Page 217 of The Lands Defying
“There is magic here,” Darius says, looking around for the source.
I nod. “I can feel it, but it doesn’t feel threatening.”
Darius drops his magic and I look at the two wolf statues. I move forward to the arch between them, and that feeling gets stronger. “Darius, I think it’s here.”
He moves with me, and we both once again stop in front of the arch. Darius tilts his head, then he reaches out toward it, placing a hand at its center.
A ripple of silver shines, and breath escapes me at the wave of power that rolls over me.
Darius eyes me, probably wondering how to remove me from here if we are in danger, but he decides to bring me close to his side again.
What better way to protect me than to be next to the person who would slay all for me?
Darius calls his power to his hand, the mist coating his fingers as he places his hand further into the arch.
It ripples again.
“There is something on the other side?”
“What?” I ask, looking through the arch to the other side of the room. “There is nothing there.”
“It’s like a port… I think if we go through here we will be ported somewhere else.”
I look at the archway curiously again. “How is that even possible?”
He’s deep in thought for a moment, until his gaze turns to me. “I read that long ago, there were portals. You could walk through them and be somewhere else.”
“Like a port stone…but stationary?” I ask, and Darius nods.
We both look over the arch and then to each other.
“We need to see where it goes. The wisps led me here for a reason.” I point out.
He stares at me intently for a moment, and he nods. “Stay close to me, at all times.”
“I will.”
With one last ‘you better do as you’re told’ look, we walk through.
Darius is right.
This feels like it does when we port. I feel like I’m being squeezed into nothing, fading away only to be put back together again, to be whole.
We land on hard ground, and Darius instantly takes a defensive stance, but there is no danger here.
Nothing but the ruins in front of us.
“We are in Zakith,” I say, recognizing the woods behind us. They run from here all the way to the Aragnis pack home.Though it goes on and on for a long while. “Why would it bring us here?”
“I don’t know. We are far away from your old pack, but we need to be vigilant.” I nod, my eyes never once leaving the ruins.
I take the steps up to it, and it feels so much different than the one in Eridian.
It feels lifeless, dead.
“Tyeetha,” I whisper, remembering what the book said in Darius’s library. “It’s strange to think they came here a lot, isn’t it?”
Darius grunts. “A lot has been lost over time. Everything we have in our history books could all be a lie, including this.”
