Wings of Deceit

Chapter Eight

The mountains. It had been a guess of ours before that the Lyre could have been kept up there, but it had felt too obvious of a place for a powerful artefact to be stored. Now that we had confirmation, I couldn't tell if it was a blessing or a curse — we knew where it was, but now it was just a matter of getting there.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, my gaze falling to what remained of Larc's wings.

"We'll just have to climb up instead of me flying us up. We still need to get to the Lyre, we can't stop now." The Dragon-born picked up every other sheet of paper he could find that seemed related to the artefact we were searching for.

"Climb the mountain?" Haera exclaimed. "What do you think we are? We have no equipment to help us get up the rocks, let alone the skills to do so. It will end with us falling to our deaths!"

"It's either that or the war continues," I pointed out, my voice nothing more than a whisper. My sister was right — she always was — but we didn't have much choice if we wanted to end this war.

"I understand that you want to stop the war, and so do I, but if we haven't died to the Dragon-born's hand before we reach the foot of the mountain, we're going to die trying to get the Lyre." There wasn't a hint of doubt in her tone. "It's not worth it."

"We can't save anyone if we don't try," I replied.

"It should be getting dark soon," Larc interrupted. "How about we set up a camp in the barrier and think over it?"

I nodded. "That's probably best." Though, I doubted we needed any more time to dwell on the decision. We already knew what needed to be done. Either we got to the Lyre and destroyed it as Larc wished, or the other Dragon-borns arrived first — ones that had wings that allowed them to get to its location easily.

My eyes strayed to Larc again to find he was already watching me, his golden gaze inspecting me with wonder. He looked away first, a surprised pink creeping up his neck and onto his cheeks. "It will be safer for us to set up outside the tower as we can't trust that these ruins are safe enough. It will be easier to spot more creatures approaching that way too."

"At least we can agree on something," Haera remarked, taking one last look around the small space before heading down the ladder.

Once we reached fresh air again — a blessing compared to the dusted-filled space we were previously in — we began to set up a camp. Cloaks became bedrolls and blankets, satchels turned into pillows, and our packed rations were our dinner for the evening. It wasn't much, but dried meat and a piece of bread would do.

The silence that brewed between us, swirling and eddying as if it were in a mixing cauldron, was awkward and uncomfortable. I needed to change it somehow before I knew Haera would begin her interrogations again.

"What is it like living in the Nusal Empire? In the sky?"

"What do you mean?" Larc raised a brow and answered after swallowing the food in his mouth.

"It has to be a lot different being down here on the ground than what you're used to. What is it like up there? Do you live in the clouds somehow?"

The Dragon-born snorted with laughter and rolled his eyes. "We aren't Angels, we don't live in a pure white world surrounded by clouds as coverage from everyone else. It's mostly floating islands." He paused for a moment, basking in the memory of his homeland. "According to the records, they used to belong to another race but they floated too high up for them to survive the thin air. That was when the Dragon-borns claimed them. Now they're chained together so they don't float even further away.

"The main island holds the housing and the living quarters are quite small to help everyone fit." Memories danced in his reminiscing smile. "Then the next largest island is home to the royal castle and our queen. There are some other small ones too, but they don't hold anything too important." A sadness tinged his explanation as he finished and I believed I knew exactly why it had appeared. Larc could never go home to those islands again without his wings, all he had left were his memories of the Nusal Empire.