Redemption - Fourth Wing

57. Vroen'Gard

Chex's Pov
The ocean was below me again, but when the island had come within our view clouds rolled in, and my wings faltered.
"Vindr, gaya eom eka drathr," said Elsie, Tina's pace steady in front of me.
(Wind, show us your pull)
But her voice was rougher at the edges than Aifos', and it wasn't as melodic. My back was cold and empty, and Elsie stretched out a hand and curled her fingers as if feeling the wind and its path.
Elsie's mind brushed mine,-We have twenty minutes before the rain starts, and the clouds are darker in... In the middle. Let's go!-
Tina brought low her wing and veered east, and instinctively I reached out to Aifos, but Elsie's was the only conscience I could feel.
I set my teeth, and pumped my wings, and the rain was thin on my scales, by the time the water was replaced by a bowl-shaped valley larger than the flight field in Basgiath.
-Remember the spell,- said Tina, -Before Glaedr fucking shakes us like rabbits. Wouldn't put it beyond the old reptile to be stalking us even in this dusty graveyard.-
-Yeah yeah,- huffed her Rider, -Just shut the fuck up for a second. Let me think.-
As she worded the spell, way too complex for me to keep track of it, I skimmed the flowy trees and brushed the cracked stones of the palaces.
The vegetation was as lush as the Vale, and the jagged towers as high as the Black Den.
Tina veered outside of the ruined city, and landed on a narrow clearing between the remains of a masonry. When my claws touched the ground, though, cold shivers rippled all through my legs, and my wings squeezed my flanks.
As Elsie tugged off Tina's saddle (it was more decorated than Aifos', and smaller), I turned around and saw dull pillars surrounded by limbless statues, -Was this the library?-
Tina shook herself from her horns to the tip of her tail, and Elsie nodded, -Yes. How did you know?-
-Aifos told me about it many months ago.-
Their face had grown sharper since that day.
Would I ever see it full and youthful again?
I lowered my eyes to my black claws.
Would I ever see them again?
Gloved hands caressed my foreclaws, and Elsie rubbed them forcefully against my scales, "Can I borrow your scales? My hands are freezing!"
I snorted, -Can't you go ask Tina?-
Elsie glanced at her dragon, "Uuhhh..."
Tina was frozen, her head dropped low and the tip of her tail twitching. Her wings were drawn tight, and I raised my head and squinted at her.
Her wings twitched, and then she let out a raspy snarl and snatched with a claw something whose sound was so high pitched it rang in my ears, and Elsie cursed.
Disgust biled up in my throat at the sight of the worm-like grub impaled by her black nails. Her forked tongue flicked, but I yelled when five or six insects skittered towards us, their skrees and skraas scratching my scales.
I screeched and fired them up so harshly that heat rushed over to us, and Tina cowered behind her wings.
Then, I snapped my jaws shut and my swivelled my head left and right, but Elsie and Tina were the only ones standing there.
-Oh, come on!- groaned the white dragon, -That was our dinner!-
My rasp was sharp, and I remembered when I'd been freshly awakened from my Sleep, and a bug crawled on my snout and I breathed fire for the first time, not before slamming my head against a rock.
Aifos kissed many times that tiny scar bisecting my upper lip so many times.
I turned, and bolted.
I didn't know where I was running to, just that I had to go somewhere, anywhere, back to my mate.
My jump above a broken column was messy, and my swordtail nicked its already frayed edges. The ground under my claws was dull and harsh, and dust floated up at every step.
My wing bumped against a faceless statue, and I sneezed at the cloud of dust raising up from my skidding claws.
I tripped the last couple of metres, and my tail flicked, and my heart was bashing in my throat.
The skeleton seemed to be bigger seen on the ground than up in the sky. Its bones were grey with time, and its teeth were cracked.
I brought my wings close, and hunched my wings.
When I'd flown over it months ago, it seemed to me to be as big as Codagh's; but now the bones suggested to me he was even bigger than the black swordtail.
Had Ronny been as large as him, when he was under Galbatorix's control?
