I do not own the Inheritance Cycle.
Edited 1/30/22
Please let me know your thoughts throughout the story, I'd love to hear for you :)
Enjoy,
The Summit Stone
"Dorm all done with yeh, yet?"
Rose startled and looked at the young man outside of the low-roofed shanty. He was no older than she was, with bright stringy hair and dark eyes. Behind him still stood the balding man he had been arguing with when they had arrived. This man caught her eye, and for a moment she had a faint feeling that she recognized him from somewhere though she hadn't the faintest idea where that might be.
"Y-Yes," she said after a moment, breaking off contact with the man, "he is."
"Gets strange business, he does. Dorm, I means," said the young man. "Just last week-" the man behind him made an impatient sound "-Er, right, never you mind. Have eh nice evenin', yeh?"
Rose nodded, shifting uneasily from foot-to-foot. "You as well," she said automatically, and tightened her grip on Eragon's arm as he too said a polite farewell. The young assistant, glanced between them, his eyebrows drawn together, before shrugging and waving the older man forward, saying, "I'll, ah, go see if Dorm 'ill lower that price for yeh. I'll be back right quick…"
They heard no more, as they slipping into the crowd, and hurried back the way they had come. As bell rang its metallic clamor again, Eragon lengthened his strides, nearly dragging Rose behind him. When the near deafening sound ceased, she hissed, "Would you mind slowing down some? I can hardly keep up with you as it is."
"If we don't hurry, we'll be stuck here for the night!" Eragon said snappishly, but slowed down so that Rose wasn't jogging to keep up.
Before long they turned onto the one of the smaller and meaner streets, which ran the narrow, dark, evil-smelling alleyways and lanes. Eragon peeked down each of these, as if he was looking something, and it wasn't long before Rose realized that he was trying to retrace the route Dormnad had taken them.
The streets were so packed with soldiers of all kinds, and men (occasionally with a woman beside him) dressed in rich clothes, drunkards spilling out of mean smelling alleys, and ragged beggars, that she could scarcely help him. It did not help, she found, that she did not possess Eragon's height- he could see above the crowd with ease.
After what seemed like an age, Eragon poked his head down an alley, and nodded to himself, before heading down it. Rose glanced around, ignoring the hawker who was shouting about his wares, and saw a broken pot she remembered passing when they came through. "Did you know that man?" Eragon asked, as they passed the hawker.
Rose looked up at him in confusion. She was not completely certain who he was talking about. "Which one?"
"The one talking to Dormnad's assistant as we left. He was looking at you. Staring openly at you, really, and wouldn't look away even after we left." Eragon paused mid-step, looking down at her for a moment.
She said nothing, unsure of what to say, instead she stared blankly at the wall behind Eragon.
"I thought you might have known him," he continued, "because he kept trying to catch your eye, like he knew you."
"Oh." Rose bit her lip, and pushed him in the back to get him to move. The hawker had taken notice of their idleness and was headed their way with an openly eager face. "I didn't notice that. It's probably nothing."
Eragon's eyes narrowed as his face hardened. He wouldn't budge. "I think it's something," he muttered lowly. "I think he's seen you before, and you have him. You're just not wanting to admit it was a mistake to come in here with me."
Rose met his eyes and swallowed. "You don't know what you're talking about," she said, amazed at how calm her voice was. Turning away from him, she swallowed again, fighting the urge to argue with him. It would no use for either of them to fight. Fighting didn't help anything, ever, and it certainly would not help them now. "I've seen many people, Era-Evan, and many have seen me. Perhaps he thought it curious that a woman was walking about. We've only seen a few in this place. I'm no stranger to how some men think."
Eragon's face darken further, but he said nothing for a moment. "The gate are about to close," he mumbled, almost to himself, before rushing forward at an impossible pace forcing Rose to, once again, jog to keep up.
They hardly made it to the gates in time. The wide, wooden gates had already began to close with a horrible cranking noise, and both Rose and Eragon were both forced into a sprint. Behind them they heard calls of warning, requests for them to halt, but despite this they narrowly slipped through to the other side.
