Chapter 18

CHAPTER18

Stepping off into the unknown might not have been her best idea. Lore knew just how dangerous it was to walk over a surface that was clearly water with writhing beasts inside it. Who knows what they even were?

She peered down into the water, seeing red eyes reflecting the light and hungry flashing teeth. And something inside her whispered, “Trust him.”

So she did.

Lore didn’t even hesitate as she stepped off the ledge and onto the unknown. Maybe she was about to be sacrificed to those creatures. She had no intention of dying today, though, and her powers were great enough to battle them back. But there was also the chance that the dwarven king was truthful and that he had a gift for them. A gift that might help them find Zephyr, who was so close she could almost feel him.

Why wouldn’t she take the risk? It was foolish not to. Trusting this dwarf might be the best thing she’d ever done.

And as she stepped off the ledge, her eyes focused on the darkness below her, her foot connected with something solid. Something real that wasn’t water at all. Frowning, she scraped her heel against the surface. A loud screech filled the room, and she left a small scuff mark behind.

“Glass?” she asked, her voice filled with wonder. “Is this cave filled with glass?”

The dwarven king clapped loudly behind her, the peals of his laughter overpowering the dwindling sound of running water as he stumbled toward her. His humor was so great that he seemed barely capable of walking.

“Yes!” he finally gasped. “Oh, you should have seen your faces! Terror! It’s always terror when people see my grandfather’s pet but they never guess that I wouldn’t kill them! Oh, oh, oh, that was well worth it. Even the Fallen Star finds fear in the dwarven kingdom!”

She didn’t, actually. And if he took one look at her, he would have seen that she wasn’t afraid in the slightest. But Lore didn’t want to ruin his fun, and she supposed this was a rather ridiculous prank to pull on people.

But then she looked over her shoulder and knew Abraxas was seeing red. Her dragon had been preparing to save them, she was certain. He likely was already feeling the explosive power of his change, and that might actually crack the glass under their feet. Then they would all have a problem, and she was certain the dwarves would not appreciate their disregard for their hospitality.

Sighing, she turned toward him and pressed her hands against his cheeks. “Abraxas,” she murmured. “We are all safe.”

“This was not a funny joke,” he growled.

“No, it wasn’t. But we are all alive and well.” She thought, at least. They were all in one piece, and that was enough for her. Lore didn’t care if Algor wanted to prank them. It was a funny joke. He got what he wanted out of it, and they were still getting a gift.

“Oh!” Algor’s voice rang out as the last trickles of water died. “I didn’t think about it, but of course, your dragon would be upset.”

Upset? She could feel him burning underneath her palms. So close to a change that she wasn’t all that certain he still wouldn’t turn into the dragon. He could eat the king in one gulp, and clearly was intending to do so if this wasn’t smoothed over soon.

“Considering you threatened our lives,” she muttered. “I’m certain that you can make up for it by reassuring my dragon that you never intended to kill us. Perhaps that would be a good start.”

“Oh, I would never.” Algor pressed his hands to his chest. “I’d never kill the Fallen Star! But really, it was a good test to see what all of you would do. I’m impressed by your bravery. All of you are quite capable of handling stressful situations. The first time I saw them, I think I peed myself.”

That seemed to do the trick. Abraxas eased underneath her hands and she slid her fingers to his shoulders. Giving him a little squeeze, she turned her attention back to the dwarf. “Your grandfather played the same trick on you?”

“Of course he did. Everyone in royalty gets to see them for the first time, and all of us think that we’re brave enough to face death without flinching. Unfortunately, most of us flinch.” Algor shrugged. “You are who you say you are, certainly.”

Lore eyed the strange creatures that followed her every move beneath the glass and shrugged. “I have seen more terrifying things.”

“Spiders as big as horses,” Abraxas said.

“The undead who move quicker than they should,” Beauty added with a shudder.

