Page 140 of Thief of Hearts

“We have come for the caduceus of Eramis.”

Yes.

He lumbered over to the left. I heard a large clanking sound and saw that Graarvin had a collar around his neck, held in place by extremely large chains that were bolted in several places to the wall.

When he moved over, I saw that the cave ended abruptly in a deep chasm. But above that massive hole was a floating island. There was a shiny, white marble altar in the middle, and floating above that . . .

“The caduceus,” Zain whispered. “I didn’t think it would actually be here.”

I put my hand over my chest. I was so glad that we’d found it. “You thought that, after running through a room of death traps and killing spiders big enough to eat a chicken and getting past an acid-spitting hydra and engaging in a conversation with a giant dragon, it wouldn’t be here?”

“I thought it was a myth. That we’d been sent on a fool’s errand.”

“You sound disappointed.” It was an extremely strange reaction.

He shook his head but didn’t respond.

Graarvin had settled himself down, his head now much closer to mine. I saw on his neck that there was a lock with a key inserted.

“Can that be opened?” I asked. “Can you be freed?”

Only human hands may turn the key.

I couldn’t imagine it—to have a lock with the key inserted and not be able to do anything about it. “Did an Epirian do this to you?”

No. The goddess of discord did this.

The stories had said that an Epirian created this cave and hid the caduceus. How could the goddess of discord be involved?

I was about to ask the dragon when Zain said, “Will you give me the rope? I think I have a way to get on the island.”

“Here.” I handed it to him. “Sorry about the hydra blood all over it.”

“I’ve seen worse,” he said with a wink. He took it and trotted over to the edge and began to do something with the rope and one of his knives.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of dragon are you?”

I am a war dragon, and loyal servant of Invara. Your ancestors used to ride my kind into battle.

The image that put in my head . . . I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to ride into battle on the back of a war dragon. “How have you survived in here?”

It takes an extremely long time for a dragon to starve. And I assume that magic has helped to sustain me.

We were fortunate he hadn’t gone mad, being chained up here for so long.

“Are there others like you?”

I do not know. The goddess of discord hunted my kind for a long time. I hope that there are, but I am unaware of what has been happening in the outside world.

“And you can only speak to me?”

I can only speak to Children of Invara, yes.

If Actos had succeeded in kidnapping Lia and sending her here, she wouldn’t have been able to talk to Graarvin.

Only a Thracian could.

And I could only yield the caduceus of Eramis to a Child of Invara.