Page 53 of Charming the Dragon
“You never know. Even just one book, like Melanie Hall-MacLeod’s, made a huge difference. I’m sure some others could do the same.”
He grunted. “I won’t completely discount it, but I’m not sure it’ll happen anytime soon.”
“Maybe not. But I do wish there were more dragon-shifter artifacts in the museums. Even some of the biggest ones in London don’t have much. And artworks depicting humans winning over dragons isn’t exactly what I’m talking about, either.”
Hayley still shuddered when remembering one that had a group of knights in armor attacking a dragon-shifter that had been tied down.
Nathan’s voice brought her back to the present. “Stonefire has some of its most valuable artifacts hidden away somewhere. If you could come up with a persuasive enough argument, maybe Bram would allow you to see them.”
“A-ha! See, you do have a dragon’s hoard.”
He snorted. “In a way, yes. But I doubt they’d keep it down here.”
“Or maybe they do. No one would find it, at least not easily.”
“Except the traitors used to frequent these tunnels before they were banished. It’d be a hell of a risk.”
“Hmm. We’ll find out soon enough if it’s down this tunnel because I see more light in the distance. It’s either an exit or leads into a large, well-lit room.”
She’d been so busy talking with Nathan that Hayley hadn’t realized how far they’d trekked. But light spilled into the dim tunnel from the side. And soon enough, she saw the giant entryway. However, once they turned into it, they stood in front of a massive door, one with a giant lock on it.
Releasing her grip on Nathan’s trousers, she moved to study the lock. “It’s not a simple one with a key, which is clever. That way, it can’t be picked.”
No, it had a bunch of symbols she couldn’t read. Ones that reminded her of the old dragon language, Mersae, she’d seen in the past.
Nathan studied the lock. “The script is in the old dragon language, and you need to use a word to open it.”
“Are you even still taught the old dragon language?”
“Yes, actually. We rarely speak it any longer, unless we don’t want humans to understand us. But we still learn it in school. It’s what mating bands are written in.” Before she could askanything else, he added, “There are far too many combination possibilities to just guess. There has to be a clue somewhere.”
“Would there be, though?”
“Maybe not. But it could be like the command center, in that it’s not meant to be impregnable, but it keeps a random person from just waltzing into the room.”
Hayley glanced around. Noticing the dark edges of the space, she lit her candle and went toward the corner. As the light illuminated the rock, she searched and searched but didn’t see anything. Then she decided to run her fingers over the surface. Maybe she could feel something that she couldn’t see.
After closing her eyes, she felt around. The wall was mostly smooth, with a few scrape marks from whatever tools had been used to carve out the space.
Nathan’s voice filled her ear. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for clues with my fingers.”
“Brilliant idea. I’ll take the other side.”
The fact Nathan hadn’t dismissed her idea outright, or played it off as if he was going to do that anyway, made her heart warm. He really was turning out to be different from the other men in her past.
Probably because he was adragonman.
She was still roaming the stone with her hands when she felt a crack. On further exploration, she could tell it was wider and deeper than the other marks. After opening her eyes, she held the candle to the space. The shadows created from the light revealed how the etchings she’d found were deeper and more complex than a single line. “Nathan, I think I found something.”
He crossed the area in a few strides. Once he was at her side, she gestured. “Do you see it?”
“Yes. Can you move the candle to the left a little, to better highlight the marks and deepen the shadows?”
She did as asked. Nathan scanned the wall, frowned, and looked some more. Hayley tried to make sense of the markings, but it was just a basic circle with some smaller shapes inside.
Nathan snapped his fingers. “I think I figured it out!” He traced the circle. “This represents Stonefire’s boundaries.” He traced shapes inside it. “Here’s the great hall, the main landing area, the small pond.”
