“Who, the stone dragons? They've got no reason to. To be honest, I think it's just an old wives tale told to get naughty children to go to sleep.”
“With the sword missing, they've got all the reason in the world to be awake.”
He huffed and shrugged at the same time, as if standing guard or finding the sword wasn't of any importance. He glanced over his shoulder and took a packet out his pocket.
“You smoke!” I shrieked.
“Shhh, Elena,” he snapped back, and blew gently over the tip of the cigarette.
I gasped as his breath set it on fire. He took a drag, and the end changed from orange to burning red coal. He puffed the smoke in my direction. I coughed while fanning the smoke away with my one hand. It smelled disgusting, and I glared daggers at him.
The next couple of hours were boring. Blake stopped speaking but kept on smoking. I didn't like it, because it made me think about worst case scenarios. My worries grew as my thoughts kept circling. It was the fourth day, and the sword was still missing. What chance do they have of finding its location? The only excitement I had was around three, as I tried my best to stay awake. My eyes burned painfully, and I felt as if I hadn't slept for two days.
Around six, Master Longwei came with the next shift to relieve us. It was two guys from James' group; at least I thought that was his name. I didn't even say good morning or goodbye, and went straight to my dorm and crawled into bed.
I slept till about two and went to the cafeteria for lunch. Lucian was waiting for me with a strong cup of coffee. He was so perfect.
“So how was last night?” Concern in his tone made his voice break at the end, and I saw him swallow hard.
What did he think? That something miraculous would happen, and I would be BFF's with Blake now?
“Nothing much. I now understand the meaning of grave shift, and can tell you that I hated every minute of it. It's so boring.”
“I know what you mean. You’re lucky you don’t have a nagging partner that wants to flee at every stupid little sound.”
I giggled. “Did they find anything while I was asleep?”
“Nothing yet,” he said in a dull tone.
I sighed as the image of a flaming city jumped into my mind again.
“Hey, come here?” He pulled me closer and hugged me tightly. “I told you nothing will ever happen to you.”
“Lucian, what if─”
`He put his index finger over my lips, silencing me. “Don't, Elena. Let me worry about the‘what if's’, okay.”
I nodded carefully.
He tried so hard to put me at ease but failed miserably. The sword was the only thing I could think of.
The rest of the week went fast. Around the sixth day, they still had no leads as to where the sword might be hidden. It freaked me out. I didn't like how my mind worked when I was nervous, and one thing constantly dwelled on my mind: the Sacred Cavern.
* * *
“The Royal Council is never going to find it, Becky,” Sammy said in a terrifying tone one morning at breakfast. “They don't even know where to look.”
I was glad that Lucian had guarded the entrance last night and was still in bed. He didn't like to talk about the“what if's”.
The thought about the Sacred Cavern still lingered in my mind, but the strange part about it this time was that it didn't scare me anymore. The scary part vanished the minute my foretelling found a way into all this mess.
The Viden did say that I had to make a choice. What if this was that choice? I got a warm fussy feeling inside my heart encouraging me,and somehow I knew I was on the right track. This was what she meant. I was sure of it. The only thing that still confused me was the truth part, but something told me it was about my father being a dragon, and that the offspring of a dragon can’t be worthy of the Dragonian mark.
Finding the King of Lion sword would prove that, as well as change the Viden's mind about me forever. Not that I wanted anything to do with her anyway. The choice wasn't an easy one to make and I could feel how the corners of my lips twitched slightly as I pondered my choices.
The more I thought about it, the clearer it became. This was my destiny. The only way to find the location of the sword was to go to the Sacred Cavern.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I must find a way to complete whatever obstacles were hiding inside the cavern, to get the reward: a look into the magical mill pond. Cheng did say that it could reveal our inner most wishes and desires, whether present, past,or future. I would find the sword's location, even though I didn’t know for certain if it still existed.
I remembered that only five people, mostly women, made it out alive. That part kept me from running straight to the Cavern that very instant. Not knowing what hid inside the caves scared the living hell out of me. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but then again, when did I ever have things easy,and it wasn’t about to change anytime soon. The thing was that nobody else did anything besides guard the Academy.