The Blood's Flame (The Dragons of Flareia Book 1)

Chapter 30 - Davri

           

The Venti Mountains, border of Venteer and Umbrassé

26th Year of the Ocean

Last Day of the Third Moon

City-Boy-Davri was complaining. Dragonheir-Davri remembered the Trial of the Wind – what City-Boy-Davri had thought was suffering. Dragonheir-Davri was quickly learning that the more you had to lose, the more you would suffer. City-Boy-Davri remembered Zero's words as he had claimed that both he and the Trial were insane; then you're exactly the Dragonheir we'll need. He had to stop himself from cursing the owl's name.

Zero had known the Trial of Wind was only the beginning.

Do not despair, Davri. Blissé murmured in his mind. Worse things happen to people who know too much. Look at Zero.

Look at Tellus. Davri added. I don't care about knowing my future. But some warning would have been nice.

Zero's visions are not always visions, Davri. They come in fragments, still images. They mislead us as often as they save us.

Davri nodded even though she was flying high above them and lifted a sleeping Varille higher on his back. How far to the border?

He wasn't sure how long they had been walking. He knew that as the sun had risen Blissé had moved them further away from Begraso – further away from the Bellus Queen – with a series of wind tunnels only she and Zero knew of. He also knew that on foot alone it would have taken almost a week to reach the Umbrassi border from the capital. Judging from the sun's position in the sky, it was about midday. They had been clambering up the rough mountain road for what had felt like days.

Now, there was a loud whoosh from above as Blissé landed on what must have been the peak of the mountain, but Davri couldn't be sure anymore. He had lost count of all the times he had thought they had reached the summit only to discover they had much further to go. He glanced over his shoulder at Corrian who was trudging alone between Maylif and a Gratus princess. Bacchi's news of Tellus had only made the Gaian Dragonheir more suspicious, more eager to reach Umbrassé.

There's not far at all. Blissé insisted.

Davri was filled with determination at her words and – hitching Varille higher once more – scrambled up what was left of the road to Blissé's side. When he reached the dragon, he nudged Varille gently, waking her before setting her on the snowy ground beside him. Propriety be damned, he found himself gripping the young Queen's hand. Then he turned his gaze to what lay beyond the Venti Mountains.

To his left the slope of the mountain quickly darkened in its descent, shifting from snowy Venti earth to the volcanic rock of Ignisia. Unlike Venteer, it wasn't hard to see the Ignisian border – the dark rock stretched in jagged lines across Flareia like a shadow. A red haze hung in the air above it, and in the distance, Davri could just make out the glowing red lava of Mount Igno in the centre. For a second it seemed as if Ignisia was void of all life, then he remembered they built their homes from the same rock they lived upon – from so far away, the whole civilisation camouflaged with the volcano.

To his right, there was nothing.

Well, there wasn't nothing, but that was all he could see. Where there should have been a sprawling, struggling desert nation, all he could see was red-gold sand that stretched as far as the eye could see. He knew what it was – a simple trick of the light, the Shadow Dragon bending light around the civilised sections of Umbrassé so it couldn't be seen by the outside world. It must have taken an incredible amount of power to hide the country so completely all the time.