CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The streets leading towards the domed structure were littered with debris. Some of it was broken brick and mortar from the surrounding buildings— which were in various stages of collapse— but the vast majority were iron and steel scraps. As she passed, Enfri pointed them out to Deebee.

"I think we're seeing evidence of the final siege of Marwin," Deebee said. "There's not much left, but some of this looks like pieces of armor consistent with the period."

Deebee scratched at the sandy ground and gave a call of triumph. "A sword fragment. Wrought iron. The Aleesh would have used steel, but Althandi metallurgy wasn't very advanced in this era. It must have come from one of the invaders."

Enfri wrinkled her nose. She looked around at the scattered remnants with distaste. "This is a battlefield, then."

"It appears the fighting grew fiercer the closer we get to that big structure," Deebee said. She picked up a face guard from a helmet and gave it a thorough examination. "This here belonged to a Ruby Knight, one of the twenty-five orders. I can tell by the crest engraved on the brow."

"Who were they?" Enfri asked.

"The militant arm of the Aleesh knighthoods. Most were witches, according to Varn, and many were bonded to red dragons. The Ruby Knights were the greatest fighting force the Continent has ever seen."

"Save one," Enfri said quietly. She spotted something ahead and nodded towards it in indication. "They didn't win this fight."

Deebee followed her gaze and dropped the face guard in shock. "Flames," she murmured, then led Enfri to take a closer look.

The skull was twice Enfri's height, and its fanged jaws could have bitten a megathon in half. Great horns like those of a bull curved out from the brow and ended in wicked points. One of them was broken in half.

The rest of the skeleton was strewn behind it. It looked as if not a single bone was still whole. The dragon's bones were pulverized. Crushed, as if it had been gripped in a giant's fist.

"A red," Deebee said, "and he was old. Very old. For a dragon to grow this large, he must have lived for more than a millennium."

Enfri cast a surreptitious glance towards Deebee. She found it hard to believe that the tiny silver and this behemoth were of the same species. Deebee must have had one doozie of a growth spurt coming in her future.

"An assassin did this," Enfri said. "What else but osteomancy could do that to a dragon?"

Deebee nodded in agreement. "One drop of blood. That's all it would take. It's a magic tailor-made to combat the mighty. Armor to defend from our claws, fangs, and fire. Blades to pierce our scales. Finally, this abomination of magic to crush our bones."

Enfri put her hand on the fallen dragon's skull. Such a wondrous and beautiful creature. She felt that she now truly understood why dragons were known as the mighty.

"We shouldn't stay long," Deebee said. She gave her wings a nervous shake. "Let's keep going."

Enfri stepped away from the skull. She looked to her left and saw the bleached bones of a second dragon, half the size of the red, peering from out of the sand. To her right were three more.

No wonder Deebee didn't want to stay. To her, this would be like staring into an open grave.

"What were they protecting?" Enfri asked as they walked on. "So many dragons and knights fell in battle here. Shouldn't the defense have been at the walls?"

Deebee cocked her head at Enfri. "I couldn't say. The walls must have been breached."

"I suppose." Enfri surveyed the wall in the distance. She couldn't see any part of it that might have fallen. It seemed remarkably whole considering it hadn't seen a mason in centuries. Maybe it was... spellwrought... or whatever it was Deebee had talked of.

As they drew closer to the giant structure, Enfri saw more and more signs of the ancient battle. The dead would have been piled on top of one another. Hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers must have fought here. Shattered dragon bones and crumbling iron littered the ground.

Before much longer, Enfri could hardly take a step without kicking a fragment of discarded armor, the wearers long picked apart by carrion birds. She was careful not to cut herself on the swords and spear heads buried in the sand.

"Strange," Deebee muttered as they closed in on their destination. "There doesn't seem to be an obvious entrance. What manner of place was this?"

