Chapters (92)
In the margins, translations had been made in delicate calligraphy. Dagny read it aloud when I crouched down beside her to have a better look.
“‘Take a flame to the blood of álfar; twice more than a drop will do,’” she read. “‘Together you bow and pray upon the earth, repeating these words: omorbba vid all sihkkamatön.’”
“What does it do?” I asked.
Dagny tapped a paragraph near the top of the page, next to sketch of a twisting flame. “‘If an enemy is too great, armor can be applied to the air. No arrows shall pass through, no warriors or beast. Time passes quickly under this protection, so prepare wisely for when it lifts.’”
It was called “An Impenetrable Sphere.”
“Do you think my blood will work?” I asked. “Since I’m only half-álfar?”
“We’ll try four drops instead of two,” Dagny said, and looked up at me. “You can handle that, right?”
I nodded. “Let’s do it.” I unsheathed my dagger and answered Dagny’s questions before she could ask: “It’s my father’s dagger, I found it in the vault. I’ll explain more later. Let’s get this over with.”
Elof tore some pages out of a book for kindling. Sunniva used her torch to get it going, and I slid the blade against my finger, wincing at the pain.
I held my hand over the fire and squeezed four big drops of blood. The flames flared up, turning gold and violent, and Elof handed me a handkerchief to wrap around my small wound.
“Okay, now we all read the incantation together,” Dagny said.
“We should hold hands?” Sunniva asked, and Dagny gave her a funny look. “It said to say it together.”
“It’s better safe than sorry,” Elof agreed.
Dagny sighed and held her hands out. I took her hand, mindful of my cut, and with my other I took Sunniva’s. Dagny held Elof’s hand, and we circled the fire.
“Omorbba vid all sihkkamatön.”
73
Unearth
Bryn
My head and back throbbed. I had thrown myself over Tove when he collapsed, shielding him from the rockslide. Fortunately, he had enough strength to catch a large boulder with his abilities, because it certainly would’ve crushed us both if he hadn’t.
The smaller rocks, some dirt, and debris still got through, leaving me bruised and sore when the rockslide ended. Tove tossed the boulder aside and immediately passed out. I pushed the rubble off me and Tove, and I pulled him up so he was sitting slumped against the wall, and his eyelids fluttered.
Above us, the wyrm cried out in anger, and I watched him spew fire and fly erratically until his smoke made the air too thick to see through.