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In his head, he saw the Madrentine capital, resplendent in pinks and golds and polished white. Flowers bloomed and blue-green waves lapped at the city walls, all of it gilded by the sun. His own church stood on the waterside, in the shadow of the city’s great lighthouse. In all the world, there was no city like Partepalas. Now she was under Erida’s sway, poisoned by Taristan and What Waits. Charlie mourned her as they journeyed on.
Dawn spread slowly through the gray winter sky, the sun never truly breaking through the clouds. A shivering fog bank crept out of the forest, reaching with ghostly fingers.
Charlie bent against it, burrowing deeper into the warmth of his hood.
When something stopped his horse, he almost jolted out of the saddle. He looked up sharply to find Garion pulling his reins, jerking both their horses to a halt.
The rest of the company did the same around him, Corayne reiningup on his left side. She closed ranks quickly, maneuvering her own horse so that their legs almost touched.
“What’s happening?” Charlie muttered, squinting through the fog. The silhouettes of the other Elders faded through the gray mist.
“I’m not sure,” Corayne answered.
She stood in the stirrups, the way Sigil taught her. The Spindleblade gleamed in its sheath, belted to her saddle.
“Must be the scouts,” Garion said. He let go of Charlie’s reins but his hand lingered, resting lightly on the priest’s glove.
Charlie closed his fingers around Garion’s, giving him a gentle squeeze. Even after two arduous weeks, Garion still didn’t feel real to Charlie. Without hesitation, Garion squeezed back. They didn’t need to speak to communicate. Charlie heard Garion’s voice ringing in his head clear as a bell.
I’m not going anywhere.
Through the fog, Valnir’s tall silhouette lifted a hand, beckoning them forward. Charlie had little desire to speak with the Elder ruler more than he needed to, but Corayne nudged her horse forward without a second thought.
Reluctant, Charlie followed, with Garion bringing up the rear.
They wove through the Elder company to find Valnir dismounted, standing on a spit of rock. He glared down into the valley below. In the distance, the fortress line of castles marched away along the border. Despite the fox insignia on his cloak, the immortal monarch reminded Charlie of an eagle. Peering and distant, a dangerous creature far beyond the bonds of the earth.
As they approached, Valnir turned away from the landscape, rounding on Corayne. His yellow eyes seemed to glow against the gray world.
Flinching, Charlie recognized fear in the Elder lord.
Corayne saw it too.
“What is it?” she ground out. “The castles?”
“The enemy garrisons are small and slow,” Valnir answered, cold as the winter air. “We fear little from mortal soldiers.”
“Then what do you fear?” Charlie snapped, immediately regretting it.
Valnir’s lurid eyes flicked to his own. Charlie thought of an eagle, its talons curled and cruel.
“My scouts found a ruin along the border,” he said.
For once, Charlie knew the map better than Corayne. “Castle Vergon?” he offered.
The Elder lifted and dropped one shoulder slowly. “I do not learn the names of mortal castles. They rise and fall so quickly.”
“Of course,” Charlie scoffed, exchanging withering glances with the others. “Vergon was one of Galland’s border fortresses. It was destroyed by an earthquake twenty years ago.”
Little more than a blink in the life span of an Elder, Charlie thought.Especially one so old as Valnir.
“The entire fortress came down and was never rebuilt,” he added. “I’ve only seen it from a distance. What’s wrong with it now?”
Valnir’s jaw tightened. “The castle is no longer a ruin, but a dragon roost.”
The earth tipped beneath Charlie’s feet and he nearly lost his balance. Only Garion’s hand at his back and Corayne by his side kept him standing. A hot flush swept over his body from eyebrows to toes.
He remembered the scream of a dragon, high in the burning clouds of Gidastern, its shadow too big to comprehend. The thump of its wings reverberated in his own chest. A thousand red and black jewels glittered over its body, reflecting the inferno raging through the city below.
