Even as he said it, he knew it was too late—Sheldon had just stomped around a curve in their path and the walls of the ravine fell away, revealing what Pria had seen moments ago.
A canyon. A huge, empty space widening the ravine and then narrowing again, far in the distance on the opposite side. But that was not what had alarmed him.
Giant bones towered above, scattered about like the ruined pillars of a forgotten temple. They were thick and tall as tree trunks, each one bleached a glaring white by years of exposure to light.
“What is this place?” Sylva breathed, her neck tilting as they passed beneath a rib cage. The bones curved around them like the spars of a grounded frigate, casting bars of shadow over the group.
Ahead, a leering skull greeted them, the lower jaw missing to leave its ridged teeth buried in the sand. It was as wide and tall as Sheldon’s entire body, with eye sockets large enough for Lysander to fly through without touching the sides. Other skulls littered the way, revealing that scores of demons had died in the huge ravine.
“It’s like an elephants’ graveyard,” Othello said. He leaned out and knocked one of the bones, the hollow sound of it echoing around the canyon.
“These are no elephants,” Cress said.
Indeed, they were not. These demons were many times an elephant’s size. Fletcher couldn’t imagine how they had arrived in this place, for they could hardly have fitted through the ravine. Pria, still traveling ahead, had reached the other side of the chasm, and he saw the answer to his question. The path was far wider there, large enough to sail a fleet of ships through.
“There was nothing this large described in our demonology lessons,” Sylva said, still horrified by the size of the enormous skeletons.
“I know what these could be,” Othello volunteered hesitantly. “There are legends about creatures this size, but never any confirmed sightings. Some people say they’re extinct. I read about them in an old book in the library, when we were studying for the exams last year.”
He looked closer at the skull as they passed it by.
“The teeth are a herbivore’s, flat and ridged,” he said, thinking aloud. “Look at its shinbones. From its size, it would be tall enough to graze on the canopy. They’re the tree-eaters. Behemoths.”
“Whatever they are, it’s creepy as hell here.” Cress shuddered and went to sit beside Alice, who seemed completely unperturbed by the macabre graveyard.
They spent the next half hour on edge, but the land was as dead and motionless as the bones that surrounded them. Even so, it was a relief when they passed out of the silent boneyard and into the wide ravine on the other side.
Sheldon was quickening his pace, as if eager to reach the edge of the mountains. He would be dehydrated, for though the others were able to drink from their flasks, his last taste of water had been from a stagnant puddle in the forest that morning. To add to this, the weather had changed—the sky had become brighter and hotter with each passing minute.
The shell swayed beneath them, and the cliffs on either side were now too wide apart to provide cover from the oppressive heat that beat down from the glowing sky above. Soon they had lapsed into silence, crouched together under the Catoblepas’s pelt to take advantage of its meager shade. It seemed that different parts of the ether had vastly different climates, despite being only miles apart.
Then they saw it, shining bright like a sheet of glass, rippling and swirling in the scrying stone as Pria flew out of the wide mountain pass.
It was a lagoon, with leagues of azure waters that were surrounded by pure white sand and rocky, vine-laden cliffs. Green jungles bordered its edges, and a winding waterway stretched to their left toward the faraway ocean, running beside the mountain range until it merged with the distant waters. To the right, trickling waterfalls fell from jutting outcrops of black rock, feeding the calm pools that surrounded them.
Even as Sheldon hastened toward it, the air began to turn humid, so much so that Cress’s loose red hair began to frizz before Fletcher’s eyes. Sheldon unleashed a groan of happiness, and the shell bounced as he lumbered ahead, the walls of the mountain falling away on either side.
“I think we’ve arrived at his destination,” Cress said happily, ducking out of the cover of the pelt and crawling to the front of the shell. She patted his neck happily and then laughed aloud as he splashed into the water, spraying her. The Zaratan languished there, burying his head beneath the surface. His neck pulsed as he gulped.
Cress scooped her hand over the edge and cupped it to her lips.
“It’s sweet! We can drink it.”
Fletcher didn’t need more encouragement than that. He ran and leaped into the water, for it was so clear that he could see the bottom. There was a shock of cold, but soon the cool liquid was heavenly on his skin, bathing his greasy scalp to leave his hair floating weightlessly.
The water was disturbed nearby as Sylva dove in beside him, a streak of white cloth and bubbles in the water. She had stripped to her undershirt and the short, knee-length pantalets she wore beneath her breeches.
Fletcher came up for air, only to find himself splashed in the face by the laughing elf.
“You look like a drowned rat!” She grinned, splashing him again.
On the other side of the shell, Cress and Othello had entered the water, their happy cries out of sight. He knew they should be searching the horizon for a volcano, but at that moment he didn’t care. It could wait. All he saw were Sylva’s sparkling blue eyes. He splashed her back—and the look of incredulous outrage on her face as she spluttered made him laugh aloud.
“Right, now you’re in for it,” Sylva said in mock anger.
She ducked Fletcher’s head under the surface, only to find he had tugged her feet out from under her, dragging her beneath the water with him. They wrestled there, pressed chest to chest, her lean limbs wrapping around his own as they vied for position. Fletcher’s heart pounded as they tumbled on the soft sand of the lagoon bed, until the need to breathe brought them back to the surface.
They burst from the water and parted, catching their breaths as they took in the splendor of their surroundings once again. The sky was shining so that the water glittered like a handful of diamonds. Just for a moment, the fears of the past few days seemed insignificant in the face of such beauty.
Fletcher splashed Sylva again for good measure, then swam toward a gushing waterfall in the dark rock nearby. For a brief moment he reveled in the drumming of the water on his tired back. Then Sylva tackled him into the hollow cove beneath the ledge of pouring water.