Page 79 of Beneath the Flames
A weighted silence filled the cave, tension squeezing the air between us.I wanted to ask more, wanted to demand he give me answers instead of brushing me off, but between the heat from the fire and the food now sitting happily in my belly, exhaustion was overtaking me, my eyelids sliding closed of their own accord.
“Sleep, Maren.”Rhydian’s quiet voice met my ears, his warm hands gently laying me down.
I was vaguely aware of a coat that smelled like cold air and pine being pulled over me before I slipped into the dark.
The rest of the journey back to the castle was quiet as we both fought to stay warm after almost five days in the freezing cold, and the exhaustion of fighting the Lavawraith lingering like a fatal disease.When the castle came into view in the distance as we crested a hill, a strange sort of excitement thrummed in my veins.Though I wasn’t thrilled to be in Eroth in the first place, I’d never been so happy to see Shadow Ire Castle.My feet ached, legs wobbled, and fingers were thoroughly frozen, not to mention the fierce grumble of my stomach every few minutes from having eaten so little food.
But we had made it.We were alive.
“Okay,” I said, pointing.“There’s the castle.Now tell me what’s next.”
Rhydian stood there for a long moment, staring at his home before he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.“The second task might be impossible.”
“I would expect nothing less,” I said sarcastically.“Because climbing a volcano and facing a lava monster wasn’t already impossible?I’d be insulted if the next one was easy.”
Rhydian’s lips twitched.
The wind whipped at my hair, feeling like icy daggers were trying to rip the strands from their roots.I shrugged deeper into my coat.“Let’s hear it.”
“If you’re unable to accomplish it, I won’t hold it against you.”He was stalling.
“Tell me.”
“I mean it, I—”
“Just spit it out, Rhydian.”
“The requirement to accomplish the second task is to make something grow.”
I blinked.Once.Twice.Why would such a task be deemed impossible?
When I didn’t react, Rhydian gestured around him.“Eroth is dying.Nothing can grow here.Only the hardiest of plants have survived.The task is to make a specific plant grow—one that hasn’t grown here for decades.”
“And what is the purpose of that?”
“The cursebreaker must be able to bring life back to a dead land.Therefore, to claim the second task as completed, you must make a certain flower grow.In the dead soil.”
I considered this for a long moment.“I grew up on a farm.”
“Yes, you’ve said.”
His annoyed tone had me scowling.“I’m accustomed to making things grow, Rhydian.I have a lot of experience amending soil to get difficult crops to germinate.”
Surprise flickered across his face, his eyes widening for a split second before his expression cleared.
“But have you ever grown something indeadsoil?”
“How do you know it’s dead?”
His only response was to give me a bored blink of his eyes and gesture to the dead and barren winter tundra around us.
Fair enough.
It made it more challenging, sure, but if there was one person up to the task, I was sure it was me.
I held onto optimism with a death grip.“I’m confident I can do this.”
Carrow’s demand for me to fail the tasks flickered back through my mind.This would be an easy one for me to pretend to fail.Though I was certain I would be able to succeed, there was still a chance that the soil was too far gone for anything to thrive.But part of me wanted to prove Icoulddo this.I didn’twantto fail.
