Page 59 of The Legacy of Ophelia
Jezebel leaned over it with me, and we turned the blade toward the light. Something glittered within the silver.
“You’re pulverizing the rubble?” Jezebel asked.
“And mixing it with the steel in forging,” Cyren confirmed. “We don’t know how powerful they’ll be, but the hope is that with these weapons on their person, Starsearchers in battle will have clearer readings and understand the moves of their opponents with quicker reflexive opportunities.”
Harlen grinned beside the general, and he looked like a young boy who’d just found an extra piece of cake.
“These could be very helpful if it comes to a physical fight against Echnid,” Jezebel said. “You could make swords, spears, and arrows if you have time. We could arm other clans with them to fuel the entire battlefield with Starsearcher magic.”
Cyren smiled. “That was Lyria’s idea. After you told everyone about the chamber, Vale.”
A thick sadness strung between us, and I was struck with the impact of the dead, lingering not only through memories, but through the missions left behind.
“Can you etch one with her initials?” I asked. “Maybe a single-bladed dagger?”
“That’s a great idea,” Cyren said.
I turned the triple-blade in my hand, inspecting the sheen the moonstone and other precious minerals gave the steel. My reflection was blurred, but the stained-glass ceiling wavered around it. And within, Titus’s blood splashed across a knife. I gasped, the weapon clattering to the ground.
“Are you okay?” Harlen asked, picking up the blade.
I nodded, lips tight and voice stuck in my throat.
But Jezebel squeezed my arm and said, “I have an idea.”
Jezebel ledme to the wide clearing overlooking rows of vineyards where Zanox and Dynaxtar were sunning their wings. Immediately, both khrysaor popped up, tilting their equine heads at us.
Zanox nudged Jezebel, picking through her pockets, but Dynaxtar approached me, giving me a soft, loving tap with her nose. I patted her, studying her slitted eyes, and for a blink, my blood and breath seemed to idle.
“Okay, okay!” Jezebel said through a laugh, batting off Zanox as he nearly knocked her over. He swung his spiked tail around, carefully catching her with the soft underside before she could fall. Jezebel dug into her pocket and pulled out a pear. “This is all I have.”
She tossed it in the air, and Zanox didn’t seem to mind that it wasn’t an apple, snatching it quickly and swallowing in one gulp. Dynaxtar nickered softly, not seeming hungry. The larger, male khrysaor had an insatiable appetite, while his female counterpart was more interested in her time amid the clouds.
“Want to fly?” Jezebel asked me. When I looked at her, she was grinning broadly—the happiest I’d seen her in weeks.
I looked up at Dynaxtar, and that wild, ancient glee gleamed in her gold slitted eyes. It pumped my own blood faster. “Absolutely,” I breathed.
Now that all masks were dropped around Echnid and the mythical beasts, we rode Zanox and Dynaxtar freely through the skies, dipping low enough for the citizens of Valyn to see.
The capital unfurled below, all eleven districts and the zones beyond. What secrets did they hold? What histories andlegends? The opportunity to discover it all—to truly know the city I’d spent so much time in—made me weightless.
I’d flown to Valyn on Dynaxtar, but that had been the first time solo, and I’d been nervous. She was twice the size of any horse I’d ridden, and though Cypherion insisted, Jezebel had yet to have a saddle made.
Now, though, this close to the home of the Fates and stars, freedom inflated my spirit.
“Let’s go over the vineyards,” I called to Jezebel and Zanox. She whooped in response, and the beasts soared west.
Warriors roamed the neat rows of grapes, pointing and shouting in curious joy as we passed by, circling above and out over the furthest stretches of the city limits. Jezebel crested the hill leading out of Valyn and stretched her arms up to the sky?—
A scream pierced the air, and Zanox roared.
Dynaxtar bucked. I laced my hands through her silver mane to keep seated.
“What’s happening?” I shouted.
Jezebel was hunched over Zanox, and crimson streaked the air behind her. I called to her, my heart thundering as loud as Dynaxtar’s.
She didn’t answer, but silver-blue light flared.
