Ruby laughed. “Yeah—I remember that from the castle.”
I was about to ask her where she was sleeping now, but then thought better of it—I didn’t want to know. No doubt she and Ash had bagged the best room, one that probably had an actual bed, rather than a dusty floorboard.
We made our way out onto the lawn in silence. Ash, Tejus, Hazel and a small group of guards and ministers were gathered at the far end, standing by bull-horses and three vultures.
“Hurry up,” Tejus snapped, busying himself with helping Hazel up on one of the bull-horses. I bit my tongue, wondering if I’d be permitted to ride with one of the sentries who would be traveling with a vulture.
“Come on, kid.” One of the guards looked me up and down. He didn’t look impressed, and no wonder. I knew I had a bruise the size of a walnut on my face, I was squinting like a new-born mole thanks to my broken glasses, and my robe was too big. I felt like an idiot. The guard had obviously decided to take pity on me.
“I’m flying—you’ll be all right with that?” he continued, the same skeptical look on his face.
“That’s great.”
I suddenly didn’t mind what he thought of me—I’d be flying, and that was all I cared about. We’d probably be able to chase the dawn as it rose. I climbed up on the vulture, feeling the soft feathers run beneath my hands. The guard sat himself in front and a moment later we were off, soaring high above the palace.
“Thanks for letting me come,” I yelled to the guard over the wind that rushed past us. He turned his head sideways.
“No problem. I saw you protect Jenney yesterday. It was brave.”
His compliment surprised me. Maybe I didn’t need to be as embarrassed of my bruise as I thought.
“You looked funny falling down though—ha!” He guffawed.
Thanks…
Ignoring him, I looked down at the landscape below us. I could see the crack that ran through Nevertide clearly from this perspective. The damage was extensive. Around the crack, landslides had appeared, tipping the forests downward like waterfalls, and large rock formations had exploded out of the earth like jagged teeth. Soon, what was left of the castle appeared on the horizon. My gut clenched. I had hated the place, but seeing the ruins of something that had always looked so foreboding and indestructible was an unwelcome reminder of the awesome power the entity had. If we didn’t find this book, we wouldn’t have a chance.
We landed inside the ring of rubble that had once been the outer wall of the main castle. I jumped off the vulture, my legs wobbly from the adrenaline of the flight. The guard and I looked around, both of us silent as we digested the enormity of the task.
“Guess we better get on with it,” muttered the guard. “Mind you, I’ll be blown over if this book has survived all this—see the black of the stone?” he asked, pointing at the main part of the castle. Only half-towers and broken walls suggested what the building had once been, and as the guard had observed, the stone was mostly charred black.
“Fires have done that,” he continued, “they must have been burning for a long while for them to have caused damage like that. And the emperor thinks a book would have survived? Pah!”
I was inclined to agree with him. What were the chances that paper would have remained intact when the stones themselves were practically burnt to cinders? This was starting to look like an idiot’s errand.
The two other vultures had been flown by a pair of ministers, and Ash and Ruby. I heard the approach of the birds, and soon the guard and I were joined by Ruby, while Ash discussed the likely location of the book with the ministers.
“I guess we just start looking,” Ruby said, looking despondently at the ruins.
“Okay,” I agreed, walking toward the nearest pile, which I suspected had been one of the four towers. I clambered over the larger stones, pulling out anything that looked like it wasn’t just plaster and crumbling rock.
It was tiring work. I had to keep hauling stones about, only to find an assortment of burnt objects, none of which resembled a book. I envied the ministers and guards—they all had double our strength, and a few were using True Sight, standing in front of rocks, seeing right through them without having to do a thing. Hazel had joined our search party and kept trying to do the same, swearing that she’d accomplished it last night, but unable to achieve it today.
“Old Viking coin, anyone?” I asked, holding it up to the light. I’d found a pile of them wedged in between some rocks and an iron pipe. “I think this could make us pretty rich once we got back home.”
“Julian, can you focus?” Ruby snapped.