“Death.” Lore’s single word quieted everyone in the room. They all appeared much more solemn now that she’d reminded them of what she’d gone through. “A few wyrms in a pit will not terrify me. It would take a great deal more than that.”

Algor released a long breath that ended with an impressed whistle. “And here I was, expecting a woman fit for royalty. Instead, I have been given a warrior, as all my ancestors suspected you would be.”

“There is no life without war. And there is no need for gods or goddesses if there is nothing to defeat.” Lore tried her best to believe the words, but they felt like ash falling from her tongue. “No one has any need of me if there is not something to save them from.”

Algor nodded and all the humor fell away from his face. “Indeed, goddess. I suppose you are right about that. Now, come. We’ve kept this gift for many years in a hidden place within our mines. Even the Shadow King had no knowledge of its existence. And what a mess it would have been if he found it.”

Trailing along behind him, she took the time to marvel at how quiet it was in this room. There was no sound other than the amplification of their breath and their footsteps. It added to the eerie knowledge that dark creatures followed just beneath their heels, waiting for the glass to crack.

Illumination poured in from the top of this strange room, and as she looked up, she realized it was moonlight. Somewhere high above them, the moon had come out. Mirrors were affixed to the wall and bounced that light between them until it lit up the entire room like torchlight.

The silver rays played upon her skin, touching her arms and reassuring her that there was always power available if she needed it. And oh, she would have loved to devour more of that power.

It was a curse to always want more. Just when she thought she’d gotten control over the feeling, that was when it came back. It reminded her that her people were in danger, that her friends were suffering, and that she needed to fix all this.

Her power was endless, or so the women in her history had told her. All the mothers that came before whispered in her ear about what she could do, and yet Lore had tried very little of it.

As she walked toward the unknown, following a dwarven king who claimed to have known about her for centuries, Lore wondered if she was just afraid of that power.

It seemed... limitless. And such a gift like that should only be given to the righteous and the few. Was she either of those? No. Lore had come from a hundred people who thought they knew how to control a kingdom like this. She’d been born into a rebellion, and those who whispered in her ears what the world should be. And was she righteous? So far from it, she didn’t know what it would take to be so.

Still, here she was. With a power she didn’t know how to control, a life that didn’t feel like her own, and a destiny that barreled toward her whether she wanted it to or not.

“Now, let’s see,” Algor muttered as he moved across the glass. “I’ve always wanted to do this, but I never knew if I’d be the king who got the chance. My father just died, you see. Only a couple months ago.”

“My condolences,” Lore said.

“No need.” The dwarf waved his hand in the air. “He was a terrible man with small dreams. The kingdom is better off without his meddling. We weren’t very close. There’s seventeen of us, you see. Kings have more important things to do than see their children and I was always the troublemaker.”

“Even as the eldest?”

He grinned at her. “Especially as the eldest.”

Then he found what he was looking for. Algor stomped hard on the glass, which shattered underneath his feet. A dark splash of water erupted around him, lifting into the air far higher than should have been possible after he barely had touched the surface.

Abraxas bristled at her side again. “Won’t that let out those creatures that you keep in the depths?”

“Stop worrying about the creatures,” Algor said with a laugh. “They’re not going anywhere. None of them would attack the king.”

But he still looked at his feet with a nervous glance before then nodding as though he’d confirmed his own suspicions. The creatures were staying away from the crack in the glass, at the very least.

Though Lore hated how thin it was. If it only took a single stomp to break through it, she wasn’t so sure they should all be standing so close.

Algor took a deep breath in through his nose and then a low rumble echoed from him. He hummed low and deep, like rocks shifting underneath the earth as the mountains moved and breathed. It was a stunning sound, and one that seemed to slice through her chest and deep into her heart.

Lore pressed a hand to her chest and was shocked to find her ribs vibrating. Abraxas and Beauty had done the same, and they all shared a horrified look before turning their attention back to the dwarf who hummed so low he shook their very bodies.

