Chapter 17

The sky was a dark red the following morning. Something she had never seen before. There wasn't a cloud to obscure the sun yet the world seemed to be layered by blood. It seemed as though a war had taken place in the heavens. Several gashes of black were surrounded by oceans of red with the sun peeping through the dense gloom.

Rya stared at the sky for a few moments before looking around. Nothing abnormal – except from the sky. Standing up, she arched her back like she had seen Arya do several times. Moonstone stirred beside her and was unusually inactive. Whenever they woke up together, although she had only had him for a month, he would spring around and jump about. Rya laid down and leaned against Moonstone's face before stroking her beloved dragon.

Moonstone?

Yes.

Moonstone hadn't learned to speak fully but understood basic words. Eragon had told her that Saphira had taken several weeks before she learned to say his name and the word yes.

Why is the sky red? she asked him.

The reply she received was a shrug of the shoulders he had learned from her. She chuckled at his attitude but then looked closely at his face. He seemed exhausted. It didn't seem right. Something was flashing in his eyes and as she looked closer she saw an array of words and letters flashing around in a discontinuous and irregular pattern. She leaned further forward and saw that they were of the ancient language but none of them were easily visible for her to read. Moonstone had relatively small eyes for a dragon but this didn't stop her curiosity. Upon query, Moonstone replied that he didn't know what it was or why it had started. A shuffling noise made her reach for her sword and Moonstone crane his neck slightly. Du Ebrithil had woken up. He seemed concussed and was shaking his head as if something was seated on it. His barely visible face was adorned with a forlorn expression the moment he looked up at the sky. He swivelled his head and his eyes fell on Rya. He stood up and shook violently, as if possessed, before returning to a catatonic state. After a few seconds he stretched his body and flexed his huge muscles. Being full human, he didn't have the grace of elves where they could make themselves denser. He walked over to Moonstone and Rya and seated himself on a small rock the size of a baby dragon. He stared at his feet for a short while before turning his face to the girl. He smiled. For some strange reason he smiled. Through all of the chaos came a bit of positivity from such a negatively charged person.

Rya's confusion asked her question for her.

'I've figured it out,' he began. 'The world is out of order because a legislation or something of the sort has been broken. Someone has knowingly done something wrong, inducing the world to go completely out of order. The only person I know who is capable of that is Oathbreaker. He had a prophecy.' He reached into his robes and pulled out a skin of water. After drinking it heartily he offered the remaining to Rya who downed the rest almost ravenously.

'What was the prophecy?' she asked.

Once again he smiled. 'To kill me. A witch by the name of Angela once was passing by the town we used to kill shades in. We started conversing with her cat. If I remember correctly the name was Solembum. Strange character. In fact, a werecat. Angela came and offered to read knuckles bones of dragons or something like that.'

He pulled out another skin and drank, making Rya wonder what else he could keep under there without anyone knowing about it.

He continued. 'For me, the bones were a mess. They didn't spell anything. They were all over the place. Some parts read that I would die any minute another part said I would have a dragon. Another part said I would meet my father again who's currently dead so I know that won't happen.'

Rya felt immediate guilt towards the man. 'I'm sorry,' she said solemnly.

Du Ebrithil laughed deeply before responding. 'If you knew my father you'd say the god's have blessed me. I hated him with every part of my soul. I feel spiteful every time his name is mentioned.'

'Who was he?'

'Now that, I can't tell you. Anyway, so my prophecy was obviously not true but, Eragon… my friend Eragon. His was a nice one to start with. He was promised a blue dragon similar to that of another with his name – which obviously turned out to be the Eragon that you know. He was then promised love that would last forever. Along with this he was also promised great power but Angela said she couldn't tell whether it ended well or not. Anyway, the last thing that was mentioned was that he would kill me. After a few years he actually did try to kill me but failed. I beat him.

'In my years I have learned many things. Things that make sense as well as things that don't. Now, one thing that doesn't make sense right now is the red sky with black gashes. Only then did I realise what the chaos that is taking place is. Somebody has broken a law of the world which is causing it to react like this. The world is a sensitive place. Think of it as a scale. Perfectly balanced. If one side weighs a little too much, one side will plummet into chaos and the other side will ascend into a world of peace where everything is perfect until the scale is balanced again. The world is a sensitive place, my friend, and is far too dangerous for us to play around with. It's like a child playing with fire.'

Rya looked back up at the sky. She thought about how she normally would have reacted to seeing it like this and how she actually reacted. She didn't seem too surprised. The confusion around her had made it seem so normal.

Du Dröttningu was the next to wake up. Du Ebrithil ran to her side and helped her up. Rya looked away in sadness as she watched them embrace each other and exchange kisses. Every time she saw something that had anything to do with love, her mind went back to Murtagh. She hadn't realised his sudden love for her until he had been brutally butchered into mincemeat. Rya turned her head towards Moonstone and stared into his eyes. The array of words that were scrambled across his eyes were still there, not stopping.

