Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Forty-Nine: Brilliant

"And mine Glaedr Eldunarí, son of Nithring, she of the long tail." We waited for a response, of course, the vault wasn't going to be opened this easily.

"Try again, but this time, say your piece in the ancient language," Glaedr advised. We repeated our names in the ancient language nothing happened. I saw Eragon's face grow with unease. I frowned at the stone until a thought came to my mind.

"Our true names," I whispered. "We have to say our true names."

"But if it's a trap." Saphira and Alethea said.

"Then it is a most devilish trap," Glaedr said. "The question you must decide is this: do you trust Solembum? For to proceed is to risk more than our lives; it is to risk our freedom. If you do trust him, can you be honest enough with yourselves to discover your true names, and quickly too? And are you willing to live with that knowledge, however unpleasant it might be? Because if not, then we should leave this very moment. I have changed since Oromis's death, but I know who I am. But do you? Can you really tell me what it is that makes you the dragon and Rider you are?

It was two days later that we discovered our true names. Eragon and I hurried to put our gear on before venturing before the Stone of Kuthain. It was still early morning, and the sun shone brightly through large tears in the canopy of clouds. Eragon had wanted to go directly to the Rock of Kuthian, but Glaedr had insisted that we eat first, and then wait for the food to settle in our stomach. Unfortunately for me, the food that was supposed to settle came right back up by a large Cherry tree.

After I finished gagging, I wiped my hand across my mouth as Eragon came over with the waterskin.

"We're supposed to be settling our stomachs, not upsetting them," Eragon told me while snorted at him and washed my mouth out with the water.

"I think the stress of everything is finally taking its toll." I sighed as I straightened up. "We're at war, I've got a potential marriage ceremony looming over my head, not to mention the Varden deems me their queen."

"I'd say it's stress." Eragon agreed before we set out for the jagged spire of stone, both Eragon and Saphira were itching to open the vault.

"I'll go first," Glaedr said. "If it's a trap, I might be able to spring it before it catches any of you."

We started to pull our mind away from Glaedr, as did our dragons, to allow our Master to utter his true name without being overheard.

"No, you have told me your names. It is only right you should know mine."

"Thank you, Ebrithil." The four of us muttered. Then Glaedr spoke his name. His name was longer than any of ours; it went on for several sentences—a record of a life that had stretched over centuries and which had contained joys and sorrows and accomplishments too numerous to count. His wisdom was evident in his name, but also contradictions: complexities that made it difficult to fully grasp his identity.

"I feel so naïve," I muttered to myself.

"You are not naïve, you are young." Glaedr corrected me. "Saphira, Alethea."

Both dragons spoke their names before Eragon, and I stepped forward. I said my name, and then Eragon went next. As he finished a crack appeared in the rock, It ran fifty feet upward and then split in two and arched down to either side, tracing the outline of two broad doors. Upon the doors appeared row after row of glyphs limned in gold: wards against both physical and magical detection.

Once the outline was complete, the doors swung outward upon hidden hinges, scraping aside the dirt and plants that had accumulated before the spire since the doors had last opened, whenever that had been. Through the doorway was a vast vaulted tunnel that descended at a steep angle into the bowels of the earth.

The doors ground to a halt, and the clearing fell silent again. We stared at the dark tunnel. Was this what we came for, or was it a trap?

"Solembum did not lie," Saphira said. Her tongue darted out as she tasted the air.

"Yes, but what's waiting for us inside?" Eragon asked.

"This place should not exist," Glaedr said. "We and the Riders hid many secrets on Vroengard, but the island is too small for a tunnel as large as this to have been built without others knowing. And yet I have never heard of it before."

"Could it have been built before the Riders made Vroengard their home?" I asked, stepping closer to the dark tunnel.

"I do not know. ... Perhaps. It is the only explanation that makes sense, but if so, then it is ancient indeed."

"Let us dig out the rat hiding in this nest." Alethea softly growled from my shoulder. Together, we walked through the doorway and into the tunnel. As the last inch of Saphira's tail slid over the threshold, the doors swung shut behind them and closed with a loud crack of stone meeting stone, plunging them into darkness.

I spun around in a panic, we were locked in.

"Ah, no, no, no!" Eragon growled, rushing back to the doors. "Naina hvitr."

The inner surfaces of the doors were perfectly smooth, and no matter how Eragon pushed and pounded on them, they refused to budge.

"Blast it. We should have used a log or a boulder to wedge them open," Eragon muttered.

"I'm not so sure that would have worked Eragon," I replied. "We should go forward. We have no choice, and we've come this far."

We walked deeper and deeper into the earth. The tunnel neither turned nor branched, and the walls remained utterly bare. After a while, I noticed a faint orange glow in the distance. Eragon diminished his light. Soon we were able to see an end to the tunnel: a huge black arch that was covered entirely with sculpted glyphs, which made the arch look as if it were wrapped in thorns.

"I can't read the glyphs, can you?" I said, craning my head up to examine the carvings.

"I can't read them either," Eragon responded.

"Time to get some answers," I said before stepping through the arch with Eragon and Saphira on my heels.