Dragon Legends (Return of the Darkening Book 2) by Ava Richardson Page B
Authors: Ava Richardson
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meant picking someone up and dropping them back onto the ground from a great height.
Kalax sniffed the air and I could sense she was on alert, but she was also certain the site hadn’t been used recently.
After a few hours of searching and finding nothing but rocks, Thea crouched down. Her voice lifted with excitement. “Seb! Look!”
I turned to see her pull up a rusted lump of metal. It was worn by time, but you could still make out faint designs of whorls and lines. This wasn’t a naturally occurring metal. I took it from her. “It’s an axe head. But any wild man could have dropped this up here.” I ran my thumb over the blade and wondered what smithy had made it. I also pointed to the marks on the blade. “It was well-made at one time.” Sunlight glinted on the dull metal. I bent down and found a rusted shard with the shape of an arrow point. Before long we even found a scrap of metal from a ruined breastplate.
But no Armor Stone—nothing that even came close to a dragon’s egg.
Thea kicked at a rock. It didn’t move. “Okay, so a battle was fought here. But the legend said that the king offered a duel, and it was the power of the Armor Stone that saved his life.” She huffed out a breath. “It’s just…I don’t feel it’s here.” She looked at me, her mouth pulled down and a hard expression in her eyes, almost as if she was daring me not to believe her. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Well, you’re the one who wanted to come here.” I kicked at the dirt and a faintly irregular black stone tumbled free. Grabbing it, I saw it had a crack on one side and was slightly larger than any dragon’s egg that I’d ever seen. “What about this?”
“Too big, isn’t it?” Thea pointed to where similar bits of black obsidian lay. “That looks like the other rock you can find here.”
Large and small bits of the shiny, black stone—some roughly egg-shaped and others no bigger than a thumbnail—littered the ground. I collected any that were both black and more or less egg-shaped, but I wasn’t sure I had found anything.
“What did the Healing Stone look like?” I asked. I was trying to think back to it myself. I remembered the light, spilling out of Commander Hegarty’s hands, and I remembered the tingle of power and energy that had flowing over me. “The light—it was so bright it blinded me. I don’t even remember its outline. The Memory Stone—all I remember about that was that Lord Vincent wore it around his neck on a chain.”
Thea turned away and mumbled, “Don’t know.”
“You didn’t see the Healing Stone at all?”
“I said no,” she snapped, her voice flat. She sounded so lost. She also shivered.
Looking up, I saw that we’d been here most of the day. Striding back to where Kalax sat in the sun, trying to catch any warmth, I told her, “Come on. Let’s go.”
I couldn’t help but feel this had been a wasted journey.
We flew back in silence, my saddle-bags full of clinking, egg-shaped rocks.
*
Chapter 6:
The Fight
“They’re just a big old bunch of rocks!” I looked at Seb and then at Merik and finally at Varla.
Seb and I had returned from the Leviathan Mountains cold and tired. I wasn’t hungry, but Seb brought me up a hot drink from the kitchen. I hadn’t wanted it, but once I had it in my hands, I’d drunk it down. I had hoped that Merik and Varla would at least return from Wynchwood with better news. But they’d brought back their own collection of cracked, worn, and roughened black stones even more useless than Seb’s collection.
We’d gathered in my room—boys weren’t supposed to be here, but Matron wouldn’t do a room check until after dinner. Varla had pulled in a low table from another room, and everyone had spread out their rocks.
Nothing on the low table looked like any kind of stone of power.
Seb’s rocks looked like they’d come out of a volcano at some point—they were rough and sharp-edged. Merik and Varla’s rocks
Kalax sniffed the air and I could sense she was on alert, but she was also certain the site hadn’t been used recently.
After a few hours of searching and finding nothing but rocks, Thea crouched down. Her voice lifted with excitement. “Seb! Look!”
I turned to see her pull up a rusted lump of metal. It was worn by time, but you could still make out faint designs of whorls and lines. This wasn’t a naturally occurring metal. I took it from her. “It’s an axe head. But any wild man could have dropped this up here.” I ran my thumb over the blade and wondered what smithy had made it. I also pointed to the marks on the blade. “It was well-made at one time.” Sunlight glinted on the dull metal. I bent down and found a rusted shard with the shape of an arrow point. Before long we even found a scrap of metal from a ruined breastplate.
But no Armor Stone—nothing that even came close to a dragon’s egg.
Thea kicked at a rock. It didn’t move. “Okay, so a battle was fought here. But the legend said that the king offered a duel, and it was the power of the Armor Stone that saved his life.” She huffed out a breath. “It’s just…I don’t feel it’s here.” She looked at me, her mouth pulled down and a hard expression in her eyes, almost as if she was daring me not to believe her. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Well, you’re the one who wanted to come here.” I kicked at the dirt and a faintly irregular black stone tumbled free. Grabbing it, I saw it had a crack on one side and was slightly larger than any dragon’s egg that I’d ever seen. “What about this?”
“Too big, isn’t it?” Thea pointed to where similar bits of black obsidian lay. “That looks like the other rock you can find here.”
Large and small bits of the shiny, black stone—some roughly egg-shaped and others no bigger than a thumbnail—littered the ground. I collected any that were both black and more or less egg-shaped, but I wasn’t sure I had found anything.
“What did the Healing Stone look like?” I asked. I was trying to think back to it myself. I remembered the light, spilling out of Commander Hegarty’s hands, and I remembered the tingle of power and energy that had flowing over me. “The light—it was so bright it blinded me. I don’t even remember its outline. The Memory Stone—all I remember about that was that Lord Vincent wore it around his neck on a chain.”
Thea turned away and mumbled, “Don’t know.”
“You didn’t see the Healing Stone at all?”
“I said no,” she snapped, her voice flat. She sounded so lost. She also shivered.
Looking up, I saw that we’d been here most of the day. Striding back to where Kalax sat in the sun, trying to catch any warmth, I told her, “Come on. Let’s go.”
I couldn’t help but feel this had been a wasted journey.
We flew back in silence, my saddle-bags full of clinking, egg-shaped rocks.
*
Chapter 6:
The Fight
“They’re just a big old bunch of rocks!” I looked at Seb and then at Merik and finally at Varla.
Seb and I had returned from the Leviathan Mountains cold and tired. I wasn’t hungry, but Seb brought me up a hot drink from the kitchen. I hadn’t wanted it, but once I had it in my hands, I’d drunk it down. I had hoped that Merik and Varla would at least return from Wynchwood with better news. But they’d brought back their own collection of cracked, worn, and roughened black stones even more useless than Seb’s collection.
We’d gathered in my room—boys weren’t supposed to be here, but Matron wouldn’t do a room check until after dinner. Varla had pulled in a low table from another room, and everyone had spread out their rocks.
Nothing on the low table looked like any kind of stone of power.
Seb’s rocks looked like they’d come out of a volcano at some point—they were rough and sharp-edged. Merik and Varla’s rocks
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