd found us, but I'd prefer to avoid that confrontation, if at all possible. I didn't need rumors getting back to Aunt Grace.

Eli tapped my shoulder. "We safe yet?" That dimple in his cheek peeked out and his black hair fell forward to cover his forehead as he stared pointedly down. Our eyes met and something hot passed between us. I swallowed hard and followed his teasing gaze … .down to his lap … that I'd somehow sat down on.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to -- " Heat flooded my cheeks, and I stood up, brusquely shaking my skirts and straightening my hair.

He chuckled softly, the sound like honey on my frayed nerves, and pointed to the statue. "I haven't seen one of these in a while."

I nodded. "When the Druid and Drake went missing during The Fall, the Empire tried to tear it down like they did all the mage statues. The Ellesmerian community must have hid it away, though, because this one just disappeared. When it popped back up, the news spread across Gleyma, even to the Ridge, and we all expected someone from the Empire to come take it down. But no one has come yet …"

"Why, though?" Eli gestured to the dilapidated surroundings. "You'd think whoever had it would've sold it."

"I think that back then the Druid was their claim to fame — the legendary healer and his dragon — born of a merchant in this little part of the Capital. So they stored it away. I have no idea why they'd pull it out now, though the legend has gotten more popular again lately."

I reached up and touched the coarse wing. What would it have been like to see, let alone ride a dragon? "That staff he's holding was said to be a relic carved from a tree in the Druid Forest on the Forsaken Isle. It would be worth a fortune to any of the collectors here."

Eli looked like he was about to respond when a throat cleared loudly behind us. "Eli? Kaiya?"

Damn. I recognized that voice …

"Uncle!" Eli said, bowing deeply.

Mr. Harlsted stood there, eyebrows raised as he rubbed his curled mustache. "And what might the two of you be doing here … alone?"

"It wasn't what it looks like!" I assured him, cheeks warm as I thought of that moment on Eli's lap.

"Aunt Harlsted told us you might be here, so we thought we'd come find you," Eli interjected, shooting him that winning smile of his as he looped his arm through his uncle's elbow. "Miss Maderoth, here, was simply telling me the lovely history of this statue while we waited."

Mr. Harlsted was having none of it, though, and pulled himself free. "And why were you coming to find me?"

His brown eyes drilled into mine. We'd planned to follow him to the shop. Or, if that failed, to ask around. But we were caught. And there was no way I could lie to the man who'd helped raise me for the past decade!

Wincing, I leaned in and whispered our plan, careful to leave out all but the essentials.

When I finished, his face was pale. "You will follow along and let me do all the speaking. Do you understand? That shop is no place for the two of you."

I nodded.

---