Wings of Deceit

Chapter Ten*

After being attacked previously, the three of us decided that travelling with hushed voices and minimal conversation was best to limit drawing any more shadowed creatures to our location. Though, with leaves rustling underneath us and twigs snapping from our steps, I doubted that would do much.

Despite the forest growing darker again as we walked deeper into the trees, our destination was still easy to see as it towered over us. The peak of the mountain was visible, the snow-covered top stark against the dark leaves no matter where you looked.

Every so often, I stretched my fingers and clenched my hand into a fist, the throbbing pain distracting me from the fact that there could be shadow creatures lurking all around us. I could put up with it though, for the sake of the war and the Lyre, I had to.

A spark of blue floating above us caught my attention, drawing my gaze upwards. It wasn't an eye hiding in the darkness, thankfully, as it slowly settled on the ground like a snowflake. Where did it come from? Had we gotten lost and somehow ended up back at the tower?

"There are more sparks," Larc whispered, reaching out his hand to try and catch another that drifted down, but it disappeared before it touched his skin.

"I think there might be another clearing up ahead." Haera increased her pace. One of her hands had been attached to the hilt of a weapon the whole time, ready to attack at the first sign of a shadow with piercing blue eyes.

Within another few minutes of walking and the sparks increasing in density, we entered another clearing in the forest. This time instead of a tall, crumbling tower to greet us, only a few pillars were jutting up into the sky. Leaves and vines wrapped around the stacked stone blocks, hiding the cracks and chunks that had fallen from them since they had been here. Despite the sparks, there was no sign of a barrier or anything we could use to protect ourselves from the shadow creatures.

There wasn't any tug in my power that pulled me in a certain direction, however, a calm settled over me. This place felt familiar.

"This was not what I was expecting." My sister frowned.

As Haera scanned our surroundings, I ventured closer to the pillars to see if there was anything of use. Larc followed me to search too. The first few held nothing in the stone when I pulled the vines away, but when I reached the third, I discovered a drawing of sorts.

Four stick figures had been carved into the stone with a childish sun and clouds above them. The first person had flowing hair behind her consisting of two lines and hands in front of them that appeared to be glowing. A mermaid tail made the next figure seem to be incredibly out of place, but it was unmistakably a drawing of a merfolk. The third person had wings like a Dragon-born and an angry expression with a deep frown and furrowed brow. Finally, the last appeared to be a child who was much shorter than the other three. Perhaps they could have been the artist?

"I don't know what this is supposed to be," I said, turning to Larc to see if he had any opinions from where he looked over my shoulder. The pillars he had checked held nothing on them either.

Who were they supposed to be?

"I'm not sure," he confessed. His fingers reached out to trace the wings of the Dragon-born figure and pulled away again when Haera's voice echoed out from the other end of the clearing.

"This one here has some symbols on it that I think form words, but I can't tell what they are," she called, motioning us over.

When we arrived, Larc pushed the extra foliage away and sighed. "I can confirm that it's not the tongue of the Dragon-borns." With that information, there was no way to decipher the message that was left behind from Goddess knew how many years ago.