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

Chapter 28

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

We stepped inside and found ourselves in a comfortable salon with a low table in the center. Windows looked out on the city and illuminated the room with a soft light. A dozen thick mats surrounded the table and against the wall were many shelves filled with decorative books of some ancient lineage along with a few potted plants. The air smelled of freshly baked cookies and the crumbs on the floor around the table hinted at their demise.

Will closed the door behind us and began to remove his clunky armor. Sylvia and I were only too glad to follow suit and soon we had a pile of metal tucked into one corner. I dropped my butt onto one of the plump cushions around the table while Will took up another beside me.

However, Sylvia paced the room like a caged animal. Will watched her with a mixture of pity and amusement. “Come sit with us.”

Sylvia stopped her pacing and glared at him. “I know how you can be so calm but since you’ve already forgotten, I lost Steve.”

I shook my head. “The elves promised-”

“To hell with the elves!” she snapped. Her cheeks reddened and she balled her shaking hands into fists at her sides. “It was they who got us down there in the first place just so we could be food for those. . .those things!” She waved one hand in the general direction of the dungeons. “Now something’s happened to him and what’ll they probably say? That he deserved it for trying to get out of that hole and. . .and-” Tears flooded her eyes and a sob escaped her. “And that damned fool just had to protect me.” She shut her eyes and cupped her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook as she slumped to her knees. “That damned fool! That stupid, stupid fool! What was he thinking?”

I hurried over and knelt beside her where I grasped her quivering shoulders. “We’ll figure out some way to help him and then we’ll come back and get him right. You’ll see.”

She shook her head. “Why did I have to pick up that bounty? It wasn’t worth it.”

I looked questioningly up at Will. “Who is Mother Dunn?”

“A sorcerer who has cheated death many centuries over,” he explained as he looked with pity at our sobbing companion. “She has used her dark magics to extend her life and cast a web over wealthy men whom she would seduce before taking their wealth, and their lives. Their families have offered a large bounty for her.”

The door opened and caught our attention. Sylvia lifted her tear-stained face and we all looked to the entrance. Madam Kipu stood in the doorway with her indifferent expression still on her face. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

The old elf’s sharp eyes darted over to Will. “It has been quite some time, Lord Thorn. I had heard you were returned but I never thought you would have caused enough trouble to be captured.”

He smiled and bowed his head to her. “Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

She sighed and walked over to take a seat at the table opposite where he sat so she faced Sylvia and me. “How could I refuse an old friend?” Her eyes settled on us. “Your friend appears to be very distraught. What has happened down in the dungeons?”

Will lifted an eyebrow. “How do you know where we were?”

Kipu pointed at our attire. “You have the dust of those hateful tunnels on you, and those-” She nodded at the suits of armor, “-are only kept in the weapons storage adjacent to the dungeons. Since I had not heard any tales of your adventures around the city I assumed you had been detained.”

Will inclined his head to her. “You are partially correct. We have been detained and exiled.”

She scoffed. “That, I suppose, explains the poor disguise. Why have you come to me? You wish to rub your troubles off on my manuscripts?”

“We need all the information you have about the first king, his battle with the great evil, and the stones that mark his burial,” Will told her.

Kipu lifted an eyebrow. “That is a tall order, Lord Thorn. Those books are ancient indeed and are restricted to all but those allowed by the king.”

“You make up that small number, do you not?” he inquired.

She carefully examined him. “Why do you wish to see those tales?”

“Surely the troubles outside the city have been heard by your ears,” he commented.

The librarian lifted her chin slightly and pursed her lips. “They have.”

“Then you know the dire straights which we fight against,” he continued. “In order to fend off this new trouble we must look to the old for guidance. For that reason, may we look at the tomes and manuscripts?”

She shook her head. “No.”

The color drained from my face. “Why not?”

“By the king’s orders, they are not to be viewed by anyone other than His Highness and myself,” she explained.

“When did he ask you to view them?” Will wondered.

“Six months and a fortnight ago,” she revealed as she clasped her hands in her lap. “Both times he also requested that I seal the documents after my perusal so that no other eyes could view them.”

“And they’re sealed where?” I chimed in.

“Within the vault below the archives,” she told me. “Only the king has the key.”

A bitter laugh erupted from Sylvia’s throat. “Then you can’t help us get them out of there?”

A mischievous smile slipped onto her lips. “There is no need.”

Sylvia threw up her arms. “Yeah, no need at all. We’re all just going to end up as monsters and tear each other apart.”

Kipu shook her head. “I say there is no need because I thoroughly studied all the documents in our possession. I have not forgotten a single word from those texts. Ask me what you wish to know and I will answer if I can.”

“Before we begin, did the king confide in you his fears?” Will asked her.

“He did not.”

“What did the text say about the great evil and the stones?”

She pursed her lips. “That the stones are the final resting place of the first king, but he does not lay there alone.”

My heart skipped a beat as I recalled the strange dark aura I’d felt around those stones. “What’s there with him?”

“The creature he defeated could not truly be destroyed by him and so he had its remains entombed with him to keep his people safe,” she revealed.

Will frowned. “Why were the citizens not told of this?”

“In those days the humans still frequented our city,” she pointed out as she set her sights on Sylvia and me. “The second king feared that should anyone learn the truth they would try to break the magic that bound together the dead king and his foe.”

“How is the creature bound?” Will wondered.

“And what exactly is it?” I chimed in.

“I can answer the first but the second is not possible because the king himself never knew the origins of his foe,” Kipu replied. “As for how it was bound, the king drew his own life force around the creature and entombed it to the site of their battle. The king died shortly after but his magic has remained. Unfortunately, his life force has diminished over these many thousands of years. The king who preceded His Highness attempted to strengthen the binding magic with his own life but it cost him dearly. He died young, leaving King Arva to take the throne at a young age himself.”

“Did it work?” I asked her.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Only so briefly as to delay the inevitable by a century or two. Whatever lies beneath those stones has grown too powerful. It will awaken soon.”

“The troubles have shown that it already has and the few chains that remain are all that keep the whole country from being consumed by its darkness,” Will pointed out.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Sylvia spoke up as she stalked over to the pile of armor. She yanked out the leather bag and slung it over her shoulder before she turned to us. “Let’s deal with this thing and maybe Steve will be alright again.”

Kipu scoffed at her. “The first king had great spiritual magic and yet he could not destroy the creature. How do you expect to do better than him?”

Sylvia smirked at the old elf and patted the bulge in the bag. “He wasn’t the only one with tricks.”

“Is there anything else you can tell us about the battle and the stones?” Will asked our hostess.

Kipu furrowed her brow. “There was little else among the documents. Few elves who partook in the battle survived and only one was a scribe. Due to the attack on the archives by the eagles many centuries ago, much of his writings have survived only in fragments.” She paused and furrowed her brow. “I do not know if this is any help to you, but there was a small passage written in one of the margins concerning the entrapment of the monster. It mentioned that ‘the watcher on high holds the bells of light which reflect the pure heart.’”

That’s when shouts came from outside the room.