Heln thought she was exaggerating until he finally smelled it, too, and did the exact same thing. No matter what his shirt smelled like, anything was better than the almost sweet reek of decay that hit him like a wall. "Maybe it was someone who worked on this place. Or blood sacrifice or something."
"There has never been any type of magic that actually worked that relied on sacrifice." Bel's voice was muffled by her shirt, but her disdainful tone wasn't.
"We've never encountered magic like this." Heln reminded her. "And that's just what they tell you in school, which is clearly not always right. Exhibit A, that statue back there."
Rhyss undid the button at her collar, pulled it up around her mouth and nose, and refastened it. "I don't care if someone tripped and broke their head open a hundred years ago, let's just go."
"Rhyss, that's cold."
"Shut it, DoVan."
The smell became almost unbearable when the tunnel opened up into a wide, dark space. Heln was on the verge of suggesting they go back. The stink was so strong his eyes were watering. Bel sent her bubble out again, cautiously. It was a large, circular chamber, made smaller by another circle of tall, roughly carved pillars that supported empty air. They threw slanted, angular shadows against the wall as the light passed them, like giants were dancing.
"Dead end?" Rhyss asked.
"No, there's a door." Bel said. "And… something in front of it…"
On the opposite side of the room was a small flight of stairs leading to a door that looked like the one Rhyss had knocked over. The stairs were flanked by the two tallest, widest pillars. Both of them were easily bigger than any tree in the Grove.
Something was between them, lying at the base of the steps. When Bel's bubble got closer to it, the light snuffed out, leaving them with Rhyss's.
"Magic eater," she said, softly. "Everyone back away slowly, we'll take the other tunnel, we—"
The thing moved, and even in the dark it was clear that the shape was all wrong for a magic eater. There was a clanking, the sound of something heavy and hard being dragged against stone.
"I don't think that's a magic eater." Heln took a few steps back. He pulled down his shields and the assault on his senses was so horribly wrong that he was on his knees before he realized it, his mouth bitter with the taste of metal. "Ugh. It. How did I not…?"
And then he realized why he hadn't sensed it before. The chamber was even more tightly sealed than the tunnel had been, each one of the pillars acting as a further seal.
The thing rose up, its head was somewhere near the ceiling. A deep glow started in its chest, lighting up the chamber just enough for them to see what it was.
It was a dragon.
Chapter Fourteen
Heln blamed Bel.
He barely had enough time to realize just how immense the dragon was before Rhyss yanked him behind one of the pillars. The head alone was colossal and so, so far above them. A clicking sound echoed through the cave before the neck twisted around. A stream of fire so hot it was almost white screamed down the tunnel, scorching the place they had been standing moments ago, the rock cracking with a loud snap. Ghosts of steam and smoke swirled into the tunnel and the temperature rose so sharply and suddenly it was hard to breathe.
Rhyss's illumination bubble hurtled into the middle of the room and exploded, lighting up the entire space.
Illustrations of dragons were common enough and he'd read plenty of heroic adventures about slaying the beasts and saving kingdoms, but that seemed very unrealistic.
His books said dragons were huge. Massive. Absolutely enormous.
Somehow none of those words seemed to really encompass the actual creature, because it was so large it didn't look like it could possibly be moving.
The dragon was the color of smoke, eyes glittering like pale gems. It was on all fours in front of the stairs, wings spread nearly the entire width of the chamber, tattered and beaten, the tips scraping against the pillars. Its head swayed back and forth on its long neck in a way that would have been serpentine if it weren't for the almost clockwork jitter of the movement, its eyes staring straight ahead. The glow they had seen was a red gem imbedded deep in its chest, the plates of its scales almost overlapping across it. It glowed sullenly like a dim star.
Each pillar was inscribed with an insane amount of magic script, and the two tallest had large chains attached to them, running to a thick collar nearly the same color as the dragon's plating that encircled its neck.
"It's a flesh construct." Bel had a death grip on Heln's sleeve, her voice barely above a breath. "Someone… someone made a dragon into a flesh construct."
The dragon’s head swiveled around. It let out a horrible noise, something between a scream and a roar that Heln felt in his bones, made him press his hands against his ears, just as the light died.
He blinked furiously, but the light had done its damage and he couldn't see anything. It was too late, anyway, with a rattle of chain and a thrumming sound the dragon was moving, slamming itself into the pillar right next to him.
All of the script lit up at once, extending beyond the pillar to the next, until the entire chamber was bathed in blue light. The pillars formed a massive, incredibly powerful barrier, like the stone bars of a cage.
"Thank Eleti and Jasmerne and Fola…" Bel was busy naming every single hero from the war and Rhyss was dragging them along because the dragon was rearing back, its chest glowing with a radiance that spilled through the gem like
