Page 6 of The Dragonrider and the Void
Lark glanced over at the mixed language carvings on the wall, seeing they were done more hastily here than above. She recognized one of the old riders’ runes. “Dishonor,” she said.
White Eye hummed, gently pushing his muzzle against her like he did when Lark understood what he was thinking, backbefore they’d bonded. And she realized, that’s what he was trying to tell her.
“This place wasn’t just a dragonrider sanctuary, was it?”
Scuffing across the frosty ground sounded behind them and Lark thought she saw one of the veins move in the darkness.
She held her breath as White Eye inhaled, facing the chasm, ready to blast dragon fire into the depths of the mountain. After a moment, when nothing attacked, she stroked his neck, calming him with her touch. A gentle warmth spread across her chest, the sudden familiarity now calming her to her core. Sparks showered in a pinwheel near her shoulder. Nix burst through, yellow and orange fire roiling off her body[MOU1]. The fae’s red dress and flaming hair rippled as though it were caught in the wind.
“Nix, you found us!” Lark said, her smile fading upon seeing Nix’s fearful posture. Her facial features were tight, glowing eyes wide and darting around as she flashed in bursts of red flame. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Lark asked.
“I know what’s down there,” Nix panted. “I tried to warn you not to come inside, but you did anyway. Now you can’t leave. And the corruption is spreading.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lark frowned. “You let us come down here, knowing it was a trap?”
White Eye growled.
“Not a trap,” Nix corrected. “We may be able to stop it still, but it’s going to take something that we haven’t done before.”
“Ashes, Nix. Why didn’t you warn us?”
“I couldn’t, because of our contract with the Night Court,” Nix said.
Lark frowned. The details of how Nix was bound to Lark via the Night Court remained cloudy following Lark’s bout of amnesia. She could remember the events leading up to the fae realm and what happened after she returned to Sataran withNix, but Lark couldn’t remember the details of their contract with the Night Court.
“Now that you’ve broken the threshold, and are in here against my will, I can show you,” Nix said.
“Come with me,” she added, nervously glancing at White Eye before shooting off into the darkness.
Lark hesitated for just a moment, caught between White Eye’s steadying presence and Nix’s retreating form. The fae’s flames cast shadows on the veins spreading across the walls as she sped through the crag. Lark gave in, hustling after Nix while keeping her broken wrist steady against her chest. The veins of the rimeshade’s corruption grew wider, spreading like tree branches across the walls.
“Wait,” Lark called after her.
Nix paused, illuminating another chamber that opened up just ahead. White Eye’s bulk filled the passage behind them, his breath warm against Lark’s back. But even her dragon’s presence couldn’t fully repress her unease.
The crag narrowed, before opening up into a temple under the mountain. The expansive stone walls rose high overhead, the broad veins of rimeshade scarring coalesced, thickening as they covered nearly everything on the cave walls. These all led to a void at the center of the chamber floor.
Nix’s fire and Lark’s mage light illuminated the scene, exposing a patchwork of stone and icy corruption. Everywhere the rock was open to the air, Lark spotted more carvings.
It’s as if the black veins of corruption are unable to touch anywhere there are the runes and symbols. She scanned the entire opening. The only rock free of rimeshade ice was that which had been adorned with the dual dialects.
A powerful energy filled the chamber, charging the air.
Whatever magic these runes and symbols hold has kept the rimeshade’s power at bay,she thought. But the danger posedby copious amounts of dark veins was not to be underestimated. Lark wondered how long the power here could last if the rimeshade continued to return and activate these dark magic veins.
“Nix, what is this place?” Lark asked.
“The magic here... it remembers,” Nix said, ominously. “It remembers what they were and what they became after.”
“You said this would spread by us entering?” Lark asked, trying to discern what that could mean.
“This thing,” Nix said, drifting toward the center of the chamber as though she were caught in a trance. “This entity is being unbound.”
Lark’s gaze focused on the center of the cave where the rimeshade’s corruption fed into a deep black void.
No,Lark realized, seeing it ripple along the surface of the abyss.That’s not a bottomless pit; it’s a pool.
Lark noted that the liquid surface was stagnant, unnaturally still in the calm air. The dark liquid, however, wasn’t the same as the rimeshade veins that fed into it. It lacked any flecks that spread frosty rime ice out of the dark veins.
