The Talismans of Time (Academy of the Lost Labyrinth Book 1) by Stephen H. Provost

Author:Stephen H. Provost [Provost, Stephen H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Crown Books
Published: 2020-01-04T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Dragon Home

Dreqnir didn’t fly into the chasm. The dragon’s great wings acted like twin parachutes as he glided downward in tight circles. It might have made Elizabeth dizzy if his descent hadn’t been so gradual, like a leaf drifting downward, having been dislodged by a gentle autumn breeze.

The girl had heard of volcanoes, mountains that spewed forth molten fire from deep inside the earth, but this was not one of those. The golden glow below them was pleasantly warm, not unbearable, as she imagined a volcano must be. As they descended farther, she began to see caves carved out into the sides of the great chasm—and some of those caves were occupied.

By dragons.

Some lay sleeping; others stared out at them, curious expressions on their faces. The sight of a little girl sitting in a sleigh on a dragon’s back must have seemed peculiar indeed. As she watched, one of the dragons—with shimmering green scales and three horns upon its head—leapt off the edge and descended before them. A few others did the same as they passed, and the girl wondered what might lie ahead.

She soon found out.

When at last they reached the bottom, Dreqnir alighted in the center of a great hall ringed with torches that burned with a magical red-gold hue. The flames didn’t dance and flicker so much as they glowed, sending their light outward in an aura that extended much farther than typical fire.

“Dragebrann,” Dreqnir said. “There are certain properties that are, shall we say, unique to dragon fire,” he explained. “It doesn’t just warm and illumine a place, it permeates every corner of it.”

Dreqnir lowered his entire body to the ground and looked backward, nodding to the girl. In response, she pressed a button on the door of the sleigh, and the invisible barrier that had protected her in flight drew back. She climbed out and down the dragon’s tail, the ridges of which acted very much like a staircase. The ground itself, she noticed, was warm beneath her feet. And, as she looked upward, she noticed they had descended so far that the wide entry to the great chasm was almost lost overhead. Had the moon not been directly above them, she could not have seen it at all.

As she turned her gaze forward again, she noticed that a group of dragons had gathered in a circle all around them. She walked up beside Dreqnir and whispered in one giant ear: “Where are their humans? The ones they are bonded with?”

“Your kind are not welcome here, even those who are bonded,” Dreqnir explained silently. “Be very cautious, and make no sudden movements. They know what Tar Kidron did to me, and they do not trust your presence here—or, most likely, mine.”

Elizabeth grew very still and looked from one dragon’s face to another. They all looked curious, but also on guard. One of them, larger than the rest and larger even, by half, than the impressively large Dreqnir, stood facing them, brow lowered ominously over two green eyes flecked with gold.

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