Page 26 of The Dragonrider and the Void
“Rimeshade? That’s not something they need to do,” she said with a shake of her head. “But for building followers,” she added raising her brows toward Lark. “I could see why one might try to figure out how to do that. If they could give magic to loyal followers, then those followers wouldn’t need Hyalites or Yogos, right?”
“Now that I think about it, among all the jars I came across, only a few were purely distilled magic. The rest were filled with magical blood.”
“Dragon blood, right?”
“A lot of it, yeah, but not all. That’s what they were doing to that giant dragon. They must have been syphoning off its blood since the days that the town was first established. The dragon was in a dormant state and the town had been built over the top of it,” Venrick said.
“Haven’s Edge was a trading post until recently. The town is maybe ten years old. They would’ve had that long to experiment and harvest blood,” Lark said.
“Wouldn’t they have stocked up more than just a few jars of distilled magic in that time?” Nix asked.
“Yes. With all that time they would be able to generate quite a large stockpile,” Lark said.
“There were rooms of empty jars in the cellars of Haven’s Edge,” Venrick said.
“Empty,” Lark said. “Then they’ve been putting it to use.” Lark glanced knowingly at White Eye, causing Venrick to question if they might know more than they were letting on.
“Maybe storage is an issue,” Nix replied.
“That could be,” Venrick said. “When magic from a Yogo or Hyalite is removed and not used it will fade.”
“Or they’ve been trading it,” Cheyanne interrupted from nearby.
“If they’d been trading it, the rimeshade would’ve had more resources,” Lark said. “No, I think they were putting it to use.” Venrick opened his mouth to ask her why she was so sure, then she added, “If I had to guess.”
“What do you mean, if you had to guess,” Cheyanne said. “It’s what we were uncovering before you went off the grid.”
“What do you mean? We were trying to get a Hyalite to the Morsythians, so they could properly defend themselves against the rimeshade,” Lark defended.
“I’m talking about before you went and stole that Astral Lathe from Barrik,” Cheyanne said.
“I didn’t steal it. Sasja did. Once it was in our possession, we had no choice but to follow through with your plan.”
“My plan? The whole thing was your idea. You came to me,” Cheyanne protested.
“And I suppose you’re blaming me for what Barrik did to you,” Lark argued.
“It was your misstep that led him to finding us,” Cheyanne accused.
“I was put in an impossible situation. I did everything I could to help.”
“Hey, hey, calm down. What’s done is done and in the past. We’re here right now. No Astral Lathe, no Hyalite. We need to focus on what we can do to bring the rimeshade’s threat to the public’s attention. We’ve all made mistakes that have led to actions we regret. What’s best is to learn from them and move on,” Venrick said.
“I’ll be the first to admit when I’m wrong,” Cheyanne said. “Trusting her without question was that mistake. I’ve learned I can’t trust her and now I’m moving on. She’s playing dumb right now, pretending not to know about what the rimeshade’s plans were for using that much magic.”
“If you can’t trust me, then why did you come to rescue me in Red Lodge?” Lark argued.
“I did that for Venrick, Hardin, and Sasja. They were under a curse. You weren’t.”
“I lost my memory and still don’t have all of it back, okay?” Lark said, frustration flushing her cheeks.
“Your memory returned, right? Barrik made you remember. Isn’t that why you left?” Venrick said.
“That’s not why I left. In fact, I didn’t leave. White Eye took me to safety. I was too exhausted to know what was going on. Then I wasn’t strong enough to recognize where he was taking me until just recently. As it turns out, what he needed to show me was important. Given what you learned in Haven’s Edge, we know the rimeshade are trying to expand their hold over the region. That’s why White Eye took me to Fjern,” she said.
“You really don’t remember everything from before?” Cheyanne said, her eyes narrowing.
“The last time we met, yes, that was true. Now, I can remember most of my past, but there are still big pieces to the puzzle I can’t see, like what you just said about us working together before the Astral Lathe.”
