Conjunction

"It is soft, like mouse fur," she giggled. It was an oddly girlish sound to come from such an intimidating warrior, one that was made stranger by the husky quality of her voice, but he welcomed it all the same. His eyelids drooped as she stroked him like one might pet a dog, his shoulders sagging, Caden subconsciously leaning into her. Having spent the majority of his life cooped up in a library, he was not accustomed to such shows of affection, and it was a struggle to maintain his composure. Why did such a simple act make him feel as though he might melt into a puddle on the floor?

When she drew her hand back, Caden was left with a warm, fuzzy feeling that lingered long after her fingers had left the dark tangle of his hair.

"I never thanked you," she began, "not properly. You have shown me nothing but kindness, and I have offered you only suspicion in return."

"If you're about to tell me that you owe me a debt of honor or something of the sort, I warn you that my people do not believe in such things," he insisted. "You don't have to offer me anything."

"Perhaps not," she replied, giving his hand a squeeze. "But I can offer you my friendship."

"That's something that I will happily accept," he said, sparing her an appreciative glance. "Then...you don't think I'm going to end the world anymore?"

"I cannot be certain of anything anymore," she replied, turning her amber eyes back to the fire. She peered deep into the crackling flames, seeming to become lost in thought for a moment. "The Shaman's predictions are imperfect. You are not as she said you would be, and there is more going on here than a clear-cut battle between good and evil. I do not know what she saw in her visions, and I no longer trust my own muddled dreams to tell me what the future holds."

"You were so adamant that your vision foretold the destruction of the world at my hands," he muttered, the implied question not lost on her.

"I saw the world scorched, and I saw you at the center of it. I felt your desire to possess the black stone. The Shaman told me of your kind, she warned me that you were cruel, bloodthirsty. Maybe I misinterpreted what I saw, novice that I am," she admitted. "Perhaps I let my biases influence me, the idea that a battlemage must be an agent of evil, that there could be no noble reason to reach the city."

"So...what do you intend to do now?" Caden asked.

"I will go with you to the sacred city, and I will discover the truth of these things for myself. No more legends, no more visions. I want to see what transpires there with my own two eyes."

"Spoken like a true sorcerer," he said cheerfully.

CHAPTER 8: THE GRAVEYARD

Caden finished his incantation, the swirling strands of energy coalescing to form the shape of a tiny butterfly. The magical construct emerged from the light at the end of his staff, fluttering as though blown by a breeze as it flew off down the tunnel ahead of them.

"We did it!" he exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air triumphantly. "We must be near another exit! All we have to do now is follow the butterfly, and we should come out on the other side of the ridge." He turned to look at Kadal, his wide smile faltering as he saw that she wasn't joining him in his celebration. "What's wrong?"

"I...have not been truthful," she replied, her tail flicking back and forth on the cave floor. "After all that has happened, you deserve to know what awaits you."

"What are you talking about?" he asked warily.

"I make no excuses for my behavior," she continued, avoiding looking him in the eye as she examined the far wall intently. "When it became clear that I could not defeat you by my own hand, and that I could not return home without your head, I devised a plan to trap you. You must understand," she added hurriedly, "I felt that I had no other choice. The headhunters who are tracking us are not from my tribe, they do not know me. They have been following the trails of two people, a battlemage, and a hunter who has been traveling in his company. What other conclusion could they come to other than betrayal? The only way for me to find safe passage back to my village would be to present them with your head, to prove my loyalty beyond any doubt."

She looked miserable, Caden could see that she deeply regretted her decision, but he waited for her to elaborate before offering his forgiveness. What exactly had she done?

"Beyond this ridge lies the Whale Graveyard," she continued. "It is a sacred place to my people, where our ancestors sourced the ivory for their blessed weapons. The land is inhabited by a savage beast of immense strength, a fiend that we call The Eater of Bones. It was my intention to lead you into its lair so that you might meet your fate at its hands."

"You were going to feed me to a monster?" he asked, raising an eyebrow incredulously. "Is it some kind of animal? What does it look like? Why would you imagine that an animal would be able to stop me when organized hunting parties and a magic-wielder couldn't?"

