Dragonborne

Chapter 13

"I think you're insane." I shouted through the buffeting winds. Alyse and I were already climbing the mountainside towards the hideout of the Red Party. "How do you even know that their hideout is here?"

"I practice spirit magic." She replied. "The spirits talk when you ask them."

"All the time?"

"No. Just when they feel it." And she hoisted herself upward. "There's a ledge here, wait. It's a cave. Looks like we can go in."

"Maybe it's the entrance." I suggested with an irritated voice. Not to be petty, but mountain climbing isn't something a daughter of nobility should be engaging in. But perhaps that daughter of nobility would engage in about anything just to achieve revenge. I followed Alyse inside the ledge.

The inside was quite cramped so I had to crawl in. I saw Alyse looking at the stone ledge.

"Look at this, Feyre." She indicated a drawing of sorts on the wall. It was a dragon's head with wings of a faery. "I think we did find the entrance."

-oOo-

We crawled a few meters deepr inside and found ourselves emerging into a big cave. Stalactites and stalagmites were covering the ceiling and floor.

At first glance, I couldn't see any path, any way for us to go past this cave. I searched the cave for any hole that could possibly lead to a hideout of murderous freaks.

Alyse, on the other hand, was just calmly standing. Her eyes with closed and her eyes were opened up. She chanting something under her breath. I sauntered closer to Alyse and saw that her right hand wasn't empty, a coin was on it, the same insignia, the dragon head and fairy wings were engraved on it's face. Alyse's eyes opened.

"What were you doing?" I asked her.

"I was trying to locate the owner of this coin." She explained. "This coin belonged to a member of the Red Party."

"So what did you find out?" I asked.

"Something over here." She said, moving towards one side of the cave.

"Magic is awfully convenient isn't it?" I said. I tried to say it in a humorous way instead it sounded like jealousy.

"Not really." She said while running her hand over the wall of the cave. "It's true that magic doesn't have limits. But it does have consequences. Especially spirit magic. Hmmm, this is strange."

"What is?"

"I can feel magic on this wall."

"Maybe their entrance is a magical gateway or something."

Alyse looked at me furtively. Then she seemed to consider my suggestion, she turned back around and chanted while facing the wall.

After Alyse's magical chant there was a moment of silence and anticipation. Then a cracking noise resounded throughout the cavern.

An outline of a door marked the previously unblemished surface of the cavern wall. As the outline finished, the stone cracked audibly and the cavern started to shake. Alyse and I dropped to a crouch so as to maintain our balance. Luckily, no debris seems to be falling from the roof.

The outline of the door finished and the shaking stopped abruptly with it. Now a door was there, visible and unlocked. Alyse pushed the door open while drew out my sabre.

Nothing hostile came out of the door, it just revealed a long and dim hallway, the end of which we cannot see. I gestured for Alyse to go on first.

Alyse crossed the threshold without problem but when I crossed it, the door closed and we were plunged into darkness.

"Lumina." I heard Alyse whisper. A glowing orb of white light appeared hovering in front of us. Alyse floated the orb higher than us and slightly behind us so our shadows stretched deeper into the hallway. Alyse nodded we proceeded.

The hallway was long, that much I can ascertain. The walls and the floor were as smooth as marble, I ran my hand along the wall and it came away covered with a blue powder. Whatever this rock is, it's my first time knowing of its existence.

"What's in this for you Feyre?" Alyse asked, her voice was echoing throughout the passage. "Why did you come this far?"

"Well, for a start," I said with a sarcastic tone. "You dragged me here."

"You didn't exactly resist."

"For revenge, then.

"That's all?"

"What else is there?" As I said it, Alyse stopped and turned to look at me.

"You know, Fey." She said. No one has called me by that name ever since my mother died. "Revenge is a fire. It fuels our hearts and minds to keep that fire going on, and in return that fire motivates us towards a certain goal. But fire consumes and whatever our minds and hearts do to keep the fire going gets consumed by it. And when we accomplish our goal, the fire dies, leaving us tired and exhausted. So when the fire of revenge burns out of you, what then?"

I paused. Yes it's true that lately I have just been consumed by the fire of revenge. I literally jumped on the first opportunity for revenge that went my way. I didn't even say goodbye to the rest of my family, to little Nathan, to my cousins. But now I'm so close to finding the murderer of my parents that fire rages on, filling my body with so much energy that I somehow cannot channel into doing anything else other than towards attaining my revenge. But what comes after?

"I do not know." I said honestly. "I don't know, Alyse. I mean, I can't go back. I literally deserted my family the moment I jumped on the back of Levi the dragon. I... maybe I can start anew elsewhere. Maybe... I don't know." I have never been this frustrated or clueless before, my knees were trembling. Then revenge steadied my mind. "But first things first. I have to kill the man that robbed my parent's lives." And I went ahead of Alyse.

Her hand found my shoulder just as I passed her. "Alyse," she said. Her voice was steady and firm. "I am your friend. And I know that you know that so as proof of that, I promise to you now that I will be here for you. If you don't know what to do after having you revenge, I will be there beside you to help you in once again finding your life. This I promise with my life. And I make this oath with the spirits as the witness." She pressed her hand on my chest, where my heart beats underneath. A purple light shone from where she was pressing her hand and at the same location on her own chest. A minute later, it subsided and I peeked inside my chest and saw a purple seal, two serpents wrapped around a double edged blade.

I don't know what the symbol really meant but my heart was touched and hugged Alyse. Tears were streaming from my eyes.

"That's enough now." Alyse said when we separated. "First things first. Let's go get your revenge."