The Storms of Arlow (The Kingdom of Dragons Book 1)

V - Crystal Magic

Apparently, a while meant more than two hours because even that amount of time wasn't enough to figure out how to open the door. At least it gave their wounds some time to rest, though.

Rhenor had no idea what Kaz was even doing, but he kept writing notes into a journal he had with him, muttering to himself, and crossing out things he'd written constantly. It made Rhen wonder just how rich Kaz's family was if he didn't have a problem wasting paper like this, but he held his tongue. It was none of his business.

They had set up a campfire by the door, mostly so that Kaz could see what he was doing—whatever that was. But if that hadn't been a concern, Rhenor would have set up camp on the other side of the cavern room. That door unnerved him. When he concentrated hard enough, he could almost hear the magic humming within the stone cubes, and it was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

Rhenor didn't trust magic of any kind, and yes, maybe it was because he just didn't understand it, but even beyond that—magic was dangerous and oftentimes unpredictable.

Rhenor glared at the piece of bread he was eating as the ground shook yet again, hard enough to force Rhen to lean onto his injured hand.

"Dammit it!" Kaz snapped at his journal where now a thick smudged line was, no doubt from how the ground had shaken just now. Rhenor said nothing as Kaz sprung up and started pacing, pulling at his hair. It was kind of funny to watch, though Rhenor would be lying if he said the frequency and strength of the earthquakes didn't concern him.

"How exactly is this door supposed to work?" Rhen asked, hoping it would distract Kaz at least for a little bit. He probably should have asked a while ago, but it was very clear by now that Kaz was much smarter than Rhenor, and Rhen was fine with not understanding everything.

Kaz turned around and breathed out deeply. "The concept is simple. These are draconic letters. All of them together are supposed to ask a question only a dragon, or someone they trust, would know the answer to, and you reply by touching the corresponding letters to make up your answer. But this...."

Kaz turned back around to face the amalgamation of stone cubes.

"This is just nonsense. I've tried all the possible ways I can think of to figure out the question, but it's still just a random jumble of letters."

He looked so miserable when he turned to face Rhenor again. And so guilty as well. Rhenor sighed, motioning to Kaz to sit down beside him. When the other man joined him Rhen handed him a piece of meat.

"This just doesn't make any sense," Kaz said through a mouthful of meat. "It's not every other letter, it isn't backward, it isn't vertical.... It isn't how it's supposed to be."

Rhenor frowned into the fire, trying to get this through his head. "This seems like an odd way to guard anything. Wouldn't a key be better?"

At that, a bit of the usual spark reentered Kaz's eyes. "On the contrary. A key can be stolen, and it would be cumbersome having to constantly pass it around. These doors are enchanted to switch between questions as well, and they can be about anything dragons generally don't talk about around humans, so it's next to impossible to prepare yourself ahead of time." Kaz was grinning now, as if he was completely in awe of the dragons' security systems. "Oh, and also it's all in draconian, so very few people can read it."

Kaz frowned. Rhen could almost see the gears in his head turning. "I suppose a barrier that would allow only dragons to cross would have been more secure, but sometimes they send trusted humans to check these artifacts."

"Because the lizards are too lazy?" Rhenor grumbled, making Kaz grimace.

"Well, um, possibly," he said, rubbing his earlobe. "But mostly because this system is too large for the dragons to deal with on their own. There are more than a hundred places like this one all over the kingdom."