Page 90 of The Dragonrider and the Void
Venrick felt a surge of relief. With both dragons, their chances improved significantly. But as he turned to Cheyanne, he saw that her expression remained grave.
“We need to move quickly,” she said. “The Keep is our target. Whatever the King and the Void Drinker are planning, it centerson the sanctuary beneath Vermillion Keep. We need to reach it before the Flashover begins.”
“What about Lark?” Venrick pressed.
Cheyanne’s eyes softened slightly. “If she’s still within the Keep, we’ll find her. If not...” She hesitated. “Then we must complete the mission regardless. The fate of Sataran depends on it. Let’s go over what needs to happen for the Concordat.”
The weight of her words settled over Venrick. Before he could contemplate them, the doors burst open. The sounds of battle now echoed into the temple. Venrick reached for his sword, seeing a large golden dragon’s head emerging. He instantly let his guard down upon seeing him.
Ingamar,he smiled.
Hardin entered, Quin appeared outside the doorway with Ingamar. A sense of stability came over Venrick, knowing that at least one more dragon was on their side, a dragon that he knew more intimately than any other on Sataran.
***
Later that night, Cheyanne called Hardin, Yarla, and Venrick into a smaller room with a table. A grizzled dwarf with a thick red beard and tattoos on his bald head, much the same as Ezra’s, sat there.
“This,” Cheyanne said, “is Horgen. He’s a member of Ezra’s clan and can tell us more about what alloy is mentioned in these pages.” She pointed to the metal ritual pages on the table.
“These descriptions are unlike anything I’ve seen before,” Yarla murmured, her slender fingers tracing the etched symbols. “The ritual requires both dragon and fae magic, working together perfectly.”
“Like what Lark was attempting with her connection to both White Eye and Nix,” Venrick said.
Horgen leaned forward, his braided beard brushing against the pages as he examined them closely. His face was weatheredby decades of forge work, deep lines etched around eyes that had studied countless alloys and metals.
“But look here,” the dwarf said, tapping a specific section of text. “The Concordat wasn’t just an alliance between dragons and fae. It was a binding pact sealed with blood and metal.”
Hardin peered at the indicated passage. “What does it say exactly?”
“It speaks of an alloy,” Horgen translated, his thick fingers surprisingly delicate as they moved across the metal surface. “Something our ancient lore calls ‘Vaerdium’, the Bridge Metal.”
“Vaerdium?” Cheyanne frowned. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“Few have,” Horgen replied. “It’s spoken of only in our oldest songs and scrolls. An alloy created during the first Concordat, combining metals from both realms. Dragon scale from Sataran and fae silver from beyond the veil.”
Venrick’s hand unconsciously moved to his brismil armor. “Like brismil?”
“Similar, but more complex,” Horgen said. “Brismil is dragon scale transformed through ritual of ascending to the realm of the gods. Vaerdium is a true alloy, impossible to create without both realms contributing their essence.”
Yarla studied the pages more intently. “According to this, the original binding ritual used channels of Vaerdium to direct the combined magics. The pattern formed a perfect seal between realms, preventing the Void Drinker from fully manifesting in either.”
“And these channels,” Hardin asked, “where were they placed?”
“At the nexus points,” Cheyanne answered, her eyes widening with realization. “The sanctuaries. That’s why they were built where they were. At locations where the barriers between realms were naturally thinner.”
Venrick’s mind raced. “The Keeps were built on those same sites. Vermillion Keep, Storm Keep, Nordraven Keep.”
“And Wintermire,” Horgen finished gravely. “Where our spies report Barrik had gone.”
A heavy silence fell over the group as the implications became clear.
“Barrik went seeking Vaerdium in Wintermire,” Venrick said, “that means he knows just as much as we do about the ritual. Perhaps even more.”
“Barrik has been working with those in the Magi Order who are helping the rimeshade. Why would he want with this alloy needed to contain the Void Drinker?” Hardin asked. “And furthermore, why is his son, King Greggor, leading a Nordraven army toward Astral City? It’s almost like he’s trying to achieve the same goals as we are.”
Sasja’s expression darkened. “For Barrik, being a Paragon and a dragonrider isn’t enough. We think Barrik believes he can use the binding to place the power of the Void Drinker and its rimeshade under his complete control. He aims to direct the power rather than seal it away.”
“That would be madness,” Horgen growled. “The ritual isn’t meant to channel power; it’s meant to contain it.”
