“Or whatever they abandoned here,” Eraina said.
“I’ll wait in this area,” Gerith said, glancing from one of them to the next helplessly. “Are you sure you don’t want to turn back? If you want to tell Dalan we didn’t find anything …” His words died away when he saw Eraina’s unflinching glare. “Right then,” he said. “I guess lying is out.”
“We’ll be careful, Gerith,” Seren said.
“When you’re ready to leave, or if you get in any trouble, fire one of these,” Gerith said, offering a half dozen thick, cloth-wrapped tubes to Seren. “Tristam made them. Break them in half and the air will ignite them. They let off a bright light and explode in a cloud of smoke. I’ll see them, day or night.”
“Thanks, Gerith,” Seren said, tucking the tubes into one of her pouches. “We’ll be careful.”
“See that you do,” the halfling said. “My story won’t be any good without its heroine.” He smiled weakly, then tugged at his glidewing’s reins. Blizzard hopped into the air and spread its wings with a crack, soaring away over the plains.
“Where do we start?” Seren asked, staring out at the vast expanse. “It’s larger than I thought it would be. Overwood could be anywhere.”
“Then it doesn’t matter where we start,” Eraina said, starting off down the hill.
Seren followed, with Omax bringing up the rear. When they drew closer, Eraina knelt in the thinning grass. She knelt to pick up a fragment of white stone, then stared out at the bleached expanse with wide eyes. “The ground is bone,” she said, gingerly setting the fragment back down. “The entire valley is paved in fossilized bone.”
“There is no wind,” Omax observed. “This place is undisturbed by the elements. I can see why the halflings would find this place unnatural.”
“Let’s find Kiris and leave,” Seren said.
The others had no argument. They continued onward, the gentle slope of the plains becoming a steep incline. The scattered bone fragments became thicker until they covered the area like loose shale. Combined with the steep incline, the path became treacherous. Seren was forced to kick loose bone away with each step she took, seeking purchase underneath. The sounds of clattering debris resounded into the valley, making Seren wince.
Omax pitched forward as the ground cracked noisily beneath his feet. His right leg sank into the surface up to his thigh, sending a ripple of scattered bone outward. Seren felt the ground pitch beneath her. Knowing there was little she could do, she leapt forward into a roll rather than fight for balance. She tumbled down the valley wall, grunting as the rough surfaces gouged her arms and legs. She finally tumbled to a halt and, finding nothing broken, came to her feet again. She stood in a forest of larger bone fragments. Broken skulls and hipbones lay like fallen boulders. Enormous ribs and claws reached for the sky like spectral trees, crisscrossing in a ghastly canopy. Spires of bare stone erupted from the bone in places, painted with bizarre sienna patterns. The air was still and musty with the faint taste of lime.
Higher up the slope, Eraina helped Omax pull his trapped leg free. The warforged was annoyed but uninjured as he wrenched himself out of the bones. The dragon bones were hollow, like a bird’s, and Omax’s heavy tread had broken through the surface of one of the larger ones. The Boneyard was covered with layers upon layers of bone. Seren wondered how deep the remains went.
“Seren?” Omax called out, unable to find her amid the broken landscape.
“I’m all right,” she said, studying the steep, unstable slope. “I don’t think I can get back up to where you are.”
“We’ll come to you,” Eraina said, picking her way gingerly down the slope.
“Be careful,” Seren said.
The gigantic skulls of countless long-dead dragons stared silently down at her. Though it had been early morning when they had arrived, the valley was painted in a dusty half-light. She could no longer find the sun. The Boneyard radiated a sense of timelessness. “We have been here for ages,” the bones seemed to say, “We will be here when you are gone.”
There was something distinctly … wrong about the Boneyard. The shadows did not match the light as they should. The colors were not right. The patterns painted upon the stones twisted when Seren looked at them from the corner of her eye. Seren found it both disturbing and somehow familiar. She was an unwelcome intruder in a place where time stood still. She remembered Omax’s words; it was obvious why the halflings avoided this place. She retreated into the curve of a fallen jawbone and waited for her friends.
Omax led the way down to Seren, each step cautious and calculated. Eraina followed, spear clutched in both hands as she searched for any sign that the noise had attracted enemies.
Seren saw it first, a furtive movement in the darkness between two towering rib bones. Eraina and Omax did not notice. As they approached, Seren peered out just enough for them to see her. She silently waved them away. A brief look of confusion flickered across Eraina’s face, but Omax understood. The warforged marched directly past Seren’s hiding place. The paladin followed with an uncomfortable frown. Several seconds after they had moved on, the shadows moved again. Seren saw it more clearly as it moved closer, a young woman in tattered robes, darting through the jagged white forest. The woman didn’t offer a second glance in Seren’s direction, following Eraina and Omax instead. Seren guessed that she had been drawn by the earlier noise and was investigating the new arrivals but arrived too late to see Seren hide.
Seren crept out from behind the jawbone, falling into step behind the strange woman. Seren could see now that her robes were blue velvet, once obviously of fine quality, now torn and stained with the Boneyard’s bleached dust. Her dark hair hung long and unkempt about her shoulders, adding to her savage appearance. Many heavy pouches hung from her belt but she carried no obvious weapons. Seren caught the faint smell of sulfur and jasmine. Seren tucked her dagger carefully away. She moved to the center of the rough path, hands clearly visible and far from her body but ready to spring away instantly if she needed to.
“Kiris Overwood,” Seren said, loudly enough so that her friends ahead would hear.
The woman whirled, one hand reaching for her belt, eyes blazing with fear. She stopped when she saw Seren held no weapons, and realized that Eraina and Omax were now standing behind her.
“You aren’t Cyran,” she said, studying Seren’s face intently. A brief look of relief shone on her dirty face, only to be replaced by intense suspicion. “Who are you? How do you know me?”
“My name is Seren Morisse,” Seren said, keeping her voice calm and soothing. Kiris moved with the tense energy of a wild animal, as if, finding herself trapped, she would flee or attack at any moment. “I work for Dalan d’Cannith. We need your help.”
“Dalan d’Cannith,” Kiris said, spitting out the name. “Why am I not surprised?”
“What do you mean?” Seren asked.
The heavy thud of a large and heavy thing falling erupted behind Seren, scattering the bones.
“Khyber,” Kiris hissed. “Run!”
Seren looked back in time to see a second shadowy mass distend, like a raindrop, from the end of a twenty-foot claw. It fell somewhere behind the rumpled heaps of broken bone, landing with a thud. Another, third shape struck the ground somewhere to their left, in the darkness. Kiris rushed past them, scrambling over heaps of shattered bone without hesitation.
“What?” Omax said, following the wizard
Then a shrieking, gibbering screech filled the air. Seren screamed as the sound pressed into her mind, driving away all reason. A shapeless mass of flesh covered with fanged mouths and wide eyes launched from the bones and struck Omax in the chest, pinning the warforged to the ground. Another erupted from the path on the other side, lashing at Eraina with fleshy arms covered with countless biting mouths. The paladin parried the blows with her spear, moving to block its path to Seren. The thief knelt among the bones, laughing hysterically as the world melted and swirled before her eyes. In the distance, she saw Kiris unleash a bolt of arcane power into another thrashing beast and continue running without them.