"I have never seen it with my own eyes," she admitted, "but I have heard tell of its immensity. It is said to be covered in a carapace of bone so thick that no spear can pierce it, and it feeds on the bones of both the living and the dead."

"Wait a second," Caden said, scratching his stubbly chin pensively. "I think I know what you're talking about. I read about it somewhere, in an old bestiary that I found in the library. You're describing a Borophage, a cousin of the dragon family. How old is this legend, exactly?"

"Old," she replied. "My people dare not go there anymore."

"Then, I take it nobody has been to check on it for a good long while? Dragons are extinct, Kadal. There hasn't been one sighted for centuries. They were purged by a knightly order that was formed for that very purpose."

"Maybe where you come from," she replied, "but no knights have ventured so deep into the Coral Sea. My ancestors made sure of that."

"Even so, I think it highly unlikely that a dragon subspecies has survived for so long in such a remote location. It would need a viable population to keep reproducing," he began, counting off on his fingers. "Enough food to sustain it, enough territory for hunting. I can't imagine that."

"It is a magical creature," she insisted, "they live for hundreds of years."

"Let me tell you, while life-sustaining magic exists, the process required to create and maintain it is an extremely complicated and technical one. No thoughtless beast would be capable of such a feat."

"Your knowledge of magic is more limited than you know," Kadal chided, her frill fluttering with what might be irritation. "All magic draws from the same well, and I have felt its power. When I drank of the Shaman's potion and went on my vision quest, I felt the barrier that separates me from its influence melt away, until the two of us were as one. It is life, it is nature, and its breadth is beyond comprehension. If your sorcerers have found a way to draw from this power through guile and study, then why should a product of nature not tap into it?"

"If you want to debate magical theory, I could go on about it all day," Caden said. "But I can tell you with the utmost certainty that no dragon has ever performed an enchantment that takes an entire team of master sorcerers to pull off."

"You must take the threat seriously," she pleaded. "Do you think that I would wager my future, my very life, on nothing but a myth? You should take me at my word when it comes to matters of the Coral Sea, Caden. I have spent my life here, my very survival has depended on my intimate knowledge of this land."

Caden felt like he should be angrier with her, that he should feel more betrayed than he did. Kadal was certainly behaving as though she expected him to be outraged by her admission, he could see the guilt in her eyes, the fear that their shaky friendship would be ended by her treachery. She believed the Borophage to be real with all her heart, even if they had been made extinct long before either of them were born, and maybe her intent was all that mattered.

"Very well," he conceded. "I will treat the threat as though it were a real one. Preparing to fight a Borophage will be an interesting exercise, even if I don't believe it to be necessary."

"Then...you are not angry with me?" she asked, cocking her head at him.

"I don't know, Kadal," he sighed, starting to follow the ethereal butterfly down the tunnel. She walked behind him, wringing her hands nervously, her frill fluttering around her neck. "If you'd told me that you were planning to push me into a mine shaft, I might take it a little more personally. I suppose the important thing is that you told me."

She seemed relieved by his reaction, but she remained uneasy, trailing a couple of feet behind him as he made his way up the tunnel.

***

Sunlight bled in through the cave mouth ahead, Caden feeling the warm breeze on his face as he climbed towards the opening. The cold and damp of the tunnels was finally giving way to the dry heat of the desert, and Kadal's relief was palpable.

"I cannot wait to feel the sun's warmth on my scales again," she said, matching pace with him as he made his way up the coral passage. "Only in its absence have I come to truly appreciate it."

They emerged at the base of the ridge, the magical butterfly seeming to dissolve into the sunlight, Caden blinking his eyes against the glare. He turned to glance up at the sheer rock face, covered in great shelves of fossilized coral beds. It had really worked, they had traveled beneath the obstacle, and there was no sign of their pursuers.

"The headhunters," Caden began, turning back to Kadal. "Will they go around?"

"They will make their way down to the Southern pass," she explained, setting off into the desert. "It will take them many days to make the journey, they will not be able to catch up to us before we reach the city."