The cool wind hit their face, almost bitingly, and the bushes off the path rustled. Rose huffed in the fresh air, rubbing the stitch in her side, but Eragon grinned down at her gleefully, completely unaffected from the rush. "That was close," he said cheerfully. "We should have left earlier. Have to remember that for next time."
Rose pursed her lips, before looking away. There would be no 'next time'- biting her tongue, she begun retracing their path from that morning. Eragon called after her, though she ignored, pretending not to have heard him. Seemingly catching onto her mood, Eragon walked silently ahead of her. Every so often she would catch him smiling, humored about something, and she assumed that he was talking to Saphira.
Unlike Eragon and Saphira, Rose and Thorn said nothing to each other. Rose could see him, though, flying in the distance. Their minds were still connected, however, only hardly touching each other so that it felt like a feather gliding lightly across her skin, barely touching but still there. This did not change as they entered their campsite and the red dragon noisily landed behind her, though she had pushed away her anger having decided there was no valid reason for it.
Eragon tried to start up a conversion, but after receiving only short and rather crisp replies from Rose, he stopped and focused instead on making a small, smokeless fire. As he worked, Rose set to work on dividing out their food, they had little and didn't want to bargain in for more in Gil'ead.
Thorn? Rose said after a time.
The dragon merely looked up, and blinked at with one eye.
Unbothered by his lack of response, she continued, We found Dormnad. He has agreed to take us to the Varden, though he was not happy in the least to agree to it. I'm not certain we can trust him entirely…
You think we should keep a close eye on him while he's traveling with us, Thorn finished.
Rose nodded. He did not gave me a reason to not want to watch him.
Mmm, said Thorn thoughtfully. He was insolent, you're saying.
He was, she said, rather rude, yes, but it is more than that: he did not seem to want to help in the least. Only after he saw something on Eragon's hand did he agree. Even then he was hesitant to do so.
Or perhaps you are looking for frights when there are none there. Thorn shifted loudly on the ground. Try not to over think it. If the worse does come with this two-legged, he likely will not be a problem for long.
Rose nodded. That's good to know, she said, but you cannot destroy everyone who is an enemy.
And why not? It seems to have work thus far.
Who exactly have you killed? she asked twisting around to face the dragon. As far as I know you haven't taken a life.
Thorn's thick tail gave a loud whack! as he blinked innocuously at her. I've taken many lives, he said plainly.
Pardon me, she said derisively, human lives. Weasels and deer hardly count against you.
Those weasels and deer were once alive, though, weren't they? Thorn huffed a puff of smoke from his nostrils as he continued to eye her meaningfully. I ended their life. I have killed them for my own needs. Their lives count.
If you are content to think such, she said, then I'll not argue.
Thorn blew smoke once more with a deep sigh, drawing Eragon's attention away from his fire building to them. For a moment he looked from Thorn to Rose and back again, before shrugging and returning his attention to building the leaning tower with the firewood.
You should probably help him, Thorn said after a time. He's doing his best but I do not believe he understands what exactly it is that he's doing.
Rose turned away and looked at the ground between her legs. I'm not much use when it comes to building fires, Thorn, she said. It actually rather a dejecting thing when I do create one.
Thorn snorted and rumbled a laugh. I was not referring the fire, as far I'm concerned stay well away from helping create those. I was speaking of something else completely.
Which would be?
Thorn blinked slowly, but his tail began a new rhythm when it hit the ground giving away his humor. Help him, he said. You'll figure it out soon enough.
Rose, however, was not as humored as Thorn seemed to be and keep a firm glare at the ground for a time before setting the food back in the bag to help Eragon, who at first seemed stilled bothered by her earlier attitude. In the end he did accept her help, though he kept her well away from the tiny flame claiming that if she come any closer she may put it out, and together they made up a decent, if not completely satisfying, meal. When the sun disappeared from the sky, they stamped out the fire and made their way to their bedrolls promising to have a very early start in the morning.
