Path to Destiny

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I'd only run a few paces before Raven's gravelly voice cried, "Stop, prisoner!" and the only guard manning the entrance -- or exit, in our case -- to Blod Glōria hurtled toward me with powerful speed.

That was when a jeweled beast from my nightmares shot out from behind me.

A scream wrenched itself from my body as I dove to the side to avoid the monster.

An Orandine.

The guard splayed backward as the serpent cracked its skull against the metal plating of his armor. A discordant chiiiing rent the air. The guard flew into the wall and sank to the ground, motionless.

The Orandine turned its head to face me. A silver tongue lashed out from a ruby- and sapphire-plated mouth. Slitted nostrils flared. Images of Kasib Tierce flowed into my mind. How he attacked me that night in the form of an Orandine. How he murdered Philippa De Luca, how he was destroyed in the process by Therin, and how I failed in saving him, failed in convincing him of the right way, failed in showing him hope.

In my head I screamed, because my voice was paralyzed as the serpent curled around me. I fell backward and raised my hands over my head. It stopped abruptly and lowered its head to meet my eyes.

Its eyes were familiar.

Raven.

I clutched my hands against my chest. The Orandine nudged me with its mouth. It didn't stink of rotting fish, just of earth and pine. A shapeshifter, I reminded my trembling heart.

Get on, a gravelly voice echoed in my mind, but I couldn't place it as familiar. It didn't sound like Raven at all.

Despite everything, I nodded shakily and grabbed onto Raven's scaly neck. A thick mist curled around us, and I noticed the jeweled scales were slippery -- made of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. I clutched the Orandine's neck like my life depended on it.

He slithered into the gap where the wagon had first entered. We were indeed underground, because the tunnel was wide enough to admit wagons and curved upward as Raven moved farther.

Moonlight shone up ahead. Three figures stood posted at the exit, but Raven didn't hesitate as he smashed through the thick fence guarding the entrance. I bit back a scream as wood flew past me and nearly made me lose my grip. Cries of shock and terror burst from the guards, but we were too fast for them to react.

I expected screams, but Raven had somehow changed his scales to a dull moonstone, mimicking the cobblestone we now passed. He skirted Ridiva, sticking to unoccupied alleys and low hillsides bordering slums. Blod Glōria now far behind us, I took a deep, quivering breath.

Raven turned down a dirt pathway, slinking between trees. Soon we came to another town, one that had been abandoned by humanity. The charred remains of wood and stone buildings rose on either side of us. Broken barrels, trash, and weeds littered the pathway, if there was one. The Orandine ducked beneath a stone awning and turned left.

Slums, the gravelly voice said. His scales trickled like marbles along broken stone pieces. We passed what used to be a marketplace, burned sticks of stalls stuck up from the dirt. Not even grass grew on the ground. This was a town of forgotten things, ghosts of Ridiva.

Raven finally stopped in a small stone alcove where burn marks laced the stone wall. I slid off his slippery neck and landed on cold, rocky dirt.

He lowered his serpentine head and looked at me. I still had the shock of memories, how an Orandine had once wrapped me in a suffocating embrace.