Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) (47 page)

"The catacombs?" I gasped. "But there are…monsters inside of it!" I was distantly aware that I sounded like a small child afraid of the dark.

"Monsters?" Arioch looked surprised. "What in Gaia's name are you talking about?"

I described to him our encounters with the Zombie Hulks, and Arioch looked suddenly worried.

"Well, that isn't right," he said. "I cast the spells myself. They should only come to life if someone not of blood enters the tombs, and I took great care in fabricating wards so that they could not leave."

"Wait—you made those things?" I asked.

"No, I did not make them, child," Arioch said, looking startled. "Only dark magic could create such vitriol. Dark mages of old created the curse that transformed dead into kytharii centuries ago. When the dark mages created the kytharii, they were a great terror upon this land, though over the years, many of the people have forgotten them. They've been reduced to frightening tales of myth, and the people have my tampering to thank for that. However, I couldn't destroy the curse, so I trapped the kytharii in the great hall."

It sounded like he had said kai-thar-ee. "Kytharii?"

"The dead you speak of. That is their Karthan name, though no one speaks Karthan anymore. As I said before, I was not able to destroy the curse, so I lured them into the Hall of the Dead and tampered with their curse. I made it so they wouldn't wake unless an intruder entered the Hall of the Dead. Regardless, they shouldn't attack you. You're a Draconi." And then he paused, his eyes narrowed. "But you're also a Regius, and I took great pains against that line."

"Were the Regiuses even around when you tampered with the curse?" I asked.

"Oh, yes," he said through tight lips. "They were the first of the prominent families who lied about Galahad Estroian. The kytharii you encountered must sense the Regius side of you, though what I can't understand is why you found one on the southern beach and in the ravine. My wards should have made it impossible for them to escape the Hall."

"Maybe your wards are old," Thad said.

Arioch's expression was pensive as he rubbed his chin. "No. Something is happening, but I do not yet know what. It's almost as if…" His voice trailed and he looked back at me. "You didn't by chance happen to acquire a pendant from your mother, did you? A little crystal, about this big…" He pinched his forefinger to his thumb.

"I do have one," I said. "My father gave it to me when I entered this world. He said it had belonged to my mother."

Arioch looked satisfied. "It did. It's a rare stone, made from dragon fire. It will react to your blood and should overshadow the Regius inside of you."

"Well, that's great, because I left it in Valdon," I said.

Arioch rubbed his chin. "Hm. I'm surprised Tran didn't tell you to bring it along. He should have known you would need it. Perhaps he forgot because of his own errand."

"He drew me a picture of it," I smarted bitterly, digging in my pocket for his folded note.

Arioch gasped in relief. "Ah, good."

"Good?" I handed him the slip of paper. "I'm not sure how a drawing is going to help…"

Even as I watched, Arioch dipped his fingers into the page, and when he pulled them back out, a shimmering crystal dangled upon a silver chain. It was my mother's necklace—the very same one I'd tucked safely away in my bedside drawer.

I gasped. "How did you…? How did he…?"

But Thad was the one who actually formed a coherent statement. "How in the blazes did you do that?" His hair was sticking out all over his head, and he looked a little bit crazy.

Arioch made a face that suggested he wasn't about to divulge his and his brother's artistic talents. Though if the fresco outside were any indication, I thought Arioch's talent was probably greater. "Tran must have remembered a little late," Arioch said, sounding reproachful of Tran even in his absence. "Best put this on." Arioch handed me the necklace and the paper.

I slipped the chain over my head, and when I looked at the paper, the drawing was no longer there. I folded the note and put it back in my pocket.

"Don't take that off," Arioch said, holding a finger up as if scolding. "Now, Tran also informed me that Nightshade is in your possession."

"Nightshade?"

"That." He pointed to the hilt of my dagger, just visible from beneath my cloak.

I found it extremely unsettling that another person could know so much more about me than I did.

