Free Amáne of Teravinea - The Chosen One (The Teravinea Series Book 1) by D. Maria Trimble Page B

such places.”
    One wall was occupied by a large fireplace, but the wind was too savage to even attempt a fire. Set into the back wall wasa massive wooden door made from an unusual type of wood. I didn’t recognize it as any I’d seen in Dorsal. It was ornately decorated with carvings — pastoral scenes of a castle I assumed was Castle Teravinea, and its surrounding hillsides and vineyards. There were dragons and riders flying above the castle. It was a beautiful work of art that I would have liked to enjoy more. It would have to wait for a later time. At that moment, I needed relief from the sound of the angry wind — and to find a place where Eshshah could start a fire. My tremors didn’t let up.
    With Eshshah’s help, I drug myself to the back of the cavern until we were in front of the door. Not sure about how to open it, I pushed experimentally in the middle. To our astonishment the door split in two and slid open silently in both directions, each half disappearing into the wall. It led into an immense corridor that extended left and right. The left passage dead-ended with a similarly carved door, several paces from where we stood. There were three other carved doors, one directly across the passageway from us, and the other two to the right. The corridor then led a little further and angled to an unknown end.
    Moving into the main corridor, I turned and touched the edge of the door we had just entered. It shut silently behind us, at last bringing quiet relief from the fury of the Valaira. I turned to Eshshah and breathed a sigh of relief.
    The passageway was lit by natural light from an opening high up in the ceiling. Protected from the elements, the intricate stonework beneath our feet and the tapestries on the walls were beautifully preserved. More art that I couldn’t wait to appreciate — later. Pain still wracked my body. I was too disoriented to even focus on my surroundings.
    We felt no sense of danger in this place, but instead a calmness permeated. I was awestruck by the thought it had been aresidence of dragons and riders. Dragon lore songs echoed in my mind and I wondered if I knew the names of any that had walked these same floors.
    Eshshah and I decided to first try the door at the end of the corridor to our left. I applied light pressure, and like the previous one, it split and slid easily into the walls on either side. My jaw dropped at the sight of the room that opened before us. What we saw beyond this door was my idea of paradise at that moment. It was an impressively large cavern with tile mosaics covering the rock walls and a polished rock floor. But that was not what made me catch my breath. Directly in front of us were pools of steaming water. Underground hot springs fed into two bathing pools. There was a low waterfall pouring into the smaller one, which was raised with steps leading up to it. This smaller bath then overflowed into the larger bathing pool, which then emptied through an opening at the back of the chamber, then on into the sea.
    I threw my pack down, then released Eshshah from the leather harness. Without further hesitation, I walked up the steps to the smaller pool, tested the water — which was perfectly hot — then stepped in, bloody clothes and all. There were no words to describe my bliss. I lowered my numbed body slowly into the steamy water, ignoring the sharp sting in my fingers and toes. Eshshah, pleased her rider would finally be warm, moved to her pool. With an audible sigh of relief, she let herself relax in the warmth of the hot springs.
    “This has to be what it feels like to truly rest with my ancestors on the other side,” I sighed.
    “Don’t say that, Amáne,” Eshshah responded.
    “Sorry.”
    I slipped out of my clothes while I soaked, and scrubbed them until they were as clean as I could get them. The blood stains would probably never wash out completely. I threw them over the edge of the pool and exhaled out all the terror we had experienced, as I