Stone Sacrifice ✔️Chronicles of Grey BOOK ONE [COMPLETED]

Chapter Eleven

"You should take a break, get some rest."

I sighed, rubbing at my forehead where an ache was starting. "I almost got it."

Arion sat down next to where I knelt and held out his bladder of water. Struck by the odd kindness, I resented and slid off my knees into a more comfortable position and accepted it. I took a drink, only then realizing how thirsty I was, and looked around to see Rian and Jaz were sleeping on the ground by the gate, out of my way. Aitch was finally done trying to ply the dragon stones from the ground and rubbing at his sore fingers, looking like he would pass out standing up; it was late, and we had been here longer then I thought.

"How does this work, exactly?"

I returned my gaze to Arion. "What? The gate?"

"The code."

Ah. "These markings on the floor are like a map of the seasons and time. The light reflects and hits the crystals, telling what year, season, hour, and time quarter that it is. Those four crystals," I motioned to the fist sized elven glass crystal set inside the symbols, "tell me how to translate the numbers into symbols by reflecting onto the walls." I sighed. "And those symbols can be translated if I moved them into the proper position. Once that is done, the code is revealed by a mechanism inside the walls that move the mirrors so they shine onto the proper numbers on the floor. Which in turn is entered into the stones on the edge of the gate in elven. Then the gate is activated until we enter the same code into the stones on the other side."

He blinked and raised an eyebrow as he looked around. "And you can do all this?"

I would have been insulted by his surprised tone if I'd been having a better job of it.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead again, feeling frustrated. "It's not adding up right. I can read the code just fine, but it's wrong,"

"How can it be wrong?"

"It's claiming it's the third month of the seven hundredth year, the eighth day, and nearly mid night."

"Ah. Very wrong then."

"Only by a few hundred years and a season or so." I grumbled and then let out a frustrated noise. "I'm missing something. I have to be."

"Maybe you're translating it wrong. Elven is such a difficult language to learn and-"

"I'm not-" I cut myself off, realizing I was yelling. I lowered my voice. "I'm not translating it wrong. I know all the codes. I know the language so well I can speak it fluently. Bän e'vfas fearignla, tą-vetrorya banǡvf!"

He raised an eyebrow at me.

I sighed. "It basically means that I'm an idiot." I paused. "I may have also cursed the elves into losing their tongues."

He chuckled and took the water back from me. Taking a swig, he capped it and handed me a flask. "Something stronger."

I took it, running my hands through my hair to get it out of my face so I could drink safely - a habit I aquired while cursed with bad luck as I'd nearly choked on my own hair at one point. I took a drink, grimaced, and handed it back. "I'll get this." I said firmly, glaring at the dragon stones. "I have to get there."

"Why? I mean, I understand why, but is it really so important? Jaz told me she's heard of the Nägo Parğm, she said it's not that big of a deal. Worth a lot of course, but not worth a thousand dragon crystals."

I hadn't known he'd been double checking my word. "It's not the box but what's inside it."

"Which is?"