When Destiny Burns, Ep. 1: A Halo and Inheritance Cycle Crossover

Chapter 7. 3 Poison pt. 1

Approximately seven hours later, dragonhold.

Saphira woke Eragon with a sharp nod of her snout, bruising him with her hard jaw.

"Ouch!" He exclaimed and sat upright. The cave was dark, except for a taint glow emanating from the lantern. Outside in the dragonhold, the dwarves' Isidar Mithrim, the star rose, glittered with a hundred different colours.

And an agitated dwarf was illuminated by that light, standing in the entrance to the cave while wringing his hands.

"You must come Argetlam! Great trouble –Ajihad summons you. There is no time!"

"What's wrong?" Eragon asked.

The dwarf only shook his head, his beard flapping around while he did. "Go, you must! Carkna bragha! Now!"

Eragon belted on his sword, Zar'roc, before reaching for his bow and arrows and climbing onto Saphira's seat.

'So much for a good night's sleep,' She groused, crouching low to the floor so that he could climb onto her back.

Orik was waiting for them at Tronjheim's gates, with a very grim expression on his face.

"Come, the others are waiting," Orik told him and let him through the city-mountain to Ajihad's study. Along the way. Eragon pelted him with questions about the urgency of the situation, but the dwarf only replied with "I don't know myself, Ajihad will tell more" and left it at that.

The large study-door was opened by a pair of large guards, revealing the interior of the room. Ajihad was standing behind his desk, bleakly inspecting a map. Arya and a man with thick arms were there as well. The other rider was nowhere to be seen –for which Eragon was silently grateful.

Ajihad looked up. "Good, you're here Eragon. Meet Jörmundur, my second in command.

They acknowledged each other, then turned their attention to Ajihad.

"I roused the five of you because we are all in great danger. We must only wait for one more person before I can start to explain."

Eragon tried to meet Arya's gaze, but the elf only held attention for the large door from where the latecomer would arrive. Was it just him, or did Arya look nervous? She had her hand on the pommel of her sword and her muscles were tensed. Was she still as disturbed by the other rider as Saphira was?

After thirty seconds of awkward silence, during which Ajihad and Jörmundur continued to stare at the map, the door opened.

Everyone instantly tensed up even more and reached for weapons, but the only person who was standing in the frame of the door was the armoured rider. He was armed with his black devices like always and he looked ready for trouble.

Not that Eragon had seen him NOT ready for trouble.

Arya frowned, but Ajihad seemed strangely relieved.

"Good, you are here."

"Rather slow!" The second-in-command remarked.

The rider stepped inside of the room and his strange, jeweled helmet turned towards Jörmundur.

"Blame the messenger. What's the situation?"

The sheer professionalism with which the rider handled an apparent crisis was oddly unsettling. Eragon reminded himself that this person could not be much older than he was, but the difference between the two of them was very obvious. He needed to do better.

"We are all in grave danger," Ajihad then said. "About half an hour ago, a dwarf ran out of an abandoned tunnel under Tronjheim. He was bleeding and nearly incoherent, but he had enough sense left to tell the dwarves what was pursuing him: an army of urgals, maybe a day's march from here."