Enfri craned her neck to look up at the structure. The sandstone building rose to nearly fifty feet above, and the dome went half-again as high. The outer wall was smooth and featureless. There were no openings of any kind that she could see.

"It's not a palace," Enfri said. "Too plain. Big as it is, it's like it was trying not to draw attention to itself."

"Whatever this was, I think the Althandi were set on capturing it." Deebee flapped her wings and flew to a mound of moulded steel plates piled near the foot of the building. "The Aleesh were just as determined to keep that from happening. It looks like a full legion of Shan Alee soldiers were fighting to defend this place. They fought alongside arcanist knights. I see evidence of at least seven different orders. Ruby, Onyx, Emerald... even Opal, the order associated with silver dragons. The Opal Knights were a scholarly order— justiciars and academics. They wouldn't have been sent into war."

"Unless there was great need," Enfri replied. "I've seen the courage of scholars, love. You lot can be quite frightening when you have the will to be."

Deebee's scales rippled, and she stood straighter at the compliment. "Yes, well, that doesn't get us inside this blustering thing. Do you see any sort of entrance?"

"I don't. Could you use magic? Waggle your fingers and make a hole? That earth spell you used against Maya and Tarlus could get us in there."

Deebee clucked her tongue while she examined the wall. "And bring half the building down on our fool heads. I doubt it's still very sturdy, and I was never particularly skilled at earth spells. With my luck, I'd put us right through a supporting wall."

Enfri tapped her fist against the wall and pursed her lips. It made no sense for the Aleesh to build something like this and not have a way in. There had to be an entrance. The trick was simply to locate it.

"Maybe we can find one if we circle around towards the larger streets," she suggested. "They'd put the front door where people would be most likely to be coming from, right?"

"One would think," Deebee agreed. "This way, and keep your eyes open for any sort of mosaic or writing. I'm more curious than ever to find out what this structure was meant for."

They headed around the north end of the domed building. As they walked, Deebee mumbled all manner of theories to herself. "Temple? No, there would be religious iconography. Unless the Aleesh hereabouts were in the midst of an austerity movement. Bah, doubtful. If the Aleesh had a flaw, it was ostentation. They so enjoyed being flashy. An indoor market, perhaps? Would be nice to shop out of the sun, and it's near to the artisan district. Silly. It makes no sense if they haven't any blustering doors."

They neared the northern face of the structure, and Enfri couldn't miss that the signs of battle were increasing. Her progress was slowed by having to navigate through the refuse and the broken bones of dragons. There were even human skeletons present now. The ages hadn't been enough to cleanse so many remains from the streets.

Enfri had her eyes on the sun-bleached bones of an Althandi foot soldier. A steel haft was driven through his ribcage and several feet into the sandstone beneath him. What manner of weapon or spell could do that?

"This was it," Deebee declared. "The epicenter of the last battle for Marwin. It's a terrible thing to think about, Enfri, but this truly is evidence of a defining moment in history. The fall of a sentinel city would have been a great victory for Althandor. I wouldn't be surprised if this marked the turn of the tide against Shan Alee."

The battle had been centered around a hemisphere of stone benches that were facing towards the domed structure. They were arranged like a terrace, each bench lower than the one behind it. Enfri thought it looked like the descriptions of the amphitheaters in Nadia she'd heard of.

"There!" Deebee crowed as she flew away. "The front door, right where you guessed it would be."

Enfri followed her down the steps of the amphitheater towards the central dais. There were a pair of double-doors directly behind it. Anything entering or leaving the structure would have passed into this highly visible space.

"Drat," Deebee sighed. "The doors are barred, but from the outside. It should be a simple task to get us in there."

Barred from the outside? Enfri thought.

So many things were feeling off. The lack of openings of any kind of the structure, its apparent importance to both the attackers and the defenders, and even the presence of the bodies. Now this door was making the hairs on Enfri's arms stand on end.

"It doesn't add up," Enfri muttered.

"What's that?" Deebee asked as she got her claws dug into the bronze bar holding a pair of doors shut.

