Chapter 7: Storm Over Kalaman
Kaela dropped to her knees at the edge of the collapsed earth, heart pounding. "Lira!"
No answer.
Just the echo of crumbling dirt and the groan of shifting roots.
Thalen stood beside her, trembling. The runes burned on the ground where he'd unleashed his magic — wild, uncontrolled, far beyond what he'd ever attempted before.
"I didn't mean to—" he began.
"Shut up," Kaela snapped. Then softened. "Not now. Just… help me dig."
They worked in silence, scraping dirt away with their hands, bloodied fingers straining against unyielding earth. But the hole had closed in, roots lashing it shut like a wound.
"She's alive," Thalen whispered. "I felt her when she fell. A pulse. She's… close to something. Powerful."
Kaela turned to him, eyes blazing. "What kind of power?"
He hesitated.
"The kind that watches from the other side of death," he said. "It was buried. She woke it."
A distant horn sounded.
Kaela froze.
Another blast, nearer this time — deep, harsh, nothing like Solamnic signal calls. Then came the screech of wyverns. The trees around them shifted as shadows passed overhead.
"Dragon Army," Kaela muttered. "They found us."
Thalen looked up. "They weren't after us."
Realization hit her like a blade.
"They were after her."
---
Kalaman, Dusk
General Caldor's voice was hoarse from shouting. The walls of Kalaman groaned under the weight of preparation — soldiers scrambled through muddy streets, arrows were passed in shaking hands, and the last of the non-combatants had been herded toward the citadel's underground shelters.
The Dragon Armies were moving fast. Too fast.
He turned as the door to the war room burst open.
Kaela stormed in, armor streaked with soil and blood. Thalen followed, quieter, pale.
"Where is Lord Bakaris?" she demanded.
Caldor glanced at her warily. "He's with the reserve—"
"Pull him out. We need a strike team. Now."
"Why?"
Kaela dropped her bloodied gauntlet onto the table. "Because they're tunneling under the city — and they're after something worse than a win."
Thalen stepped forward. "They want the Staff of Bones."
Silence.
Even the scribes paused.
"Impossible," Caldor said. "That relic was destroyed centuries ago."
"No," Thalen said. "It was hidden. And a friend of ours is trapped with it right now."
Kaela planted her hands on the table.
"If we don't act fast, they're going to tear this city apart to get to her."
"And if they do?" Caldor asked.
Kaela met his eyes.
> "Then the war we thought we were fighting ends — and something older begins."