Rya jumped from fright when Du Dröttningu laid a hand on her shoulder and knelt down to take a look at Moonstone's eye. Rya realised how her blue robes levitated without touching the wet mud on the ground. The damp air drained all sources of good moods out from everyone, not to mention the condition of the sky. Du Dröttningu continued to examine Moonstone's eyes for a while before she started to speak.

'Dragons reflect the condition of the world. Whatever is going on is reflecting off Moonstone's condition. If Saphira was here I could examine her too. But I have no clue what to read from it.'

'Du Ebrithil knows, you can ask him,' Rya suggested.

'I'll ask him later. First let me identify what the problem is with your dragon.'

Rya complied and gave the two of them some space. She went over to some dry space under a tree and sat down. Rya started to study the gedwëy ignasia until she got bored. The only interesting thing about it was that it glowed and that it was a bit warm whenever she used magic. She leaned against the tree with one leg spread out and the other bent. Her vision became unfocused until she looked deeper into the forest. Horror was the only word that could be used to describe what she saw. Hundreds of dead animals littered the floor as if they were killed for fun. None of them seemed to have anything wrong with them except a few birds that had fallen from quite a height. Rya suddenly snapped into reality.

What are we doing here? Why are we so comfortable in the middle of the forest?

Eyeing Arya's body, she saw that the elf was waking up along with Blodhgarm.

I almost forgot! Du Dröttningu was nearly killed! How was that possible?

Rya was just about to go and speak to her when Du Dröttningu abruptly shouted the word 'there'.

In the air was an image of what was in Moonstone's eyes. The words were easier to read than before and Rya could make out bits of it.

From what she could understand they were saying, Beware of the diamond.

Rya tried to understand the rest but was having problems because of the speed. Eragon had personally taken on the task of training her and they hadn't had an opportunity to actually learn much of the ancient language. All of what she knew was what Zenith had taught her.

Du Dröttningu seemed intrigued by the flashes and was studying them closely. Rya stood up and walked over to Du Dröttningu.

'Have you found anything?' she asked.

'Only a bit, but none of it rings a bell or signifies anything notable. I just can't decipher it as fast as it's flashing. I tried slowing down time but this seems to be from an alternate plain where things adapt to the speed of everything else. From what I understand it says "Beware of the four corners of the diamond". Whatever that's supposed to mean I have no clue.'

Rya looked back for a few seconds and saw Arya sheathing her sword. Rya realised that none of them had spoken about the attackers yet. Everything was so overwhelming that it induced fear making them forgetful.

Fear. What was it? An emotion? Or an illusion? In this case it seemed to be both. Eragon found himself laid down in the clearing he had seen his companions in, however, when there was no moon and the world was in chaos, the darkness seemed to be frightening even for a warrior. The sky was as dark as Shuriken's scales – and almost seemed as though it was made out of scales if not for the specks of light made by the stars. The rider sat up slowly so as to not disturb the stillness of the night. So still. Why was it so quiet? Why did the night never end? He craned his neck to the left and to the right in a motion that could only be compared to running water. Nothing. Nobody. Just darkness. His fears slightly alleviated. He found Brisingr attached to his side and he realised that he was, once again, in a dream he didn't know how to wake up from.

The forest seemed as empty as an abandoned graveyard, which nobody would be too positive about travelling through.

His hair stood on end as he peered into the pure darkness within the treeline. The prospect of walking through the forest again was quite daunting but he hadn't much of a choice. He started to walk. Each step that he took was louder than the last as though he was fading into existence. Senses charged, he continued to walk faster and louder with every stride as though gaining confidence little by little. He stumbled into a stop when a flicker of light reflected off the thick bark of a tree. Without thinking twice he dropped onto his stomach and stationed himself with harder roots than any plant in the forest. A female's voice was faintly audible to his elven ears but he still had no will to move from his position. The intensity of the light grew and so did the tension of the spring in his legs, ready to release at any given moment.

He felt something dragging at him to go forward but he stayed where he was. He hadn't the willpower to start moving and neither the bravery to check who and where the light was coming from. He blinked. In a flash he was out of the forest. Back by the sea. Eragon looked around. What was he doing here?

He looked into the distance and saw Arya and Rya walking towards him. Holding his ground, he prepared for what he knew would come. As they approached he blinked and was back in the forest again. Strange. Whenever something that made him slightly happy came near, he would be tossed back into a scenario that berated him. His body had a painful urge to scream out of rage but he knew that his current situation wouldn't be right if everything went too easily. Of course, everything had to hard for him. Why would anything be easy?

He continued through the treacherous silence until the flame he saw earlier was visible again. This time he walked towards the flame, but not carelessly. In the distance a woman holding up a torch was visible. She appeared to be facing away from him so he approached her but a painfully slow rate. His legs were trembling from exhaustion but he had to reach her quickly. Maybe this strange world would start to make sense if he could just speak to someone. His body had healed fully and now Oromis was no longer available for company. He was alone.

He came closer, and by every step new details were visible among the woman's clothing and appearance until there was only one impossible match for her in Eragon's mind – Angela the herbalist.