Page 90 of Red Dragon
Ex-stormer-allied dragons.
A testament to his fatigue, it took Vorik a moment to decipher that.
Like the orange one, Igliana,Agrevlari added.
Dragons linked to stormers who left the tribes to start the Freeborn Faction?
Yes.
I hadn’t realized… Well, I guess I’d heard some of their dragons remained with them, but I thought most came back to our people or went wild because they didn’t approve of an alliance with humans who weren’t actively trying to gain access to the Garden Kingdom.
That is true for many,Agrevlari said,but some dragons have stayed. I believe we may have inadvertently located the hidden faction headquarters that your superiors have wondered about.
Since the Freeborn Faction had nothing to do with his mission, Vorik wasn’t concerned about their headquarters but asked,How many dragons did you sense?
He would report where and how many they’d seen when he returned home.
There are only two outside of the mountain, but… there is magic within Scar Peak that is muffling my ability to detect if there are more dragons in its caves or the old mines.
Mines?The dragon-meeting mountain took on more interest for Vorik. Wise hadn’t said the scroll gave a specific location for finding the teal ore that was the second shielder component, but might this be a spot?Mines with magic?
There is ore within that emanates power.
Would it betealore?
I believe it may be. I’ve not visited the mines myself to look for it before.
I’ll consult Wise when he wakes up, but I think Scar Peak may be where we want to head next.
To the Freeborn Faction headquarters?
They’re not camped out ontopof the ore, are they?
It appears that they, or at least their dragons, are in the same locale.
Vorik frowned. That could be problematic. The Freeborn Factionnot onlywouldn’thelp him, but they might impede him. On the other hand, they might help Princess Syla.
We may have lost our advantage in this quest, Agrevlari.
Is your infected cloaca disturbed further?
Yes, it is.
Syla slept poorly. Disturbed by having lost the amphora and knowing Vorik was already flying toward the second component, thoughts of failure plagued her. Throughout the night, she second-guessed her choices. It didn’t help that the rainforestdidn’t settle down, so roars, buzzes, hoots, and slithering sounds invaded her dreams—her nightmares.
During one fit of sleep, she’d dreamed of returning home, only to have the soldiers throw her in the dungeon and send a thousand carnivorous centipedes in to eat her alive. That latter had surely been inspired by the noises outside, but the former… was more prediction than dream.
Now, as dawn approached, exhaustion made her want to curl on her side and sleep. If only rest weren’t so elusive. Sheoughtto have been so tired after healing Fel and Teyla that she’d collapsed.Theyhad. Even Fel, who’d promised to stand watch, was snoring in the doorway, his crossbow in his lap. She didn’t blame him. Being injured and healed was as exhausting asdoingthe healing.
As it grew lighter in the stand-alone chamber they’d found—the apothecary, as Syla had been thinking of it—in the remains of a courtyard in the center of the ruins, she was tempted to explore. A hint of magic permeated the place, and it hadn’t been raided or disturbed by animals over the centuries. In stone niches in the walls, glass and ceramic jars and jugs remained, as if they’d been set down months or years earlier instead of in a long-distant past era. Many containers had fallen to the floor and broken, probably once supported by wooden shelves that had rotted away, but it was still a fascinating find.
Muscles stiff and aching, Syla rose to expand upon her brief investigation from the night before. When they’d found the place, with the lantern Fel had reluctantly allowed her to light, she’d looked around enough to see if another amphora of moss-bulb powder might be on a shelf. When she hadn’t spotted one, she’d forced her attention to healing the others. Fel hadn’t hesitated to accept her magical ministrations, grumbling only that he was still bound from the last time, so it hardly mattered. Teyla also hadn’t been worried about it since she’dendured another healing only days earlier. Her willingness to accept Syla’s ministrations was part of the reason Syla trusted her without reserve. Even though she’d never believed Teyla planned to betray her or spy on her on behalf of Relvin, Syla was glad to know Teyla didn’t have secrets to hide. Not like Vorik, who’d insisted shenotuse her magic to heal him.
“Oh, Vorik,” Syla said with a sigh, wishing any other dragon rider had been pitted against her on this quest. Another might not have hesitated to kidnap her, but she also wouldn’t have been conflicted about battling him.
Unfortunately, her second, more careful perusal of the contents of the apothecary didn’t reveal an amphora that Wise had missed. Syla wished she couldtake some of the other ancient items with her and was momentarily distracted by a discovery of well-preserved argondar root, a species she’d read had gone extinct, but Teyla waking up and joining her reminded her of their mission. They would have to eat breakfast, hope Wreylith came, and then… what?
Head to the mountains to seek the teal ore, even though no single component would work without the other two? Or maybe they should search the rainforest for the ruins of another civilization that might have preserved moss-bulb powder.