And then something moved again in the depths. A strange light that glimmered beyond the creatures. She could see them in stark relief. Long, eel-like bodies with feathered edges. No, not feathers, sharp serrated edges that would cut if they merely brushed past their prey. Their heads were small, and filled with sharp teeth that they bared at the light before they swam away from it.

She noted they appeared afraid of the light. If she had to save them all, that was the easiest trick up her sleeve.

But then the glimmer erupted out of the crack that Algor had made. Water splashed around them, surging out of the hole and rolling over their feet as the gift of the dwarves rested before them.

“Here,” Algor said, throwing his arms wide for her to survey their masterpiece. “This is the gift that has been centuries in the making. For you, the Fallen Star, only the best that the dwarves have to offer.”

A suit of armor stood before them. Not a single ounce of rust or algae upon it. In fact, there wasn’t even water dripping down its silver surface.

It was a complete set. Thigh braces that were molded into perfect shape, boots with the tiniest designs of swirling magic that made them seem to almost glimmer with diamonds. The metal skirt would move well with her, and the metal seemed thin enough so that she wouldn’t have to worry if it would hinder her movements. But the chest plate caught her attention most.

Flat and sturdy, it was covered in runes. Perhaps only she could see the glowing blue marks, but there were layers upon layers of magic cast upon its surface. Nothing would break through that. Nothing would be able to even touch her. Small links created armor for her arms, and the helm was a stunning, sleek beast. Twin plates of metal would stretch down her face, leaving the middle clear so she could see through it. But the beauty was the way the helm would curve around her skull.

It was both beautiful and deadly. And made far better than she had ever seen before.

“Impressive,” she said, her voice ringing out in the cavern. “I have never seen its like.”

Algor beamed. “And you never will see another. There is a second gift for the Fallen Star. It is something that I have worked on myself.”

With a flourish, he waved his hand, and a sword appeared in it. The blade was longer than he was tall, a perfect length for Lore. It was nearly the length from her hip to her feet, but so thin that it had to be a rapier. Except, when she took it from his grasp, she did not see the safeguard that a rapier should have. This was just a thin, sleek blade. A needle to pierce and tear.

She lifted it, eyeing the metal. “This is not made of anything I have seen before.”

“That is because when you were born, a star fell from the sky. My father knew what that meant. He was attuned to omens more than others. That blade is made of that star which fell. It is harder than any metal known to man. So thin it could pierce an eye like a toothpick, but it will not break even if a great sword should lock with it.”

Lore swung it in a slow circle, feeling the impeccable weight and how balanced it was. “This is better than elven-make.”

She’d thought it impossible for the dwarf to look any more proud, but his chest somehow puffed even wider at her words. “You’ll find no better make than these. Even the elves could not compete with what we have created.”

She hated to admit it, but he was right. This weapon was impressive and terrifying at the same time. It was one she was lucky to even hold in her hand.

Catching Abraxas’s eye, she lifted a brow and gestured at him with the sword. No need to ask him twice. Abraxas took the weapon and swung it, his arm moving much faster than hers. The blade whistled as it swung through the air, but it did not warp in the slightest. It didn’t even bend under the great speed that only a dragon could use.

Even more impressive.

Algor grinned at them both. “I’m afraid we were unaware that you would travel with a mortal friend. My apologies, Miss Beauty. But we knew that you would arrive on dragon back and... Well.”

He waved a hand, and the waters shifted again. This time, they revealed glimmering gold dragon armor. Larger than she’d ever imagined and beautiful all the same. Gems crusted the edges, a nod toward a creature who desired a hoard. A saddle was on one piece, with a large shield attached, as though they knew she would ride him into battle someday.

Even Abraxas’s jaw fell open at the sight. “Armor?” he gruffly asked.

“You’re going to need it.” Algor shrugged. “At least according to legend. I assume it suits you?”

It did. But, of course, it also made Lore’s stomach roll. So they were to battle, then. At least they would be well protected.