Slowly, I pulled it from its sheath. The hilt warmed my palms as if suddenly springing to life, and a thread of warmth slid up my arm and through my torso, where it finally touched the stone now resting on my chest. A connection was made, then glittering runes appeared on the blade, shimmering and sliding over the surface of the metal just like the ones on the magical cuffs. The warmth pulsed in my chest and then faded, and the shimmering runes vanished.

"If I might ask, how did it come into your possession?" Arioch asked.

"I found it…in a stream," I replied.

"Interesting." He studied me, though his thoughts were elsewhere. "A very talented metalworker named Nevan made that blade a very long time ago. It was made with both light and dark magic, and therefore can penetrate even the otherwise obscure boundaries of life and death."

"Like spectars?" I asked.

He nodded. "And creatures that should be dead, like the kytharii. It is the only one of its kind. It wasn't made for the stone, per se, but their combined magic should feed one another and keep you protected. As I said, Nevan was very talented."

I resheathed my dagger. "What happened to Nevan?"

A shadow passed over Arioch's face. "That is, perhaps, another story for another time. For now, we must focus on the task at hand."

Yes, the task where I was supposed to march into a tomb of super-strength corpses and find a box. Only… "Arioch." I stood slowly from my stool, clasping my hands. "I came here looking for the box because I had thought it had the power to control the shield. I had felt…pulled to this land. But that isn't the reason I've been pulled here, is it? I was pulled here because of the Draconi. Not because the box will tell me how to overpower the shield."

Arioch placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed, his eyes sad as they looked into mine. "No, child. I'm afraid it will not tell you that." And then he paused, struck with a thought. "But the lost lineage of Galahad Estroian will be chronicled there, and if there is any hope in overtaking the shield's power, it would be by
his
heir."

Chapter 23

Hall of the Mostly Dead

A
nd that was how I found myself standing before the very last place on Gaia I had ever wanted to go: the Hall of the Dead.

Arioch Prime opened his front door, but the view outside was no longer the city of Karth. The view now boasted an old stone tower, squat and slightly leaning as though time had wearied it of holding shape and, like a middle-aged man, let its weight coalesce near the middle, giving it a sort of bulbous center. Balistrarias marked the walls, dark and much too narrow for anyone to see inside, though it would not keep those inside from peering out. There was a set of arched iron doors at the base of the tower, and engraved across the surface of both doors was the great symbol of the Draconi. The sky above was covered in a thick layer of clouds, providing an eerie backdrop to the ghostly object in front of me. It was like something straight out of a horror film, only this wasn't a film. This was my life. And when I looked back, there was no sign of Arioch's house.

"How far are we from Karth?" I asked.

"Only a few miles," he replied, "but I thought bringing you here this way might be easier than walking back through the city. Now, you must remember to keep your pendant on at all times. Just follow the path, and once you're inside, you'll know which way to go."

"What about the dead?" I asked. "What if they wake up?"

"They won't—not as long as you wear the necklace. It will keep your Regius blood hidden."

"And all I have to do is open the box and the breath will be restored?" I asked.

Arioch shook his head as a gust of wind ruffled his baggy trousers and tunic. "It is not so simple as that. We must perform a ritual in order for it to be restored properly." He put both hands on my shoulders and squeezed, gazing intensely into my eyes. "The box belongs to you, Daria Pandor Regius, last of the Draconi. I did not create such an array of spells and wards to keep
you
out; approach it with confidence." With a last squeeze, he released my shoulders. "Thaddeus will be here waiting when you return."

I exchanged a look with Thad. He looked about as wary as I felt. "What about you?" I asked Arioch Prime, but Arioch was no longer there. "Where did he go?"

Thad grunted. "Typical." His eyes flickered over my face while the wind ruffled his hair. "You sure you wanna do this? I've had nightmares that are more pleasant."

I looked back at the tower. "I don't see how I have much of a choice."

"But you heard what he said, Rook. There isn't anything in the box about the power of the shield."

I sighed, pushing the hair away from my forehead. "I know. But it may have record of the true heir. And besides, I didn't come all this way just to turn around when I arrived. Maybe…maybe this breath of dragons will be able to help us defeat Eris in other ways."

