Page 30 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
“Can that even be a thing?” Asha asked.
“They will be good practice to see if the songs work,” I countered. “Unless you’d like to go hunt down a crishenem and pray the songs work before we’re impaled with one of their stingers?”
Svenja shuddered. “Do we even know if any will be there?”
“They say the visturong dwells in the hollows beneath the giant oaks of the southern valley,” I said, remembering the folktale from when I was a pup. “It was said that they surrendered to the Silver Wolves and promised to never leave their giant oaks again and the Wolves let them live.”
“But we all know how Wolf stories get twisted to their own arrogant beliefs,” Timon muttered.
“How about you stop muttering and just talk to us?” I snapped, and he flushed. “And to answer your question, this one was corroborated in the temple of knowledge.”
Nostalgia warred with shame. There were parts of my childhood that I’d loved and missed—the unique scents of the Damrienn forest, the food and clothing, Gods, even the jokes. I missed the way the language felt on my tongue. We mostly spoke Olmderian now, and while I was fluent, there was something about the word formations that still felt like I was performing—pretending to be someone else.
I knew deep inside that if we survived this war with Nero, I couldn’t just go back to Olmdere with Navin and live out my days there. I didn’t know if I wanted to stay in that wagon for the rest of my life, either... I hadn’t expected I’d fall in love with a human, and now that I was, it still left a heap of unanswered questions: Where would we live? What did we want out of the life we’d been given? I didn’t know. Ever since leaving Highwick, everything still felt up in the air and I couldn’t figure out where I wanted to land.
The mission kept me going. I just wasn’t sure what my destination actually was...
“You okay?” Navin asked, coming to match my stride.
I realized I was practically running and slowed, the anxiety of my thoughts pushing me to a faster pace than the humans could keep up with... except for Navin with his incredibly long legs who easily always seemed to meet me wherever I was.
“I’d feel better if Haestas was here.” I’d come to find comfort in that red shadow.
“One monster at a time,” Navin said. “The songs might confuse her. She’s a weapon we can’t afford to lose in an accidental visturong battle.”
“If this ends in a battle,” I said tightly, “I think I would like your giant dragon to be here.”
Navin waved the crumpled song sheets in his hand at me. “It won’t end in a battle.”
“I just need this to work.” I paused at the top of the next hill to let the others catch up. “Olmdere needs this to work. The world hangs in the balance.”
“No pressure, then?” Navin joked. When I didn’t laugh, he continued. “This is just the first of many trials. Calla is headed to Taigos to make new allies, and the Silver Wolves haven’t left their borders; we have time to figure this out.”
He swept a comforting hand down my back. I was all fire and sharp edges, while Navin was as smooth as a lake on a windless day. I brought out his spark; he quelled my storms. I leaned into his touch for the briefest of moments until the others caught up to us, and then I pressed on, leading with my nose. I sniffed out the oak trees, the shifting of the pines to a deciduous forest, and led us straight as an arrow toward them.
When the last of the pine trees gave way, we paused at the line of low brambles that bisected the forest. The giant oaks were ringed with shrubs and thorns as if fences to protect the monsters that dwelled within.
“There,” I said, pointing to the peak of a hole in the earth. Like the air hole of a crab buried below sand, I knew this little opening did nothing to show the true size of what lurked under the earth. “Who’s going to try first?”
“I will,” Kian declared, his tone carrying its usual arrogance. I rolled my eyes as he pushed through the group to the front. He plucked a reedy wooden flute from his trouser pocket and played three notes before his older brother muttered, “Wrong key.”
“Please don’t get us all killed because you haven’t memorized the sheet music,” Asha mumbled from behind us. She stood a single pace behind me like a child hiding behind their mother’s skirts.
Navin offered out the sheet music in his tight grip, but his younger brother swatted it away.
Kian quickly switched his key and started playing again. At first, we thought it wasn’t working; nothing was happening. But then the leaves of the closest oak started to rattle.
“Holy Gods,” Svenja whispered.
I was certain nothing holy was about to happen.
The ground started to tremble, and Navin instinctivelyreached out to steady my arm. The ground split, the little hole tearing open to reveal two bloodred eyes from the shadows. An ashen paw, covered in scaly skin like the bark of the tree, reached out. It had a catlike face and razor-sharp claws, its skin coated in that flaky white bark as if it might disintegrate at a strong wind. But the way the ground trembled when it prowled out of its hollow told me this was nothing to trifle with. From my childhood stories, I had been prepared for something weak and timid, but this beast was something else.
Kian’s song grew light and shaky as the giant creature fully emerged, standing twice as tall as the rest of us. It towered above us, watching with hateful eyes, but neither did it strike.
“It’s working,” Navin whispered with a disbelieving shake of his head. “Try to get it to sit.”
Kian’s tune changed and the creature let out a growl that had us all leaping backward in unison. But its back legs bent; slowly as if fighting off the spell, it sat.
