Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (best e ink reader for manga .txt) 📕

8

Sigrid

What had possessed her to think up a mission like this? Sigrid shaded her eyes and stared up at the sky, glowering at the snow which fell in heaps around her. She couldn’t even see where the sun was, or if the sun was still on the horizon. Instead, a blanket of snow covered everything the eye could see.

Even the sky.

Shaking her head, she shifted the straps on her shoulders and continued trudging through the frigid snow.

She didn't know how long she’d traveled. It was easy to lose track of time in this place. She knew it had been at least a week of walking through the forests of Wildewyn. She didn't know what region she was in anymore, or if it were some unnamed region that no one had seen in centuries.

The moment she’d seen the mountains close enough to touch, she’d known she was close to the ancients. The ground seemed to hum with power here. Perhaps not that of the earth, but something far more than just earthen people who tilled the land. There was a call inside her chest that beckoned her forward.

“Come to us,” the words whispered on the wind. “Find us, little child. We were looking for you, too.”

It was the promise to know who she was. To know who her sisters were, where they came from. All the secrets which had been kept from her since the moment of her birth. The longer she traveled, the more Sigrid needed to know the answer to these questions.

Her entire life, she’d been given a designation by other people. She was the daughter of the last dragon. She was the adopted child of an owl but never the same as the rest. She was matriarch, sultana, warrior, all the things that she had been told to be.

No more. She wanted to know who she really was, and that need was something stronger than the desire for water or food.

Thus, she’d climbed the mountain. The first few days had been a struggle. The rocks shifted under her feet and moved when she clambered over them. A few times, she’d been concerned she would fall to her death down the sheer cliff edges. But she’d managed, and eventually she crested the top.

That first moment of elation in knowing that she’d conquered the mountain quickly fell apart when she realized that the mountain wasn’t one peak.

It was many.

The range stretched farther than she could see, disappearing into the horizon and fading away. She would have to make it across all these mountains before she found any secrets. She was almost certain of that.

Even that didn’t deter her. A mountain was still a mountain. She’d already climbed one, and she would climb many more if that gave her answers.

Then, it started to snow. The blistering cold winds wiggled beneath her clothing, forcing her to wear more and more layers until she ran out. Even that wasn’t enough.

Now, her fingers felt as though they were about to fall off. She couldn’t feel the tips, and they’d turned a frightening shade of blue. She wasn’t entirely confident that everything was all right with her body. Even the dragon inside her had quieted into a lethargic grumble.

More snow blasted down from a mountain peak higher up, and Sigrid forgot how to breathe as the cold stole air from her lungs and sent a shiver through her body so forcefully that it nearly knocked her to her knees.

She needed to get warm. Had to find some place to rest, even for a few moments. A winter storm like this couldn’t stay for too long.

A shadow appeared in the distance, looking like a person waving their arm. Sigrid frowned. It wasn’t possible that someone was out here with her. No one would be so foolish as to brave such a storm without good reason.

But there the person was. Standing in the middle of the snow, waving their arm like they thought she couldn’t see them.

For a second, she hallucinated that it was Nadir. Her heart beat faster and her breathing turned ragged. Had he come for her? Had he really come for her?

Of course it wasn’t her husband. He was still in Bymere, with the rest of his people. The ones he’d chosen over her.

Sigrid stumbled, falling to one knee. Icy particles of snow, perhaps freezing rain, rained down on her face. The prickles of pain woke her up a little bit, although her body wanted to stay on the ground. There was something warmer about lying in the snow. She didn’t know how that was possible considering when she placed a bare hand in the stuff it made her fingers ache. And yet, lying down still felt so comfortable…

No. There was a person on the horizon and perhaps they could help her. Maybe there were still people who lived up here. Maybe they had a house, a warm fire, something that would keep her alive for one more night.

She could wait out the storm in their home and then continue on her journey. Surely anyone who lived in this forgotten place would be kind. They’d have to be. The only travelers who came here were sorry souls like Sigrid.

With the promise of somewhere warm to lay her head, Sigrid forced herself back onto her feet. Snow sucked at her boots as she struggled toward the waving figure. Ice jabbed her face and forced her back a few steps every time the wind decided it wanted to push her even farther down the mountain.

Sigrid was persistent, however, and she was not a woman to fall prey to the whims of the earth. She was a dragon, and dragons did not fail.

Step by step, she made it closer to the figure in the distance. Would they be kind? She sincerely hoped they were. She needed someone to take care of her just for a little while. A blanket, a cot, she didn’t even care if it were just lying on the