Page 110 of Skalterra By Nightmare
Orla pressed her lips together. She kept her eyes forward but seemed to be looking at someone other than Tiernan. I followed her gaze to Iseult where she ascended the stairs set in the cliff.
“Orla?” I asked. Orla dropped my hand to run her fingers through her short hair. “What is it?”
“Galahad’s granddaughter.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if I want tobeher orkissher, you know?”
“Idon’tknow.” I laughed. “She wanted to kill us. She’s also one quarter Galahad, so that puts me off from wanting either of those things.”
“That’s a good point. She might end up looking like him when she’s old.” Orla screwed her face up. We took the first few steps of the carved stairs together. A tree grew out of the rock ahead, its twisted trunk arching over the steps, and vines and moss cascaded down the cliffside in an overgrown mess. “In Keldori, is that even a thing? Girls kissing girls?”
“Definitely.” I nodded sagely.
“You?”
“I don’t do much kissing of anyone.”
“Me neither.” Orla frowned. Up ahead, Tiernan’s head turned to the side, and I wondered if he could hear our conversation. “Not a lot of time lately. Or options. No offense.”
“You’re not my type either.” I smiled to myself. “Besides, I’m gone after we make it to the Second Sentinel.”
“Don’t say that.” Orla sighed and buried her fingers in her short hair. “I told you, I’ll learn Nocturmancy. If Galahad won’t bring you back, I will.”
She tripped when a stone step crumbled beneath her boots, and I caught her by the arm. Orla was wonderful and kind, but if Nocturmancy was as difficult a skill as Galahad described it to be, I didn’t dare count on her bringing me back to Skalterra anytime soon.
“What about Iseult’s Skalbreaking trick?” I asked. “How hard is that to learn?”
“Impossible,” Orla said. “You have to be born with the ability. It’s pretty rare too. I had no idea Galahad was related to one of them.”
I nodded, relieved that it wasn’t a common ability.
The final steps of the stairway felt like ascending into heaven as the cliffside slipped away to make room for the expansive starlit sky above. Orla craned her neck back to look at the wash of stars, and I guided her up the last few steps to keep her from accidentally stepping over the edge.
“I don’t get it,” I said, looking over the empty plateau. “I thought there was supposed to be a city here.”
The others stood in a line, silhouetted against the stars and the distant mountain range under a crumbling stone arch. Orla and I hurried to join them, and Orla sighed at the sight ahead of us of the grand stairway descending into a crater that stretched clear to the other end of the plateau.
Starlight lit the edges of stone ruins that sat nestled in the protection of the crater. Some of the buildings had been reduced to nothing more than crumbling walls overgrown with grass and vines. Others stood taller, and one near the center still had twin spires that stood as high as the lip of the crater. Flying buttresses arched off the exterior of the edifice, but many of them were crumbling or missing, giving the impression of a broken rib cage sitting at the city’s heart.
The light of Iseult’s leg caught the grooves of Galahad’s scowl.
“The once great city of Tulyr,” he said. “Skalterra’s birthplace and where the first family of Divine Sovereigns died.”
“Welcome home.” Iseult stepped forward first, but Galahad shoved past his granddaughter to take the lead down into the crater.
“Stay close,” Ferrin warned me. “There aren’t many people left in Tulyr, but they don’t like strangers and they especially don’t like Nightmares.”
“Really? But Iseult seemed so friendly and welcoming.” I bit at the inside of my cheek.
“I’m serious, Wren. It’s an honor to get to see Tulyr, but a dangerous one.” He frowned at me in a way that I didn’t quite understand. He’d given Orla the same worried look before, but I wasn’t sure why he’d waste it on me. “You should have told me.”
“I thought you knew.” I rubbed at the cursed scars on my palm. “I figured Galahad would’ve told at least you.”
“You don’t really think so poorly of me that you thought that was something I’d be okay with, do you?”
My cheeks burned with shame, and I looked down at the fallen city in an effort to avoid Ferrin. I tensed when he surprised me by putting an arm around my shoulders.
“You’re our friend, Just-Wren, and it isn’t fair that you are in this position. I promise not to let Galahad off easy for this.”
“His granddaughter hates him and tried to turn him away,” Tiernan said behind us. “He’s having a rough night already.”
