Page 29 of The Dragonrider and the Void
Lark’s hand went to her pendant again, a gesture so familiar it made his chest ache. “And now? Who do you think needs you more?”
“That’s not fair,” Venrick said, keeping his tone gentle. “I couldn’t just ignore what I saw happening. I wasn’t giving up on you. You would’ve done the same thing had you seen her hanging there, nearly dead. I reached Haven’s Edge because I was tracking you. Do you know what they were doing to her? Who the rimeshade are doing this with?”
“I do know.” Lark’s facade cracked slightly. “White Eye took me north, somewhere not too far from here, to a lost dragonrider sanctuary. We found something there. Something that I think the rimeshade were using a lot of that magic to try and get. We tried to stop this thing, this Entity, from escaping. Tried to stop them, but this creature was strong. It syphoned magic from runes that have held power for centuries. Now they are simply empty stone carvings. It stole something before it left. That’s why we came looking for you, because I need your help. And when I finally found you, you were rescuing her...” She turned away, but not before Venrick caught the shimmer of tears in her eyes.
“Lark.” He reached for her, turning her back to face him. “What I feel for you hasn’t changed. Not through Joc’s manipulations, not through our fight at Red Lodge, not even when I thought I’d lost you to Barrik.”
“I know how I sound, and I don’t mean to be jealous, but after everything I’ve been through, what we fought through, and to find her clinging to you like that. I can’t help but question if it was all in my head,” she said.
“She’s an old friend. We grew up together back in Gambria. We trained together before I was chosen to come here to Lamar and be Tel’s Squire.” He trailed off, knowing Lark understood the weight of that history. “But what I feel for you is different. It always has been.” Venrick’s heart warmed as Lark’s eyes softened toward him.
A cry from the main chamber cut through their moment. Venrick tensed, instinctively preparing for an attack. None came, as it was Yarla, caught in a nightmare with Cheyanne watching over her.
“The rimeshade’s corruption is still inside her. If she were human, she would be dead by now.”
“You should be with your friend,” Lark said softly. “She needs you right now and I’m fine. Exhausted, but I’m okay.”
“Stay with me,” he said taking her hand. “Whatever we do now, we’ll do together.”
Lark nodded.
He pulled her in, squeezing her tight. They held one another for a moment, then Venrick drew his lips to hers, pressing them gently against hers. She returned the kiss, mouth parting and inviting him in. His tongue ran over hers as she kissed him back, harder with each passionate moment. Finally, they parted, each panting to catch their breath. Venrick stood with his forehead pressed to hers, his lips as close as they could be to hers without touching.
“I never want to leave this moment,” he said.
“Neither do I. I want to stay here with you and forget the world,” she whispered.
“For you, I’ll do it,” Venrick said.
She smiled, a sight he thought he might not get a chance to see again. “We should warm ourselves by the fire, and rest.”
When they returned from the shadows, Cheyanne was working a final spell over Yarla. The elf’s breathing was steady,no more cries coming from her sleep. The fire cast dancing shadows across the limestone walls. White Eye’s massive form still curled protectively around the cave’s entrance.
“Cheyanne,” Venrick said when she’d finished working her spell. “How did you know to find me in Haven’s Edge?”
She chuckled, her tone sounded sarcastic. “I didn’t know you were there. This was the mission I was trying to get you to join me on when you stubbornly said you were going after Ell–I mean, Lark instead.”
“You knew there was a rimeshade there?”
“No. We were trying to recover Yarla. She’s been like a Paragon for my rebellion and had gone undercover in Skol, serving as an apprentice to the Magi Order when she was captured and taken east. We planned to intercept the caravan transporting her at Haven’s Edge. I’ve been close to proving how the North was using rimeshade for years now, but this discovery of distilling magic wasn’t part of the plan. This is big.”
“White Eye and I found something else that I believe is connected to what was going on here,” Lark said.
“Where?”
“It’s a dragonrider sanctuary north of here,” Lark said, settling near the fire. “It’s hidden in the Frost Peaks.”
“There’s no dragonrider sanctuary there,” Cheyanne said. “Those mountains were nesting grounds, but the dragons wouldn’t allow a sanctuary to have been built.”
“It’s there, warded to look like the mountain, but it’s there.”
Venrick sat beside Lark, close enough that his shoulders nearly touched hers. “What did you find there?” he asked.
“An entity, ancient and powerful. White Eye showed me visions of the first dragons trying to seal it off in their cave.” Her hand went to her pendant again. “But the power absorbs magic, feeding on it and making it stronger. It had been sealed off with a form of warding runes I’d never seen. The rimeshade had beenthere and corrupted it. We tried to mend the wards to keep it hidden there, but it escaped.”
“You didn’t let it go free from the sanctuary, did you?” Cheyanne said without looking up from Yarla.
“We tried to stop it, but it was devouring power faster than anything I’ve ever seen. It summoned two rimeshade to stop us. We slew them and brought the archives vault down on them, but not before the Entity stole something and vanished.”
