The Phoenix Stone

Chapter Fourteen

As we traveled the rest of the way through the peaks I saw a lot of dragons flying high above us. Once I thought I even heard the faint whispering of a dragon voice in my head but it was so quiet that I couldn't hear what it said to me.

I could tell when we were getting close to the edge of the mountains because the ground started getting less snowy and more muddy the further we went. Eventually it turned completely into mud, then into dirt. The landscape changed too. It wasn't as hilly, though there were a lot of hills still and instead of rocky outcroppings there were large trees that slowly turned into a dense forest.

"How much farther is it to Magewell?" I whined. My feet were hurting again and this time we couldn't buy horses.

"Not too long now," Kael replied. There was a hint of his excitement to be home in his deep voice. He had been anxious to get back ever since they'd come to get me and now we were almost there.

The forest was filled with the sound of birdsong. I had never heard so many different types of birds singing at the same time. In fact, I'd never heard so many different birds. The further north we got the warmer it got and the vegetation showed that. The forest slowly turned into more of a wild jungle and the humidity soared. Fog swirled around us and we had to tie our coats around our waists because it was too hot to wear them. Slowly the path disappeared and we had to use machetes to get through the path.

Suddenly the path opened into a clearing and standing there in the middle of the clearing was a huge structure. It had a rounded green dome roof and large stone walls that rose up taller than I thought was possible for a building.

I hadn't realized at first but the trees around the edge of the clearing all had huge tree houses perched among their branches. The tree houses were connected by wooden bridges. I spun around, gaping at my surroundings.

Kael turned to face me, a goofy grin on his face. "Welcome to Magewell, Nyx."

I grinned back. "This isn't what I expected when you said 'rebel base' to be honest! It's amazing!"

"We have an incredible team of architects that built this place." As he looked around his eyes filled with wistful tears. "I just wish that it wasn't being used to host a rebellion." He shook himself from his daydream. "Well, we came all this way. We should probably go inside now."

We followed him to the great green doorway.

For some reason, when he knocked on the door, I held my breath. Thankfully, nothing scary happened when he knocked.

A little slide next to the door slid open and a female voice said, "Password?"

Kael looked back at me. "There's no reason you wouldn't need to know the password, is there?"

I shook my head.

"Shadowstride," he whispered to the woman on the other side of the door.

There was a clunking sound and the door creaked open slowly. A tall woman with dark skin and hair stood in the centre. "Welcome back to Magewell, Kael, Izel, and Evander," she said with a bright smile. Turning to me, she said, "Welcome to Magewell."

Kael laughed and gave her a hug. "Avyanna! It's good to see you again, dear." He gestured to me. "This is Nyx."

Avyanna hugged me too. "Nice to meet you, Nyx. I believe your great-aunt is impatiently waiting for you in her chambers. Shall I take you to her?"

"I—"

Kael answered for me. "Yes. That would be lovely. She has waited longer than she should've for this moment." My face must've shown my apprehension because Kael put an arm around my shoulders. "Mari won't hurt you, Nyx. She's the nicest person you'll ever meet."