Journey onto the Storm (BOOK 2)

Chapter 39

ADARA

"What do you want to show me?"

Rain pattered against the scaled overhang shielding her and Fenrer from the elements, with Yuven nowhere in sight. Shivers crawled through her skin and skittered into her neck, and she wrapped the shawl tighter around her shoulders as Fenrer took a step from the shelter. Adara followed in his shadow as he rounded the longhouse and the drizzle caressed her cheeks with the hushing blanket of cloud cover. Behind the longhouse, a staircase led to the highest point of the plateau which the manor embraced, wider than it was long, with two stories and several shattered windows along the edge. "It's behind the manor's shrine."

One wing curved into a dome, whose windows fell apart to reveal the four statues inside. Her steps took her through a veil of memory, and she frowned at the empty eyesockets of a desecrated, hallowed place. A boy whimpered in her ear and hid in the shadows of a wyvern's wings, but she forced herself past it to follow Fenrer into the expansive backyard. Catwalks made of some sort of redwood lifted off the ground to allow space for a garden to bloom. Her heart fell at the wilted flowers, but among their fallen leaves, little sprouts curled underneath its dead brethren. In the center, a beautiful pond, sparkling in the rain with similar statues standing atop twirling runestones. The thin layer of mist casted from the rain danced along the grass and invited them closer.

"Here."

Adara turned to where Fenrer went. He stood beside a closed metal gate into a mound. Opal flames danced along the spirals when he gazed into the darkness between the metal bars. "Where does this go?" she asked, full of wonder and a sense of uncertainty of places unnamed.

"It will be easier to explain inside." Fenrer stood in front of her to raise both hands to the large sconces hanging off the sides. Green embers sputtered along the chains to rumble into flames. It crawled along the runes to pulse through the wet, black stone. He moved closer to the lock,brushing his finger against the handle.

With a click, it swung open with a rustic creak.

Runes lit on the walls, following the brazier's trail to lighyt up the smaller sconces dug into the stone. Embers bounced in inviting welcome, to cast light across the staircase leading deeper into the mound. Fenrer took the lead downwards, raising a magelight above his head for an immediate vicinity of light. Adara focused on the silver flow, and allowed it to coalesce above her head in a spinning well of flames. Fenrer hesitated on one step to examine her magelight, then nodded without words before descending into the dim lit area. Once they reached a level floor, she twisted around. Crevices dug into the stone. Wolven jaws kept stone coffins inside their sections. Broken pottery scattered across the floor.

"Fenrer, this is a tomb," she said as he stopped at a recently cut space, where a small divot kept dues to the dead at the feet of a statue, created into the likeness of a man who stood heads over her. Heavy leathers wounds round his shoulders to the bracers on his forearms, where the wolf-shaped head of a warhammer rested between his legs.

"Yes," Fenrer said as he tilted his head back to gaze at the man's stone eyes. "It's okay. It's... quiet here. It was a little louder outside." He twisted to a similar crevice, this one of a woman who cupped her hands close to her chest, a sword on her hip. Adara studied her features, a near reflection of who gazed straight at her. "These were recently formed... Reyn?" Fenrer pinched his cheek, then turned to her with a deep sigh. "I... I must be more forthright when I was not before. I came here to check something — King Reyn told me that raiders pilfered a special blade from this place. He said he was taking steps to find it, and from what Keeper Kalla said at the tavern makes me think they found it. However... I wish to check the state of this tomb before we move forward to Sivaport. It's bad luck to disturb the graves of one's ancestors."