They had awoke very early that next day, long before the sun was set to rise and packed up camp and set out. Though Rose did not know how long the dragons looked for the rock in the dark, she could hardly make out shapes in the darkness, until they found the stone jutting out from the woodland below. It was as Dormnad said; they found the place he had told them to meet without any real problem or hassle.
The world around them was still grey and dreary from nightfall, and the daylife was only just beginning to awaken. Hardly anything startled as the dragons landed in the small opening around the boulder.
The large shelving rock, looking rather out of place under the green crowns of trees and underbrush tangled hills, was larger than even Saphira. As it was studied Rose found runes covered into the facing, similar to those she had seen in the Serpent's Vale, covered in a thick moss coating.
She ran her fingered along their edges as she studied them in the dim dawning light, picking slightly at the moss, and then hurried around the large stone to tell Eragon of her finding. Eragon was looking in the direction of the city with such intensity that Rose decided not to disturb him. Rose leaned her back against the rock before shooting away from it, thinking suddenly of the insects that might be crawling inside the moss.
"There's a horse coming," Eragon said after a time. He was sitting on the ground in the shadow of the rock next to Rose.
Rose looked up from the ground and listened. All she could hear were the rustling of brushwood, the twitterings of birds, and the dragons' loud breathes. "I pray Dormnad does not think we shall be riding horses all the way to the south," she said with a frown.
"So do I," said Eragon, standing up. He pulled his bow off of his back and loosely strung an arrow. "Saphira hears more than one horse and can't see a reason for Dormnad to have more than one."
Rose looked over at Thorn as he stood up, and nodded to him. The red dragon squatted down and spread his wings before taking to the sky. Watching him as he faced the west and disappeared into the clouds, Rose turned to look at Saphira waiting for her to do the same. She did not.
Eragon was muttering to Saphira, quiet enough that Rose could not hear, with fierce intensity. His head was bent towards her, and he was gesturing to the sky much to the dragon's displeasure. Rose stepped back as Saphira let out a threating growl, her wings swinging, and at last flew off into the clouds.
"She's not happy with me," Eragon said catching her gaze. "She reckons that anything unusual is a danger, this included, and she is to be right here protecting me from it."
Rose but her lip before saying, "There are times when Thorn is like that as well."
"But he left without argument," Eragon stated with a frown. "I pretty much had to force Saphira to leave."
"Thorn is scouting, not hiding. It would matter very little what I might say, he would never hide if he thought I was in any sort of danger."
Slowly, Eragon nodded. As he turned away Rose asked Thorn what he saw. There is very little that I can see, he told her. But there are two-leggeds and those creatures that they ride.
Do you think that they might be the Empire's men?
I can't tell, he said after a short pause. The high green hides what I might normally be able to see. There is a number of them I can tell you that.
Rose stood and looked uneasily to the west. Do you think that you and Saphira ought to return and we leave?
Thorn said nothing. No, they're too close. They would see us, follow us. You and your brother best try to find someplace to hide. I will be there if there is danger.
"It's not Dormnad," Rose said softly. "Thorn says that whoever they are, are close. We won't be able to fly away without being seen."
Eragon lowered his bow, and relaxed. "We wait then," he said.
"No," she hissed. "We hide. Should they be a passerby, they'll not know we were here. If not they should not be able to find us, and let us pray that they won't."
Eragon frowned at her. "It could simply be some travelers. They could mean no harm."
"That's assuming they are not soldiers. Have you forgotten that we're currently camping near an army base?"
"No," said Eragon sharply. "Of course I haven't."
Rose nodded, and continued to look around. She didn't see much of a place to hide, they wouldn't be able to climb the rock; it was too sheer. Eragon seemed to have the same thought, and pulled her to a large cluster of undergrowth, and pulled some of its thorny vines away with is bow allowing Rose to crawl the small opening before him. He followed her soon after, muttering about his wishing that he had his sword. He had left Zar'roc in his saddlebags, and Rose did not know where Saphira was or what she was doing.
For a long time, Rose stayed completely still, not wanting any of the bristles to poke her, and listened to Eragon's cutting down a few thick branches until at last a new sound; the sound of many horses' hooves beating against a well-worn path. Eragon put away his knife and held the thorny branches in front of him like a weapon.