"That's a relief," he said, watching her clamber up one of the reefs. "It seems that your shortcut paid off, I would never have made it this far without your help."

"Caden!" she called to him, waving from atop the reef. "You must see this!"

He made his way up the rocks to join her, his pace far slower and more cautious, taking a good couple of minutes before he arrived at her side. From these heights, he could see the reefs laid out in a labyrinthine pattern in the red sand ahead, broken up by the occasional towering spire. It was much the same as the terrain that they had left behind. In the distance, at the limits of his vision, the land began to slope upwards. That must be the far shore, it was finally in sight. More than that, he could make out something that was glittering above the haze, reflecting the sunlight as it rose high above ground level. What could that be?

"You look upon the spires of the sacred city," Kadal marveled, shielding her eyes from the sun. "I saw them in my vision, great towers made from twisted glass that shone across the desert like beacons. We are but a few days' walk from our destination."

"Finally," he sighed, following her gaze. She might have better vision than him, she seemed to be able to see them more clearly. "I should feel relieved, but the most difficult task still lies ahead. Decoding the secrets of an ancient relic is going to be no small task. I wish the result was as certain as simply walking from point A to point B..."

"The Graveyard lies between us and the shore," Kadal added, starting to look guilty again as her head drooped. "We could attempt to skirt its borders, go around, but it would add days to our journey."

"Days that we cannot afford," Caden replied. "No, we go through. If this Borophage actually exists as you claim, then I will deal with it."

"You sound confident," Kadal mused, looking him up and down as he stood on the reef beside her. "Are you so sure that you could handle it?"

"Dragons were just animals," he explained. "Magical animals, but animals, none the less. If I remember correctly, the Borophage was a species that hunted primarily using scent and magiception, the sense that makes one sensitive to the auras of living things. I've imbued myself with a similar sense using a spell, that was how I was able to sense the presence of you and your hunters from such a distance."

"And how we were able to penetrate your invisible shroud," Kadal added. "Our Shamans know of this enchantment also."

"I should cast that spell on the both of us before we proceed," he said, "just in case. When we stop to rest for the night, I'll brush up on some combat spells that might help us if we should encounter...resistance."

***

The pair made their way through the corals, leaving the shadow of the ridge far behind them. It towered above the reefs and spires, always visible in the distance, forming a natural barrier to their backs. Eventually, strange structures started to come into view, Caden pausing to marvel at them. This must be the Whale Graveyard that Kadal had described. Eons ago, the corpses of whales must have fallen to the seafloor in this area. Like elephants, perhaps something had compelled them to journey to the same location when they sensed that their time was near, some deeply ingrained instinct or primitive ritual that might be proof of rudimentary culture in the majestic animals.

Their titanic skeletons were draped over the corals, filling the clearings between them, partially-intact spinal cords and jutting ribs peppering the landscape. Their bones had not been petrified as the corals had, there must be some kind of magic in them, likely the same reason that the reptiles sought them out for their enchanted weapons. The sun had bleached them a pale white, making them stand out against the red sand and worn rock. Caden had read about whales, he had seen depictions of them in his books, but he had never seen one with his own eyes before. The stories did not do their size justice. They were immense, even their ribs were taller than Kadal, their strange skulls larger than dining tables. There must have been hundreds of skeletons, he couldn't turn his head without seeing one.

He glanced over at Kadal, seeing that her eyes were darting about nervously, her head on a swivel. She really believed that the Borophage was lurking out here, but Caden would eat his staff if they didn't come across similar carcasses left by the beasts themselves. With such an abundance of bones, this would indeed have made an admiral stalking ground for the bone-eating dragons, but there was no way that they could have survived for so long.

