Firebolt

Chapter 25

I NEED TO FIND a way to complete whatever obstacles were hiding inside the cavern, to get the reward: a look into the magical mill pond. I thought as my plan began to form. Cheng said that it could reveal our innermost wishes and desires, whether present, past, or future. I would find the sword's location, even though I didn't know for certain if it still existed.

I remembered that only five people, mostly women, made it out alive. That part kept me from running straight to the Cavern that very instant. Not knowing what hid inside the caves scared the living hell out of me. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but then again, when did I ever have things easy, and that wasn't about to change anytime soon. The thing was that nobody else did anything besides guard the Academy.

I thought again about what Goran would do once he broke out of Etan. If he destroyed Paegeia and the wall, the humans would come, and the dragons wouldn't stand a chance. It would end in a war and be the end of my new home. With that thought imprinted on my mind, death didn't sound like such a big sacrifice anymore. I would rather die than watch my biggest fear come to life.

For the next couple of days, I read up on everything that had to do with the Sacred Cavern. Cheng must have found his information in these books and articles, so I kept looking. Most of the stories said that it was impossible to make it out of the Cavern, but the queen and four other women had. I thought about her again. Could this be why she'd appeared inside my dreams? Could she have been pointing to the Sacred Cavern?

For some reason, everything was starting to make sense. Why I dreamt about the queen, and what the Viden's words meant. This was my destiny. I was the one meant to find the sword.

I read through the article again, waiting for something else to pop inside my head. The words "young women" caught my eye. Why were there only young women who made it out alive? I researched everything I could find on young women and ended up reading about maidens. In those times, maidens held a different meaning than they did today. Paegeia's dictionary read, "Maiden: a woman with her virtue still intact".

A virgin? For the love of blueberries, the ones that made it out were all virgins!

Something Becky said to me the first time she discovered that I was still intact jumped to my mind. It was about Brian. My fingers flashed across the keys, and I hit the search button the minute the word "Fire-Blast" was typed.

Articles about Fire-Blasts appeared on pages and pages in front of me. It contained everything I needed to know about these dragons. Sites of how bad they really were hit my attention, and I clicked on the link. Pictures of young girls appeared staked against a pole, naked with a Fire-Blast leaning over them; all held fear on their faces. The scene jolted through me and I shivered. I got a funny feeling that a Fire-Blast guarded the millpond. It made sense why others didn't make it out. That had to be it. I found a map detailing how to get to the Sacred Cavern on another site. It didn't look that far, but then again, I was no expert when it came to reading maps. My other concern was how to get there. They had bus schedules, but that cost money, money I didn't have.

On the fourteenth day, the night after my second guarding duty, I went back to searching more about the Sacred Cavern. I found a couple of really good books, and it took me a couple of hours to page through all of them.

I took the book that contained the most information about the Sacred Cavern and went back to my room. Cheng really did have good theories. I laid the book over my chest after reading the last paragraph and closed my eyes. There were still a couple of things I needed before I could even think of leaving Dragonia. Things I had no idea where to get.

I made up my mind that I would take Ginger. I rode her once, well with Lucian on the trails, but how difficult could riding a horse be? It would have to be on a horse. I really needed a couple of bucks, but who to ask? Master Longwei would want a valid explanation. Lucian was the other source of income, but he would ask exactly the same thing. I didn't know a single person that wouldn't question my intent. I was screwed.