Through the tangled branches she saw them.
To her surprise they were not men, and much more unattractive than she thought a living creature had the right to be. Coming to a stop were a dozen bow-legged Urgals, all of them with rough greyish skin, curling horns, and a large, flat head with a snout-like flat nose and a mouth full of very crooked, misshaped teeth. They looked around, sniffing the air, and jostled one another with their thick, coiling arms, talking to each other in low, hoarse voices. They seemed almost excited.
Biting her lip, Rose turned away from the brutes, none of them arrived on horseback, and looked behind them. Behind the Urgals were soldiers, their ruby livery vivid in contrast to the Urgals' rough, colorless clothing. The soldiers sat upon sharp, lovely horses, looking around with discontent, some were sneering at the creatures that towered over them.
"Where're they?" one of the soldiers called, his voice carrying.
"Here," an Urgal said in its horrible voice. "Somewhere."
"Yes, yes, you said that before," said the same soldier as before. "Where is somewhere, though?"
Eragon nudged her back as he leaned over her, trying to see out. She started and nearly fell over, breaking a dry branch as she steadied herself. Biting her lip to keep from calling out, she felt a long barb cut into her hand. The Urgals, all of them, looked in their direction at the same time, almost in an eerie uniform fashion.
"There," said an Urgal, pointing it's short, stubby finger to where they were hiding.
Rose's pulse hammered in her ears, and something began to pull on her arm. She was surprised to find that it was Eragon and he was whispering frantically in her ear, "Move! Move now! They're coming. We don't have much time…" Her mind slowly registered his words, and when it finally did the Urgals were creeping closer. She quick rose up and began to push Eragon out of her way, eager to get out of the death trap he had led her into.
Rose couldn't get the thought out of her that someway, somehow, someone had betray them. Dormnad had betrayed them. After all he was the only one who knew when and where they would at this boulder. As distracted as she was, she hardly noticed that once they got out of the brushwood, two or so Urgals were inside it battling their way toward them. She was only brought out of her thoughts when Eragon barked out a sharp "Brisingr!" and set the whole thing ablaze with magic. She heard something tearing behind her, but did not look back.
"Run!" Eragon shouted, pushing her forward, his bow drawn. He was shooting at the Urgals, hitting only a few, as he jogged behind her. "Keep going. Thorn's not far."
Rose looked up from the ground and saw that Eragon was right. Not from of them was Thorn, half hidden behind a fat bush, looking rather threatening, with his wings swooping loosely over the ground. He was ready to go.
Quicker, Thorn said deeply. I will fly you and Eragon away from here. Saphira will follow.
Rose whipped her head around, she had forgotten about Saphira. The dragon was flying above the grouping of Urgals roaring threateningly, snapping her jaws and swiping anything that came close to her. She was reason that so few had noticed Eragon's and Rose's rush to Thorn, they were too busy dealing with her.
The Empire's soldiers were nowhere to be seen.
Rose saw that the Urgals that were in the blue burning brush were shouting as they tried to fight their way through the flaming branches. Only one did, its horrible face cover in a mask of seeping burns. It limped toward them, holding a large bloodied mace threateningly above its head. Its small eyes were glaring down at Eragon, and nothing else. Eragon seemed to see the Urgal also, and shoot a number of arrows at it. One of the arrows cut though the Urgal's leg as it turned, cutting deep into the muscle. It fell.
Rose turned away and rushed to Thorn, Eragon not far behind her. Her legs were burning when she reached Thorn and scampered onto his back, nearly falling over his other side as she did so. Eragon crawled on behind her, she could feel his arms around her shoulders
"Go!" he shouted. His grip loosened as Thorn leapt off the ground.
Saphira roared, and Thorn broke off his mindtouch, his head swinging toward the ground. Through the green leaves, she saw Saphira shoot into the air, and dive before hovering above the treetop.
Rose looked around at Eragon questioningly but found he was not there. There was nothing but air behind her. Eragon was gone.
