Draygon Inferno | Book 2 | ✔️

Chapter Ten

            Elias wiped the wet rag against his gills, allowing the water to roll along the back of his neck and under his robes. He tilted his head to stare up at the towering statue of the three-headed God spanning the length of the canyon opening. On the right, the flat face of the owl stared into the horizon with wide eyes. At the center, the cobra head looked upward, sharp fangs visible against the sand stone, the cobra's hood spread out like wings. Finally on the left, the Caracal joined in the owls gaze, elongated tufts of hair extending from the ears curled like exaggerated horns pointing behind it.

Books didn't do justice to the wonders of Ardornian carvings. Throughout their entire trip from the Oasis to the canyon of Terra Gale, Elias had seen wonderful sand carvings of each of the Ardornian Gods, both on their own and as the three headed beast he was familiar with. All were designed to balance with nature, eventually fade with the winds, and be re-united with the sands. It was a true marvel.

"How are you holding up?" Ross asked.

Elias turned his eyes away from the statues as he continued to follow the parade of The Silent feeding into the canyon and Terra Gale. He wiped his rag against his skin again and smiled. "I'm fine. As long as I keep wetting myself down and drinking, I'll be okay until we can get out of the sun."

"I don't understand why you're not riding in the pool the camels are pulling for you."

Elias chuckled. "Because I don't need to be in water all the time. It's fine for me to rest in it on occasion, as I have, but we're almost there." He pointed toward the other end of the canyon. Haze faded the palace in the distance, heat ripples distorted it further, but it drew closer with every step. From that distance it looked like a towering structure looming over the canyon's floor, but Elias knew the Ardornians would never build a structure so massive. It would be impossible to break down in a hurry.

He looked up to the high rising walls of the canyon, the jagged edges of sandstone covered in brush alternated in pattern, creating small shelves for animals to rest on. A gazelle stood on one, looking down as if she were ruling over the canyon. On the opposite side, a family of caracal bound from ledge to ledge, climbing out of the canyon to the deserts above.

Elias tapped the shoulder of one of The Silent before pointing up to the windmills spanning the top of the western ridge of the canyon. "Are those windmills?"

"Yes," the Silent signed. "They provide energy to the homes within the canyon when it gets too dark to see by or too windy for fire."

"How does that work? They look permanent."

"They are woven with wood that will degrade over time. Each year many are replaced."

Ross frowned. "I thought Ardornians don't use magic?"

The Silent smiled, her hands moving with the formation of her words. "We don't. This isn't magic. Winds are high in this area of the great sands, we have simply found a way to harness those winds and use them to our benefit. While this canyon offers great protection from the elements, the winds howl through it with regularity, earning it the name Terra Gale. Their power is a gift our Gods have graced us with."

"Fascinating," Elias murmured. He stopped walking to watch the blades turn slow. Many questions lingered in his curious mind about how they transferred that energy from the windmill to the buildings, but instead he turned his eyes away from the windmills and jogged to catch up with Ross. When life settled again, he made it a point to return to Ardorn and learn more about the people he knew so little of. Despite the many years of visits from the Ardornian royal entourage, none had discussed specifics of life on the desert islands. For all his books, he knew only of the landscape and the people, and nothing of the technology now displayed in full force at the top of the canyon. Harnessing the power of the wind was genius.