OPENING HER EYES, ANWEN FOUND she didn't recognize her surroundings. Stone pressed against her back, a light blanket covering her body. The glowing embers of a fire sat contentedly in a low fireplace where several pieces of clothing had been left out to dry.
A pot hung over the slight flame still lingering in the coals. The smell coming from the pot was tantalizing and made her stomach rumble. She felt hungry for the first time since leaving the village for the Old Mill.
Looking around, she noticed everything seemed to be made of stone, including the walls around her. Outside, she heard the rush of water spilling overhead, some of the spray falling in front of the doorway. And, if she squinted, she could make out the faint outline of two sleeping forms on the far side of the long room.
Not wanting to disturb her sleeping companions, Anwen struggled out of the blanket. She was slightly surprised at her physical state but took it in stride. Moving as quietly as she could, she dressed, then headed towards the door.
Early morning light filtered through the trees outside. It lit up the water as it spilled down the stone walkway. She navigated to the far side of the clearing in front of the hut. Relishing the quiet moment in nature, she closed her eyes against the faint rays of light filtering down around her.
After several minutes, she finally moved back towards the stone house. Now that she thought about it, her throat hurt from coughing. Her stomach rumbled again, begging for sustenance. Her dry skin reminded her she hadn't had a decent drink of water in quite some time.
Hoping the cascading falls wouldn't cause any further harm, she moved under them. She let the liquid fill her mouth as she swallowed the precious substance.
Her thirst sated, Anwen just stood under the running water. She enjoyed feeling the grime wash away, not caring that her clothes were now soaking wet. The cool moisture felt good against her all too warm skin.
Tyler woke with a start. Looking around, he noticed Anwen was missing from her place near the fire. He got to his feet and looked around the room, but saw no sign of her.
Going towards the door, he noticed the consistent sound of the cascading water was off. He moved towards the location of the disturbance.
Seeing Anwen standing under the falling water, Tyler paused. He leaned against the rock that formed a natural barrier between the small glen and the now raging river above. A slight smile crossed his lips and he let out a sigh.
The water was cold and left a trace of mist in the air, reminding Tyler of the days before the Mountain had been sealed. Could this girl bring those times back? Should they be brought back? He didn't know the answer.
Tyler contented himself with watching her stand under the falls, face upturned as the water rushed over her body. He knew it was unwise for her to stay there long, especially not with the possibility of fever from yesterday's events. But it warmed his soul in a way he hadn't felt in a long time.
Anwen lifted her arms into the spray and felt somehow whole. The past week or so had been one crazy event after another, leaving her with a sense of being incomplete. Now, standing under the one constant in nature, she felt like herself again.
She turned back towards the hut, knowing she should go back inside but not wanting this moment to end. She almost took a step back when she saw Tyler leaning against the stone wall, just staring at her.
“Good morning,” Tyler greeted. “Welcome back to the land of the living. But if you want to stay here, I suggest coming inside and drying off. It wouldn't do to catch a cold on top of everything else.” He smiled at her.
She felt her heart beat just a little bit faster. “Morning,” she called back as she made her way towards him. “The water feels nice.”
Tyler shook his head. “Anwen, you just might be the death of me. I've never met anyone who gets into so much trouble. Then again, you're unlike any other person I've ever met.” He clapped a hand around her wet shoulders as she drew near. “Come on. Let's get you inside.”
Guiding her under the low doorway, he brought her to the hearth. Adding more wood to the dying fire, he brought it back up to a blaze. “Why don't you change into these clothes so we can dry those off?” He produced a spare shirt and pants from his pack, things he'd taken from the inn.
Anwen bustled off to change while Tyler swung the pot back over the hottest part of the flame. He added more water to its contents. Leftovers might not be the most appealing, but it was better to not waste what food they had.
Courtney was awake by the time Anwen had finished changing and brought her wet clothes to dry. Blinking back the sleep, the blond looked over at the fire. “Is it morning?” she asked groggily.
Tyler turned from the fire to glance at the fledgling mage. “Fortunately, or unfortunately, as you prefer,” he answered.
Anwen finished laying her clothes out and moved over so Courtney could join them. “Morning,” she managed as a tickle at the back of her throat made her cough. The motion became a full out fit, shaking her entire body.
Before Courtney could move to help, Tyler had taken Anwen and made her sit until the coughing stopped. “I shouldn't have let you stay under the water so long,” he sighed, feeling the heat coming from her back. “Hopefully, some of the herbs in the stew will help with that fever.”
Courtney subsided, taking a seat next to the hearth. “So, what's the plan?” She fiddled with the bone knife in her pocket, pulling it out for inspection.
Tyler noted the knife in her hand but didn't say anything about it. “We still need to figure out where the key is,” he reminded. “At most, we have two days to reach the Gates and open them, though I think it more likely we have until the end of today. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
Courtney looked back to him, offering the bone knife back, but he refused it. “What do you mean by likely?”
Shrugging, Tyler checked the stew, swinging the pot away from the flame. “I mean that it's possible I’m wrong in my reckoning and that if we don't open the Gates by midnight tonight, we might not be able to at all. Either the Fallen will come after us again, or the Gates will be sealed forever. The souls of the dragons are stirring. Either way, we don't have much time. We have to find that key.”
Anwen thought about her strange dream with the imugi dragon. Why had it shown her the man at the Gates? What was it about his sword and key that seemed so familiar? Thinking about it, she pulled out the pendant and studied it.
The spread wings of the dragon reminded her of the sword he'd held. The crystal reminded her of both the blade and the key. But how could they be one and the same? The dragon's tail was nowhere near long enough, and the wedge-shaped end didn't protrude like the bit she'd seen in her dream.
But the stone was the same and the metal was the same. Even the dragon's head was the same.