"The Althandi won the war, didn't they?"

"Of course they did, girl."

Enfri held her head in a hand and grimaced. She was getting a headache from trying to fit this all together into something that made sense.

"Why did they leave their dead behind?" she asked.

Deebee hesitated and looked to the side in deep thought.

"And the doors," Enfri continued. "If they're barred, shouldn't it be to keep the invaders out? It's just the opposite here. Those doors are meant to keep something in. And even so, the Aleesh laid down there lives to keep the Althandi from reaching this place, and doesn't it look like they succeeded? The doors are still intact. They were never breached."

"What are you saying, Enfri?" Deebee asked.

"The city died from this battle," Enfri said as she looked around at the throngs of dead mortals and dragons. "No one was left once it was over. It doesn't seem like a victory for either side."

Deebee gave her head a vigorous shake to clear the cobwebs. "You might be overthinking it. There were two dozen dragons in this battle, at least a full coterie of assassins as well. This could simply be where the two forces wound up finding each other."

Enfri frowned. So many soldiers threw themselves into the fray around this very spot. It must have been important.

"Let's get these doors open," Deebee said. "I dare say it shouldn't be hard. These spellwrought doors held up rather well, all considered. We'll solve this mystery, then go back to the spire."

Enfri nodded in agreement. Her initial excitement for finding Aleesh ruins were beginning to fade. Witnessing so much death had a funny way of putting a damper on her spirits. She was starting to feel a strong urge to be on her way and continue the journey to the Espallan holdfasts. Once this graveyard was behind her, she'd feel more at ease.

Deebee, much stronger than her size would suggest, threw the bronze bar aside and pulled the great doors open. A hot wind blew out from the structure, carrying the choking, musty scent of decay with it.

"Winds and storms," Enfri gasped as she covered her mouth and nose with her hands. "That stench!"

At least fifty mummified bodies were on the ground just inside the doors. Each wore steel breastplates and had tall, square shields and short spears strewn around them. Their helms covered their faces, and long golden hair spilled out from underneath.

"Shan Alee regulars," Deebee wheezed. Her sensitive nose must have been overwhelmed. "They were... Winds, that's rank... They must have been stationed inside."

There was no sign of any other soldiers, Althandi or otherwise. The Aleesh had fallen where they stood with no sign of what killed them. There were no obvious wounds, so Enfri could only assume that an arcanist was responsible.

"The doors kept the carrion feeders out," Enfri observed as she stepped inside. "These remains are untouched, like the herbalist before."

Deebee flew to Enfri's shoulder. "It's like a blustering tomb," she agreed. "Unpleasant, but imagine what we could learn in here. It's been untouched by the centuries. Scholars the world over would sell their mothers for a chance like this."

The dome must have been made from a kind of translucent stone. The sun filtered through and dimly lit the interior. There were a number of holes and cracks in the dome that created shafts of light.

Enfri was staggered by the sheer size of the first room. The interior walls, though four stories tall, didn't quite reach up to the structure's ceiling. They were more like partitions than true walls, with walkways at every level. And there were doors— countless doors. This was similar to the tenements she had seen elsewhere in the city, only on a vastly larger scale and contained within hulking stone walls.

"Deebee," Enfri whispered. She pointed at wooden racks next to the entry doors. Hundreds of silver metal rings, identical to the one she had found on the mummified herbalist, hung on pegs. Enfri walked up to them and plucked one from the racks. The only difference from the one she had already seen was that these didn't have any sort of inscription on them. "What are these things?"

"Curious," Deebee muttered. "I don't have the slightest idea."

"There's a book," Enfri said. She shuffled over to a heavy oak table situated between the two sets of doors. The book she found in its center was a large, thick tome with leather bindings. Carefully, she lifted the front cover. It came off in her hands, and the pages inside were faded and falling apart. "Winds take me. It's parchment. If I touch it, it'll crumble to dust."

