Page 56 of Queen's Griffon

A short distance from the house, they noticed traces of a road, the paved stones less overgrown than the rest of the jungle. As they followed it, they spotted more houses, none of which Frisk entered. Actually, none of them strayed from the path or spoke. The death of Collin had subdued and rendered them even more wary, but to their credit, they kept on task, weapons in hand.

Nice for them. Meanwhile, Avera still remained without anything to defend herself. She should have snatched Collin’s dagger, however, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to rummage the crushed and oozing body for it.

A strange noise overhead had them pausing and glancing through the boughs of the trees. Avera squinted as Ron exclaimed, “What’s that in the sky?”

It proved large enough to blot what little light streamed through the leaves, casting a shadow that quickly passed.

A shaken Lenno muttered, “Just a bird. Keep moving.”

A bird? It seemed too large for that. Avera couldn’t help but recall Vinmo’s experience and Griffon’s claim he thought a dragon inhabited Verlora. Given what just passed, she found herself thankful for the cover of the trees.

It took them hours to traverse the jungle and emerge on a plateau. The view stunned her to silence. Thus far they’d been subjected to an overgrown mess of greenery, however, below them, spread out with only creeping hints of foliage, was a city.

“Holy fuck, we found Sitnalta,” exclaimed Frisk.

It certainly seemed like it. The massive stone buildings spread as far as the eye could see. Had to be at least a hundred or more of them with roads leading between, the pavement broken in places by fissures in the ground. The lava that had rolled down from the volcano left dark, humping rivers of solidified rock. The hardened rock filled some of the streets, the flow splitting around buildings, leaving some of them as jutting spires. Past it, a mountain overshadowed the ruins of the city, the peak of it wreathed in mist.

“Where to now,your majesty?” asked a sneering Lenno.

The tug wanted her to head into the city, but she saw no easy way to get there. They stood on a bluff which dropped straight down, the sheer face inadequate for climbing. A pity she didn’t have any sheets. They’d come in handy the last few times she’d found herself needing to get from somewhere high up. “We need to find a path down into the city.”

Lenno barked out orders. “Ron and Munro, you two head that way and see what you find.” Lenno pointed to his left. “Frisk, you go the opposite.”

“Why do I have to go alone?” Frisk whined.

“Because someone has to watch the royal so she don’t run off.”

“Run off where?” Frisk muttered as he stomped for a look.

He had a point, but Lenno didn’t budge and crossed his arms, glaring until Frisk got moving.

With them gone, Avera sat cross-legged on the edge of the cliff and stared outward. To her surprise, Lenno wanted to talk. “What are we looking for anyhow?”

“Didn’t your captain tell you?”

“Said you knew what we came for. So what’s so important the captain is willing to risk losing the bounty on your head?”

She debated for a moment the harm in telling him and saw none. “We’re supposed to retrieve five special rocks.”

“Special how?” he questioned.

She shrugged. “Not entirely sure but they’ve become popular all of a sudden. I was initially told by someone in Daerva that they’re needed to stop something evil from escaping, but it appears your emperor desires them for a different reason.”

“Are they worth a lot?”

“What do you think?” was her sarcastic reply.

“Don’t get mouthy with me. I don’t give a royal fuck who you are. I’m tempted to toss you from the cliff and tell the captain you had an accident.”

“Your emperor would be most displeased, I wager.”

“As if he’d find out,” he scoffed.

“You don’t have the same awe of him as your captain does,” she remarked.

“Emperor’s just a man like any other. Only reason people are scared of him is ‘cause of his witches.”

“Are they fearsome?”

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