Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 67: The Test

It was ages before the passage ended at a smooth stone wall. The only marks on it were a pair of hand-shaped indentations at chest height. Farot drew the Dragoneye Dagger from its sheath and started waving it around in front of the hand-prints. He even tried poking them with the dagger, but nothing happened. Then he turned to me.

"Open it."

"Open door!" I announced dramatically, throwing my arms up.

Farot's look of surprise when that didn't work almost made me laugh. "Open it or else."

"I don't know how." I crossed my arms. "I've only seen the dagger once before now, and Clarisa didn't give me any more instructions about it."

His neck runes glowed red, and I winced in pain as he delved through my memories.

"Hold the dagger yourself." He'd obviously seen my memories of the dagger glowing when I touched it.

"I'd rather try shouting at it again."

His free hand went to the sliver whistle at his throat.

I took the dagger. "No need to do something drastic."

The dagger glowed brightly at my touch, and Farot took a step back. I placed my free hand on a hand-print, and both indentations started glowing green. A male voice seemed to speak from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"Greetings, mages. Proceed to the testing chamber."

Farot went through the opening that appeared. I followed him into the next chamber. One of his men, a blond elent who had his wand trained on me, came through as well. As soon as he came through, the stone wall rose again to block us off from the rest of his men and the thunderbeasts.

"What did you do?" Farot demanded.

"Nothing." I shrugged and hoped we wouldn't be trapped in the chamber for long. It was a huge cavern with an arching stone ceiling, which meant it was large enough not to feel claustrophobic. Still, the lack of exits was freaking me out.

Farot advanced on me with the dagger drawn. "I will not go on with only Oren as an escort. Let my other men pass, or I will-"

"You can threaten me all you want, but I literally didn't do anything. The wall closed on its own, and there aren't any hand-prints on this side."

He scowled, but he seemed to understand that I was telling the truth. He turned back to face the stalagmites in the middle of the room.

I thought about what being cut off from the others meant. Farot probably still could summon a sliver if he needed to. They could go so fast that they could vibrate their way through solid objects. There might be some kind of enchantment on the chamber that wouldn't let them in, but I wasn't about to risk the lives of my friends to test that.

"Who will be tested first?" The Voice from earlier asked, booming throughout the cavern.

Farot nodded at me.

"What kind of test is it?" I asked.

"Your memories will be searched for evidence of your values. Only mages who came here with pure intentions will be allowed into the portal chamber," the Voice answered.

Farot came closer to me and spoke quietly. "The dagger contains the memories of several past mages deemed 'pure' by this place. You will take the test three times."

"Who will be tested first?" The Voice repeated, sounding annoyed that no one had answered.

"I will," I said.

"Stand and be tested."

Everything went dark.

The cavern was replaced with a memory of when I'd first flown with Leera, before I knew she was sentient. It was the day I'd met Callah and burned Sarafin's hands. Leera was furious and flew wildly, trying to frustrate me. She landed hard and threw me off her back, then I stormed off. I was so upset that I shot fire out of my hands when Sarafin landed near me on his gold dragon.