"Let me take a look," Deebee offered. She hopped onto the table and craned her neck over the book. "Hmm, this first page is almost entirely gone. It's a ledger, I believe. I can't make out much, but..."

She spent a few moments poring over the faint markings. While Deebee studied the ledger, Enfri looked over her shoulder. It was quiet in here. Silent as a crypt. The only things she could hear were Deebee's soft mutterings and the beating of her own heart.

"Melcia," Deebee read. "Something that could be a number, then 'years'. I'm not sure what this next line says, but I can make out 'salt mine' and 'labor'. This next word would translate to 'meek' or 'biddable'."

"What's all that mean?" Enfri asked.

"Sounds like a transaction with a Melcian salt mine, and the merchant found their partner to be weak willed. I hate to say it, but I think all we've found here is some kind of traders guild."

Enfri looked up to the walkways overhead. If this was a traders guild, then why were there so many rooms here? They couldn't possibly be storerooms, could they? If they were, then this building would have held more goods than Sandharbor saw in a hundred years.

"Let's keep looking," Enfri said. She walked towards an opening between two interior walls. "Just as far as the next chamber."

Deebee jumped back to Enfri's shoulder. "Not too much longer," she cautioned. "As it stands, it'll be getting close to evening when we return to the spire. How long has it been since you last slept?"

"I'm fine," Enfri replied absently. Her eyes were tracing over the walkways along the interior walls. Each of the doors were made of iron. They looked heavy enough that it would take two men to pull them open.

She was starting to notice that the musty smell wasn't fading as she got further away from the remains of the soldiers by the entrance. If anything, it was getting...

"Stop!" Deebee shouted.

Enfri pulled up short and fought to keep her balance. She wheeled her arms around to stay upright while she teetered over the edge of a deep pit dug into the floor. Enfri managed to take a step backwards and saved herself from tumbling headfirst into that big hole. Winds, she'd almost blundered right into it!

"Sorry about that," Enfri said with a forced chuckle. "I should watch where I put my feet."

Deebee wasn't listening. Her eyes had gone startlingly wide, and her mouth hung open as she stared into the pit in the center of this chamber.

Enfri followed her gaze, then felt the breath catch in her throat.

The pit was thirty feet in diameter and half as deep. Its walls and floor were nothing more than packed dirt, and a metal catwalk was placed over the top of it to allow passage through the chamber. Shadows cloaked this part of the structure, and it was thanks to a shaft of light coming down from the dome that Enfri could see into the pit at all.

As she stared at what the pit had within it, Enfri would have given all that she had ever owned to erase the sight from her memory. She clutched the metal ring in her hands so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"Deebee?" she asked in a hoarse whisper. "What am I seeing?"

There were too many to count. They were piled within the pit, dressed in rags and falling over each other like discarded scraps. The mummified bodies numbered well beyond the dozens. There must have been two hundred or more of them.

Their faces, Enfri thought in horror. Merciful winds, their faces.

Mouths hung open in utterly silent screams. Their eyes were open, black voids staring hauntingly towards the ceiling. Hands were outstretched as if begging for help or mercy. Their hair, black and ragged, barely clung to their pale scalps, and every neck was adorned with a band of silver metal.

"Black hair," Enfri said as she lowered herself to her knees. Her back had begun to ache. The twist in her spine burned as if on fire. "Winds save us. They're not Aleesh. They're Althandi."

Deebee's body was rigid. The scales on her back were upright, and her wings were pulled tight against her sides. "I don't understand," she whimpered. "This isn't what it was like. Varn, I never once thought you'd deceive me."

Enfri dropped the metal ring in her hands. It clattered against the stone floor and spun in place before falling still.

It was a collar. The names they bore were the names of the people whose necks they had been clasped around. But, who were these people? Prisoners of war? If so, why were there elders among them? Young women? Children?

Why were Althandi held like this in Shan Alee?

