Stone Sacrifice ✔️Chronicles of Grey BOOK ONE [COMPLETED]

Chapter Ten

The footsteps of the others were completely silent, their Shadow magic hiding their sound. It made me feel as if I were walking alone though I could see that I was not as Arion stood just ahead of me, flaming hand raised high for better sight, though there wasn't much to see.

Correction: there was much to see, we just could not see far.

The walls of the tunnel were riddled in pictures, scripts and codes. There were also warnings written in languages long dead, and scratches in the stone telling us to turn back while we were still able.

Among all this were gouges made from claws, or of armor scratching across the stone, along with the occasional stain of blood.

"Turn to the right up here." I whispered to Arion. "Take the stairs down to the lowest floor available."

He did as I demanded, pausing first to search up and down the stairs before starting down them carefully, avoiding the loose stones and crumbled railing. Rian remained at my side, his hand constantly on my shoulder to keep me close. Aitch and Jaz were in the rear, guarding our backs as we went along.

"How do you have a map?" Arion whispered.

"I told you, we recently discovered-"

"I had to deny the Beoworth's when they asked me to come into these very mountains. I did much research in why it was impossible for me to do as he asked so I would not be killed for disobeying. I found enough evidence that the king agreed with me and gave up his search for the White Stone." He went silent as he stopped to listen carefully before turning a corner. After a moment, we continued walking and he continued speaking. "One of the facts that I was able to present was that there is no map. The last to walk through these mountains without dying were the elves, and even they lost most of their men."

I debated a moment, then decided there was no harm in telling the truth... at least part of it.

"It was gifted to us by an elf historian whom is a descendant of those that once lived here when it was a kingdom itself."

He glanced at me briefly. "Gifted?" He asked, then: "You've been outside of Nahdiera?"

"Up these stairs."

We stepped over a skeleton that was riddled with ancient goblin arrows then went to another staircase. It took us up three floors but the stairs were crumbled to dust in some places, making our walk even more dangerous. "Left." I said at the top.

"Gifted?" He asked again.

I grimaced slightly but at least he'd forgotten about the fact that I had been outside Nahdiera when the stone prevented anyone from leaving.

"There's a jewel inside the Nägo Parğm. This jewel cleanses waters upon touching it. The elves are dying because of something in the water they drink and so the historian gifted me the codes and map with the hopes that I will gift his people the jewel. Their lives depend on this mission we are on, my reward is to take whatever I wish."

This was almost true. In honesty, the elven king - one of the only others safe from the mind of the stone - told Jovian where and how to go and get what I needed. Not because he wanted the jewel, but because he wanted Marqis off the throne as much as I. He could not attack Marqis because of the Grey Stone. He was as trapped as the rest of us.

Until I killed Marqis, of course.

However, knowing my journey would be a long one and that I would need even more than what was inside the Black Mountain, the elven king had asked that we gain the jewel for him so that his people could survive long enough for that day to come... but as so that if I failed, they were not hopeless.