The Ocean's Heart (The Dragons of Flareia Book 2)

Chapter 21 - Davri

           

The Umbrassi Crypts

26th Year of the Ocean

The Last Day of the Fifth Moon

Once again, Davri sat upon the ledge of Mount Illumina, miles above Illustris. The strange journal sat in his lap, but he couldn't bring himself to read anymore. Every word he read made shivers run down his spine, as if they were peppered with magic purely to make him feel as if he was being watched. He knew the knowledge was useful, knew the previous Dragonheir had insisted he have it, yet he preferred to be ignorant for the time being than to have another ancient force watching him and everyone around him.

Instead of reading, he had opened it to the end pages and found them left blank. With a small, jagged rock from the mountain, he began sketching out the layout of Umbrassé's capital city. If he was the first foreigner to see it in two-hundred years, he'd be damned if he didn't record it in some way, even if it was by vandalising what was potentially a very important artefact of ancient Flareian Dragonlore.

He sketched out the Stella Turnium first, the way it wrapped around the city like a coil of rope. He wished there was some way he could copy down the way it glowed after the sun set, but there were some things that couldn't be put down on paper. Then he marked out the bridges across it. From his place on the mountain, he could see only three – each passing into what Corrian had told him was The Barren, the poorer side of the capital city that had eventually become a city of sorts in its own right.

From there he traced the layouts of the streets running towards the Palace of Stars – the city was near enough a circle, the palace in the centre of it all, and most streets led straight to it. When he'd mapped out all the streets of Illustris, he paused, the rock hovering above the page. The next step would be to record the street names, the important buildings. But aside from the Palace of Stars, he had no idea. He sighed and placed the rock back where he found it.

So, he flipped to the front of the journal instead, skipping to the page he'd stopped reading.

It did not take long for the first dragon to learn the limits of their immortality, it read. The price of immortality is that immortality is a lie. For the dragons truly could die – and Flareia wept.

He froze. The knowledge that dragons could die was not new to him – many Venti Scholars had concluded it possible. What made him freeze was that "Flareia wept". There were no records in Flareian history of a dragon dying, although he supposed it had happened before, in the times of the Old Kingdom. Which dragon died in the last two-hundred years? Where were the records of its death? Why did even Venteer have no knowledge of it?

He was about to read on when the sound of a scream floated up from inside the crypts. Eyes wide, Davri shoved the journal back into his coat pocket and scrambled inside. He didn't need to be there to know – someone had been taken by the aegrumbre.

When he reached the bottom of the steep incline towards the ledge, and stepped into the light of Corrian's evergreen, he realised it was not only one person who had been taken, but many. The three Gratus princesses were crowding Varille, pulling at her hair and her clothes. The two Bellus princesses and one remaining Sophos were huddled together in the grass, grasping onto each other for safety. Maylif stood close to Varille, but seemed frozen, as if she was unsure how to handle the princesses, even when she knew Varille shouldn't be harmed. Her shoulders relaxed slightly when she glanced up and met Davri's eyes.

He rushed over to the Gratus princesses and thrust out his hand, sending the three of them flying backwards in the air, away from Varille. He hurried to the Queen's side, smoothing her hair with his hands.