Dragon Sword (The Dragon Lord’s Bride #2)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

I gaped at the overflowing mug as Will set the jar at his side. “What was that noise?” I asked him as he picked up the mug.

He reached into the mug and moved his fingers around for a moment before he drew out his dripping digits. Two of his fingers clasped something that resembled a stone key. “The side.”

I leaned forward and squinted. “What is it?”

“The access we need into the city,” he told me as he leaned toward me and held the key close between our faces. “This is the entrance into the passages below the city.”

I blinked at him. “You might it opens the door on the other side of the old bridge?”

He shook his head. “Not quite. It opens a door on an old bridge, but one that isn’t there any longer. The eagle and I destroyed many of them on our way down, as you’ll recall, and this is the key to a door on one of those bridges.”

“How did Alisa get that?” I asked him.

“I told you her parents were traders,” he mused as he tucked the key into his pocket. “They weren’t always welcome back into the city so at those times they would enter via one of the old gates using the key they found in the city’s archives, along with a map of the location of the ruined bridge.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Doesn’t the king know about this door? And all the others down in the vali?”

He nodded. “He does, but the access isn’t easy and the doors were all locked from the inside one by one as their bridges failed. Without a key, it’s almost impossible to enter the lower passages without coming from the other side.”

“And where is the other side?” I asked him.

“The city has been built up over the many millennia and now resides atop a complicated mess of repurposed home foundations and narrow passages that were once winding roads.”

“Like the Grimton catacombs in Mirum?” I guessed.

He smiled at me. “Just like that. The future rises ever atop the past, and many times in a literal sense.”

I noticed a touch of worry at the corners of his lips. “What’s wrong?”

Will leaned back and pursed his lips. “The Grimton’s danger lay in its residents. The danger in the manalla is the passages themselves.”

“Manalla?” I repeated. “And what do you mean that the passages are the danger?”

“The name for the place beneath the city,” Will explained as he stared at the ground and furrowed his brow. “The elves all possess magic and have lived in this location for over five thousand years. That long residence has changed the landscape both physically and magically, creating something living beneath the earth that even I find difficult to describe.”

“Is it alive?” I asked him.

He tapped a finger against the ground as his eyes showed his intense thought. “Not exactly, but it can reflect life.”

I blinked at him. “Come again?”

He tilted his head to one side and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. “The manalla is dangerous because it’s unpredictable. I have been in it only thrice and the experiences were completely different.”

I scooted closer to him and tried to keep the tremor out of my voice. “Different how?”

“The tunnels change and regrets lurk in the shadows,” he told me.

“Like taking the wrong route?” I guessed.

He shook his head. “It’s something more than that. The manalla is able to invade your thoughts and bring out the worst of your memories, forcing you to confront your nightmares.”

My mouth slowly dropped open as I began to understand his meaning. “It. . .it uses peoples’ memories against them?”

“To protect itself and the capital,” he confirmed. “One’s own weakness is what makes the manalla so dangerous. Anyone without either the blessing of the king or a strong confidence in themselves will be run out of those tunnels.”

I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and straightened. “Well, whatever’s down there we have to get through it, right? I’m ready whenever you are.”

He looped an arm around my waist and drew me against his side. I waited for the usual attempt at him trying to convince me to stay behind but he merely smiled down at me. “Then let us to the skies.”

I blinked at him. “The skies? I thought the old bridge was in the vali.”

He stood and helped me to my feet. “It is but in order to avoid detection we have to dive into the vali many miles above the capital. We’ll leave the basket here to lighten the load.” I yelped as he swept me into his arms and carried me through the forest. “Our order of food isn’t all that appetizing, anyway.”

I leaned over and watched the ground flash by beneath his long strides. “Why are you carrying me?”

“Do you not enjoy it?” he teased.

I snorted and snuggled into his arms. “It’s definitely comfortable but I can walk.”

“If we’re both comfortable then why change?” he mused.

I looked him up and down. “You’re worried about me.”

He stared ahead and sighed. “I’m worried about both of us. Our foe is as much a mystery now as when we arrived. We don’t even know their goal.”

“Panic?” I suggested. “There was a lot of that in that ring of stones. Speaking of that, is it always that creepy?”

Will lifted an eyebrow at me. “You sensed something amiss in the stones?”

I folded my arms over my chest and wrinkled my nose. “Yeah. It just felt like there was something there that didn’t like me.”

“The stones were erected to protect the forest from the shadows of old,” he mused as we trudged through the forest following the curvature of the vali. “Perhaps they’ve built up too much dark magic to hold back whatever we’re fighting.”

“So you weren’t around to help that first king, right?” I asked him.

He grinned. “I am old but not that old.”

I snorted. “Finally something to make you feel young, but what was it that old king fought against that he lost his life?”

“The stories never say and there’s none alive who remember,” Will told me as he looked me over. “I’m guessing our suspicions are aligned.”

“That maybe what attacked them is coming back?” I guessed.

“Just so.”

I nodded. “Then we’re thinking the same thing only this time we don’t have a really powerful elf king to stop it.” I paused and looked up at Will. “ Could King Arvo stop it?”

Will pursed his lips as he stared ahead. “I very much doubt it. He’s held the throne for only five centuries and has never had to deal with trouble. His recent ancestors, too, have not honed their magic on any danger since the eagles attacked.”

My shoulders slumped. “So there’s nobody to fight it if it does come back.”

He smiled at me. “Are you forgetting someone?”

I shot him a glare. “No!”

Will was taken aback by my sharp reply. “Why? Do you doubt I can handle the fiend?”

I shook my head. “It’s not that at all. You could probably beat almost anything in this world.”

“But?”

I bowed my head and bit my lower lip. “The elf king died defeating it. . .”

“And you believe the same would happen to me?” he wondered.

I shrugged. “I don’t know but I don’t want to find out.”

He brushed his nose against my forehead and chuckled. “Have some faith, my mate. Besides, there is something which the old king did not have.”

I lifted my eyes to him and blinked. “What?”

He pecked a light kiss on my lips. “You by his side.”

I snorted and swatted his chest with one hand. “Weren’t you the one just scolding me for not getting my sword out?”

Will didn’t meet my gaze as he chose his words carefully. “That may have been the reason for the scolding.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Then what were you doing in front of-” I stopped as realization struck me. A wicked smile slipped onto my lips before a laugh poured out. “You! You were jealous of him saving me, weren’t you?”

“That may be the answer,” was the evasive reply.

I prodded his chest with my finger. “Come on, confess. It’ll be good to get it off your chest.”

“My chest is not burdened by anything, I assure you.”

I leaned in close to him with my eyes twinkling. “Then do you really think I can help?”

He readjusted my weight and nodded at the way ahead of us. “I have no doubt we’ll find out soon enough.”