Page 10 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER TEN

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KATALENA

T ime at the center of the earth fell into a rhythm.

I studied the books that Gleym gave me until it felt like my eyes would bleed, committing not only the formulas to memory, but drawings and maps of where things might be found.

She tested me as I created things in the workshop. If I got it wrong, I started over. If I got it right, we moved on to the next thing. My head felt tight and stuffed from the amount of new knowledge I was taking in.

And after I finished whatever task she had for me, she would take me to the empty room and allow me to try to attack her.

It didn’t work, and my arms and legs were black and blue from being struck with her staff.

But it was also an outlet. It kept me from sobbing into the pillows after I ate and retreated to the little room Varí and I shared.

In the moments when I could bear it, I thought about them.

I sent love through the space our bond occupied, even though there was no proof they could feel me.

Part of me hoped that because dragons were stronger, perhaps they could sense the mating bond at a greater distance than I.

The other part of me hoped that they couldn’t, because feeling my grief and rage while Fallen knew what was happening to them made me sick with worry.

But each day that passed allowed restlessness to seep in. What was being done to them? Would Andaros kill them when he was done with whatever his revenge was? Would I be too late to save them?

Would I ever see them again?

When Gleym declared us finished, I faced her, out of breath and aching. “What do you mean to teach me?” I asked.

“I would have thought that’s been clear.”

“It is. What is not clear is how much of this you expect me to accomplish before you’ll let me go.”

She laughed softly. “You view it as a trial. That I am putting you through a strict set of rules you must pass before you can leave, but it’s not the case. Regardless of what you think of me, I am trying to keep you alive.

“Do you really think the King of Craisos will let you simply waltz into his domain and take your mates back? Do you think he won’t kill you because you managed to survive when he thought he’d killed you? He will not. If you want a chance at all, you will learn. ”

That night I started exploring the place where she lived more thoroughly. She probably heard me, Varí curling himself around my neck as I did so, but I didn’t care. My deepest instincts told me that I was running out of time, and if there was a way to leave, I needed to know it.

Yes, everything was stacked against us. And yes, there was every chance I would fail. But I wouldn’t allow the men I loved to die simply because I hadn’t gotten to them in time.

Evrítha was at the center of Viria. At best, I would have to walk probably three weeks if traveling on foot all the way to Craisos. Less than that if I could find a horse… or a friendly dragon. Though that seemed unlikely.

I explored the same way I might if I were trying to find my way out of a maze.

Turning left out of the room Varí and I stayed in, and then only taking lefts.

Honestly, it felt a lot more like a hoard than I’d anticipated.

Gleym kept me busy and tired enough that I hadn’t strayed much.

But she certainly hadn’t lied about collecting things that fell from the surface.

There simply wasn’t any other explanation for the room that was filled with broken barrels.

Varí looked at me like he was just as confused as I was. But we both knew if Varí had a hoard bigger than his coin, it would be filled with shiny, pretty things.

There were larger broken pieces of ships that had foundered on the rivers.

Many of the things from the rivers were clearly broken. They held a strange kind of beauty, like the ghost of something lovely that had transformed.

But then there were the rooms which brought me true pause. Rooms filled with books where no ink was smudged and no parchment was waterlogged. Dried foods and herbs that showed no signs of ever being damp, despite the environment.

Everything someone could need to live beneath the earth for as long as Gleym clearly had. And I still didn’t understand how.

Wandering further, I heard the gurgling of the water beneath the fall.

As we had descended some of the water had turned into mist, but there was also plenty of pure water falling.

The roar of everything was loud enough to be heard through the stone walls.

The fall from Evrítha must be right on the other side of this one.

But below the roar of the water was something else. A thrumming energy that seemed to run over my skin. The room felt alive in a way that was…

I didn’t know.

I looked around the mostly empty room, confused.

There didn’t seem to be anything special about it other than the fact that the walls weren’t square and smooth like most of the other rooms. One side was angled and jagged.

Like it had been formed around the natural stone instead of at the expense of it.

“Do you feel that?” I asked Varí .

