Sword Bearer (Return of the Dragons 1)

Kalle cleared his throat. “We need to find a place to rest, Princess. We need real food and clean water. Let’s explore this city and see what we can find.”

I felt suddenly weary. Maybe Kara’s spell was wearing off. Maybe the energy ride had drained me. In any case, I needed to rest, to sit, to eat, to drink and to sleep. But something was nagging at me.

“I think there’s something about this gate,” I said. “These symbols mean something, but I can’t figure it out.”

Kalle examined it.

“They are in an ancient tongue that we once knew, maybe, but that’s been lost. If we could hear these words, we might understand them with our sense memory. As it is, they mean nothing to me. Kara?”

She shook her head. “I looked at them at the other gate, and didn’t understand them there, either.”

Kalle took a step, towards the gate. “I will enter.”

I shook my head.

There was something very wrong.

I couldn’t explain it. I just knew, deep inside that there was something very important I had to do first. The problem was, I was so tired I couldn’t think or even see straight. If I could only figure out what those symbols meant. They were a key somehow, to something. I knew that much.

Kara nodded. “Then let us enter.”

I was still shaking my head like an idiot, but they either didn’t notice, or they ignored me.

Kalle walked through the gate.

Except he never made it through.

It was as if he was suddenly flipped around. He walked in, and then he walked out on the same side he had entered. He stood there, looking confused, staring at us.

Suddenly the sun, that had felt hot on my neck, went away. I looked up, and saw dark clouds. There was thunder in the distance.

I looked warily at the clouds, then at the gate, and the wall that surrounded it. Was there something different about the gate, now? Something slightly menacing, questioning?

A streak of lightning lit up the sky and struck the ground. Close. Too close. Not even ten feet from where we stood.

I was thrown from my feet and landed on the ground.

I got up shakily. Rain poured down my face. I looked around.

Kalle was getting up to his feet.

But Kara.

I gasped.

She must have been closer to the blast, because she was still on the ground, and something about the way she lay there sent a tremor through me.

I ran over to her, trying to shake the tiredness out of my head.

There was another streak of lightning, not as close this time, but the thunder still came right away. If this kept up much longer, we would all lose our sight and hearing.

I crouched down next to her. She just shook her head at me.

I’ll be all right. I think you were right about the runes. Try to figure them out. We have to find shelter. If this lightning storm is a warning, we may survive. But if it’s an attack, we’re dead, unless you figure out how to get us through that gate.

Talk about no pressure.

Another lightning blast some ten feet away sent us tumbling through the air again. Blind and deaf, I crawled towards the gate, guided by my third eye.