“We take it as it comes,” Lucian said simply, catching me before I tumbled in again.
“Excuse me.”
“We don't know the rules on this one, Blake. What do you want to go over?” he snapped back.
“You bring me here only to tell me we have to wing it.”
“I didn't bring anyone here. You wanted to come,”Lucian said as he passed him, shoving his shoulder roughly into Blake’s.
Lucian held out his hand for mine. I took it without looking at Blake. Back at camp, we packed the water bottles and snacks we needed for the trip. Lucian's watch beeped, and a small electronic voice said it was eight.
“It's about an hour's walk to the Sacred Cavern. I suggest we get a move on,” Blake said, and took a backpack from Tabitha, who glared daggers at me.
“Would Brian do me the honor?” George said, and held out a manmade torch in Brian's direction. Brian blew on it, and the torch set on fire instantly. He lit two more and gave one to Blake, who took the lead.
“Your highness,” Brian joked, and handed Lucian one too.
“Ha ha,” Lucian said with a tone drenched in sarcasm.
Brian winked at me and ran to catch up with Blake at the front of the group.
Small animals made noises in the brush as they ran from our heavy footsteps. I jumped and shrieked every time.
“You're scared of things in the woods? Unbelievable.” Arianna passed us and shook her head.
“Ignore her, Elena. I think what you’re doing is pretty brave,” Lucian said in a soft tone, rubbing my back gently.
“Why did she have to be here?”
“Why?” Arianna whipped around at my words and looked at me with a ferocious expression on her face. “Because what you are doing, Elena, isn't brave at all.” She looked at Lucian. “It's stupid.” Then back at me. “And if any of us die tonight, it's on your head.”
I hadn’t thought about that and swallowed hard.
“Arianna, you begged to come with us tonight, so shut your pie whole,” Lucian snapped back.
“You guys, enough,” Blake yelled. “Nobody was forced into coming tonight, Arianna, but I agree with you, this is a suicide mission. There's nothing we can do about it now, so all of you shut your traps.”
The dragons all stood with Blake, except for Sammy. She stood right next to Becky and looked everywhere but in my direction.
She's pissed off with me too?
The rest of the trip felt long. Arianna's words weighed like a ton of bricks on my mind. What if somebody dies? It will be on my head.
Sammy whispered something to Becky, and she put her arm around Sammy. It frustrated me so much that I couldn't hear what they were talking about.
Lucian squeezed my hand a little tighter every time I looked at the two of them.
We exited the woods and ended up in front of a towering mountain that had a stone staircase winding up into the fog surrounding it. I'd seen it in small-scale at the museum, but never did I imagine that it would be this colossal.
“Welcome to the Sacred Cavern,” Blake yelled in a theatrical tone. Tabitha and Arianna giggled. We reached the stairs, and Lucian let me go first, a true gentleman.
The climb took everything out of me,and my muscles felt as if I’d spent an entire day at the gym doing leg lifts. I was glad that Lucian drilled me every morning, otherwise my lungs would’ve collapsed, or worse, Lucian would've had to carry me.
“Becky will speak to you again, Elena,” Lucian said, trying to cheer me up.
“You sure about that? I said some pretty mean things to her.”
“They were the truth. She'll only become part of the Royal Council if she gets a bit more of what you have.” He tried to boost my ego.
“You make it sound as if I'm not scared at all. I'm shaking in my shoes, literally.”
He smiled. “But you're here. Which means you’re as much of a knight as any of these guys here with you?”
“A stupid knight.”
“Not so stupid to me. I admit, it sounded crazy the first time you explained it, but it makes sense. Once you said those words about the wall coming down, it scared the living crap out of me too. You're right. Goran will get tired after taking over Paegeia, and then he'll do whatever he can to take down the wall. If he's smart enough to find a way to exit Etan, he's powerful enough to find a way to break through to the other side.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?” He had a questioning look on his face.
“For being the first to join me in this crazy mission,” I said. “Do you think that they'll look for us?”
“You mean Master Longwei?” he asked with a mysterious smile, and I nodded. “It will take them about a day to reach us, and you saw how tired the dragons are after a flight like the one we just took. So they won't catch up if that's what you mean. Besides, they don't know which direction we went. Everyone that knows about this is here.”
“They can ask Cheng. He's smart and will put two and two together. He's the one that told me about this place.” I was afraid of what Master Longwei would do if he found out that I was behind this mission.
“Elena, you worry too much about little things. They must first discover that we are gone.”
Suddenly, gasps came from up ahead on the trail. Something told me they had reached the top. I heard backpacks falling to the ground, and when Blake came into sight, he was drinking water out of a bottle.
The steps stopped, and I had to hoist myself up the last ledge. My eyes caught Blake's, and his beauty made my stomach fell queasy. He reached down and gave me his hand.
I grabbed it and looked away quickly so he wouldn’t see my blush. I didn't like the way he made me feel whenever our eyes met. He lifted me up with one pull and helped Lucian after me.
I inhaled sharply. In front of me were two eighty-foot-tall wooden doors.
“So what's the plan, big shot?” Blake asked while he thrust a water bottle into Lucian's hand.
He took a couple of gulps and handed it over to me.
“We all go and face whatever comes our way together,” Lucian said with more confidence than I felt.
We all looked at one another. Becky still didn't look my way.
“All of you agree?” Blake asked everyone. We all nodded. Tabitha was the only one that looked like she wanted to make a run for it.
“Tabitha?” Blake asked in a sweet tone. She didn't answer or look up. “Babes, are you in?” he asked again.
There were tears in her eyes. “I can't do this, Blake.”
Some of the guys and Arianna sighed heavily.
“Just leave her here, I doubt anything will happen, and if there is any danger she can fly away,” Arianna snapped harshly.
“Arianna take a hike.” Blake sounded furious, and Lucian stepped in.
“We can't afford to fight. We need Arianna inside. She's the best at enchantments, Blake. Use your head.”
“Fine, but you stay as far away from me as possible. Get that.”
Arianna shrugged, rolled her eyes and raised her upper lip with sarcasm, before turning her back to him.
We took a minute to gather our strength and walked over to the door. Just as we were about to reach for one of the doors, a huge dragon came out of nowhere, landed with a thud, and stopped us. The spikes on his head looked like a crown and two long whiskers ran down his mouth. His scales were a dark auburn and his snout was long and pointy.
He roared something in Latin that I didn't understand and I felt my knees shake with every syllable.
Blake bowed down, and we all followed his example. My heart pounded so fast and loud that I struggled to hear what Blake was saying. Some sort of introduction happened, and I only caught the word “Rubicon” and all of our names. I didn't dare to look up.
Words like“unseen”and“millpond” were the only ones that I did understand, thanks to a couple of Blake's lessons. I hated not being able to speak or understand this stupid language.