As soon as they found a suitable place to rest, the first thing that Kadal wanted to do was bask, lying atop a nearby rock. She seemed less concerned about privacy this time, staying close to Caden. At first, he thought that it might be fear of the fabled Bone Eater that motivated her, but she seemed comfortable enough around him now that she felt no need to clothe herself. He didn't take advantage of the situation, focusing on his book as she lay splayed on a boulder, trying to occupy his mind with learning new incantations. He kept his word to Kadal, preparing as though he might actually be faced with a Borophage. There were many protective and offensive spells to memorize. They differed from his usual fare in that one could not take ten minutes to leaf through a book and read off a spell in the heat of battle. They had to be committed to memory, and they seemed to have been designed with that in mind. They were shorter, somehow harsher, making him feel like he was speaking curses in a language that he didn't understand.

His concentration was eventually broken by a scaly hand that pushed the book down, Caden turning his head to see Kadal looming over his shoulder, crouching low on her long legs to reach him. She was fully clothed again, much to his relief, or at least as clothed as she usually was. He turned his eyes back to his page again, avoiding looking straight down her cleavage.

"You are always so engrossed in your book," she teased, "have you nothing else to occupy yourself with?"

"You seem to be feeling energized," he replied, raising the old tome again and turning a page.

"I feel so much better now," she sighed, lying down on the sand beside him. Her body was so long and sinewy, Kadal stretching her arms above her head, her spine arching off the ground as she stretched, the motion pushing her ample chest into the air. Her amber eyes flashed in the sunlight, her scaly lips curling into a smile as he buried his face between the yellowed pages.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "I have more salted pork if you'd like some."

"I think that my people eat far less than yours do," she chuckled, her tail winding on the sand like a snake. "I would call you greedy, but you're so small. If anything, you should be eating more."

In one smooth motion, she pushed herself off the ground, leaping to her feet in a display of strength and flexibility that left Caden in awe of her.

"Shall we continue?" she asked, Caden nodding his head silently as he watched the sun reflect off her scales.

***

"Kadal!" Caden called, "I think I've found your Bone Eater!"

She leapt down from the reef that she had been climbing, darting over to his side, her eyes wide. As she turned a corner in the maze of rocks and corals, she saw what he had found, her feet skidding in the sand as she came to a halt.

"Is it..."

"Long dead," he announced, making no attempt to conceal his satisfaction at being proven right.

Ahead of them, nestled between two large reefs, was the skeleton of a massive creature. This was no whale, however. Its body was perfectly preserved, all but mummified by the arid environment, the remnants of sunken, scaly skin clinging to its bleached bones. Its shape was that of a giant lizard, or perhaps a crocodile, a good thirty feet from nose to tail. Its forelimbs were the same length as its hindlimbs, suggesting that it had walked on all-fours in life, their position revealing that its gait had been more like that of a bear than a belly-dragging reptile. It had wicked talons like a bird of prey, curved into cruel hooks that must have been used to rend the flesh of its living victims.

Its skull was large in proportion to its body, flatter and broader than that of a crocodile, a robust jaw full of intimidating teeth lying partially buried in the sand. It had serrated, upward-facing tusks that jutted from its mouth, fangs like butcher's knives on display. They were not all sharpened to a point, however. Towards the back of its jaws were flat molars that were covered in odd grooves, likely used to crush the bones from which it got its namesake. Those jaw muscles must have bulged from its cheeks before they had decayed into dust. The bite force required to crush a whale's vertebra was beyond any surviving animal.

Even that was not its most striking feature. Just as Kadal had described, its body was covered in a layer of overlapping, bony plates that made it looks as though it was clad in a suit of natural armor. It protected the head with a helmet-like covering of pale bone, the armor extending down the back of its neck. It draped over the beast's back and shoulders, almost like the shell of a giant turtle, but articulated so as not to hinder its movement. It covered the tops of the thighs, too, running all the way down to the tip of its tail. Some of the plates had sloughed off during its decomposition, and they looked far too heavy for a single man to move.

"Here's your monster," Caden said, gesturing to the desiccated corpse. Kadal edged closer, hesitating as though wary that it might somehow spring back to life. "Looks like it died a long time ago, a dry environment like this could have preserved it for hundreds of years."

"Perhaps...you were right," Kadal conceded as she walked along the length of the remains. "I cannot believe its size. How powerful it must have been in life. No wonder my ancestors feared it so."