Thad's hazel eyes searched mine, and he reached out and grabbed my shoulder. He waited there a moment, seeing how I'd react to his contact, but I didn't pull back. And then he wrapped his arms around me. My body went rigid, and I eventually softened into him, wrapping my arms around him. He rested his chin on my head. "You'll be all right, Rook," he said gently. "You'll get the box and we'll get the blazes out of here and take you right back to Del Can't. And then we'll figure out what to do next. Don't think about Danton yet."

I snorted into his chest. "I wasn't until you brought him up."

Thad loosened his grip around me and pulled back to look into my face. "We've got this. I'm not going anywhere." And then he looked past me at the tower, dropping his embrace. "Even though I know I'm gonna have nightmares for months."

I chuckled and then faced the tower of terror. The wind gusted all around me as if it was trying to fill me with strength, and then slowly and steadily I walked to the entrance. The iron doors seemed to glare at me, each half of the Draconi symbol standing like some invisible threat. With a deep breath and one last glance at Thad, I pushed the door in and stepped inside.

Power shuddered through me as I walked through the threshold, like a great gust of chilled air. But even as my foot landed on the stone, my necklace pulsed against my sternum. It warmed until it grew hot, sending little rivers of heat through my body. Arioch must have placed some kind of ward even over the door.

I stood there a moment in the pitch-black while the heat faded into a dull warmth. A torch sprang to life on the wall beside me, illuminating the belly of the tower. From what I could tell, the tower was perfectly hollow inside, and little slices of gray marked the walls where the balistrarias were. Right in the center of the tower, standing in the middle of the stone floor, was a large and elegant sarcophagus, shiny black and perfectly rectangular with writing engraved all over the surface. I couldn't read the writing, however; it was in a language I didn't know. Aside from the sarcophagus, the rest of the chamber was empty. There were no doors or grates in the flooring—nothing that might indicate any sort of passage.

I had to be missing something.

I stepped closer to the sarcophagus and trailed my fingers lightly over it. The writing etched in the surface shimmered at my touch, sliding over it like it had done with the cuffs and my dagger. The little stone at my chest pulsed with warmth, and I noticed the raised symbol of the Draconi on the lip of the sarcophagus's lid. The symbol shimmered more brightly than anything else, and when I touched it, it felt warm. Holding my breath, I pushed it in.

Stone rumbled and I jumped back, startled, watching the sarcophagus rumble backwards across the stone floor until it stopped. The tower sounded extremely quiet. And right where the sarcophagus had been was a stone stair leading deeper underground. With a deep breath, I took the torch from the wall and descended.

My heart pounded as I walked down, breathing in the cold, stale air. My boots scraped on smooth stone as my little sphere of golden light encased me like a soft protective shell. Light slid over the roughly chiseled walls as beetles and spiders skittered out of sight, and the staircase ended in a tunnel. My knees wobbled as I continued forward, threads of cobwebs brushing over my face. There were so many cobwebs that I pulled my dagger free and swatted the tip of it through the air before me. The tunnel descended deeper, slanting downward, and the stone at the base of my throat pulsed a little warmer.

My palms sweat though the air was chilled and damp. There were certain points along the tunnel where the air felt thicker, like I was walking through some sort of invisible sludge. Every time my stone pulsed warmer, and I could only deduce that what I was experiencing were more of Arioch's wards. And then my path eventually leveled out and into a great, round chamber. It was like gazing at the underbelly of an underground dome of a cathedral. I held my torch up to get a better view, and my next step froze in place.

Corpses. Thousands of them.

It was like some kind of grand library, but instead of bookshelves, there were rows upon rows of stone beds with gray and rotted bodies lying on top of them. Arms were folded neatly over abdomens, eyes closed as though they were all sleeping. They were the exact same creatures we'd fought on the beach and seen down in the ravine, the ones Arioch had called the kytharii.

My pulse skyrocketed while the torch trembled in my hands. For a long, terrible second I just stood there in horror, the stone burning hot against my skin, while I waited for one of them to wake. I could hear the inhuman sound of their cries even in my mind, and if even one of them woke, I wouldn't stand a chance. I knew how fast they could run.