"Winds, no," Enfri whispered. "I... don't believe it."

On the other side of the pit, a figure rose from the darkness and separated from the shadows. Her blue eyes shone in the spare light. Black hair, unkempt from days spent in the desert, hung free to her shoulders, and her face was frozen in an expression that almost seemed like sympathy.

Enfri felt as if her blood turned to ice in her veins. Please, no, she thought in abject denial. She's supposed to be riding north. Not here. Not now. Not her!

Jin stood revealed in the light.

She had been here all this time. Waiting. What was most surprising about seeing her here was that it wasn't much of a surprise at all.

Enfri could only remain on her knees and stare at Jin. She was unable to move, unable to think, unable to feel. Her whole world had gone numb.

"I seeded this city with wards to lead you here," Jin said in a soft voice. "I wanted you to see. You told me you didn't understand why we hunt the Aleesh. If nothing else, I owe you an explanation."

She stepped onto the catwalk. Her gait was long but slow. Jin was taking her time in crossing the distance between them.

"Now, you understand." Jin held her arm out to encompass the mummified bodies beneath her feet. "Behold, the slaves of Shan Alee."

Enfri clutched her hands over her chest, and still they trembled. Her entire body shook. She felt tears making tracks in the dust covering her cheeks.

Deebee leapt down from Enfri's shoulder and stood protectively between her and Jin. Her voice tremored as she spoke. "Stay back, monster," she warned.

Jin's eyes never left Enfri as she took another step. "If there are monsters in the world," she said, "I am not one of them."

These were slaves, humans bought and sold like livestock. Property. Enfri could feel their empty eyes on her, accusing. She could hear their voices wailing in fear, crying out for freedom. The Aleesh did this to them. Her people did this.

A loud impact of stone against stone echoed through the structure. Enfri jerked at the sound and looked behind her. The doors had slammed shut, and another dark figure approached.

"You were right, Sister," Maya called. The admission sounded like it was being drug out of her. Her hips swayed as she walked into the chamber, and her full lips bore a triumphant smile. "I shouldn't have doubted you. The girl was coming here all along. Father chose well when he gave you the contract."

Deebee was torn between facing Jin or Maya. Her teeth were bared in a fierce snarl as she looked between the two sisters.

"Stop torturing the poor thing," Maya said mockingly. "We've lured her and the dragon here. End it. I grow tired of watching her stumble about. The last few days have been absolutely dreadful."

"Days?" Enfri whimpered. "You... have been following me?"

"You shouldn't have mentioned Tarlus in the dreamscape," Jin explained. "I realized the only way you could know of his talent was if you were nearby."

"The Aleesh is a clever, little minx," Maya chuckled. "I'll give you that much. Who would have guessed that you were right under our noses, waiting for us to go racing off the wrong way." She clucked her tongue. "Our uncle will be so very upset with you."

"Maya, please," Jin admonished. "There's no need to be cruel."

Maya shrugged and drew her sword. "As you wish. Far be it from me to spoil your moment. But, do please get on with it."

"We were your shadows as you entered Marwin," Jin said. "The only reason we didn't strike sooner was because we didn't want to leave the contract half-finished. Your dragon must be eliminated as well."

"You think us trapped, assassin?" Deebee growled. "Allow me to educate you on how wrong you are."

"Silence, creature," Jin commanded. "I will not waste words on a willing slave."

"Is that truly what they are?" Enfri asked in a tiny voice as she stared into the pit. "The Aleesh made slaves of other kingdoms?"

"The pens hold new acquisitions," Jin said coldly. "They waited here to be... catalogued... for sale. The cells above you hold many others. Althandi, Melcians, Teulites, Espallans, and even Southrons from the frozen lands. Shan Alee's reach spanned the Continent and beyond."

"Liar!" Deebee roared. "Shan Alee was a bastion for peace and learning. For freedom!"

