Bjorn throws down some gold that works as currency in all Blood Dragondom, and we head out. Cinching our hats, gloves, and scarves close against the bitter wind, we see fewer people in the avenues as the hour grows late.
And the blue scale tugs us towards an unknown drake.
13
AWAY
The pull of Hekla’s blue scale directs Bjorn and me inland, away from Reykjavik. As we leave the tight alleys and quays of the town, we find ourselves up on a lonely hill of heather, willow shrubs, and tall grass, overlooking the twinkling lights of the city.
The wind blows fiercely up here at night. Bjorn and I huddle together now for warmth, getting down parkas out of our fly-bags and donning them before using my charm to shrink the fly-bags back down and stash them away.
We’re warmer, but not by much. And it’s not just the wind; I feel Mikkel’s dark energy surge through us again in a riptide as he fights being contained by Ström and Lærke, and it saps our natural dragon-heat.
A massive chunk of Aesa’s protection, and Bjorn’s newfound energy, goes with it. He staggers in the wind and I shore him up. It’s not good, as we glance at each other and share a thought: that we better find Baldur soon, before Mikkel rips everything from us.
And we’re toast.
Hekla’s blue scale drags us towards a sprawling patch of heather now, backed by a stand of short willow bushes, as I wonder where it’s taking us.There are no houses or anything up here; I have only a moment to ponder it, however, when I experience the high whine in my ears and the gut-wrenching disorientation of going through a portal.
Bright white flashes in my vision; rather than a portal between Realms taking us to the human world, however, this one transports us to some place else in the Twilight Realm.
I shake my head and stagger as I’m spat out upon a lonely beach of black sand. Bjorn is beside me; he growls and grips his head, shaking it, as we realize Hekla’s scale led us right into a portal that we didn’t even see or sense.
And we now find ourselves in a place unknown.
“Fucking hells!” Bjorn sets his jaw, his golden eyes sparking in the night. Though it’s dark out, the aurora continues to whisper above us, vivid as it winds through the starry sky in hues of purple, green, and gold, just like in Reykjavik.
That, plus the black sand beach all around, makes me realize we’re still in Iceland. Only this island has such stunning beaches of volcanic rock; it’s confirmed as I point to towering black cliffs of hexagonal basalt that loom up behind us.
Evidence that we’re on Iceland’s southern coast.
“At least it didn’t take us far.” I glance at the blue scale in my fist. Beneath the aurora, Hekla’s colors look otherworldly; her bright blues and whites, and deeper ceruleans are almost mesmerizing now as I watch them, before looking back to the crash of the surf on the beach.
“I didn’t even feel that portal for fuck,” Bjorn growls now. As we both glance behind us, I see nothing on the beach, though natural and even dragon-made portals give at least a glimmer in the air to let someone know they’re there.
“Whatever that was, Hekla’s scale led us right to it,” I say as I glance around the beach, wondering if Baldur’s here.
Other than us, the beach is empty, however, except for the crashing of the waves. No one is about; there aren’t even any fishing cottagesup on the cliffs. We’ve come to nothing but a lonely stretch of sand, with nothing else.
Nothing except a new pull coming from Hekla’s scale, indicating for us to walk the beach’s length.
At my nod, Bjorn grunts, then extends his hand for me to go first. I do, letting the vibration of the blue drakaina’s scale lead me on.
Like a song in my heart, it seems stronger somehow, beneath the ancient aurora on the black beach with the crashing waves. As if something older and wilder lived inside Hekla than any of the rest of us modern Blood Dragons, I feel like I’ve stepped back in time now as Bjorn and I walk the empty strand.
We listen to the waves in the darkness as the haunting aurora twists high above. It’s freezing now, as the hour grows late. The wind has only gotten fiercer, as I feel the scale lead us to a blank section of basalt cliffs.
There’s not a cave or anything in it; I wonder if the scale is going to have us climb right up when another high whine assaults my ears, my gut twisting as my vision blasts white.
We’ve come through another portal, as I stumble out on the other side. I fall to my knees, dry-retching at the portal’s abuse; as Bjorn helps me up, I see we’ve arrived at a high stretch of glacier.
The coast is far away, too far to be seen now; all around us stretches an endless white landscape of glacial valleys and peaks, our new location in the middle of a frozen mountain range.
It’s beautiful, but deadly, as Bjorn wraps an arm around me for warmth, because even we are challenged in our parkas as a thick snow falls all around. Blood Dragons can weather hard winters, but we are smart about it; there’s nothing for Bjorn and I to take shelter in here, however, as a dark growl rumbles from his throat.
Incensed to the max.
“What the fuck is this?” Bjorn brisks my shoulder and his chest to keep us warm, as he does a Blood Dragon heating breath in-between sentences. “Some kind of fucked up game of hide ’n’ seek?”
