Curse of the Stars Book 1

Chapter 12

Chapter XII

Stygian awoke to darkness. The candles had gone out and a chill settled deep within her bones. Some dragons were nocturnal, but Stygian wasn't one of them.

Or am I?

As she continued to stare at the abyssal darkness around her, edges and shadows began to form within her vision, blurry at first, but the abstract was becoming increasingly more concrete, and soon she could see the pale outlines of everything in the room, even her own claws.

That's new. She thought suspiciously. Does the Curse come with powers?

The little dragon was gone.

Stygian heaved herself to her feet, and coins scattered around her in loud tinkling sounds. She tried to remember what had happened last night, but it was all very foggy in her memory.

Turbulence agreed to teach me to read. Then...then what? Had they made any progress at all? Confusing symbols stained Stygian's memory, of letters, of drawings, of things she didn't yet understand. Yes. I saw many symbols yesterday. But I still don't understand what they mean.

The door groaned open just then, and it was such a startling, tremendous sound that the walls around her shook violently, spilling scrolls and sending jewels clattering to the ground as the marble heaved beneath her feet. Stygian sat bolt upright.

There's no way Turbulence could have left that way, or I would have been awake long ago!

But what came through the door wasn't Turbulence. It wasn't even a dragon.

A massive log tumbled to the floor, a silhouette against the murky gray dawn that leaked through. Small figures shoved it out of their way before entering the temple. They must have used it to force the heavy door open.

A light went up. Stygian leapt behind the carved railing as light flared the temple into a bright flame. Fire?! But it was catching, licking up skinny brass cylinder tubes she hadn't noticed before that were attached to the walls, and catching in lamp posts where the fire grew the brightest. My! It was a whole system of light!

Now that the whole temple was illuminated, Stygian heard gasps as the visitors spotted her. She lifted her neck cautiously, flaring out the webs along her throat and the spines along her back in warning. The creatures froze.

Humans. Have they come to pay gifts to Turbulence?

But Turbulence was still nowhere to be found, and this too registered in the human's eyes. They gawked up at her in terror, their jaws trembling. She heard whispers between them, there were six of them in all, and they threw fearful, suspicious glances her way. She only recognized one word, which the Wishing Dragon seemed to have cursed her to hear in any language.

...Starless Fiend!

They know. Her heart was a catapult in her chest. But they didn't look like they had any weapons on them. Who would dare bring weapons to a dragon they thought was a god? What would they do now? Would they run?

Stygian flared her wings so that her wingtips brushed the tapestries on the walls. The pink undersides of her wings were drained of their colour, much more than she remembered. Darkness was taking over.

Stygian despaired.

Instead she could see the leader give orders, and the other five made grunting noises as they dragged a heavy chunk of pure gold into the room. Diamonds studded its surface, so that when it caught the firelight it was like blazing water. The breath within Stygian's throat was stolen away from her at the sight of it, and she couldn't remove her eyes from its flaming brilliance.