Diaspor Aspenwind's Arc

Chapter 18 of 18

Diaspor read the journal twice before he accepted what it told him. The cutting spell was clear. The hand was patient. It listed the words, the circle, the pendant placement, the cut across the master's palm. It listed one ingredient he did not know: a scale from a living drake, given freely. He read the line three times. Given freely. Not taken. He closed the book and sat with his back against the cold wall and thought about who in the east still kept company with drakes. He came up with one name. He had heard it years ago in the library, spoken low. A scholar who lived in a cave and traded knowledge to those who could pay. Drake Darkwing. Diaspor stood, tucked the journal under his arm, and walked back out past the watching tree. The swarm rose from the dead branches and followed him. It took him a day and a half to find the cave. He followed the bond loose this time, letting the swarm trail behind, asking the few travelers he passed if they knew the name. Most turned away from the brand on his sleeve and the cloud at his back. One old fae pointed east without speaking. He walked east. The land kept its sickness for a while, then thinned. By the second dusk he came up a slope of black stone and saw the entrance set into the hill: an arch of dark lavender rock, smoothed by water or by hand. A creature crouched at the mouth of it. A lion's body, gold from nose to tail, wings folded high. It did not move when he stopped. Its eyes followed him. Past the gryphon, set into the cliff face above the arch, a dragon had been carved into the obsidian — coiled, fanged, longer than the cave was tall. A warning to anyone who could read it. Diaspor laid his sword on the ground in front of the gryphon and walked under the arch with empty hands. The cave narrowed, then opened. A black-scaled drake lay on a stone shelf at the back, purple along the wings, one yellow eye open. He did not rise. "You brought a swarm to my door," he said. "They follow me. I came to ask about a scale." The drake's eye did not move. "Whose." "Yours. Or any drake willing. The book says it must be given." "Show me the book." Diaspor stepped forward and set the journal on the stone. The drake read without touching it. He read for a long time. When he looked up, his voice was lower. "This is her hand. I knew her work. The spell is real. The scale is the easy part." He flexed one wing and a single black scale dropped onto the page, edged in violet. "Given. Take it." Diaspor picked it up. It was warm. He started to thank him, but the drake spoke first. "The cut on your palm closes the bond. It will also close something in you. She wrote that part down too. Read further before you cast it." He lowered his head onto his foreleg and closed the yellow eye. "Go. And do not come back with them at your back." Diaspor walked out past the gryphon, picked up his sword, and started west with the scale wrapped in cloth against his chest. He had what he came for. He also had a warning he had not asked for, and a page of the journal he had not yet read.