Page 63 of Fire in Stone

“We can’t take his clothes with us,” she said, looking anxious to leave the area.

The body of the dragon shrank. The wings retreated into his back. The scales melted into his skin that looked exceptionally pale in contrast to the black mountainside. As a naked man, sprawled on the cold, sharp rocks, Weyx looked too much like a human, small and vulnerable. And very much dead.

“They’ll find his ashes,” Ertee warned.

The skin of the corpse cracked like a dried-out riverbed. The fissures widened, their edges smoldering with sparks. The shimmer spread out, burning through the skin, flesh, and bone, as if Isar’s poison made the dragon’s body consume itself from the inside out.

Zenada quickly wrapped the remnants of Weyx’s clothes into a bundle, then climbed onto the nearest rock and shoved the bundle behind it. When she hopped down onto the path again, the burning glow had consumed the man’s body, leaving only a thin layer of black ash behind. The wind blew some of it away.

Isar splashed some water from one of the buckets on the rocks, washing the ash off.

“Let’s pray MotherSalamandrawill send us some snow soon to cover it all,” she muttered under her breath, returning the bucket to Zenada. “Let’s go. Where is the outlander?” Isar looked behind the rocks for me. “Come here. We need to hurry.” She dragged me from behind the rocks by the scruff of my sweatshirt, then half-led, half-carried me up the path again.

I leaned into her strong body, hiding from the cold in the folds of her robe.

What had just happened? Who were these people? How did I get here?

Questions flew through my feverish mind. If I paused on one of them at a time, though, I knew the answers.

I was in the Mountains of Dakath. Where else would there be men who turned into dragons?

Elex had brought me here, but I had no idea where he was now.

And…I had just witnessed a murder.

“You can never speak of what happened here,” Isar hissed low under her breath. “Do you hear me? Never. To anyone.”

Eighteen

AMBER

We climbed up the path for what felt like an eternity. The rock wall on our left receded, eventually turning into a drop. The path narrowed, clinging to the side of the mountain on the right. High winds gained full access to us. I shivered in their blasts. Even Isar’s body couldn’t protect me from the assault of cold and wind this high.

“We’re here,” she said, sliding her sword back into the sheath on her back next to the other one.

The high wall that rose in our path had a solid wooden door, braced with thick strips of metal. It looked strong enough for a fortress. The dragons would easily fly over the wall. But the inhabitants of the Sanctuary must have other predators to worry about, too.

Isar slammed her fist against the wood.

“Open! We’re back!”

Somewhere deep behind the door, metal screeched. A chain rattled, and the door creaked, opening just enough for the women to pass, one by one.

“Go.” Isar gestured to Ertee, then to Zenada to enter.

Once the two women were safely inside the wall, she tossed a look behind her shoulder down the path, then up into the sky. No one was following us. Isar dragged me inside, too.

We entered a narrow courtyard with the tall wall on one side and the steep climb of the mountainside on the other. An arched entrance was carved into the mountain, blocked by a set of massive double doors.

“Close it,” Isar ordered.

A woman in a red robe turned a wheel with a thick rusty chain, closing the gate we’d just entered through.

“Did you get water?” Her worried gaze fell on the empty bucket Zenada set down. “What happened?”

“We got some.” Zenada tipped her chin at the two full buckets on Ertee’s yoke.

“Take them to the kitchen,” Isar said softly to Ertee, then turned to the woman at the gate. “Get the Mother. We need some help here.” She rotated her torso to bring me into view.

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