He chirped, and I assumed it meant yes, because he was perched on my shoulder, wings slightly flared, looking around like he too sensed something invisible.

While I didn’t sense any danger, the change in the air was unsettling.

“I wondered when you’d find it.”

I startled at Gleym’s voice behind me, turning to find her with an amused smile on her face. My curiosity overwhelmed my irritation with her. “Find what? There’s nothing here.”

“But you feel it, do you not?”

“I feel something. I don’t know what it is.”

“The sheyten .”

Most of the world knew them as the Fallen. Idroal had explained right after the four of us?—

My breath shuddered in my chest. I couldn’t think about our bonding. It hurt too much.

Then, what Gleym said sank deeper. “That is a sheyten ?” I looked back at the rock that seemed to intrude into the room.

“It is. It rests where it fell, punching a hole through Viria, like its six counterparts. One rests in Skalisméra as well. Did you not see it?”

I shook my head. “For all that happened, I didn’t spend that much time there. Nor in Doro Eche. It has not even been a full moon cycle since I was taken from the wedding.”

The wedding and not my wedding. If anything, I would have considered it my funeral. But my entire world had changed. Much in the same way the sheyten had changed the world as they fell. One moment before and after, and everything was different.

“The fact that your tools can create potions that allow a human to see in the dark, to be fireproof, to heal —it is because of the sheyten and the magic they infused in the world.”

“And the reason you have a human form,” I murmured.

“Yes.” There was hesitation in the silence. “It is also the answer to many of your questions.”

I frowned. “How?”

Gleym reached out a hand, and a flash of light appeared. She reached into it, and a moment later was holding a fresh orange. It still had a leaf on it, like it had just been plucked. Out of nowhere.

“How?”

She gestured behind me. “The sheyten . Come. Eat something, and I will explain.”

Varí and I shared a look, but we followed. Not before I looked back at the stone. It was enormous, and we could only see a piece of it. The urge to go and touch the surface was strong, but I resisted. The kind of power it held was something you didn’t touch without fully understanding it.

Back in the room I now thought of as the kitchen, Gleym poured a hot drink. It wasn’t something I was familiar with, but it was rich, fruity, soothing, and somehow, exactly what I needed.

“You know how the sheyten changed the world?”

I’d skimmed over the conversation where I was told, but I nodded.

As she’d said, they were the reason we had magic.

The reason my hair was a color so unnatural to humans.

The reason I was a mate. The reason for almost everything.

And they were also the reason the human part of the world was dying, because we’d destroyed two of them.

“Good. But I assume you don’t know how they amplify things. They wouldn’t have had reason, or time, to tell you.”

“Amplify things?”

She nodded and sipped from her own mug. Which was not a mug that would have fallen off the side of a boat. After a moment, she fetched a small bowl and gave some of the drink to Varí , who tucked in his wings and drank deeply on the table.

I couldn’t stop my smile.

“When dragons are in close proximity to the sheyten , our abilities are amplified. We can do more than we might otherwise be able to.”

Idroal came to mind. They could hear things through stone, and perhaps other material as well? They hadn’t told me. But more than once while in Skalisméra my mates had mentioned that Idroal was in contact with Doro Eche. Was that because there was a sheyten nearby?

“My ability on its own is limited to what I can see. What’s in front of me.

But this close to the sheyten , and with much, much practice, I can erase the distance between myself and the thing I desire, since I control the relationship between myself and it.

” She locked eyes with me. “It has limitations. The further the distance, the smaller the object. Which is why, even now, I cannot simply send you to the surface.”

My shoulders fell, even though I hadn’t meant to show any emotion. She’d seen my hope before I even realized it. But I took another sip and pulled my knees up to my chest. If she was talking, I was going to ask questions.

“If you can bring things to you, and you apparently have a way to get back to the surface, why are you still here?”

Gleym laughed once. “I don’t like the world, girl. Neither humans nor dragons. They tried to kill me once, and if I returned they would merely try to do so again. Why would I choose to live where I must be on edge every moment when I have created a life I enjoy? No one bothers me here.”