Page 97 of Crown of Wrath

This book is a collection of as much knowledge on the subject of magic and dragons within Nyth as I could collect. It’s everything we know, and that knowledge is a thimbleful in the ocean. We may feel like gods on Nyth, but we are barely more than humans. Never forget this.

~Erevan Morvyn, A History of Magic and Dragons

Maeve

“The Darkness?!” My mother is hysterical. “You could have died. You probably should have died. How did you just stumble upon The Darkness? It took me so much power to call it to me the few times that I did.”

She’s ranting, the only person at the massive table who’s standing up. Da, Echo, Hazel, Cole, Darian, Lee, and I are allsitting around the table in her house, and none of us say a word as she shouts.

Then she stops. “Wait. Did you agree to anything?” she asks.

I shake my head. “I told The Darkness that I needed to talk to you first and that I was neither saying no nor was I saying yes. Then I pulled Echo and myself out of the void before it could do anything. I think I did it right.”

My mother lets out a slow sigh. “You did. I don’t know how you did it, but you managed to get out of anything as well as surviving. Honestly, managing both is a bit of a miracle.”

She sits down in her chair, and the rest of the people at the table seem to relax a little. “Let’s get a few things straight,” my mother says. “The Darkness is ancient. It’s known as The Eater of Worlds, but it does not actually have the power to eat very many worlds. It’s not quite that aggressive. It’s more of a vulture than an eagle, if that makes sense. It will certainly eat worlds that are disconnected. It will devour any living source of magic that it wanders upon. If you two had not been under the protection of Vyran’s agreement before he became the Throne of Shadows, you’d have been swallowed up.”

“What are those protections?” I interrupt.

Mother looks annoyed at the fact that I interrupted her, but she answers. “Vyran came upon The Darkness when he was transporting hundreds of dragons. Together, they could have destroyed it, and that’s what it thought they were going to do. The dragons didn’t have any desire for battle with something like The Darkness, especially after how long they had traveled and how much they had lost already. It didn’t know that, though. So Vyran tricked it into an agreement.”

She pauses for a moment and purses her lips. “I forget you couldn’t be given a very strong education in Nyth’s history. The creatures of old, like The Darkness and dragons, are bound by magical oaths just like ours. Vyran used this to his advantage.Because The Darkness was unprepared to fight every dragon that came to Nyth, Vyran could negotiate a permanent peace. Anyone with his power flowing through their veins may agree to the old treaty, which has only two stipulations.”

There’s a dramatic pause and I want to roll my eyes at her. It doesn’t surprise me at all that she instinctively draws out the anticipation. “The agreement is that neither side will harm the other and for every question that is asked, the other side must answer truthfully. There are no questions that are off-limits, but… there are ways to answer questions without giving any information or to give information that is easily confused. Do not trust that what The Darkness says is as clear and simple as it makes it sound. After you’ve asked a question, it gets a chance to ask any question it wants before you’re allowed to ask another.”

“So if I disagreed to the treaty, it would have eaten us. If I agreed to it, then it could ask us a question, and if we lied, then we would die.”

My mother nods and finishes, “And then it would have eaten the magical residue that you left behind. It preys on mistakes more than anything, and it’s a master manipulator. Vyran taught my father to speak to it, and he, in turn, taught me. It is imperative that you not lie, but The Darkness is not a good-natured creature. Itisa predator, and we are potential prey. Every piece of information it asks for is only to help it consume more. Nyth is a world full of power, and The Darkness would do anything to have a way to consume it, but the boundaries are too strong for its kind to travel through them.”

She looks at me sternly. “But Valinar’s boundaries are not. Calyr does not have the strength to create a world capable of holding back The Darkness or others like him by himself. The only way that we can keep it safe is by keeping it hidden. Calyr knew about The Darkness, and now that you’ve traveled betweenthe worlds, you know that there’s a difference. Until you’ve been to Valinar, its shadows are hidden while you’re in the void.”

Echo’s face pales, and she whispers, “I said I was from Valinar.”

My mother whirls on the girl. Fear fills her eyes, but her body stays calm. “Didyouagree to anything?”

Echo shakes her head quickly. “I didn’t say very much. Maeve did most of the talking.”

My mother takes a deep breath and lets it out, seemingly along with the fear that had rushed into her. When she turns back to me, she’s calmer and says, “That’s good. Don’t make deals with it because youmustanswer truthfully or you will die. There is not a way out of a question that The Darkness asks you anymore than there is for it. And it will ask you about Valinar now that it knows about it.”

“Who gets to ask the first question?”

My mother’s expression is unfaltering as she stares me down. “It always asks second. But Maeve, I cannot stress this enough. It will not give you the answers you’re looking for after a single question. If you are clever enough, you caneventuallyglean the information from it, but it has millennia of experience with this game. You… do not. When I was hunting forA History of Magic and Dragons, it took me hundreds of questions to glean the truth of where the book was, and the answer was relatively simple.”

I don’t have the experience that Gethin does, either. I’m still going to war with him. “I will not let Valinar be eaten by that creature,” I respond. “I have no intention of dealing with it, but you did. Your father and Vyran did. It seems like a terrible decision to completely ignore it.”

My mother nods. “Absolutely. I’m just… reminding you. You’re young, and the young tend to make rash decisions without looking beyond their immediate problems.”

I don’t respond for a few moments. I just stare daggers at her. I know that everyone at the table is looking at me as I compose myself. “I will not put Valinar or Nyth in jeopardy, but I would like to remind you it was you who put the future of the world in an infant’s hands when you walked away. It was you who told Cole to put the Painted Crown on your daughter’s head with no knowledge of who I’d be. It was you who left a twenty-two-year-old girl in charge of fighting a war with hundreds of High Fae with absolutely no experience. I’d say that letting me deal with a giant, eyeless eel that’s stuck in the void is probably one of the less insane things you’ve put on my shoulders, thank you very much.”

Without letting my mother say anything else, I turn to the rest of the table. “On to other matters,” I say with a smile, “there are four drakelings that demand that I return to Nyth in eight days. Now, these are the last four living drakelings, and I have a feeling that if they show up here, they won’t be happy about it. I doubt Valinar is ready to deal with four furious drakelings, so let’s just plan that I need to leave in eight days.”

I look around the table and don’t see any disagreements in their eyes. “Good. Lee, please pass me the book.”

She digs into her bag and pulls out the ancient tome. I’m still surprised at the size of it. It’s as big as my torso with thousands of pages. She slides it across the table, and I catch it. The black leather is made of something soft, like lambskin. It’s unmarked, and I doubt anyone would think that it was nearly as valuable as it is.

“Now, this book is important, but I don’t have time to read thousands of pages today.” I look pointedly at Vesta and my mother. “I have questions before I even open it. What are the relics that were created by the dragons for each of the Houses? I know about the Shadowed Cloak and the Burning Brand. What else is Gethin looking for?”

Vesta is quick to answer. “The Steel Gauntlet and the Emerald Choker. The Emerald Choker is infused with the same power that runs through every member of the House of Earth. It is made of emerald chains, and hanging from the center of it is a piece of pink kaolinite.”

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