I remembered the purple Irid hissing that Ronny had killed Belgabad, her rage as she swept her talon up, the furrows on the ground when Aifos snapped her life away.
But what else could they have done?
Ronny was theirs, and they were mine.
She should've known.
Shouldn't she?
My shaky claws brushed the maw of the skeleton.
My blood, and Saphira's, were his own.
Which colour were his scales?
For some reason, I'd always imagined him to be as black as night, with golden eyes and a morningstartail at the end of his tail.
But I knew that dragon wasn't Belgabad.
I remembered that, during my Sleep, I'd heard a rumbling sigh, and wings folding around me; Tairn hadn't curled up around me ever since.
Should I have asked him to?
But Aifos' skin was just so soft, I hadn't even thought about it.
I tipped my snout and blew over the old bones.
Someone breathed heavily behind me, and I flicked my tail.
-You fucking had to run like a frightened cow,- gasped Tina, -I am not that fast.-
I tossed her a quick glance, -Why didn't you fly?-
-I did! That's the problem.-
-And you left your Rider on her own?-
She shrugged, -Eh. She's trying to see if the insects you cooked are edible.-
I straightened myself up, -Wouldn't it be dangerous?-
-The fuck I know,- she snorted, -At worst she gets a stomachache.-
She stepped close to me and peered to the skeleton, -Belgabad. Must've been a fucking monster when he was alive.-
-Yes. My guardian is almost as large as him.-
Her black eyes flicked over to my rounded snout, spikeless back, and swordtail, then up to my straight horns until it reached my eyes.
I knew my scales were as golden as sunrays, and that I was beautiful.
-What happened here?- I asked, -Why is everything ruined?-
Would Aretia be burned to ashes like Vroen'gard?
Would the Vale?
Tina's sigh was slow, and her gaze brushed past the cracked marbles around us. Ronny's spikes were white and larger than hers, but slightly smussed, worn out by the same battles which had raged over this sky once.
-Well...,- Tina worked her jaw, -Basically, an elf killed himself. He used magic (don't ask me why, none knows) and the explosion turned this place into this depressing graveyard. The air is poisoned, do you know that? So is water, and food, and the ground, even. That's why Elsie did her never ending spell before coming here.-
A quick pause, as if she was counting, -We don't know exactly how many of us died in this battle, but we know that a bitchy Forsworn did. Glaerun.-
I frowned, -Glaerun is the... The elf?-
-What? No!- she shook off her shudders, -That's Galbatorix's pet. No, the elf's name is Thuviel. Saphira said he managed to convert his body into energy, but...-
Her head swivelled almost snake-like, and light glinted off her white scales and black spikes. Then, she dropped it, and her pupils were so narrow I mimicked her position and almost didn't breathe.
-But there's another theory. Some of us think that Thuviel found out the magic's Name of Names itself, and that used it as a last resort. And that Galbatorix managed to steal it from him breaths before the explosion. That's how he came to know it.-
Silence curled between us, as if the air itself was holding its breath.
My own voice was a whisper, -So... Do you know the Name?-
-No,- she murmured tightly, -Ever since Galbatorix twisted it, it became forbidden. None can use it. None knows it. Maybe not even the Ebrithils, or the Elves.-
My eyes fell on the bones.
My blood was Belgabad's, and Saphira's, and Ronny had said that I was one of the few to master some of the magic at my age.
And back when Darna and I had been feathertails, Sgaeyl told us she met Tairn when she was already mature.
But the stars had led me to mine when I was deep in the Sleep, and if we were etched in the sky, why wouldn't we be so in magic?
A slightly warmer breeze picked up, and Vroen'gard had witnessed the most powerful bond of Skulblaka and Shur'tugal seek out their Name of Names.
I was sure these ruins would carve time for mine.
I straightened my shoulders and unfurled my wings, -I'll fly with you later.-
-Don't wait on me!-
My muscles were sore, but my wingbeats were firm, and I crawled into the cracked library and curled around an armless statue.
I closed my eyes, and Slept for the second time in my life.