Wings of Fire: Revenant

Chapter Sixteen

Peacemaker awoke in the courtyard of the old school. He rolled to his feet in the tangled brush, wondering how he had gotten back here.

It was darker now, with no fireflies or glittering waterfalls to aid light to the shadowed corners. Everything seemed eerily quiet and still, and though one of the moons hung full and fat over the courtyard, the light didn't seem to reach down past the crumbling walls.

"Seeker?" Peacemaker called out, looking around.

No answer.

"Seeker, where are you?"

Only the dull echo of his own voice came back.

Anxiety began gnawing at him, making the shadows seem somehow deeper and darker than before.

"Is anyone there?"

His own voice called back to him, almost mockingly, "Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Is anyone there?"

Peacemaker stumbled in a circle, looking for a way out. He spotted one of the open doorways leading into the school and a made a break for it.

Then, just as he was about to pass through the wide threshold, the black marble walls suddenly began to melt and shift, as though made of hot wax. The dark stone surface dripped and bubbled and reshaped, eating up the doorway until there was only a flat, impenetrable wall left behind.

Peacemaker skidded to a stop, his heart thudding, before turning on his heel and darting towards another doorway. The shifting walls came again, blocking his way the same as before.

Peacemaker frantically darted from one exit to the next, until each and every one had been filled and reshaped out of existence. He tried to ram the marble with his shoulder, but it wouldn't yield.

Finally, he looked up at the moon hanging over the open courtyard. There was a way out! All he had to do was fly. Peacemaker lofted into the air with a powerful flap of his wings, darting towards the sky with frenzied energy.

Suddenly, he felt something seize his back talon, and he was dragged towards the ground in a thrashing heap. When he looked up, he saw that the pieces of cobblestone along the floor were rattling and rolling over themselves like thousands of crawling insects, and the earth beneath was alive with grasping dragon talons.

They reached up by the hundreds, seizing whatever they could get their claws on and dragging it down into the earth with them. A pale talon had taken hold of Peacemaker's foot, and a matching arm now reached forward to grab his other side.

Peacemaker struggled, but there were suddenly dozens more talons reaching for him, pulling him down, down into the cold, suffocating earth. He clawed and bit, but it made no difference. He was pinned by a hundred claws, staring helplessly up at the shining moon overhead.

"Somebody help me!" he cried out, so loud that the moon above shattered into a million pieces in the sky.

And then he was left in the dark.

Peacemaker awoke that morning in a sweat, and not just from the stifling heat of Flamewielder's house. He could feel the grasping, clawing fear of his dream, though – as usual – he couldn't recall the details when Seeker questioned him about it.

The two of them departed the peninsula early, so that they could get back to the school before dark. Peacemaker could see how much it hurt Seeker to leave her father, but Flamewielder had firmly stated that she would not be allowed to return home until after the six month period they had previously agreed upon.