Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Eighteen: Iridescent

"He's so big!" Alethea squawked in amazement. While she was fawning over the size of Glaedr, my eyes were fixed on the elf that sat on the dragon. My eyes traveled to what was left of Glaedr's front leg. It was just a mass of white scarred tissue. I heard Eragon gasp. He must have finally seen Glaedr's stump.

Glaedr landed, and Oromis carefully made his way to the ground before approaching Eragon and me.

"Osthato Chetowä," Eragon said. "The Mourning Sage... As you asked, I have come. Atra esterní ono thelduin."

Oromis smiled at Eragon lifted him by the shoulders back to his feet.

"Oromis is my proper name, Eragon Shadeslayer." He then turned to me. "Khensamel Dröttningu, I have long hoped that we would meet."

"You knew," Islanzadí whispered with a hurt expression that quickly transformed into a storm of rage. "You knew of Eragon's and Khensamel's existence, and yet you did not tell me? Why have you betrayed me, Shur'tugal?"

"I kept my peace because it was uncertain if Eragon, Khensamel, or Arya would live long enough to come here; I had no wish to give you a fragile hope that might have been torn away at any moment." Islanzadí spun around, sending her cape of swan feathers flying.

"You had no right to withhold such information from me! I could have sent warriors to protect Arya, Khensamel, Alethea, Eragon, and Saphira in Farthen Dûr and to escort them safely here."

Oromis smiled sadly at the irate Islanzadí. "I hid nothing from you, Islanzadí, but what you had already chosen not to see. If you had scryed the land, as is your duty, you would have discerned the source of the chaos that has swept Alagaësia and learned the truth of Arya and Eragon. That you might forget the Varden and the dwarves in your grief is understandable, but Brom? Vinr Älfakyn? The last of the Elf Friends? You have been blind to the world, Islanzadí, and lax upon your throne. I could not risk driving you further away by subjecting you to another loss."

Islanzadí's anger drained away, leaving her face pale and her shoulders slumped. "I am diminished." Glaedr bent his head down to look at Eragon and me.

"We are well met, Eragon Shadeslayer. Khensamel Dröttningu. I am Glaedr."

"I am honored." Eragon and I murmured. Glaedr then moved his attention to Saphira and Alethea. He sniffed both of them.

"You smell of humans," Glaedr rumbled. "and all you know of your own race is what your instincts have taught you, but you two have the heart of a true dragon."

Oromis turned his attention back to Eragon and me, glancing at Islanzadí

"Islanzadí Dröttning, by your leave?"

"Go," She responded wearily. "Go and be done with you." Glaedr crouched low to the ground, allowing Oromis to nimbly climbed up his leg and into the saddle on his back. "Come, Eragon and Saphira. Khensamel and Alethea. We have much to talk about."

The gold dragon leaped off the cliff and circled overhead, rising on an updraft. Eragon turned to Orik and clasped arms "Bring honor to your clan,"

I vaulted up Alethea's side shortly before she dived off of the cliff and spiraled her way up to Glaedr's altitude. When Saphira and Eragon joined us in the air, Oromis and Glaedr banked north. We flew for several miles until we reached an area that held a small wooden hut. A small stream bubbled away to the right of the hut and disappeared into the forest.