Page 63 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

VITALIS

W e walk through the courtyard in silence, our soft footsteps echoing about the stone walls.

Leafy green ferns burst through the stone floors and walls, threatening to overtake what once was man-made.

The sunlight spills through parts of the crumbled walls six stories high, casting beams of dusty light across the floors.

Every story of the castle is layered with deliberate curves, arches, and lines that create a picturesque fortress.

Every which way I turn is a set of steps leading up to hallways and doors through archways.

We pause in the middle of the courtyard, with Sethan and Marge at the front.

Sethan turns to Marge. “Any idea which way we need to go for the libraries?”

Marge shakes her head. “No. But if it’s built similarly to the castle in Arterias, the library would be in the northwestern part.”

“We can split up?” Archie offers.

Sethan whips a disappointed glare at Archie. “No, we aren’t splitting up.”

“Why not?” I step forward. “If we split up, we can cover the grounds quicker. And if we separate into three groups, with a dragon in each, we should be able to communicate via them.”

Sethan’s jaw works, clearly not wanting to give Archie a single lick of recognition, before he glances at Marge.

She snorts. “Don’t look at me. They make a good point. Especially if we haven’t brought enough provisions to last us more than a night.”

Sethan scans the group, taking a mental headcount and working out some plan. His eyes settle on Melaina, his expression softening. “Melaina, you take Archie and go with Bristol and Nadja to explore the northern sections. Katerina and Daeja will take Marge and…”

He scans the group, his eyes falling on Cole.

“Cole. You four will search the western quarter. Gavin, Nolan, and Darian, you’re with me on the east. If we can’t find anything, we’ll all reconvene here in the courtyard by sunset and search the southern section tomorrow.

With it normally being dedicated to the guard rooms, towers, and armory, I doubt we’ll find anything there. ”

“What are we looking for?” I ask.

“A book,” Marge answers plainly, as if I should have already known the answer.

“What kind of book?” Melania prompts.

“We’re looking for Queen Elara’s journal,” Sethan responds.

Archie scratches his head with a nervous smile. “You want us…to find the dead Queen’s diary?”

“Something like that.” Sethan’s voice is flat.

“The castle might not be built for dragons to access all the rooms and hallways. The walls are built thick enough that they should support any of our dragons’ weights.

If they cannot follow you into a section, do not go too far.

While it’s been over a hundred years since Queen Elara died and this castle was attacked, there’s no telling what else might still be here.

If you find yourself in trouble, alert your dragon rider so we may come to your aid. ”

The courtyard we’ve come to discover is bordered all by storage rooms and hallways leading to the guard towers and outside barrier walls, with only the northern part of the courtyard leading out through the rest of the castle.

A massive tower with arched columns spanning its width sits at the northern part of the square.

Marge mentions it was likely where the King and Queen would address crowds from above, looking down into the courtyard.

As we pass beneath it, I can’t help but look up and wonder how many lines of royalty spoke from the platform.

On the other side of the rounded tower is a wall of stone with four sets of thick wooden doors, wide and tall enough to allow a dragon through. Nadja steps forward, nudging the door with her muzzle, before she rears back and headbutts it. The door swings open with a rusty creak.

“I suppose they didn’t lock it,” Daeja murmurs.

“Maybe they didn’t have time…” I whisper back, a chill running down my spine.

We all step through the door into an enormous room with an endless expanse of marble floors and thickly carved stone columns holding up a five-story-high, curved ceiling. Hanging from lines of black, rusted chains, wound painfully tight, is a massive dragon carcass.

Melaina turns her head, tucking her nose into her elbow and gagging.

The stench of rotting flesh fills the grandiose room, burning my eyes and flipping my stomach over.

Below the dragon carcass are rows and rows of ornate tables, and the ones directly beneath the dragon have dark stains.

I drag my gaze back up to the lifeless dragon, its blue scales muddy with old blood and muted with death.

“Fuck,” Cole mutters, swinging his gaze down and away.

“At least it’s not a ripple,” Marge murmurs. “Whoever left it must have preserved its corpse with magic—as a message.”

“That’s…disturbing.” Archie grimaces. “Poor fella.”