"You dare say that?" Jin snarled. "Here, of all places? Were your Ruby Knights keeping the peace when they burnt entire kingdoms to ash? Did the Amethyst sing songs of freedom as they tore children from their mothers' arms to be sold outside that door?"

Deebee's eyes flickered to the pit at her feet, and she held her tongue.

Jin kept coming closer. "The only peace Shan Alee gave came with the blade of a sword or the weight of a collar. The Aleesh alone possessed the gift of magic. No one had the power to resist their evil."

Enfri flinched at the last word. It struck her like the blow of a hammer.

"Six hundred years ago," Jin said, "the spirits looked upon what they had wrought with their gift to humanity. They realized the depth of their mistake. It wasn't in their power to take away what they had given, so they devised a way to level the playing field. New bloodlines were founded throughout the world. The elder magics were bestowed upon us to be used as a weapon against the Dragon Emperor."

Enfri clamped her eyes shut. She remembered something Deebee had told her long ago and now saw it in a different light.

"It was a war, Enfri. A war like none other the world has seen."

The walls of Marwin weren't breached. The fighting had begun from within. It hadn't been a siege or an invasion. It was an uprising.

The doors to the slave pens were still barred. The dead were unclaimed and left to the elements. Every preserved body Enfri had found was untouched by violence.

Enfri looked up at Jin. "The war," she choked out. "It didn't end with a battle. Did it?"

Jin shook her head as she approached. "You didn't know. This land wasn't always a desert. When armies of former slaves overran his golden city, the Dragon Emperor enacted his final sin. He consorted with dark powers and used his own lifeblood as a reagent."

"Blood magic," Deebee hissed.

Jin stepped off the catwalk onto Enfri's side of the pit. "He cut his own throat as he lay his curse upon the land. All that lived then died. From Espalla in the north to Altier Nashal in the south, from the Li Lung Mountains to the great forests of Althandor, Shan Alee and everyone within it perished by their own emperor's will. So ended the Empire of Scales."

Enfri covered her face with her hands and wept. Horrible. She had never heard of anything so awful. So evil. That was the legacy of Shan Alee. This was what it meant to be Aleesh.

Jin came to stand over Enfri. The pupils of her eyes narrowed into slits. "This nation, built upon the bones of my ancestors, was no more, but the victory was hollow. Humanity was shattered and is now lost. We are tasked with rebuilding what Shan Alee tore down. Althandor is the shining sun. The rest of humanity will walk in our light, or we will drag them into it."

She drew her sword.

"This isn't murder, Sky Woman. It isn't vengeance or even justice. It's cutting out a tumor that could kill the world. I will not allow the darkness of Shan Alee to rise again."

Maya stalked closer towards Enfri's back. Jin took hold of her sword in both hands.

Deebee jumped up to Enfri's shoulder. Her tiny body was tense, and her voice was tight with anger. "Stay back," she ordered. "Any closer and it will be the last thing you do."

"It's over, worm," Maya said in exasperation. "There's no point in fighting both of us."

Both? Enfri thought. Not three? She raised her head and glanced around the chamber. When she looked at Deebee, the tiny dragon gave her an encouraging wink.

It occurred to Jin in the same moment. Her eyes snapped to Maya. "Where's Dashar?"

Deebee let out a mirthless laugh. "Dragons always have a backup plan. Assassins aren't the only ones who know how to set a trap."

The dragon held out her claw, something tiny held in the palm. Deebee leaned towards Enfri's ear and whispered. "Small as a grain of sand. Strong as the sun."

Enfri's eyes went wide as she understood.

"Little monster. Stop her!" Jin lunged towards Enfri and Deebee, her sword raised high for a strike.

She and Maya were thrown back by a burst of power. Jin rolled to the edge of the pit. Maya was tossed nearly all the way to the entrance.

As light engulfed the chamber, Deebee chided the assassins. "I keep telling you mortals, I'm precisely as large as I need to be, and I've had quite enough of pretending to be small."