Noticing Anwen studying the pendant, Courtney couldn't help but look at it as well. “Where'd you get that?” She stared, transfixed by the little figure.
Looking up, Anwen was half tempted to hide the small dragon away but didn't. She was among friends here. “My father gave it to me,” she answered, dangling the little dragon in front of her. “Well, technically my mother did. When I was sixteen. But my father told me about it before he died. He said this pendant held the key to my past.”
Tyler watched the two girls as they examined the dangling charm. Something tugged at his mind, a distant memory he'd somehow buried since masquerading as a human.
Could it be? Was it possible? Even if it didn't look like the key he remembered? Hadn't there been some kind of plan to disguise it so that if it got into the wrong hands, it couldn't be used?
“I don't know how, but I think this is the key,” Anwen continued, “the key to the Mountain. After I fell into the lake, I had a dream about a man standing in front of the Gate. He held a blue sword with a hilt that looked like this dragon.”
She let the pendant dangle in the firelight. “And, after he sealed the Mountain, I saw him hide a key that looked like this. The only differen
ce is that the dragon's wings were folded around it and the tail was longer.”
At the mention of Mathias' Last Stand, Tyler almost jerked from his seat by the hearth. Instead, he ladled out three bowls of stew, forcing himself to remain calm as he passed them around.
“It's possible,” he admitted. “The key was supposed to be hidden somehow. What better way than in plain sight?”
Anwen accepted her bowl, letting the dragon fall back against her chest. It clinked against her father's ring. She looked down at the sound and set her bowl down. “I wonder.”
Taking both chains from around her neck, she undid the clasp of one, freeing the ring from the binding links. “They look like they're made from the same metal.” She held the ring next to the pendant to confirm this.
“They look like the same metal to me, too,” Courtney confirmed. “Maybe they're part of the same piece, just separated?”
Anwen contemplated this possibility with a nod. It made sense. She held the ring between two fingers, inspecting it. Small grooves lined the circle, similar to the imitation scales on the dragon. She inserted the end of the crystal through the ring's middle until it touched the dragon's tail.
The ring glowed with heat and she pulled her fingers free, sucking on them to cool them down.
“Ouch.”
“Look.” Courtney pointed, leaning in to peer at the dangling dragon.
Tyler moved in closer as well, eyes going wide. Was that the reason he hadn't recognized the key?
He watched as the circular band fused with the dragon's tail. It melded into the coil, slithering down the length of the crystal, until the pronged end extended from the side. Meanwhile, the wings folded downward and wrapped themselves around the dragon's body. The wing tips pointed outward from opposing wings crossing over each other.
It looked exactly like the key he remembered.
All three looked up at the same time, eyes wide, jaws slack. “It looks just like the key from my dream,” Anwen breathed.
The ground rumbled beneath them for a brief moment, reminding Anwen of the earthquakes in the plains. She reached out to the table for balance. The shaking stopped after only a few seconds.
A breeze flew through the stone structure, putting the fire out with its sudden gust. Voices whispered on the wind, voices without real words. They reminded Anwen of the voices she’d heard outside the tombs on the Mountain.
Tyler quickly moved to his pack, stuffing things inside. “The Mountain calls. We have to reach the Gates tonight. Or die trying.”
The two girls just stared at him.
“There's no time to lose,” he admonished. “Putting those two elements together did something. If we don't reach the Mountain tonight, we might not reach it at all. The mages will soon know the Key Keeper has returned, if they don't already, which means we'll have more than just Fallen to deal with.”
Courtney nodded and reached for Anwen's still wet clothes, stuffing them into her own bag.
Anwen tried to help clean up. Her carryall seemed to have disappeared somewhere, though she wasn't sure when she'd lost it. Did it happen before falling into the Lake? Or sometime before or after? It didn't matter.
“We're heading to the Ruined City, then?” Her stomach churned at the idea, knowing they'd have to cross the stretch with a sheer drop.
“We don't have a choice,” Tyler confirmed. “We can't draw any more attention to ourselves than we already have. We'll have to keep things as low key as possible. Courtney, that means no spells unless absolutely necessary.”
Courtney acknowledged his order and finished cleaning by eating what was left in her bowl. The stew was still hot enough to make her throat burn but she ignored it and went to fill the water bottles. They'd need them.
“This way,” Tyler directed as they finished their hurried preparations. “I know of a tunnel that leads under the river. Once we cross to the other side, we can hike straight across to the road. There should be enough tree cover to risk it. After that, we'll see how things go. If we hurry, we should be able to reach the Ruined City by nightfall.”
The two girls followed as he moved out into the spray, closely following the natural stone barrier down its length. A dark hollow indented the wet rock, a good dozen or so yards past where the hut stood.
Tyler ushered them towards the opening, all getting a brief shower as they ducked under the cascading water.
Once out of the water's stream, it became clear the indentation was actually a hollow. Leading them inside, Tyler explained how he couldn't conjure any light inside due to the unique properties of the tunnel.
They had to follow by touch since the noise of the falls above was loud enough to drown out most sound. Luckily, the tunnel was fairly straight, with no trailers leading off in different directions. After only a couple of minutes of stumbling in the dark, they were on the other side and free from the water's spray.
Anwen gave a slight shiver as she walked back into the sunlight. It was suddenly a lot brighter. “Are you sure we won't be seen from here?”
Hearing the fear in Anwen's voice, Tyler briefly touched her shoulder as he moved ahead once more. “As sure as anyone can be, given the circumstances. Let's go.” He led the way, almost disappearing into the trees ahead of them.
Courtney gave a hapless shrug as she turned to follow. Anwen trailed behind, struggling to keep up. The sun felt so hot already, even though it was still in the early hours of the day. Sweat began to form on her brow as she ran to catch up with the others.
nineteen