Sethan sweeps his attention back to me. “If for some reason we cannot meet back in the courtyard, this room will be where we reassemble.”

I nod, and Sethan sends pointed gestures to separate directions for all our groups before we split up.

I watch the dragon carcass, its flesh and scales torn at agonizing angles, as Cole, Marge, Daeja, and I stroll silently across to the back left corner of the room.

Gold plates, cups, and cutlery with silk-spun napkins lie peacefully still on the tables.

Several human corpses lie hunched over the tables, some half-in and half-out of their seats, while more bodies lie face first on the ground.

More dragons are hung from the ceiling throughout the room like macabre chandeliers, all different colors: blue, green, and red.

I drag my attention away before a new wave of nausea rolls over me and before my fear coats over my limbs.

Cole grabs my hand for a split-second and squeezes me, before dropping it again in the event anyone notices.

I glance at him sideways, and he keeps his gaze set ahead on Marge.

Daeja snorts, confirming she saw the motion.

The back corner of the ornate dining hall leads down a hallway, capturing our footsteps and amplifying the sound to an uncomfortable and eerie degree.

Daeja tucks her wings in tight and dips her head to squeeze in after us.

Thankfully, she’s half the size of the other dragons, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to fit.

The end of the hallway leads to a door, which then leads to another outdoor courtyard.

In front of us is a towering stone keep, its windows peering out in every which direction.

Marge leads us along its southern half, and we pass a gargantuan well.

I peek over the edge and find only darkness, before stepping back into line behind Marge.

“In Arterias, the library is built there,” Marge whispers as she pauses in front of a wall of various doors, archways, and dust-coated windows.

The first door I try is locked, and Cole’s first door swings wide open with a creak that grabs all our attention.

“That was almost too easy…” he mutters, and peeks his head inside.

Marge, Daeja, and I all slide over to him, and he backs his head out before turning to us. “You’re right, Marge. Looks like this was the library.”

He pushes the door open for us to peer inside, and my heart sinks.

The room, unsurprisingly, matches the rest of the rooms we’ve encountered here at the castle.

Lavish furnishings faded with time sprawl about the cavernous room, along with curtains framing the windows spanning from the marbled floors up to the arched ceilings, so high above us I have to tip my head back just to look.

Rows and rows of shelves line all the walls.

But every single one is empty.

We all slip inside to double-check, and Daeja grumbles when she tries to squeeze in but finds she’s far too wide.

“They probably were hesitant to have dragons in here with paper…”

“I’ll stay back and keep watch,” she mutters, her wings sagging at her sides.

“We won’t be long,” I promise, patting her neck.

Marge gravitates toward the farthest wall, hovering her fingertips along the shelves, like if she moves slow enough, one might appear.

Cole and I exchange an awkward look before we split up to search the walls at the opposite sides of the room.

After scanning all the bottom shelves, I find an old wooden ladder and take a step onto the bottom platform.

The wood shrieks. I flinch, looking over my shoulder to Marge, who only diverts her attention away long enough to make sure I haven’t broken an ankle before returning to her own shelves.

Cole stops what he’s doing and strolls over to me.

Before he can reach me, I brace my weight onto the step, testing its limits before I begin to ascend.

“What are you doing?” Cole whispers.

“I have to check the top shelves.” I test the next step. Lift. Test, then lift.

The ladder groans underneath me, its wooden frame trembling more the farther up I get. Until it suddenly stops quaking. I stop and glance down about fifteen feet to find Cole gripping the sides of the ladder to still it. He gazes up at me, his forearms locked and jaw tight.

Taking a soft breath, I keep my hands on the sides and pull myself farther up the ladder. Checking each row as I go, my hope sinks deeper with each dusty, empty shelf I pass.

I’m almost to the top of the ladder when I notice a stray piece of paper on one of the shelves. Face down. Just outside of my reach. I glance back down at Cole, and my stomach swings as I realize how small he is below me.

“I found something,” I call out.

“Great. Grab it and come down,” Marge responds from across the room as she walks to join Cole at the bottom.

Gripping the side of the ladder harder with my left hand, I stretch to my right. The corner of the page is still a little over a foot away. Sliding my other hand over to give me extra reach, I lean farther until my chest is past the ladder’s width.

So…close…