Path to Destiny

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

We exited Barbos with greater speed than I had imagined. The desert stretched out before us like a vast, dry ocean. Morning sun warmed my back as we rode. Our cloaks would protect us from the heat for now, but we needed to make haste.

I gritted my teeth as I bumped up and down on the camel like some child's plaything. Synnove and Hadrian didn't seem to mind it, but I saw Titus shift uncomfortably several times.

At least I wasn't the only one.

We forged a path through the desert as our camels kicked up sand behind them. Cacti and desert shrubs spotted the otherwise barren land. We rode past several strange stones that resembled long-forgotten statues. As we continued, the stones increased in number until I realized we were in the center of ancient ruins.

The ruins stretched on as far as I could see; it was a never-ending line of dark, cracked stone structures. I drew my camel to a stop inside a circle of pillars, some of which were on their sides or broken to pieces. "Where was the shaman's hut supposed to be?" I asked Synnove.

She shrugged. "The man said he was just in the ruins."

I gawked at her. "These ruins stretch for..." I looked around us and groaned. I turned to her again. "Are you sure he wasn't lying?"

The dancer glared at me. "No," she quipped. "You were the one who told me to ask. He seemed honest enough."

Don't strangle her, I told myself. I took a deep, calm breath and made my camel do a circle around the pillared space. I dismounted my camel and approached an archway that stood six times taller than me. On the edging of the archway was an ancient runic inscription.

Hadrian appeared beside me. "'The great king leads the city to victory,'" he recited.

I stared at him. "Since when were you able to read runic script?"

"It is in ancient elvish," he replied swiftly. I detected a hint of smugness in his tone. "I learned it on my travels to Balua."

The blood grew cold inside of me. "Did you say elvish?"

Hadrian nodded. "This might be the reason Rowan left for Balua."

I thought back to the Harbinger of Earth, the last elf alive. He was mortified when he found out the Shadow cursed him to become the Barghest, a murderous wolf made of darkness. All that he did -- killing Synnove's mother ages ago, causing destruction across Nor, and nearly killing us -- struck him in the heart.

And then he left us. I still remembered Rowan's letter to us after he left Eremith, how hurt he sounded: Because of this curse, I am a danger to you all. I was created to protect this world, yet I am a destroyer of it.

In too many ways, my dreams mirrored his words.

It is for the revenge of my people, the elves who were destroyed by the Shadow, that pushes me forward.

I closed my eyes. Rowan was here in Balua looking for the Shadow, and we would find them both if it killed me.

Hadrian cleared his throat. "The runes recount the victories of a great king who once ruled a city..." He trailed off.

I looked around us, and it dawned on me. This ruin in the center of the Baluan Desert was a fallen city.

Not even a city. A fallen empire.

My breath left me, and an involuntary shiver traced its way up my arms. The Shadow... Rowan's letter... Was the Shadow so powerful that it wiped an entire city like this from existence?